“What aren’t you telling me?” Evangeline looked at him with her clear blue eyes and a vision into his soul that he didn’t much cotton to right now.

  “Let’s go on down to the road and make our way back. Might be your pa can be convinced to do something about this.” He pointed uphill to the mouth of the hidden mine where the high-graders had worked so diligently to steal the richest vein of ore discovered in Cripple Creek in more than a year.

  “What of those men who got away?”

  “If they spot us, it’ll look like I’m just taking you out for a late afternoon ride. If we see them first, we’ll have to decide what to do then.” Slocum’s mind raced ahead. He could always unhitch Evangeline’s horse from her buggy and ride bareback to chase down the high-graders. But he had to find the pair first.

  He didn’t. As much as both he and Evangeline hunted, they saw nobody astride a horse. Everyone they passed drove the heavily laden ore wagons to the mill or empty ones returning from delivering their rocky cargoes.

  Slocum drove directly back to the Low Down office set atop the hill overlooking the mouth of the mine. He saw that a saddled horse was tethered behind the building.

  “That’s Papa’s favorite horse,” Evangeline said. “I’m glad he’s in the office. Let’s speak to him about this terrible matter right now.”

  Slocum was less inclined to go in. He looked like he had been pulled through a knothole backwards, and he didn’t want Evangeline spilling too much too soon. He wondered about Haining employing a man like Lucas Miles, but that might have been nothing more than necessity, knowledgeable foremen being hard to find. Miles hadn’t shown a whole lot of experience, even to a greenhorn miner like Slocum.

  “Papa, Papa!” Evangeline opened the door and blew in like a summer storm. “I must speak to you immediately. We must,” she amended when Slocum trailed her into the office.

  Morgan Haining looked up. His face was drawn and he looked paler than when Slocum had met him for the first time, but the smile he gave his daughter was genuine.

  “Evie, to what do I owe this fine visit? You know I’m working.”

  “I—we—have information about men stealing from the Low Down,” she said. She sat in the chair opposite Haining’s desk and almost dared him to contradict her, but Slocum saw the words forming on the man’s lips before she had finished her accusation.

  “You and Slocum?” He looked at Slocum and frowned. “Why aren’t you at work? The shift’s not over for another hour.”

  “We found evidence of high-graders,” Evangeline said, as if her father’s question meant nothing. But to Slocum it did. He had to explain.

  “Miles ordered me to blast down a new drift. The timbers collapsed and I was trapped.”

  “Obviously not trapped,” Haining said. “You are standing here in front of me.”

  “Papa—”

  “I used the nitro to blow out the floor. I ended up in a tunnel cut under yours in the Low Down.”

  “I don’t understand a bit of this. You used nitroglycerin? Why? It’s far too expensive, and I have given orders not to use it.”

  “It’s mighty dangerous because it’s so unstable,” Slocum said. “Miles ordered it. And then the roof collapsed. But the tunnels I found were—”

  “I’ll speak to Mr. Miles about this right away. Why, that’s a waste of precious money. Even with the new vein you unearthed, there’s little enough to go around after I pay for . . .” Haining trailed off, then fixed his gaze on Slocum as if he had almost revealed some deep, dark secret.

  “High-graders, Papa. I was in their tunnels, too. They are digging out ore that rightfully belongs to the Low Down.”

  “I don’t think so,” Haining said. “That’s not possible.”

  “Who owns the side of the mountain opposite to the Low Down?” Slocum asked.

  “I do. I own the entire mountain. There used to be a trio of cranky old coots who worked that side of the hill, but they weren’t miners as much as prospectors. They had no desire to prove their claim. I bought them out—at a fair price, I should say. I don’t know where they went. Utah, I think.”

  “Who’s been working that claim?”

  “Why, no one. The mines were all shuttered.”

  “They looked mighty wide open to me,” Slocum said.

  “Mr. Miles tended to that. He would not have disobeyed me.”

  “Ask him, Papa.”

  Slocum heard a hardness come to the woman’s voice. He remembered how she and Miles had had a little run-in, and how the foreman had come out second best. Evangeline had no love for the man, that much was certain.

  “There’s no need. He reported to me that it was done. I remember distinctly.”

  “He—” began Evangeline, but her father held up his hand and cut her off.

  “Don’t argue. And this business about high-graders is absurd. What problems we’ve had were those felt by other mines, also.”

  “I can show you where they’re digging out your ore,” Slocum said. “The vein takes a downward turn from the Low Down and they burrowed in underneath.”

  “Slocum, I can chastise my daughter. I can fire you for insubordination. Miles has said there is no trouble in the mine, from men stealing the gold, or from any exterior situation. What disruption there is in the flow of gold has been caused by internal problems.”

  “Reckon that’s so,” Slocum said, knowing his idea of “internal problems” was entirely different from Haining’s.

  “I’m glad you say so,” Haining said caustically. “Now if you will leave, I’ve got work to do.” He looked up at Slocum. “And you do, also. I am not sure I appreciate you loafing on the job and being with my daughter.”

  Slocum said nothing. He left while Evangeline argued with her father a few minutes longer. The woman came from the office looking disconsolate.

  “He won’t listen. He just won’t.”

  “Does Miles have that kind of hold over him? All he needed to do was come look at the high-graders’ work. I believe him when he says he owns the entire mountain. That means they are stealing his gold.”

  “The richest find,” Evangeline said glumly.

  “You might sweet-talk him into getting into the mines to see,” Slocum suggested.

  Evangeline shook her head. The wind caught her dark hair and sent it out around her face like a gossamer frame. Although she was almost as filthy from poking around in the mine as Slocum, he thought she had never looked prettier.

  “Mama has been talking to him. She’s always nagging him about something, and this is his way of keeping her from making too much of a fuss over the way he spends so much of the money.”

  Slocum considered the situation. A wife wanting a bigger share of what her husband earned was not unusual, but Slocum heard something more in what Evangeline said that he didn’t understand.

  “What’s he spend so much on? He agonizes over it from the way he talks of all his accounts.”

  Evangeline hesitated, then said, “I shouldn’t tell you since Papa keeps this quiet. He’s not one to brag, but he supports many of the injured miners.”

  “How’s that?” Slocum wasn’t sure what she meant. “He hired Randolph and his son, and I doubt they’d have found jobs anywhere else, being deaf as posts, but that’s hardly supporting a man who isn’t pulling his weight.” Slocum knew the two men worked harder than any three other miners, and that included putting himself into the equation.

  “That’s only part of it, and that doesn’t cost him money. Oh, as salary, but he gets a good day’s work from both of them. No, he supports miners injured in the mines. One man had a leg cut off. Another is blind. Others have a variety of injuries, but most have difficulty breathing.”

  Slocum coughed and knew how easily his lungs had filled with grit from the mine. Being trapped in a space hardly larger than a coffin filled with dust took away a man’s wind mighty fast.

  “He pays for them to live?” Slocum had never heard of such a thing. Most mine owners fired any injured miner.

  “He says it’s only right. If a man is injured through no fault of his own, the mine owner—Papa—must do what he can to help them get by.”

  “How many miners is he keeping alive like this?”

  “Several. Well, ten or so. They have another bunkhouse at the far side of Cripple Creek, and Papa makes sure they eat regular meals and have what medical care is possible in a mining town like this.”

  “I don’t think this notion will catch on with the other mine owners.”

  “No, I am sure it won’t, but Papa had help growing up and wants to do what he can to smooth out the potholes in the road of life for others.”

  “So your ma doesn’t think much of his charity?”

  “She had a more favored upbringing,” Evangeline said.

  Slocum saw the conflict spread out where he could examineit more carefully. Darleen Haining saw no reason for her husband to spend one red cent on anyone but her, while his guilt caused him to want to do what he could for men injured on the job in his mine. She slackened off on the criticism if he ignored the threat posed by the high-graders.

  The only way Darleen Haining came out ahead that way was if she shared in the gold stolen by the owlhoots. She let him give a few dollars to the crippled miners while she raked off even more illegally.

  “Tell me about your ma,” Slocum said. “I didn’t get much of a look at her before. Is she the kind of woman who’d cheat on your pa?”

  “I—” Evangeline clamped her mouth shut. “I cannot say,” she said in a neutral tone.

  Slocum let the matter drop. He had an idea what was going on, but getting Haining to believe it might be a real chore.

  “So? Can you convince him to take a look at the tunnels on the other side of the mountain?”

  “I doubt it,” she said. “He does not like to be confined. He becomes very nervous in a small room. I cannot imagine what Papa would do if he went into a mine, with its low roofs and narrow passageways.”

  “Seems he went into the wrong business,” Slocum said. “There’s not much he can do to personally check to see if anyone’s stealing from him if he can’t abide by a tight tunnel or overhanging rock.”

  “What you say is true, John. I don’t know where to go with this.” She looked up at him and said in a voice so low he almost didn’t catch what she was saying, “I want to thank you for all you’ve done.”

  “Getting your pa to get the law involved—or even other mine owners—will be thanks enough. I don’t like seeing any man robbed, even if he is doing as much as possible to let it happen.”

  “That wasn’t what I meant, John. And I think you know it.” Evangeline stepped closer and looked up at him. Her blue eyes were bright and hot with desire. “Being so close to death did something to me. It excited me. I don’t know why, but it did. Or might be just being so close to you is what excites me.” She reached out and slid her fingers down his belly between his waistband and his shirt. Those fingers burrowed lower and caused him to look around uncomfortably.

  “I don’t think your pa would appreciate seeing you doing that, not after he made it mighty clear I ought to give you a wide berth.”

  “He doesn’t own me. And you’re doing more to save him from himself than anyone else. I appreciate that. I appreciate you,” Evangeline said, digging down even more in his pants. Her fingers found his slowly stiffening organ. “And I appreciate this.” Her fingers curled around him and tried to squeeze, but the angle was too extreme for her to grip without hurting her wrist.

  “Not here,” he said.

  “I know the place,” she said. “There’s a secluded pool not far from our house. Hot water bubbles up in the pond.”

  “It probably smells like sulphur,” Slocum said.

  “I’ll make sure you won’t ever notice a little thing like that,” Evangeline promised, grinning broadly. The expression on her face told him she would do just that.

  “Go on. I’ll follow.”

  “Don’t be long,” the dark-haired beauty said. She gave him a quick little stroke before pulling her hand from his pants. “Don’t be long getting to me,” she amended. “Once you find me, remember that there’s something else that I do like long.” Laughing, she hurried off.

  Slocum watched the young woman as she left, marvelling at how she could seem so prim one minute and downright wanton the next. When she looked back over her shoulder, he knew there was nothing prim and proper about what she intended.

  He looked back at the closed door of the mining company office and wondered what Morgan Haining would do if he got wind of what was about to happen to his daughter—with her full consent. Then Slocum shrugged it off. Evangeline was old enough to know her own mind. She certainly had a better idea of how to run a gold mine than her father. And possibly far better than what her mother would do.

  Rather than take the path and follow Evangeline, he cut across the rugged countryside, going over the side of a steep hill and finally reaching the base, where he circled. The sulphur smell was stronger here. He knew rich folks paid huge amounts of money to take the waters on the far side of the Rockies. At Manitou Springs the Navajo water was supposed to cure all ills. As Slocum walked along, there was only one ill he wanted cured. It grew increasingly painful to walk as he thought about Evangeline Haining naked in the pool of water, waiting for him.

  Although he had already been expecting the sight of her to be just about the best part of their encounter, the mirage that appeared caused his erection to try to do a cartwheel in his pants. Evangeline was stark naked and draped like some mermaid across a large, smooth rock beside the pool. She lay back, arms stretched over her head and her long legs dangling down so that her toes were barely rippling the water in the pool.

  He hardly knew what to look at. Her firm breasts were flattened by the way her back arched, and she flowed over the rock like a sunbathing feline. The long legs, moving slowly and causing ripples in the pond, were enticing. But Slocum’s eyes moved up those slender legs to the dark, crinkly furred nest between her thighs. Dewdrops caught the afternoon sun and glistened there. He wasn’t sure if that moisture came from the pond or from the woman’s arousal.

  Slocum intended to find out.

  He was removing his clothing as he approached the pond. He started to call out to her and then had a better idea. Discarding shirt and boots, he sat on the side of the pool. His nostrils flared at the heavy sulphur bubbling up from the depths of the Earth. It was hard for him to think of this volcanically heated pool and then remember how cold and dank it was down in the Low Down’s deepest levels. He rocked back and skinned out of his pants. He let out a small sigh of relief when he freed his erection from the cloth prison.

  Without making even a small splash, he slid into the warm water and dog-paddled to a spot just under where Evangeline lolled. She hadn’t noticed him yet. He stopped swimming and found a spot where he could stand on the bottom of the shallow pool without losing his balance. With a sudden grab, both of his strong hands circled her slender ankle and tugged. She slid down the slick rock and didn’t even get a chance to cry out before she hit the water.

  By then, Slocum was already swarming around her, swimming under her flailing arms and coming up behind her. His hardness spread her warm buttocks as he reached around her, one hand resting on her belly and the other clamping down firmly over her breasts. He felt her frenzied heartbeat and knew she was ready for him.

  “Oh!” Evangeline gasped when his hand moved lower than her belly and found the tangled mat of her bush. His finger curled about and slipped into her heated channel. “That had better be you, John Slocum.”

  “Were you expecting anyone else?” he whispered in her ear. Then he nibbled just a bit on the dangling lobe. This caused Evangeline to go limp. She floated in the water, her legs coming to the surface as she lay back atop him.

  He moved his way up beneath her, letting his natural buoyancy lift him. Her legs parted and he came up between them. She reached down and gripped his steely length.

  “What have I found in the water?”

  “Something that doesn’t want to stay in the water. It wants to get into you,” Slocum said. His hands moved down and parted her legs even more, but reaching around her prevented him from stroking over her belly and lower.

  “Like this?” Evangeline bucked a little, then resettled down in the water. As she came down, he slid easily into her lubricated interior. The water had been warm; where he was now buried was burning hot. When she tensed and clamped her strong inner muscles down, he gasped and thrashed about beneath her.

  They rolled over in the water, both facedown, but stayed this way for only a few seconds before rolling onto their backs again. Evangeline locked her legs around his to keep him firmly within her. He began stroking his hands up and down her chest, finding the twin mounds of her breasts, teasing and toying with them, then moving on to slip his hands over her sides and down to her legs. Her rear end fit perfectly into the curve of his groin, but there was no way he could stroke.

  The pressures she exerted on his buried manhood sent sharp jolts of pleasure into his loins. He tried arching up but only succeeded in dunking himself. Evangeline seemed to understand how they lacked leverage.

  “It’s so nice just resting within me, but I want more, too, John,” she said. Her hands moved around and cupped his muscular ass, and then they rolled over and over in the water before coming up against the bouldered shoreline of the pond. Somehow, she managed to get halfway out of the water and pressed herself facedown on the rock. Her arms stretched high over her head, duplicating the position he had seen her in when he had approached the pond.

  The difference this time was that she pressed her chest down into the rock—and he was hidden balls-deep within her from behind.

  He got his feet under him and found a spot that gave him leverage. He slid forward, burying himself entirely in her tightness. Pulling back, he paused a moment. The warm water lapping around his balls provided little relief for what he wanted. He slid easily back into her tightness. Her muscles again massaged him, gripped him, tried to milk him of his fiery seed.