Red West II.

Chapter seven - Significant information

"This is Leadville," the hunter's finger pointed at the big mark in the west from Denver.

"It's located in a quite high altitude..." Kame noted, observing the worn-out, but very detailed map of Colorado spread across the flat stone near the fire, which light allowed them to see it, as it was already after dark.

"Correct," Harvey nodded. "It was founded at the first convenient place closest to the mines."

"How long will it take us to get there?" the younger one wondered.

"From here, we should be there tomorrow evening; we made quite a progress today," the older man replied.

"You talked about the mines; where are those?" Kame kept studying the map, to become familiar with the area.

"Here, further in the north," the hunter indicated the small dots. "As far as I know, three of them are currently opened. A few miles further, there're several closed ones as well."

"So the workers have to cope with quite a long way down the mountains with the excavated material, right?"

"That's right," the man confirmed, eying the younger one.

"Why don't we expect any ambush on this road then?" Kame asked, pointing at the thin line.

"The raw silver would have been useless for the gang; I doubt there're many mints which would accept it for forging without a special permission," Harvey explained.

"Tabor has this permission then?"

"Exactly. As I said; he owns the mines. Any silver-greedy thieves need to wait until the metal is recreated into coins and other stuff, before they can make their move."

"I see..." Kame nodded, pondering if there was any proper reason for the Riders to go after so much money, or if they really were just greedy.

"The whole process ends with the money deliveries to Denver or Leadville, or other cities, and the Riders are focused on getting their hands on those," the hunter finished his explanation speech.

"You seem to be informed a way better than I would expect," the younger one stated slowly.

"I have my resources," Harvey reacted evasively, folding the map up.

"Meaning there's even more information leaks than Tabor probably knows himself, right?" Kame assumed quickly, noticing a glimpse of unsatisfied expression at the hunter's face.

"You might say that... Anyway, since Tabor has his interests in both Denver and Leadville and also the significant inputs in both cities' banks, the cash deliveries are under his thumb as well. And there will be a huge super-secret delivery to the Bank of Leadville soon. Not much silver in general, but money from its sale. I don't know when exactly it's supposed to happen though... This information is really sensitive."

"How are we going to find it out then? Do you intend to force the local banker to tell you?" Kame raised his eyebrows skeptically.

Harvey blinked surprised: "Exactly... You're not stupid, kid."

Kame ignored the mocking tone of the older man's voice, added some wood to the fire and shifted the pan with their dinner closer.

"The gang of Riders might have the same idea," he noted then.

"I didn't really think about that..." Harvey murmured, grabbing the flask with water. "I assume they know about that delivery, but they would not have risked putting too much pressure on the banker; he might have warned Tabor in advance then."