Through the Gates of Hell

Chapter Eight

Maggie was only half-listening to the argument. As Robert and Walt went back and forth with Eleanor trying to arbitrate between them, Maggie walked farther into the chamber out of a strange sense of curiosity. Although there didn’t seem to be anything dangerous, she kept her pistol in her hand just in case.

At first, it looked like the room split off into two different tunnels, but Maggie soon realized the room was actually L-shaped, with the long end facing left, but it was basically part of the same room. She turned and peered cautiously around the corner. It was too dark to see clearly, since the light from Eleanor’s lantern didn’t reach that far, but Maggie thought she could still perceive something glinting invitingly in the darkness. Maggie stood there and squinted into the shadows, trying to make out the details.

This side of the chamber had been dug out and partially-excavated. There was an uneven section of wall stretching about twenty feet back, like a half-finished tunnel, with a loose pile of dirt and stones sloping down to the floor. Several damaged picks and broken shovels lay half-buried in the rubble. But the work was clearly unfinished. It seemed like whoever had been digging out this part of the mine had just stopped, dropped their tools, and walked away.

Eleanor wordlessly came up beside her and raised the lantern, shining light on what the miners had been working so hard to dig out.

Maggie knew what it was, of course, but seeing it with her own eyes was something else. The entire side of the wall was covered in sharp purple stones like jagged chunks of glass sticking out of the dirt, dozens of them all fused together like a vein of ore. The sight of the enormous mass of crystal nearly took her breath away. It was dark stone, an incredible fortune in dark stone.

She stepped closer and watched as the light reflected off the chunks of purple crystal, making them glitter like jewelry. The light seemed to reflect in strange angles, as if there were additional facets layered within the stones, making them shine in every direction. Some of the dark stone was a deep, rich purple, but some was a lighter shade of violet, and the various shades and color differences only seemed to make the dark stone look more enchanting and lovely.

A teardrop-shaped piece of dark stone lay on the pile of dirt, just waiting for her to pick it up. It was about two inches long, and it seemed to weigh almost nothing. She held it in her hand and turned it over, mesmerized by the way the light glinted and reflected off its surface.

“It’s beautiful,” she said softly.

Walt and Robert had stopped arguing and were both standing behind Eleanor. Walt took a long breath and said, “It’s the most beautiful thing in the whole world. There ain’t nothing else like it.”

This was what so many people risked their lives for, Maggie thought. In fact, this is what she had risked her own life for, had abandoned her family for. Nothing but a tiny purple stone. The shard she held in her hand was probably worth more money than she’d make in six months working the carnival circuit. It might pay for a year of her nephew’s schooling. And there was more of it, tons of it, just sitting here for the taking.

Maggie’s mind reeled at the thought of so much wealth at her fingertips, more money than she could comprehend. She felt like she had just stumbled upon a buried treasure of gold coins. How much dark stone was here? Millions of dollars worth? Tens of millions?

Suddenly, she was jerked from her reverie by a hand on her shoulder. It was Eleanor, looking at her with a firm but compassionate expression. “Don’t take it, Maggie,” she said. “It’s an evil thing. It was sent from the Devil himself to tempt us.”

Maggie blinked and looked back at the dark stone in her hand. With some hesitation, she managed to turn her hand sideways and let the shard fall back into the dirt at her feet.

“I’m sorry,” she said awkwardly. “I just … I didn’t expect to see all of this …”

Even Robert seemed a little in awe. “I’ve never seen so much,” he said, faintly shaking his head in disbelief. He turned to face Walt and said, “You knew this was down here? Does anyone else know about it? Why aren’t there a dozen men down here digging all this out?”

Walt just looked at the floor and scratched at his beard. “Nobody else knows,” he said, but it was clear there was a long story behind the words that he did not want to tell. Despite their obvious misgivings, no one pressed him on it.

He had already admitted that he’d been in the mine before. By itself, that wasn’t suspicious, but Maggie was beginning to wonder what had happened here. If Walt knew that a fortune in dark stone was here for the taking, why hadn’t he come back for it? Even if all he wanted was his satchel, why not come back and get it long before now? Was he merely scared of the creatures in the mine and wanted someone else to come along with him? Was it something as simple as that?

Walt looked down at his satchel and held his hand on it in a vaguely possessive manner. “You see?” he said to no one in particular. “I could take all the dark stone I want. But I just came back for what belongs to me.”

“Okay,” Robert said, nodding slowly. “I guess I believe you.”

“This is here to tempt us,” Eleanor said, looking at all of them in turn. “But our resolve is strong, and we will not succumb to temptation.”

“No, we won’t,” Robert agreed. “If we’re done here, let’s get on with it.”

“Yes,” Eleanor said. “Let us go on. The Lord will light our way.”

Maggie took one last look at the unbelievable treasure in dark stone, and then followed the others to the other side of the chamber and to the next passage leading deeper into the mine. She checked her pistols and joined Robert in front. Like before, they would take the lead while Eleanor and Walt walked behind them.

Maggie glanced back as Walt adjusted the shoulder strap of the satchel and patted it reassuringly, confirming that it was still full of dark stone. He had a sheen of sweat on his forehead. He caught Maggie looking at him, narrowed his eyes, and merely raised his pickaxe and gestured with it in the direction of the tunnel, as if to say, “After you, ma’am.”

Maggie turned around and did her best to ignore him. But she couldn’t help but wonder if Walt’s all-consuming desire for dark stone was what made him the way he was. It was a sobering thought.

“Is everyone ready?” Robert asked.

They were. Eleanor held the lantern high to illuminate the passage head, despite her earlier statement that God would light their way. Personally, Maggie trusted the lantern more than she trusted God, although Eleanor had admittedly done some pretty amazing things so far.

They made their way down the mine tunnel, which continued in a roughly straight line before dipping down and curving once more. Unlike some of the earlier tunnels, the floor under their feet was solid stone instead of loose dirt. As they kept going, the tunnel swerved back and forth like a slithering snake. There were spots where the miners had tried to continue straight, but had run into seams of stone too hard to dig through, so they had apparently followed the path of least resistance.

Maggie wondered why the miners had kept on digging when they had such a huge source of dark stone in the chamber above them. She guessed that maybe they had already dug the deeper section before they went back and found more stone in the previous chamber, but she didn’t want to ask Walt.

She found herself thinking back to the dark stone. She couldn’t get the image of all that dark stone out of her head. There was so much, tons of it, it was no surprise that Walt had wanted to go back for his share. Maggie could easily fill up a bag for herself and she doubted anyone would even notice that any was missing. She could fill an entire wheelbarrow full. Instantly, she understood why so many people came out to these boom towns to make their fortune. The lure of unimaginable wealth and money was hard to ignore.

“You still thinking about that dark stone back there?” Robert asked casually.

She looked at him quickly and felt embarrassed. “How could you tell?”

He smiled a tired, knowing smile. “Anyone would be. That was a lot of money. To be honest, I was tempted to sneak a few pieces into my pocket, too.”

“Somehow I doubt that,” Maggie said.

“Hey, I’m as human as the next man. We all want a better life for ourselves, right? Having more money can be a good thing. Some people just take it too far, that’s all.”

“It’s not even for me,” Maggie said. “The money, I mean. I didn’t come out here to get rich. It’s for my brother and his family. My nephew’s a real smart kid, and he might be able to go to a big college, but they can’t afford it. I thought if I could come out here and find some dark stone, maybe I could make enough money to pay for his education.”

“That’s great,” Robert said. “I hope that all works out. On our way back, if you want to take some of that dark stone, I certainly won’t judge you for it.”

“On our way back,” Maggie said with a sigh. “Let’s hope we do make it back.”

Robert put his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, don’t go talking like that, now. We’re going to find those people we came for, and we’re going to make it out of here. All of us.”

Maggie tried to share his optimism, but each step they took deeper into the mine made it seem less and less likely that they were going to accomplish their mission. Maggie felt, not for the first time, that she was in hopelessly over her head. She had definitely not signed up for this mission expecting to face the kinds of dangers she had already seen, and who knew what kind of horrors they might still face? It occurred to her that the missing people had not been kidnapped by spiders and tentacle things, so that meant something else was deeper in the mine, lying in wait for them.

She had to urge to keep talking, so she asked Robert, “What about you? What would you do with the money if you had all that dark stone?”

Robert considered the question and gave a shrug. “Oh, I suppose I’d buy some land and retire someplace nice. I’m from Texas originally, but I think I’d move out to California. Maybe finally settle down and start a family.”

“You’re not married?” Maggie asked, slightly surprised.

“Unfortunately, no. I suppose my career as an officer of the law always took priority over my personal life.” He looked at her and added, “I assume you aren’t married either?”

“No, I’m not,” Maggie said with a shake of her head, leaving it at that.

Robert seemed to understand, and maybe he did. But there was more that Maggie couldn’t say. It was true that she had focused on her career as a gunslinger, but in her case it was also a matter of necessity. Every time she met a man and got close to him, he inevitably found out about her personal history, and that was an obstacle that most men could not overcome.

She had been married once before. At the tender age of sixteen, she’d married a handsome young man named David Carmichael, and for a few years they had been happy together. And then for a few years, they had been very unhappy together, and the marriage had ended in tragedy. Ever since, Maggie had remained unmarried, and even though she was still young enough to marry again and possibly have children, she didn’t think it would ever happen. She expected that once she finally grew too old to make a living as a sharpshooter, she would eventually move in with her brother’s family and spend her old age working on their farm.

But that was a long way away. First, she had to stay alive long enough to escape this mine, and regardless of what Robert believed, Maggie wasn’t sure that was going to happen.

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