The Gold Seekers by William Stuart Long Read Free Book Online

understand?”
    He motioned the two miners who had come out of the shaft with him to stand aside, and the storekeeper, Logan, drove his wagon carefully over the littered ground and drew up within a few yards of the blanket-covered bodies. The others held a brief, low-voiced conversation, and then Crocker took Luke’s arm and led him out of earshot.
    “We’ll give them a Christian burial tomorrow mornin’, Luke boy,” he promised. “An’ when that’s done, I’ll convene a meetin’ o’ the full committee. You’ll likely be called on to tell the meetin’ everything you can about the partnership terms you agreed to an’ about Captain Morgan—and, o’ course, the strike you made, so best git your gear together an’ come in with us for the night. We must act fast, son, if we’re to see justice done.”
    Luke nodded his understanding.
    The funeral service, conducted by John Roberts, was attended by virtually every man in the Thayer’s Bend camp. For Luke it was an ordeal, but he met it with frozen calm and was heartened by the expressions of sympathy he received and by the men’s spontaneous kindness. Many had taken the trouble to don their best suits, with ties or cravats and high-crowned derbies, and all had sacrificed a considerable portion of their day’s work in order, as one old-timer put it, “To show our respects to them poor young fellers, cut off in the prime of life.”
    The meeting of the camp committee took place immediately after Luke’s partners had been laid to rest. Under Ephraim Crocker’s chairmanship it was brisk and businesslike, but in spite of this, it proved a greater ordeal than the funeral had been, for Luke found himself cast in the role of principal witness.
    After Crocker and Roberts had given evidence concerning the finding of the bodies and the fact that all three men had died from gunshot wounds, he was called to take the stand, addressed formally as Mr. Murphy. The formality added to Luke’s uneasiness, but he answered the questions as truthfully and clearly as he could, describing the partnership agreement with Jasper Morgan in detail and then, prompted by Crocker, giving a minute description of his strike.
    Asked to estimate its value, he could only answer lamely that he did not know. “Dan—my brother Dan told me that he guessed it would fetch around ten thousand dollars from the Mint in “Frisco.”
    “And this was why Captain Morgan had the gold in his possession? He was to take it to ‘Frisco with your consent— yours and your partners’?”
    “The others must’ve consented,” Luke answered, frowning as he tried to remember what Dan had told him. “I wasn’t asked, but—well, Dan said we had to trust Captain Morgan, and that was good enough for me. He had scales and was going to weigh the gold and give us a signed paper stating how much there was.”
    “Did you receive such a paper, Mr. Murphy?” John Roberts asked.
    “No, sir. I’d left for home before it was ready.”
    “Did you trust Captain Morgan?” one of the other committeemen demanded unexpectedly. When Luke hesitated, not certain how to reply, he added, “What I’m getting at is this: When you set out to visit your folks, you knew Morgan intended to take the gold to San Francisco, didn’t you?”
    “Yes. From what Dan said, I knew he was preparing to
    go.” “What made you think he would come back with your and
    your partners’ share of the price he got for the gold? Had you any guarantee, or did your brother ask for one?”
    Luke shuffled his feet uneasily. He had never trusted Jasper Morgan, he thought with bitterness, although he had certainly never supposed him to be capable of murder.
    “There’s the girl, sir,” he said lamely. “Morgan’s daughter. He wasn’t taking her to ‘Frisco with him, and Dan said he would come back on her account. So I figured—”
    Ephraim Crocker cut him short. “I’ve sent for the girl, son. We’ll hear what she has to say as soon as she