Chapter 10

At the mine, Nick watched the men working hard to clean out the cave in, and he saw some additional bracing being taken into the mine. He lost track of Pascal, the engineer and the inspector and thought they might be in the mine, but McCreary, the day foreman, told him they'd gone into the office.

"They got that brace that failed," McCreary said. "It was pretty crunched. I don't know what it's gonna tell them."

"I guess I'll go find out," Nick said and went into the office.

The three men were gathered around the table that Tolman had spent the night on. Now, broken pieces of the failed bracing lay there. The engineer Franks and the inspector Caldwell were pointing and talking and Nick arrived to hear Caldwell saying to Pascal, "I didn't note it in my report because it wasn't there. There was no visible crack in this bracing when I inspected it two weeks ago. It was solid."

"Hello, Nick," Pascal said when Nick joined them.

Nick looked down at the pieces on the table. "This is the material that failed?"

"Yeah," Pascal said.

"Do you know why it failed?" Nick asked, looking at Franks and Caldwell.

"Not a hundred percent, but maybe 99," Franks said, and he pointed. "This is the bracing that failed, the upright piece that was on the east wall of the mine shaft."

Nick squinted, leaned forward, and looked at it. He looked at it hard and had to keep looking before he thought he saw what they were seeing. "There's some water damage here."

"It was the side against the wall, something I couldn't see," Caldwell said.

"There's a water leak in that mine?" Nick said, unbelieving. He looked at Pascal. "You never reported a water leak in there."

"We never saw one," Pascal said.

"It's probably the water leak that caused the cave in," Caldwell said. "It's not a big leak, not even visible because it leaked right into this wood and the wood soaked it up. It probably opened up sometime after the mine was put into operation."

"What do we do about it now?" Nick asked.

"The first thing that gets done is that auxiliary tunnel becomes the main tunnel," Franks said.

"I'm not seeing any water in there," Caldwell said. "I'm gonna be doing a closer examination today – real close."

"They're still clearing out the main tunnel?" Nick asked.

Franks said, "We're going to have to engineer a bypass and make it the auxiliary tunnel. That's gonna require some work to identify exactly where the water is coming from and where it's going to go."

"This mine's been operation for nearly fifteen years," Nick said. "It took a long time for that water to become a problem."

"Yep," Franks agreed, "which is one of the reasons I think it can be handled, if we switch the main tunnel to the auxiliary one."

Nick looked at Pascal. "You'll have to run rail into the auxiliary tunnel."

Pascal nodded. "It's wide enough and graded enough. We can do it. It'll cost, and dealing with the water we know we have will cost. Maybe not as much as we feared, and Franks and Caldwell here believe we can get the mine open again pretty soon. But at least we won't have to dig a brand new main tunnel, or any new tunnel beyond anything we're planning to add anyway. When we add the new tunnels, we'll have to be wary of water issues."

"We'll be wary," Franks said. "If we're careful and this works out the way we're planning, we'll be in good shape for a long time."

"How's Tolman this morning?" Pascal asked.

Nick shook his head. "I don't know for sure. Jarrod's with him. I can go talk to them and if Tolman's not well enough to deal with it, we'll find one of the partners who can." Red came into his mind first, because she was the only other partner he knew.

"I'll get some cost information together, but it's gonna be while before I can give a good estimate of what the whole project is gonna take," Franks said. "Meanwhile…"

He trailed off. Nick looked at him and at Caldwell. "Meanwhile, you both want to get paid for what you've already done. I'll talk to Jarrod and he'll work it out with somebody from the partnership."

"We'll need some commitment from somebody on the future work too," Franks said. "But this isn't looking as costly as might have looked. This mine is still worth reopening and operating."

Nick nodded. "I understand. I'll talk to my brother."

XXXXX

Nick went back into town. He stopped by Red's but she wasn't there. The bartender there now, just opening up for the day, told Nick she'd gone to Tolman's house and directed Nick there. It wasn't long Nick was knocking at the door, and Jarrod answered.

"Nick, come on in, talk to me," Jarrod said and opened the door wide.

"I'm a little dusty, I don't want to sit down," Nick said, and he quickly filled Jarrod in on what the engineer and inspector had told him.

"Well, it doesn't sound as bad as it could have," Jarrod said.

"How's Tolman?" Nick asked.

"Barbara's up there with him, getting him to eat some broth."

Jarrod looked up the stairs, then back at his brother. "She's been a help, huh?"

"She has," Jarrod said, "but I'm gonna stick around here today to help when Dwight wants to move around. The minister came over and he's gonna round up some more help for however long Dwight needs it."

"Is Tolman up to hearing about the mine?"

"Some. With Barbara here, it might be her who starts making some decision. I don't know."

"We gotta get something set up for paying Franks and Caldwell for their services for whatever comes next. Just the framework will do. Do you have anything in mind?"

"Technically, it's not our expense to bear," Jarrod said.

"Technically," Nick said. "And whatever we contribute eats into our profit on this sale."

"I know," Jarrod said. "But we did pretty well. We can eat into some sizeable chunk and still have a profit."

"Tolman doesn't know that."

"No, the partnership doesn't know, and they're not entitled to know. We'll work something out."

"Today, we better work out something on what we pay Caldwell and Franks for their work so far," Nick said. "They're looking for that before they keep going."

Jarrod nodded. "We have. Tolman's agreed we split the cost to Franks and Caldwell so far and we have a sum in mind we'll advance them 50/50 to keep them going for now. We'll get them some money as soon as we can."

"How's Red doing?" Nick asked.

"Pretty well," Jarrod said. "I never thought of her as a care giving person, but she's stepping up. I think she really loves the man, Nick. She's just afraid to let it happen." He grew a little somber.

"And you feel responsible for that," Nick said.

"In part," Jarrod said.

"I think you made up for that some yesterday, staying with him and talking to her," Nick said.

"Maybe," Jarrod said. "Maybe I can make up for it more today."

Nick started thinking that Jarrod was thinking about money. "Just don't give away the ranch, Pappy."

Jarrod said, "Don't worry. I'll be careful. I want you to come upstairs with me and explain to Tolman and Barbara what you explained to me."

Nick nodded. "All right."