“Callahan is something of a hermit, abides up in the hills where no one else lives and doesn’t come to town often. Most folks figured he was just a mountain man when he showed up in a bear coat last winter, complete with the fur and looking as shaggy as one. Acts like a bear, too, if you ask me. Turns out he’s been mining all this time and just tried to keep it a secret, which is not surprising, with the big mine owners around here buying up the little mines pretty fast. But the news got out that Morgan had found a pretty rich silver vein, and only your father managed to figure out where. Anyways, Morgan’s just too gruff and surly for a lady such as yourself to speak to.”
She nodded her agreement. “My father’s belongings? Where might they be?”
“Probably still at his mine. And you might want to close out your father’s bank account here, too, if he had one, but that will have to wait until tomorrow when the bank’s open.”
“Where is the doctor?”
He helped her to her feet to escort her out, saying, “I can take you to him now. He might have something to recommend for your shock, too.”
“And my father’s mine, where it is?”
“You would need to check with the claims office tomorrow, though that won’t be helpful other than to confirm he staked a claim. They might give you the general direction in which it lies, but not much more. You’ll need a guide to take you to it in any case, if it is indeed near Callahan’s, though I doubt anyone knows where that is. Morgan seems a mite obsessive about keeping the location of his mine a secret, always leaving town in a different direction.”
Despite the warnings, she had to ask, “But Mr. Callahan could show me?”
The deputy sighed. “He might be the only one who knows exactly where it is, but honestly, ma’am, you won’t want to deal with him.”
“Is he in town?”
He appeared glad to say, “No, least, I haven’t heard that he is, and I would’ve heard. He stirs up gossip when he does show up, but that’s not often. And when he does, he only spends one night in a hotel, then is gone the next day. But I can point you to the hotel he usually stays at. You could leave a message there for him if you’ve a mind to. Maybe he’ll draw you a map and you can hire someone not as ornery to show you the way.”
The last was said without any conviction. If Morgan Callahan was still keeping the location of his mine a secret, he would never draw a map to it, not even for his friend’s daughter. Had he and her father been friends? Or just passing acquaintances? No, they must have been friends if Callahan had paid for the funeral, so maybe he would actually draw her a map—if it came to that. And just in case it did . . .
“Could you show me the hotel first?” she asked.
“Certainly.”
The desk clerk at the hotel, which was in a newer section of town than where Violet was staying, told her Callahan hadn’t been there for weeks.
“Kinda expected to hear that,” Deputy Barnes said; then, noticing her crestfallen look, he added, “That’s good news if you’re determined to meet him. Means he’s due to show up, maybe in the next week or two. I’ll ask around, but I’m pretty sure Morgan’s location is still a well-kept secret, and with reason. Used to be competition was cutthroat and claim jumping a major problem around here until the big mine owners bought up all the small mines. All the miners you see in town work for them. There aren’t many small mines left near town, which is why I figure Morgan’s mine is a long distance from Butte and why he doesn’t show up often. But come along, the doc’s office is in the next block and he lives upstairs from it, so he should still be there even if the office is closed.”
Violet was daunted by how long she would have to wait for that Callahan fellow just to find out whether her father had found metal worth selling. But she might get the answer tomorrow at the bank, if there was a decent amount in her father’s account.
“It’s incredible that you know the comings and goings of all the miners in this town,” she remarked on the way to Dr. Cantry’s office. “How is that possible?”
The deputy chuckled. “It’s not. People have come here from all over the world, Irish, Welsh, Germans, Chinese, heck, even Serbians, just to name a few. And many of the migrants who gave up mining have opened businesses instead.”
“Then why do you know so much about Mr. Callahan?” she asked.
“That’s because we know his family. The Callahans have a large ranch over in Nashart to the east. They used to herd cattle to us before the Northern Pacific Railway reached their town and new ranchers moved in closer to us over in Bozeman. When Morgan came here last year, the rumor was that he’s the black sheep of the family and finally got booted from it. But it’s just a rumor, and Morgan’s temperament is bad enough as it is, so don’t mention it if you meet him.”
If? Yes, she might not have to wait for him if there was a substantial amount in Charles’s bank account. She could then let her brothers decide what to do with their father’s mine while she returned to England.
The doctor wasn’t available when they reached his residence, he was out on a call. She decided to wait there for him to return, since she didn’t have anything else to do other than let her brothers know that what none of them had wanted to consider even a remote possibility was true—their father was dead.
Chapter Five
THE DILEMMAS VIOLET ENCOUNTERED kept getting worse. Why had she thought she could deal with all of this alone? She didn’t even realize just how deep her despair was because she was also grieving.
The brief conversation she’d had with the good doctor had revealed what her brothers didn’t know: Charles had left home with a bad heart. He’d visited Dr. Cantry soon after he reached town because he’d been having chest pains. The doctor had warned him to avoid any strenuous activity because it could bring on a heart attack—yet Charles had gone from that visit up into the hills to mine? Something so utterly strenuous? Cantry said a heart attack had likely caused a fall and the resultant head trauma that Charles had never woken from.
She went to the claims office first thing the next morning. The man there confirmed that Charles Mitchell had staked a claim, but it was against their policy to show their maps to anyone, even relatives of claim holders. However, he did confide as she was leaving that the map wouldn’t be helpful since it included no landmarks. “Not many do. If the miner is there, his mine is there, his stakes are there, therefore it’s his place. If there’s a fight over it, whoever holds the claim with the earlier date tends to win.” She must have looked as confused as she felt, because he added, “It’s not as shoddy a system as it sounds, ma’am. We have a large map of the area, but again, it’s not for public viewing. We’re not here to help men find ore, only to record it when they do.”
She thought she understood, although she wondered how her father had managed to find ore. But at least she’d confirmed that he did have a mine in the area.
She decided to wait to send a telegram to her brothers until after she’d gone to the bank, which was where she headed next. She wanted to be able to add some good news along with the bad. But she wasn’t able to do that. Her father had no bank account in this town.
She found out a possible reason why when she asked the bank clerk to check his records twice. The man complained, “We were robbed three months ago, so I’m not surprised that your father wouldn’t trust us with his money. The miners are sending their money straight home or hiding it, and businesses are keeping their money in their own safes. It might be years before the bank recovers if that money isn’t found.”