Mystery of the Haunted Mine

3 Stranger in the Dawn

The incessant barking of a dog aroused Gary from a deep sleep. He sat up suddenly, startled and confused. He recognized Lobo's deep voice. Gary thrust his legs from beneath the blanket and stood up. It was still dark outside and he had no idea what time it was. He padded to the door of the bedroom and opened it to step into the hallway. Lobo was still barking furiously.

He walked across the dark living room and peered through a window. It was dark all right but there was a faint suggestion of dawn in the sky. He could locate Lobo by the sound of his barking but he could not see the big dog.

"What is it?" asked Tuck from the hallway.

"I don't know," answered Gary. He peered from one side of the front yard to the other, seeing nothing that would alarm the big dog, but he knew well enough that Lobo wasn't a habitual barker.

Gary eased the bar from the door and slowly opened it. He stepped outside and flattened himself against the front wall of the house. He could hear Tuck's quick and irregular breathing just behind him. "I got the hatchet," said Tuck.

"Shut up!" hissed Gary.

Objects in the yard were dimly outlined against the graying sky. The windmill was still. Gary crouched and walked along the porch until he was at the northern end of it. He unconsciously glanced toward the Espectros, seeing nothing but their huge and indistinct outline against the sky. A cold whisper of the dawn wind crept along the desert, rustling the leaves of the trees beside the house. The vanes of the windmill hummed a little.

Lobo suddenly stopped barking. A low growl came from him. He was near the low stock shed north of the house. Gary could just make him out. There was a pick handle leaning against the side of the house. Gary gripped it and started toward the dog. As long as Lobo was alert no one would bother Gary.

He was within twenty feet of Lobo when the dog suddenly stopped growling. Gary had an uneasy feeling of being watched. He turned quickly, not really expecting to see anything out of the usual, but when he did, his heart seemed to skip a beat and his throat suddenly went dry.

A hatless man stood beyond the fieldstone wall looking directly at him. He had a rifle in his hands. Gary froze. Every instinct within him cried out to run, run, run! He glanced at Lobo. The big dog was still alert, watching the stranger, but he wasn't growling as he should have been.

Gary looked again at the silent, menacing figure, hoping that it was a mirage conjured up by his vivid imagination.. It was still there. It moved. "Stay where you are!" said Gary. He raised the pick handle as though it were a rifle.

The figure raised the rifle it held. Gary's throat seemed to close up and his stomach turned to water. "Take it easy, Gary," said the man. "Found your rifle up the canyon late last night."

Gary stared at him. "Who is it?" he asked.

"Lije Purtis, Gary. You know me."

Gary nodded. Lije was a local character. A man who prowled the local countryside at all hours of the day and night, sleeping wherever he happened to be, living off handouts, or working just enough to pay for the next few meals. Lije never bothered anyone. That was why Lobo had stopped barking as soon as he had recognized the man.

"You want the rifle, Gary?" asked Lije.

"Sure, Lije." There was no use in talking sharply to the man for coming there in the predawn darkness with a rifle in his hands. It would do no good. "You hungry, Lije?" he asked.

"Always am, Gary."

"Come on in then." Gary patted Lobo. "Where have you been, you bum?" he asked.

Lobo barked shortly. He was a powerfully muscled dog, like a mastiff, with a brown and white pelt and a black face, a combination of several breeds.

Lije climbed over the fence and shambled toward them. "I see him now and then in the canyons," he said.

That was another odd thing about Lije. Lije would go into the Espectros, without water, food, blankets, or arms, stay as long as he liked, then wander out again, perhaps on the remote north side, or the wild east and west sides, sometimes on the more accessible south side. The local Apaches knew him well and took care of him when he wandered their way. "Mind-Gone-Far" they called him, for he was protected by the gods.

Lije handed Gary the rifle. He smiled vacantly, revealing his crooked yellow teeth and the gaps between them. His washed-out eyes never left Gary's face. Gary always had an odd feeling that Lije was enjoying some vast and secret joke of his own when he looked at people. Tuck always said that he wasn't quite sure who was crazy, Lije Purtis, or the rest of the world.

"Is it your rifle, Gary?" called Tuck.

"Yes."

"How did you know it was Gary's rifle?" asked Tuck of Lije.

"It is, ain't it?" said Lije.

"I know," said Tuck patiently. "But how did you know?"

No one seemed to know whether Lije could read and write. No one knew just how much Lije did know.

"It's Gary's," said Lije simply.

Gary looked at Tuck. Tuck shrugged. "Where did you find it, Lije?" asked Tuck. His shrewd blue eyes studied the man.

"Up the canyon."

"Where?"

"Behind a rock ledge. Lying on the ground it was."

An odd feeling came over Gary. He worked the lever. A spent cartridge case tinkled on the hard ground. Five more fresh cartridges were ejected from the rifle before it was emptied. He had loaded it the evening before with six rounds. "Did you shoot it, Lije?" he asked quietly.

Lije's eyes widened. "I don't even know how to shoot one, Gary," he said. "You know that!"

Gary nodded. He looked up toward The Needle now being bathed in the cold gray light. There was no use asking Lije how he happened to be up there during the night, or how he had stumbled upon the rifle — if he had just stumbled upon it.

"What's wrong, Gary?" asked Tuck.

Gary turned. "One round was fired. Lije didn't fire it. You follow me?"

Tuck rubbed his lean jaw. "Yeh," he said shamefacedly. "Maybe it fell over and discharged. Maybe that was the shot that stampeded us. I had an idea all the time it was that."

"Oh sure," said Gary dryly. "Seems to me you said something like this when I asked you if you had seen Asesino: 'Sure! Rose up like a jack-in-the-box atop The Needle! Aimed right at us! Lordy! Bullet nearly parted my hair, Gary!'"

Tuck flushed. "Well, a guy gets nervous like."

"Sure does." Gary looked at Lije. "You see anyone else up there, Lije?"

"No."

"You sure?"

The veil over the faded eyes was more pronounced. "You asked me if I was hungry, Gary," he said petulantly.

Gary nodded. "Sure, Lije." There was no use in going further with the man. Gary slowly reloaded the rifle. Lije shambled toward the house and walked in as though it were his own.

Tuck studied Gary. "Well?"

Gary shrugged. "It could have been my rifle that went off by accident. I had loaded the chamber and then leaned it against the rock dike. Careless of me."

"That's not like you, Gary," admitted Tuck. "Now me, I'd do a thing like that."

"Lije isn't supposed to know how to shoot a rifle," said Gary thoughtfully. "But supposing he did?"

"You mean he might have shot at us?"

"I mean, maybe he shot it sometime later during the night. Maybe someone really did shoot at us in there. But how can we know that?"

Tuck nodded. "I've always said Lije probably knows a lot more than we give him credit for. He's smart enough not to have to work and yet he gets by. The rest of us have to work hard for a living."

"Well, well never know," said Gary. He looked again at The Needle. More mystery. The place seemed to breed mysteries as it did thunderstorms in the summer and pouring flash floods in the fall and winter. "I'd like to know what Lije sees in there."

"Or what sees Lije," added Tuck softly.

Gary shivered. "Let's eat. We've got a long, hard day ahead of us."

Gary was kept busy cooking for the two guests. Voracious as Tucker C. Browne was, he was an amateur compared to the thin and gaunt Lije. Tuck finally conceded defeat after Lije started on his third plateful of flapjacks. When they had finished eating, Lije arose. He looked at Gary. "Map," he said.

Gary knew what Lije wanted. He went into his room and brought out the large local map he had bought the summer before and upon which he had made notes, corrections, and additions for his personal quest for the Lost Espectro. Lije knew Gary was interested in the Lost Espectro. Gary placed the map on the cleared table, and Lije leaned over it. He nodded in satisfaction. Lije might not be able to read but he knew well enough the shape and size of the Espectros. He placed a dirty broken fingernail on a watercourse and traced it to a huge bluff that had forced the watercourse to change its channel. "Arrastres," he said. He stabbed his finger down hard, denting the thick paper.

Gary stared at the map. The watercourse flowed out into the wild desert southeast of the range. He had been in that area the year before as wrangler for a small party of dudes who had been looking for cliff dwellings. They had found a few crumbling structures, but Gary had not seen any arrastres in there. Arrastres were primitive ore-crushing mills, used by the early Spanish miners to crush the gold ore. Where there were arrastres, there should be, or had been, gold or silver mines. He looked up at Lije. Gold and silver meant nothing to this child of nature. There was no expression on the man's thin face, but Gary realized that Lije was paying for his meal in the only way he knew.

Lije walked to the door. He turned and eyed the two boys. "Be careful," he said. He swiftly drew his left hand across his throat in a gruesome gesture. "Asesino!" Then he was gone from the house.

Tuck shuddered a little. "Cheerful hombre," he said.

Gary eyed the map again. "Arrastres," he said thoughtfully.

"Maybe he was kidding us."

"No."

"Then we may have found a clue to the mines!"

"Arrastres weren't always near the mines, Tuck. The arrastres used in crushing the ore of the old Peralta Mines, believed to be the lode that the Dutchman found in the Superstitions, were quite a distance from the mines. The ore was brought down in aparejos by mule train."

"Well, it's better than nothing!"

Gary grinned. "You can say that again. You want to take a crack at it today?"

"That's why I came out here, amigo. After last night I want no part of The Needle for some time."

"Yeh," said Gary dryly.

They were loading the jeep when the wind shifted. Gary quickly raised his head. "Listen!" he said.

The sound of a car engine came to them from the northwest. Gary whirled. There was only one road in there — the road he and Tuck had traveled the night before. It went in toward the western ramparts of the Espectros, then ended at Massacre Springs.

"Dust," said Tuck.

A thin wraith of dust hung over the desert, moving toward the northwest.

"Wonder who it is," said Gary.

"Which way did Lije go?"

"Quien sabe? He can't drive anyway."

"Sure, sure! Lije can't shoot! Lije can't read! Lije can't write! Lije can't drive!"

Gary turned. "What do you mean?"

"I've always said Lije knows a lot more than folks give him credit for, Gary. How do we know he isn't in that car right now?"

"He can't drive, I tell you!"

Tuck lowered his voice. "Sure, he can't drive, but he can sure ride with someone else who can drive."

Gary was puzzled. "I see what you mean."

"So we go chasing off after a wild goose to the east of the Espectros for some beat up old arrastres while Ol' Lije goes the other way."

Gary whirled again. He snatched his father's binoculars from the jeep and ran to the windmill. He swiftly climbed the ladder to the platform at the top, took the glasses from their case, and raised them to his eyes, focusing them on the dust that seemed to be moving more swiftly. But the vehicle was below a low rise of ground, and there was no place where the road crossed an open area where Gary might catch a fleeting glimpse of it. He slowly descended the ladder. "No fish," he said to Tuck.

"Mysteriouser and mysteriouser," said the lean one.

The telephone jangled insistently. Gary ran to the house and picked up the phone. "Gary?" his father said. "Listen! Sue Browne wants to come out and spend the day with you and Tuck."

"Oh, Lord," groaned Gary.

"Your mother will drop her off up at the highway in about half an hour. Pick her up there. I wasn't sure you'd be home yet. Glad I caught you."

"Yep," said Gary.

"She's a nice kid," said Pete Cole. "She'll be good company for you boys."

"Oh sure, Dad."

"O.K. Pick her up in about half an hour to forty-five minutes. 'Bye, son."

Gary replaced the phone on its cradle. Tuck thrust his owlish face into the room. "Who was it? Asesino? Hawww!" he brayed.

"Worse," said Gary. "That was my father. Seems like your beloved cousin, Miss Susan Browne, is to spend the day with us."

Tuck paled. "We still got time to pull out?"

"My mother will drop her off up at the highway. We have to pick her up there."

Tuck seemed trapped. "Let's vamoose!" he said.

"My father told me to pick her up. I'll have to do it, Tuck."

"Why'd you have to answer that phone anyway?"

"How did I know Sue was back in town?"

"Yeh. She was away at some summer camp or something. Sure was quiet around town with her gone. By golly, I'll just bet she knew what we were going to do! I wouldn't put it past her, amigo!"

Gary nodded. "And just the day we get a solid lead on the Lost Espectro too."

They walked outside to the jeep. Gary whistled for Lobo. The huge dog leaped into the back seat and settled himself with a proprietary air. Gary drove out onto the gravel road and toward the main highway. Gloom rode along with them. "Sue Browne," groaned Tuck. "Sometimes I'm not even sure she's kin to me. No one else in the whole family is quite like Sue, odd as they all are."

"I'll buy that," said Gary gloomily.

They waited at the junction of the highway and the gravel road. In a short time they saw the familiar, battered green pickup truck. Mrs. Cole drew off on the shoulder of the road. The look in her blue eyes was sufficient for her to warn Gary without opening her mouth. Mrs. Cole well knew the effect Sue Browne had on the boys.

The fifteen-year-old object of all the trouble got out of the truck, waved good-bye to Mrs. Cole and walked quickly toward the jeep. She opened her mouth in a wide smile, and the early morning sun glinted on the braces she wore. "Brought my own lunch, Gary!" she cried happily. "Got some extra for the Hungry Dragon too!"

"That's me," said Tuck unhappily. "I'd rather go hungry, so help me, Gary."

Sue was getting taller, Gary noted. But she was still shaped something like Tuck, all odds and ends and angles. She had dark brown hair, cut short and a battered sombrero was perched on the back of her head.

"Gary!" called Mrs. Cole.

He got out of the jeep. "Get into the back with Lobo," he said casually to Sue.

Sue had one beautiful feature — a pair of big brown eyes that seemed to dominate her face. If a fellow didn't look at her braces, tip-tilted nose, and freckles too closely, she'd almost be considered pretty because of her eyes.

Mrs. Cole leaned toward Gary. "It wasn't my idea, Gary," she said in a low voice. "But now that she is here, I want you boys to treat her nicely."

"Yes, ma'am."

She studied him. "What happened last night?"

"Nothing."

She eyed him closely. She had an uncanny knack of knowing when things went wrong with Gary. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Where are you going today?"

"Over to the southeast side of the Espectros."

She smiled in relief. "Thank heaven for that! I thought you might be foolish enough to go poking about in the canyon near The Needle."

"Not today, Mother."

She half closed her eyes. "I see. What's up at the east end?" she asked quickly.

"I thought we might find some Indian relics."

"Nothing on the Lost Espectro though?"

"Well," admitted Gary, "if we find anything we sure won't just walk away from it."

"Your father and I will be home late this evening. Can you take Sue home?"

"Tuck can take her on his Honda."

"No! Absolutely not! You bring her home."

"All right, Mother."

The pickup turned and moved back toward The Wells. Gary shrugged, cleared his throat, then plodded toward the jeep. Sue was tucked in beside the bulk of the dog. She was all smiles. "Sure will be fun," she said.

"Yeh," said Tuck. He sagged lower in his seat.

Gary did not talk as he drove off to the east. Sue Browne had a hide like a rhinoceros when it came to figuring she was not wanted.

"Where to?" she asked brightly.

"East," said Gary shortly.

"I know. But where?"

"Got a lead on some Indian relics near a dry stream."

"Nothing on the Lost Espectro?"

Gary looked out of the corner of his eye at Tuck. Sue was a talker, sure enough. Tuck yawned. "Hey," he said suddenly. "You wearin' perfume, Susie?"

She seemed to swell up a little, Gary noted in the rear-vision mirror. "A little, Tuck," she coyly admitted. "Why?"

Tuck yawned again. "For a minute I thought it was Lobo," he said. He closed his eyes as though to sleep.

She had walked right into it. Sue flushed and looked quickly away. She'd be quiet now until they reached the watercourse at least. Still, Gary couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her. She wasn't a bad kid if she'd only learn to keep her mouth shut.