"She doesn't use up much runway, does she?" "What do you wanna talk about?" "Oh, I don't know." "Let's talk about George." " George?" " George Patterson." "Come on, don't play games with me." "The rescue chopper came in this morning." "They didn't find anything." "No wreckage, nothing." "Where is he, Dupre?" "How the hell should I know where he is?" "You sent him there." "We sent him to Dawson." "He never made it near Dawson." "He charged gas to Mollyco at Telegraph Creek." "That's up at the Cassiar, for chrissake." "That's the last we heard of him." "Maybe he crashed." "No." "I told you, they didn't find any wreckage." "Give me a floatplane." "I'll find him for you." "I think there's more at stake here than you make out." "More than a man's life?" "You know you can be replaced, Jean." "If you wanna be hard-nosed about this, one phone call I can replace you just like that." "Just like that, huh?" "Count on it." "In that case, you won't have trouble replacing me before this bird runs into that hangar." "Oh, Jesus." " You're fired, you son of a bitch." " Good." "Goddamn it!" "Jesus!" "Hi." "Come on, Andrea." " It's 5:30 in the morning." " I gotta talk to you now." "It's about George." "Go ahead." "Andrea, will you please open the door?" "You're gonna wake up the neighbors." "Would you mind telling me...?" "Did George say anything about where he was going exactly?" "He didn't tell me a damn thing." "We had a fight." "What do you want?" "Mollyco fired me." "They think I know where George is and I'm not telling." "Do you?" " He's up in the Cassiar." " Oh, God." "He was supposed to be flying geophysical survey for Mollyco." "Elliot sent him up to look for porphyry showings, molybdenum." "Look, Jean, if something's happened to him..." "He didn't crash, Andrea." "How do you know?" "Because I think he found what he was looking for." "What, molybdenum?" "No." "Gold." " How are you getting up there?" " Floatplane." " You don't own a floatplane." " I do now." "I sold my house." "You'd have to be crazy to get in any airplane you could buy with that house." "Fortunately, you're not getting in it." "What the hell are you looking for?" "Okay." "He had a map, an aeronautical chart of Northern BC." "Why didn't you just say so?" "He used to take it out every night and stare at it." "Son of a bitch." "Well, it was there the last time I looked." "I mean, he must have taken it with him." "Bastard." "What do you mean?" "George doesn't need that map." "He knows the country by heart." "He just took it so I couldn't follow him." "I don't think George would do that to you." "He wouldn't just walk out." "I think he did it to both of us, kiddo." "I'm going with you." "What is that?" "That is an ex-Mollyco surface-suction dredge." "No, I mean that." "You sold your house for that?" " She's a hell of a good airplane, kiddo." " That's no airplane." " That's a flying coffin." " Looks aren't everything." "Anyhow, it's how she flies that counts." "Give me that." "Well, never mind how she flies." "I think she's sinking." "Float has a little leak." "Uh, you just have to pump her out each time." "That's okay, it's supposed to come off." "So how's school?" "It's dull as tears." "I spend half of my time reading undergrad essays the other half on my thesis." "How's flying?" "Dull as tears." " Ever hear of the Cassiar Gold Rush?" "1875." "They found something like $10 million in gold up in the Stikine River." "But those claims ran out about a hundred years ago." "They were placer claims." "Panning the creeks, sluice boxes, that kind of thing." "Just the tip of the iceberg." "They never found the source, the lode." "Where were you going to look?" " George flew a survey last year." "He told me about a lake up there." "You can just about get into it with a floatplane, if the wind's right." "He had it marked on his chart right around here somewhere." "If he's in the Cassiar, that's where he'll be." "There it is, the Stikine." "Amazing." "I never thought you'd find it." "Tell me something." "Do you have a particular reason for flying like this?" "Keeps me awake." " What did you do?" " I didn't do anything." "Relax." "Come on, Jean." "This isn't funny." "No kidding, turn it back on." "How many landings have you made in a floatplane?" "This will be my third." " Your third?" " I couldn't afford any more instruction." "Well, that's just great." "I knew this would happen." "You love this." "Must be the fuel pump." "I paid good money to get it fixed." "Take it easy." "Hang on." "Oh, shit." "You know I'm getting a lot better at this." "Jesus." "Andrea, the shotgun!" "Hey!" "Thanks for stopping." "What the hell are you shooting at?" " I didn't know whether you saw us or not." " Well, of course, I saw you." "I may be old, but I ain't blind." " What's the matter with your plane?" " How did you know?" "Old Indians know things like that." "I think it's the fuel pump." "I need a ride to Wrangle." "I gotta fly in a mechanic to look at it." "Well, I'll take a look." "Haven't seen one of these babies in years." "Hey, wait a minute." "Wait." "What...?" "Hey." "You have to be a certified aviation mechanic to fix an airplane." " You just can't walk in and just take a look." " It's an engine, ain't it?" "I fix my motor." "I can fix your plane." "This will do it." "You, uh, from that fish camp downstream?" "No, I'm from Paris, France." "Where you headed?" "Upstream." " What are you doing?" " Who's your friend?" " Andrea Spalding." " Hey, you ought to teach her to shoot." "You see?" "You got a plugged fuel line." "A guy in Vancouver said it was the fuel pump." " Did you get it fixed?" " Of course." "Yeah, well, then it ain't the fuel pump." "The engine's gotta have gas to run, you know." "What the hell was plugging it?" "Just a piece of crap." "Bad gas, maybe." "We got a energy crisis, you know." "Well, don't stand there with your thumb up your ass." "Turn her over." " I don't know what to say, exactly." " Well, then say something approximate." "My name's Elijha, who the hell are you?" "Jean Dupre." "What are you going upriver for?" "We're looking for a friend." "You know, it seems like every couple of years, we get a whole flood of you guys." "What do you mean?" "Well, I seen the gold dredge in the back of your plane." "You know, there's a lot of old placer claims up on Dease Lake." "Nope." "We're going all the way to Headwaters." "Listen to me." "Stay the hell out of that country." "Why's that?" "A lot of good folks go up there and don't come back." "About three weeks ago, a fella from one of the big mining outfits flew in there..." " What kind of a plane did he have?" " Well, it was a floatplane." "A lot like yours." "He never came out." "Did he say where he was going exactly, or..." "Didn't hardly say nothing." "Just Headwaters." "Same as you." "Elijha, what do you think happened to him?" "I don't think nothing." "That's how I got to be this old." "Your coffee's about as bad as your gas." "Well, I guess maybe I'll see you upriver." "Hey, hey, wait a second." "Hope you folks find what you're looking for." "These mountains keep a secret pretty good." "Hey, thanks." "We owe you." "You owe me nothing." "Have a salmon." "There it is." "How do you know it's the right lake?" "Look, it's the right lake." "Son of a bitch." " What?" "What's wrong?" " He's not here." "There's no plane." "You're not gonna try to land here, are you?" "Piece of cake." "Andrea!" "Jean!" " Are you okay?" " What happened?" " What happened?" "What happened?" " Hang on." "Just hang on." "Tie this off." "Hope you swim better than you can fly." "What did we hit?" "We hit the goddamn water." "If I could have just kept the nose up..." " Listen." " What?" "Shh!" "There." "Hear it?" "Bagpipes?" "I think it was coming from farther up." "Hello, in the cabin?" "Hello?" "Hello?" "Hello?" "Jean." "Who be you?" "Hi." "I'm Jean Dupre, and, uh, we had a little trouble with our airplane so we just..." "What might your name be, lassie?" "Andrea." "Just Andrea?" "Surely, you were brought up better, girl." "I'm Silas McGee, late of Inverness, late of the Rio Marañón, Joburg, Balmoral, The Klondike and presently of the Cassiar, as you can clearly see." "How do you do, Andrea Whatever-Your-Name-Is?" "Spalding." "Andrea Spalding." "That's my name." "Miss Andrea Spalding." "It is my sincere pleasure to make your acquaintance." "Mr. Dupre." "Frog name, that?" "Uh, Norman, actually." "My ancestors..." "Never mind." "A man's not responsible for who his ancestors slept with." "Beg pardon, miss." "I haven't had company in years." "Will you have a cup of coffee?" "What, uh, brings you young people into these godforsaken parts?" "We're looking for a friend." "He was prospecting for a mining outfit a couple of weeks ago." "We flew in here this afternoon, but, uh, we had a little accident on the lake." " You're not hurt, are you?" " No." "No." "Can you take us out of here?" "Good Lord, yes, of course, I can." "I've got to go down to Telegraph Creek in a day or two for supplies." "I'll have room for you in my canoe, if you like." "Yes, thank you." "You know, I've been a bit of a prospector myself, I have." "Do sit down." "Set yourselves down." "I haven't the temperament to clean up after myself as I should." "But as I was saying, I did a bit of prospecting in my time." "All over the world, you see." "But it's here I've been these many years." "How many years have you been up here?" "Nigh on 30, lad." "Doing what?" "Why, mining, miss." "That's what it is, I believe, when a man crawls in a hole before the sun comes up and shinnies down into the slime of the earth and drills and blasts and picks and shovels his way through solid rock in a tunnel hardly big enough to sit up in." "And then hauls out three or four ton in a bucket and climbs back up to the air after the sun goes down having never seen the light of day." "Yes, that is mining, is what it is." "This friend of yours what would he be prospecting for, if I might ask?" " Molybdenum." " Gold." "Gold." "Gold, is it?" "Aye, that's lovely stuff, it is." "There were a gold rush right here, but I suppose you know that already." " What kind of a mine do you have?" " Why, silver, Mr. Dupre, silver." "That's my bread and butter." "I've got an ore vein bringing me 8 or 10 ounces a ton day in, day out." "Of course, there's always the chance of a wee bit of gold chasing the color now and again, you know." "You work alone?" "This friend of yours, you're thinking he'd be up in these mountains?" "Well, he had this map." "A map?" "Ha." "A map, is it?" "Ha-ha-ha." "Everybody's got a map." "I've got 40 or 50 of them right here." "Every one of them says, "Here lays the gold", or "Treasure buried here."" "If there was even the smallest flake of gold left in these hills do you think I'd not be there?" "Sugar, miss?" "Please." "Watch how you're wasting it there." "It comes all the way from Prince Rupert at a dollar a pound." "Just black for me." "What sort of map would that be?" "Your friend's map." "Aeronautical chart." "His name is George Patterson, had a 180 on floats." "We thought you might have seen him." "Might it also be he made a strike and you're looking to take it from him?" " Might that also be the case?" " It isn't." "He just disappeared about a month ago." "It's a big wilderness." "You're an aviator, Master Dupre?" "I saw you make that landing on the water this afternoon." "Not an easy approach between those peaks." "Uh, no, uh..." "Ahem, crosswind." " Crosswind, aye." " Mr. McGee, do you play the bagpipes?" "Do you think every Scotsman plays the pipes, girl?" " Well, we heard this pipe music when we..." " You heard no such thing." "I'll not have that infernal instrument played around here, I can tell you that." "It sounds like the wailing of the dead." "They do not burn proper without a chimney, you know." "Well, uh, we should be getting back, set up camp." "So soon?" " No, we really do have to leave." " Do not leave." "Don't leave." "I was just going up to my diggings." "Why don't you come along?" "See the inside workings of a real silver mine." "I've got to blow out a hanging wall stringer." "Tonight?" "It's nearly 10:00." "Miss, 400 foot down, it makes hardly no matter whether it's night or day or anything in between, now, does it?" "It was, I believe, just after the war." "Me and my partner, we come into the country looking for the great everlasting source of all the gold been washing down these rivers for a million year." "We met an old Indian down in Dease Creek." "He was dying." "We helped him as best we could to ease his passing." "Before he died, he gave us the claim to this here mine." "The old bastard swore the walls were lined with gold just waiting to be scraped off with a shovel." "Hold on to the back of the ladder here, in case the rungs give way." "Do you really wanna go down there?" "Not really." "No." "You know, there hasn't been a claim filed up here in 40 years." "You wanna watch yourself here." "What's down there?" "If you had a long enough rope, perhaps you could tell me." "It was here when we found the mine." "Some of these tunnels are near 50 year old." "Here it was, we came upon a decent vein of silver." "We worked it for a season." "Me and my partner, Ian, was blasting out this chamber what we call a stope, when that hanging wall fell on him." "Took me three days to get to him." "Had to come in through the air shaft there." "You have to dig air shafts?" "Brings fresh air down here, lass, so as we can breathe." "Then why is it blocked off?" " I've been using her for backfill a place to put the useless rock from my diggings." "What happened to your partner?" "He died." "This tunnel is my working drift where I followed that cursed vein near 30 year." "Damn the seepage." "I'll have to pump it out tomorrow." "It's getting so a man can hardly work." "When Ian died, I wandered about the world for many a year but I always knew I'd come back." "You knew you could make a living from the silver?" "Of course not." "It was the gold, the glory hole, waiting at the end of the next tunnel hiding behind the next ton of rock." "Making a living don't enter into it." "A man grows old, you know." "Don't you worry about this hanging wall, I'll have it shored proper in a day or two." "But, Mr. McGee, where exactly is the silver vein?" "Well, you're sitting in it." "Did you think it was all silver and shiny, so as you just dig it out with a pick and melt it down for spoons and things?" "Aye, this is the ore." "Good stuff it is too." "Oh, it takes a steady hand for blasting." "What part of the country are you set on prospecting, Mr. Dupre?" " I said, what part of the country?" " This part." "You cannot fool an old sourdough, lad." "I can see the wanting in your eyes." "I thought I'd start down at the creeks." "Try to follow placer upstream to the lode." "I tried that myself, you know, following placer to the lode." "It don't work." "Why is that?" "It don't work because there ain't no gold." "Hey, wait a second." "That's not a whole hell of a lot of fuse you got there." "Nearly three minutes, lad." "Fuse does not come cheap, you know." "If you cannot get out of a tunnel in three minutes you have no business being in there at all." "We're not staying here?" "No, it's the safest place." "It's well shored." "Damn." "That was a bad beam when I put it in." "Let's get topside." "I can muck this out tomorrow." "It's not safe where you're sitting there, Mr. Dupre." "I think you crashed in the wrong lake." "Listen, McGee lied about the bagpipes and I think he lied about George." "I wouldn't trust that old guy any further than I could throw him." "I'll tell you what else, McGee is not digging silver in that mine." "What's he doing then?" "I don't know yet, but we can find out." "We prospect the creek." "If there's anything in that creek, it washed out of the mountain." "The same mountain the mine is dug in." "So, what if there is gold up there?" "Maybe McGee is being secretive." "It's his mine." "What's the difference?" "George is the difference." "Isn't he?" "Jean." "Jean, wake up." "For chrissakes, wake up." "I think I hear something." "Aah!" "Oh, my God." " What happened?" "Are you all right?" " A man." "There was a man." "What man?" "McGee?" "I don't know." "It was dark." " What did he do?" " He scared the hell out of me." " Was it George?" " No." "Jean, I told you, it was dark." "He..." "He was..." "I don't know, something was wrong with him." "Come on." "Let's get back to camp." "Whoever he is, he's gone." "You okay?" "Don't you own anything that works?" "Now, there's enough gas in the tank for about half an hour." "If I stay down longer, you can fill it up with the jerry can." "I got it, Jean." "I'm gonna try to get under that ledge there." "Keep your eye on my air hose." " What if it runs out of gas?" " Don't let it run out of gas." "Idiot." "Jean!" "Oh, no." "Jean!" "Jean!" "What the hell happened?" "I don't know." "It just stopped." "Why did you pull my hose away?" "I had to take my mask off to get back in there." "There's a hell of a cave, goes way back." " What do you mean it just stopped?" " The gas cap got stuck." "So I ran back to get the pliers and it just stopped." "But there was gas in the tank." "The spark wire came off." "I didn't touch it." "I mean, I swear I didn't." "Oh, my God." " Come on." " Wait a second." " What if he catches us in there?" " He won't." "I only need about 15 minutes." "I'm staying here." "If he starts up toward the mine, I can stall him." "Stall him?" "What are you gonna say?" "I'll think of something." "Trust me." "Go." "Mr. McGee?" "McGee?" "McGee?" "Have you ever heard the black silence?" "When you're 400 foot underground and the air's so dark and still you can hold it in your hand?" "It's a hard, hollow land, I'll tell you." "Twenty-nine year I been here." "Twenty-nine winter." "A hard, hollow land for a wee lass like you." "A hard, hollow land!" "It's me, damn it." "Jesus." "What are you doing down here?" "In the cabin." "I heard these voices shouting so I went down to see what was going on and there was this guy sitting there, like some crazy man." " What did he do?" " Nothing." "He just sat there and said something in Gaelic." "What's Gaelic?" "My brother spoke the Gaelic." "He was raised on a wee isle in the Hebrides named Teanga na Dubhaird." "The Tongue of the Black Cape." "My parents died and left him with a family worked a small croft for the laird of the isle." "That is like a feudal lord, is the laird." "I'm not like me brother, so I'm a wee bit tetched, you see." "I'll be with him soon, I expect." "Where is he now?" "Why, with his maker." "Ian's been dead these 15 year." "How'd he die?" "He was killed, lad, in a cave-in." "You said your partner was killed in a cave-in." "So I did." "And so it was." "Alistair Ian McGee was my partner and my brother." "He was killed in a cave-in, as I have told you." "It's a hard, empty land, Mr. Dupre." "Many a man has come to grief, chasing a high-grade vein." "How goes your prospecting?" "Oh, a little color down the creek a ways." "We found color in all these streams." "Yeah." "Well, you never know, though." "No." "There's always one place you have not looked." "I'll be taking the canoe tomorrow afternoon." "You see that you're ready to leave." "What the hell are you doing up here, McGee?" "What are you doing, Master Dupre?" "Where were you when I blasted out 1600 foot of tunnel stope and shaft and carried the rock out by hand?" "I've been here 30 year." "Let's go, Jean." "Master Dupre." "You stay the hell out of my mine, laddie." " I'm absolutely certain..." " Jean, I think..." "I'm sorry." "Let's leave." "Right now." "It would take us two weeks to walk out of here." " So what?" " Look, there is gold in the creek." "There's probably gold in the mine." "McGee's had 30 years to find it." "Just let me pan out the samples." "If there's anything at all in that ore, it'll show up." "God, what a cold bastard you are." "Do you really give a damn about George or me or anything besides that lousy gold?" "What did you find?" "It's what I didn't find." "Which is?" "Silver." "There isn't any silver in McGee's silver ore." "And no goddamn gold." " What's he mining then?" " Gold." "Only not in that drift tunnel he showed us." "What about George?" "Come here." "What about George?" "What is it brings you to call upon a tired old miner, Miss Andrea Spalding?" "There's an airplane at the bottom of the lake." "It was George Patterson's plane." "I don't suppose you'd know anything about that, would you, Mr...?" "Will you have a cup of coffee, lass?" "I'd offer you whiskey but I fear I used up the last of it a month ago." " I have to go down to Telegraph Creek." " Hey!" "I already told you, I know nothing about that." "I can't keep account of every airplane that goes down in these hills." " Why, you yourself..." " That plane didn't crash." "It was sunk." "Deliberately." "That's me and Ian there." "Aye." "Fishing on the isle." "Many a year ago, that was." "In the auld lang syne." " Jean's down in your mine." " I know he is, lass." " And he thinks that you're a..." " And I know what he thinks." "I'm sorry for him." "This country is no place for a bonny lassie like you." "Take the man you got and get home with you." "While you still can." "Jean, for God's sake." "I just talked to McGee." "What?" "He had a picture of his brother." "And they looked almost exactly alike." "I couldn't even tell them apart." "It's down here, Andrea." "I'm gonna find it." " Jean, he knows we're down here." " How does he know that?" "I told him." "You really have no idea what's at stake here, do you?" "Do you?" "Jean, please." "Can't we just..." "What?" "What is it?" " He's not working." " What?" "He's not working this part of the mine." "It's a dummy hole." " He was working the other tunnel..." " No, he wasn't." "Christ!" " This whole thing, it's a show." " But maybe..." "Okay." "Look." "I've gotta be sure." "Take some samples from the floor." "I'll be right back." "No!" "You tell me where you're going." "Please." "Jean?" "Jean, I found something here." "Andrea, stay there." "What's wrong?" "Jean?" "McGee." "No!" "Andrea." "Andrea." "McGee." "McGee!" "Morning." "Something the matter with your plane?" "Where's Andrea?" " Dead." " What?" "She's dead, Elijha." " McGee?" " Dead." "You kill him?" "Yes." "He kill Andrea?" "Yes." "Getting cold in the mornings already." "You notice that?" " You knew about McGee." " It's my business to know." " Why didn't you tell me?" " Would it have made any difference?" "Probably not." "You want that gold awful bad, don't you?" "It's all I got left." "You know what I think about that gold, Jean?" "I think there isn't any." "There's always one place you haven't looked." "I'll be back this way in a day or two." "I'll take you down to Telegraph Creek." "If you can stay alive." "Balls." "Jesus!" "Mud." "Nothing but mud." "You're not hurt are you, lad?" "Now, you listen to what I have to tell you." "It weren't me." " Go to hell." " It was Ian." "You said he was dead." "So he is." "So he is." "He's dead." "All right, lad." "Only it was you that killed him." "Do not trouble yourself." "He was a murderous bastard." "Ian believed in the mother lode, you see." "The old Indian who first dug out this mine my brother killed him for it just on the chance of the gold being there." "And then no more than a fortnight or two ago that geologist chap that you were asking about." " Patterson." " Patterson, aye." "He came snooping around here just like you." "I told him to clear out." "He would not listen to me." "Ian dropped a hanging wall on him." "Threw the body down the shaft." "Ian dug that, you know, 400 foot through solid rock." "He knew the gold was there, you see." "He knew." "When we were getting close, we sunk this shaft and put the cabin on top of it to keep the snipers away." "Oh, that is what you are, Mr. Dupre." "Sniper." " What gold?" " The mother lode." "The glory hole, lad." "The very source of all the gold been washing down these streams for 10,000 year." "Ian killed Patterson for it." "And he killed your lovely Andrea for it." "Damn his soul." "He would have killed you too if you had not done him in." "I tried." "I tried to warn you." "I told you to stay out of the mine." "Could not very well tell you my baby brother was a murderer." "Now, could I?" "McGee, there's no gold." " Of course, there is." " Where?" " In the mine, for the love of God." " I was down there." "It's nothing but country rock." "There's nothing there." "There is!" "Do you think it's just out in the open so you only have to scrape it off the walls?" "You're infernal ignorant if you believe that." "No." "It's there, all right." "Only you can't see it." "Not yet." "Just another few foot of rock to blast away and you'll see it right enough." "Now, take a last good nip of that whiskey." "We got work to do." "Aye, that's the catch." "The tunnel's filling up." "Seepage from the creek." "I don't know how much longer I can stay ahead of it." "Perhaps a month, and then it floods." "I'll give you half, lad." "Half." "I killed your brother for chrissake." " Doesn't that mean anything to you?" " You only put him out of his misery, lad." "We'll say no more about this nasty business." "What about Andrea?" "My God." "Are you daft?" "It's the mother lode." "Do you hear?" "The richest gold mine in the world." "Are you daft?" "Look, there's more gold down there than you've ever dreamt of." "And in less than a month, won't nobody be able to get at it because it'll be drowned." "I could work it alone, but what with pumping and mucking and what all I'd be lucky to pull out a third of what the two of us could, working together." "It's common sense." "What makes you think I'm not gonna walk out of here right now?" "I suppose you could." "But I do not think you will." "I found this in my diggings." "Your lassie must have dropped it." "Give it to me." "When you went into that mine when you climbed down 400 foot of shaft with hot sweat running down your back not knowing whether you'd get out of it or no were you thinking about that girl?" "Or were you thinking about the gold?" "It's the mother lode." "The mother lode!" "I thought..." "I thought you were McGee." "He got down the air shaft." "He pulled me out before the blast." "He told me to hide in the woods." "I was sure you'd been killed." "What do you mean?" "Who got you out?" "Ian." "He saved my life." "Oh, dear God." "What?" "What's wrong?" "Pack your gear." "Just your sleeping bag and some warm clothes." " We're getting out of here." " Now?" "Like this?" "Damn right." "If McGee finds out you're alive, he'll kill us both." "No." "We can't just leave." "What about Ian?" "I killed him." " God." " I thought he was McGee." "He came up behind me in the cabin." "It was dark." "And what about the gold?" "There isn't any." "Have you seen the, uh, compass?" "Andrea?" "Andrea." "Andrea!" "McGee!" "McGee." "McGee!" "Aye?" "Let her go." "I couldn't do that." "Let her go and we'll leave." "I swear it." "We'll clear out." "We can walk out, all right?" "I have no doubt you could." "And then tell every sniper in the north country you found the mother lode." "Just let her come with me." "I swear I won't tell a soul!" "A dead man don't tell nothing, Master Dupre." "Twenty-nine year I worked in this hole." "Twenty-nine year for the mother lode, Master Dupre." "And not you, not your lassie not anyone else is going to take it from me." "Do you hear?" "I've got more gold in my mouth than you got in this mine, McGee!" "Let her go!" "Killed the wrong man, have you, laddie?" "Lassie you shouldn't have done that." "It was the gold, lass." "The mother lode." "Twenty-nine year, I broke my back for it with Ian hanging on to me like a leech." "Aye." "Ian fancied you, he did." "May the good Lord have mercy on your soul." "Move!" "Empty is it, lad?" "That's too bad." "Oh, for Chrissake." "Morning." "Morning." " Glad to see you alive, young lady." " Yeah." "Me too." "Where'd you come from this time, old man?" "Just downriver." "Where you headed for?" "Downriver." "Hop in." " I'll give you a ride on down to Wrangle." " Thanks." "I'd appreciate that." "Say you find anything back there worth all that trouble?" "Yes." "Yes, I did." "I think this belongs to you, old man." "A lot heavier than I thought it would be."