After about ten minutes of reading and clicking, Finn frowned. "That's weird. " He looked over at Warren. "Did you know Tobias Dawson has recently started construction on a new, separate mine shaft?"
Warren nodded. "That's the rumor the miners have been spouting. There's been more activity at the mine lately too. "
"What kind of activity?" Donovan asked.
Warren shrugged. "More blasting, more drilling. Sometimes, we can feel the tremors down here. Once they were so strong, they knocked over some sodas in the store. Made a big mess. "
"They feel sort of like small earthquakes," Violet added. "They've been going on a couple of months now. "
"Well, according to this, Dawson is pouring most of his money and manpower into the new shaft these days," Finn said.
"Why would he do that?" Violet asked.
Finn read some more. His frown deepened. "That can't be right," he muttered. "It's not possible. "
"What?" Jo-Jo asked. "What's not possible?"
"What Dawson is drilling for," Finn said. "According to this, it looks like that shaft isn't to get more coal out of the mountain. It's for - "
"Diamonds," I said in a soft voice. "He's found diamonds in the mountain. "
Silence. For a moment, everyone looked at me. Then they all started talking at once.
"Diamonds?" Sophia rasped in surprise.
"That's not possible," Violet Fox said.
"Darling, anything's possible," Jo-Jo replied.
"So that's why Dawson wants the land so badly. " Donovan shook his head.
"I wonder how big they are," Finn said in a speculative tone.
Warren T. Fox was the only one who didn't say anything.
Instead, the old coot stared at me, his eyes dark, pinched, and worried in his brown, wrinkled face. He knew what the diamond find meant as well as I did. Disaster.
For him and the mountain.
If the diamond I'd found in the safe was any indication of the size and quality of the others Tobias Dawson had discovered, the dwarf would tear the whole mountain apart to get every last gemstone out of the ground.
And it wouldn't end there. Word would eventually leak out about the diamond find, and then, well, it would be worse than the California Gold Rush around here. Everyone would be bulldozing and blasting the area, hoping to find diamonds on their own land and get rich themselves.
They'd destroy the whole mountain in their hasty greed - and Warren T. Fox's house and store lay at the epicenter. He'd go under first. The knowledge flashed in his eyes, steady, weary, certain.
Unless I did something to stop it.
I'd never considered myself to be any sort of environmentalist, but these mountains were as much a part of me as they were of Warren Fox. I took the same sort of pride in their beauty he did. If Tobias Dawson's current mine was any indication of things to come, it would be a public service to stop this now. And there was only one way to do that - by killing Tobias Dawson.
Oh, I had no doubt that the dwarf had told a few of his most trusted men what he had found, like those two giants who'd come to the office to investigate the robbery tonight. But without Dawson around, without his mining expertise and know-how, it would be that much harder for his flunkies to do anything about the diamonds.
Even if they did make a move later on, I could always take them out too. No, killing Dawson was the key here. Eliminate the dwarf and the rest of the monster would more than likely die along with him.
Besides, the store, the land, the house. They were all that Warren and Violet had ever known. They were simply home. I knew Fletcher Lane would have done whatever he could to help his friend. The old man wasn't here, but I was. And I was going to protect the Foxes - no matter what.
Warren raised his dark eyes to mine, asking a silent question. I nodded. Question asked and answered. Jo-Jo Deveraux saw the exchange. An emotion flickered in her pale gaze. It looked like relief - mixed with a spark of anticipation.
About what, I couldn't imagine. But it was there.