Page 18 of A Good Prospect

Ophir did not want to encourage her. “So what if you have a pistol? There could’ve been ten of them, with ten pistols. And you, with a broken arm in a sling!” Feeling ridiculously like her father, and even more absurd because he himself didn’t have a weapon, Ophir waved an arm and reined his mount back toward the stables. “Come. Put that thing away. I’m going to get a wagon to bring these amigos some more rails.”

“Who broke the fence?”

“I suspicion it was those no-count Australians from Hornitos. We had a run-in with them last week, before we…Before we brought you back here.”

“I think I know of them. Some Australians came to our camp a few weeks ago. Their leader was this very rodent-looking fellow, the crown of his hat sort of bashed in? McCarthy, his name was.”

“Yes, that’s the rodent. What did they want from you?”

“They tried to say they owned the land we prospected on, and demanded a tax on each ounce Niall sluiced from his long tom. But we knew youwere the owner, or Don Salvador at any rate, and then he started talking how only foreigners should pay the tax, anyway, so they let us alone.”

“Hmm. A foreigner’s mining tax. Those crafty bastards. Viva los Americanos! We’re all Americans now. This fighting is getting preposterous.”

“José told me that Don Salvador is returning tonight from his assaying trip. He sent a messenger saying he’s found the perfect spot for the stamp mill. Oh, and I found a large rubber ball in a storeroom near our apartments. Doña Carmen told me her sons used to play a game with it, hitting it across a field with a bat. Can we find the bat?”

“Listen to this girl!” Ophir marveled. “Your arm in a sling, and you want to bat a giant rubber ball across a field.”

“I am—what did Knut say?—antsy. I’ve never felt such freedom before! I owe you and Don Salvador so much, for taking me here. Oh, and I found a deck of cards, with images of drums, shrimp, skulls, and roosters. Doña Carmen told me it’s lotería, a Spanish lottery game. Do you think Don Salvador remembers how to play it?”

“We’ll ask him, Tamasin, but we have lots of work to do first.”