too predictable.
A little empty.
He didn’t remember the last time he was as excited about anything as she was about the chance of discovering the old diamond. A feeling he certainly wasn’t going to stand in this old mine and try to analyze.
“Come on,” he said, finding her helmet and putting it back on her head, wincing as the light hit him square in the face and quickly turning away. “You’re done exploring. We’re going up top.”
She sighed once again. “Couldn’t you just let me look around? I mean, we’re already here. What’s it going to hurt?”
“The next level is a hundred feet below the surface,” he told her.
“I know.”
She sounded like the idea thrilled her.
Then he realized something. “You know? What do you mean, you know?”
“From the maps,” she said.
“You have maps of this mine?”
“Of course. The people who originally worked the mine kept maps. Not as precise as what we’d make today, but you can find those historical documents if you know where to look. And scientists who’ve explored the mines over the years kept maps, too. I told you, I’m serious about this. It’s not a crazy pipe dream to me. I’m a scientist. And you could help me.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
She shrugged. He was close enough that he could feel the movement. “For the money?” she tried. “There’s supposed to be a jeweled chest full of old Spanish coins, too. Silver coins. I mean, even a cowboy could appreciate the chance to have that kind of money. This could be the kind of fortune that would let you buy your own ranch someday, if you wanted. And…you wouldn’t really even have to help me, if you didn’t want to. You could just…not tell anybody I was here? Maybe not tell anyone if I came back and searched some more? I’d pay you, if you wanted, just to…not tell anybody what I was doing.”
“You’d go back in here by yourself?” he asked incredulously.
“Yes. And you could stay topside, just to be there in case I did get in trouble. All you’d have to do is call for help. I have friends who’d know what to do to get me out.”
Travis swore under his breath. “I think you’re nuts to take that kind of risk.”
“And I think some people spend their whole lives without ever taking a risk at all, which to me is even worse.”
He shook his head. “Well, I think this is a ridiculous conversation to be having while buried under tons of rock. Start climbing.”
She hadn’t climbed more than two steps on the ladder when a howling, whistling sound swept through the mine.
And then, as the howling died down for a moment, there was a tapping sound, far away and not that loud. Like the beating of a drum. Solid objects hitting other solid objects. And then more howling.
“What the hell is that?” he asked, as they both froze for a moment.
He told himself if it was what he feared—falling rocks—he’d have been hit by something already. Unless it was father down inside the mine or up near the entrance and just hadn’t made it to them.
Not yet, anyway.
“Wind,” she said.
Okay. Yeah. He felt it, now that he wasn’t thinking obsessively of being pelted by rocks. Still, that wasn’t all.
“Wind and what else?” he demanded.
“I’m not sure,” his gutsy explorer said, not sounding nearly as confident as she had been a moment ago.
He swore, feeling every bit of that distance between him and the surface. “Let’s get out of here. Now.”
She took off for the top, seeming to know her way in the dark a heck of a lot better than Travis did. He went scrambling after her. When he made it to the horizontal shaft near the surface, she found his hand, grabbed it and pulled him along behind her.
The eerie howling got louder with every step they took and at every moment, Travis still expected to have rocks come hurling down on him, but they never did.
He bashed his head a couple of times on the way out, not able to see that well in the tunnel and moving faster than a man of his size should in a shaft of that size.
Near the entrance, she was sure she smelled rain. But there was no way rain would account for the other sound she heard.
The space around them opened up, but it was still oddly dark, and then Travis realized they’d made it out of the mine, to the long, deep rock overhang that created a covered area sheltered from the elements.
Good thing, too, because outside the sky was nearly black, the world around them a gloomy gray. Out in the open, he saw what looked like miniature, eerily white golf balls bouncing off the ground.
Hail.
It was coming down something fierce, pounding into the ground and then bouncing around until it settled for good. The wind sounded absolutely furious, his horse long gone, no doubt realizing weather was coming long before Travis did and taking off for home.
Travis and the woman backed up against the rock wall as far under the overhang as they could get and still stand up. He was breathing hard, bleeding a bit from the gash he’d just gotten on his head, adrenaline still zinging through his whole body.
Looking at her through the grayish light, he felt a little bit foolish for coming near panic back there, a little bit mad at her for putting them both in that situation and very, very grateful to be out of it and safe.
They weren’t buried under tons of rocks.
They weren’t dying or already dead.
Just in the middle of a nasty storm. Hail or not, it was just a storm.
He shook his head, trying to clear it, then chuckled, then started laughing.
Maybe because it was the last thing he’d expected to be a part of his day. Descending into an old abandoned silver mine shaft chasing a determined, passionate, half-crazy woman, and then seeing his life flash before his eyes for a moment, only to see a moment later that he wasn’t in any danger at all.
He wished he could really see her face. The gloom that had descended was like looking through a thick fog, and she’d clicked off her helmet light, which hadn’t shown them anything but rain, and nearly blinded him every time she turned in his direction. He had more of an impression of her than anything else, but he knew she was grinning, too.
A moment later, she was laughing. “It’s easy to get spooked down there,” she admitted.
“I think I was way past spooked,” Travis admitted. “And at the speed you climbed out of that hellhole, I’d say you were, too.”
“Well,” she shrugged.
