“Sleb worked for General Yovington’s brother in a town named Desperate.”
“Heard of that place,” Toby said, and the way he said it made ’Ring look at him.
“So’s half the baser element of society,” Jamie said. “The two Yovington brothers own most of the town and the big gold mine at one end of it.”
Maddie hadn’t said anything up to this point, but now she spoke. “General Yovington helped me find Laurel.”
“The reason he could help you was he was the one who arranged her kidnapping.”
Maddie put down her coffee cup and stared at Jamie.
“It seems that the two brothers had invested their life savings in that gold mine, but it yielded nothing.”
“Maybe that’s why they called the place Desperate,” Laurel said, and Toby nodded at her.
“Maybe. I guess their lives did look desperate. They’re both in their fifties, with nothing waiting for them to comfort them in their old age. So, a few months ago the brothers got together…” He looked at Maddie. “Your general was out here to look over some forts and he got with his brother and heard the news that their gold mine was empty. They decided that if they couldn’t get the money legally, they’d get it illegally. For the last couple of years there’s been a lot of gold mined out of these mountains and they decided to take that.”
“Stealing!” Maddie said. “They meant to take the gold these poor men have worked so hard to get?”
“That they did. The only problem was getting it out of the mountains without arousing suspicion. Gold is heavy, and the miners might, well, notice somebody riding around with hundred-pound saddlebags.”
“So they used me to go from town to town.”
“Exactly. That big ol’ Concord of yours can hold a lot, especially if it’s been fitted out with a false bottom as yours has.” Jamie paused while the others absorbed this information. He was rather proud of himself for having found out what he had.
“And the letters?” ’Ring asked.
“Blank. The objective was to get Maddie away from the wagon, that’s all. The letters were a ruse.”
“Money,” Maddie said with feeling. “All of this had to do with money. I thought I was doing something, I don’t know, political. I thought I was at least being used to help a cause that someone believed in. But all I was was a common, everyday thief.”
’Ring looked at his brother. “Which one of Maddie’s people were in on it? They had to have someone inside.”
“Frank,” Jamie said softly, “but he won’t bother us again.”
’Ring nodded, but he didn’t ask what had been done to Frank. “Why did they choose Maddie?” he asked. “Any singer, or magician, for that matter would have done just as well. They just needed someone who could travel freely from camp to camp without arousing suspicion.”
Jamie grinned. “It seems that the general’s brother loves opera. Apparently, opera is his major interest in life.” He looked at Maddie in wonder.
She nodded at him. She had often met people like the general’s brother. Men with stars in their eyes when they looked at her.
Jamie shook his head in disbelief. “You should hear about this town Desperate. It’s full of criminals. It’s backed up against a mountain and there’s only one way in and one way out, across a narrow land bridge. And Yovington’s brother runs the place like his own little fiefdom, hangs any man who crosses him. Men say they’d rather be hung than—”
“Hanged,” Maddie and ’Ring said in unison.
Jamie rolled his eyes as though to say Spare me from lovers. “Whatever. Nobody in his right mind wants to go there.”
Jamie smiled. “But the oddest thing in the town is this man Yovington’s love of opera. He heard that Sleb was once a singer onstage and that he’d been an opera teacher before the drink got him, so Yovington shanghaied Sleb to train singers for him. Pays ol’ Sleb in whiskey.”
“I’ve never heard of another singer in this part of the country.”
“None whose name you remember anyway,” ’Ring said just so she could hear.
Jamie laughed. “There are none, but Yovington gets ol’ Sleb to train…” He glanced at Laurel. “Sleb trains ladies of the evening.”
“Oh, whores,” Laurel said, nodding.
All three men looked at Maddie as though in condemnation. Maddie shrugged. “Bailey.” She looked back at Jamie. “These women couldn’t have been very good.”