Heart of Thunder Read Online Free PDF Page B

Apache, Adrien. You don’t know what you’re saying if you can scoff at the danger of fighting Indians.”
    “That is beside the point. If I could mine silver here, I would. But I cannot do that until I can afford to buy equipment for reducing ore. Panning for gold is much easier.”
    “Oh, Lord.” Samantha sighed in disgust. “You’re going to pan for gold there in order to come back here and mine silver? That’s ridiculous, Adrien.”
    “I have made my decision,” Adrien replied stubbornly. “And it is not ridiculous. I am not the only one who cannot afford the equipment it takes to mine the silver. There are many others going to Elizabethtown.Gold can be picked up off the ground. Silver must be refined. I have bought a very good mine already. I need only a smelter.”
    “You bought a mine!” Jeannette cried in growing alarm. “What did it cost?”
    He shrugged. “It was very reasonable, since the owner was faced with the same problem as I—no smelter.”
    “How much?”
    “Only a few hundred.”
    “Adrien!” she gasped. “We could not afford to spend a few hundred!”
    “We could not afford to let this opportunity go by. In a year we will be able to afford anything.”
    Samantha was embarrassed. She had thought the Allstons did not have to worry about money, as she did not.
    “How much would it cost for this device to process the silver?” Samantha offered.
    Adrien turned to her hopefully, but Jeannette snapped, “We are not reduced to borrowing, Adrien. If you must do this thing, you will do it yourself.”
    “I was thinking of it as an investment,” Samantha said quickly. “Not as a loan.”
    Adrien shook his head. “Thank you, Samantha, but no. Little Jean is right. We must do this ourselves.”
    “Very well. When did you plan to leave? We might as well all go together, since I must go south anyway.”
    “The day after tomorrow,” he said readily, glad that Jeannette had made no further fuss. “We wait only for the stage.”

Chapter 4
    I T took Hank four hours of hard riding to reach the Pitts mine. When he got to the site, he found six men working in the hot sun, digging rock from the earth, grunting and muttering as they sweated. Seeing a large tent set up by a stream, he rode toward it and dismounted, keeping a watchful eye on the tent.
    Hank entered silently. Inside were two long wooden tables, bedrolls lying along the edge of the tent, and an old potbelly stove. That, and the cooking utensils around it, meant a permanent setup. There was only one man in the tent, and he sat at the long table to Hank’s right, a tin of coffee beside him, working a column of figures on a sheet of paper.
    “ Hola , Pat.”
    Patrick McClure’s head shot up, and he started to rise, but stopped halfway and sank back into his seat. The voice was the familiar voice of old, but the face was very different. Gone were the laughing gray eyes Pat knew so well. In their stead were eyes of steel. He had been afraid that this might happen, that Hank wouldn’t understand.
    “Now, laddie, you’ve no call tc be lookin’ at your old amigo like that,” Pat began uneasily, his voice cracking.
    “ Amigo? ” Hank walked slowly forward. “You call yourself amigo? ”
    Hank didn’t wait for the answer. Pulling back his right arm, he shot his fist straight into Patrick’s jaw. The chair—with Patrick still in it—toppled over backward. Patrick was an older man, and his body had gone soft, but he was on his feet in a moment. Very slowly, he backed away from Hank.
    “I won’t fight you, laddie. At least not till you let me explain,” Pat growled through his throbbing mouth. “After, if you still want to have it out—”
    “I want just one thing from you, Pat—my money. Hand it over, and I will leave it at that.”
    “Didn’t you get the note I left you?”
    “ Perdición! ” Hank swore between clenched teeth. “Do not change the subject!”
    “But I told you about this mine,” Pat continued,