The dog was aware of his approach and began barking furiously and when Tommy was about a hundred feet from the house the door was suddenly opened and a man became framed in the yellow light from within.
“Hello,” he called. “Who is it?”
“A stranger,” Tommy replied. “I seem to be lost.”
“You sure are, mister,” was the reply. “Ain’t nobody ever comes up here.”
Assured by that remark, Tommy quickened his footsteps. The dog rushed toward him, but was called back by his master. Tommy moved into the area of light from the house and saw that the man in the doorway was a thin, elderly man, wearing flannel trousers, white shirt and carpet slippers. A handkerchief scarf was about his neck.
“Missed the road, eh?” the man said.
“Some time ago, I guess. I’ve been walking for hours.”
“Well, come on in and rest a spell, then I’ll put you on the road.” The man in the doorway cocked his head to one side. “Haven’t been hunting, have you?”
Tommy shook his head. The man stepped aside and Tommy entered the house. Inside, he shot a quick glance around. There seemed to be only one room to the place, for a bed was in one corner, a gasoline stove in another and beside it a refrigerator. A clean, bare table stood in the middle of the room and at one side of the room was another on which reposed what seemed to be an exceedingly large radio set. Food was cooking on the gasoline stove.
The old man followed Tommy into the room and closed the door, locking the dog outside.
“Sit down, pardner,” he said. “I imagine you’re hungry.”
“I’m starving.”
“You won’t be long, ’cause that stew’s been ready for the last ten minutes. I just didn’t feel like eating before. By the way, my name’s Coggeshall. I’m the caretaker here.”
“Caretaker?”
“Yes. This is the Four Square Gold Mine, you know.”
Tommy blinked. “I didn’t see any mine.”
The caretaker chuckled. “ ’Course not. It’s a hole in the ground — a shaft running into the side of the mountain. But if it were daylight you’d see the powerhouse and the other buildings, off to the right. The mine hasn’t been in operation since ’42, you know.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Government shut down all gold mines during the war and the Four Square hasn’t reopened yet.”
“Not worth while, eh?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. There’s a million and a half come out of this mine. But it takes money to dig out gold and I guess the Four Square stockholders haven’t kicked through with enough assessment money to start operations again. Meanwhile, I’m looking after things.”
“You’re here all alone?”
“And how! You’re the first person’s been up here in five months!”
Coggeshall bustled off to the stove, examined his stew and shut off the flame under it. He got dishes from a cupboard and set the table. Tommy, meanwhile, seated himself on a straight-backed chair and watched the caretaker.
Finally the food was on the table and Coggeshall brought up a stool. “Shall we eat?” he asked.
Tommy threw his briefcase onto Coggeshall’s bed and pulled up his chair. Coggeshall handed him the bowl of stew. “Help yourself. I’m not hungry myself. Don’t move around enough to work up an appetite. Bet you haven’t eaten all day.”
“I haven’t,” said Tommy and helped himself to a generous portion of the stew.
He ate it while Coggeshall toyed with one-fourth the amount and then urged Tommy to eat what was left in the bowl. When they were finished eating, the caretaker filled a pipe and pushed back his chair.
“Seven-thirty,” he said. “Time for my chess game.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t play the game.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean with you.” Coggeshall pointed his pipestem at the radio. “I play with a sheepherder up in Montana, every Saturday night... that’s a short wave radio.”
“An amateur sending and receiving set?”
Coggeshall nodded. “A rather good one, too. I built it myself, when I first came up here in ’42. Don’t know what I’d have done without it.” He tapped his chest. “The old ticker’s bad, you know. That’s why I’ve taken this job up here. No work, no excitement.” He smiled. “Only the radio — and that’s excitement enough.”
Tommy stared at the radio set. “Do you listen to commercial broadcasts with that set?”
“Oh, yes. As a matter of fact, I had the seven o’clock news on when Beowulf started barking at you.” He puffed rapidly on his pipe for a moment, then took it from his mouth. “You’re Tommy Dancer I imagine.”
“Who?” Tommy asked, shocked.
“Tommy Dancer. There was quite a lot about you on the radio. Your description... the briefcase. You’ve got the money in there, I suppose.”
Tommy took Kraft’s revolver from his pocket. Coggeshall looked at it and shook his head. “You won’t need that — not here. I’ve got six months to live, perhaps a year, if I don’t have any excitement. My wants are all supplied and a thousand dollars reward money doesn’t interest me. Nor, for that matter, does what you have in that briefcase.”
“Yet you listened pretty carefully to what they said on the radio about — about me.”
