SINGLE TREE 18

as the rurales rode away single stepped up to jim star and pulling his belt knife cut the bonds that held his hands then went to other possee members doing the same thing" nice friendly fellow huh?" he asked no one in particular. the big indian that had been swinging the pick came out of the mine as the rurales disapered in a cloud of dust"he is a hard man. he hatees indians . if he had seen us we would have been taken back into mexico and would never seen our village again." hanford stood speechless. his eyes wide in shock. " well i think everyone needs to stay on this side of the line." hanford turned to jim starr. " go down to the cook tent and get something to eat. then it maybe best if you go back to tucson." single was back in the mine counting the ore sacks." if ole kosterlinsky had knowen this was heavy with gold i bet he would have moved the border to just above here." later that day the tucson possee started home. single watched them ride north.he had counterd the ore sacks. he had a good size load. he told hanford they would load up in the morning and he would head out to tucson. hanford agreed. through all this clara had stood silent. dureing the night single could hear clara and hanford argueing he was almost screaming. clara seemed to have the quiet , common sense. the next morning hanford had the look of a man who hadnt slept much. his eyes red rimmed. clara didnt come from her tent for coffee. " if you will take my advice hanford, find a way to get some air back down in that tunnel if you dont your going to be found laying dead in there." single calmly explained the situation. " ill think about it" hanford grumbled. " you need a cross cut tunnel that will allow fresh air. i mean it hanford, its going to get deadly in there." single pressed his case. " well we will take today off and load your wagon. give everyone a break . clara wants us to quit, pull out, take what we have and go back east. but theres a lot of gold left there, we cant leave it for some one else!"hanford was rambling, single could see he was off center and not thinking right. the first chance he got, while they were loading his wagon he slipped down to claras tent. she met him out side." clara if you want you can ride into tucson with me when i levve in the morning."singl was watching up at the mine while he talked to clara. " let me think on it. hanford wont like it. but he has lost all reason. il let you know." clara was almost whispering. single nodded and went back up to the mine. he didnt know how much this load would be worth but he knew it would be substantial. he didnt care so much about hanford but clara didnt need to be here. he figgured she would live well on what ever the load of ore brought. he decided he would try to talk to hanford one more time. as he was walking back to the mine he could see to the south a dust cloud riseing. a white horse broke from it headed toward them. single trotted up to the wagon and told the indians to hide out. the sacks they were loading he and hanford started loading. the wagon was almost full.