Chapter One<br >Guston， Colorado<br >Willem hefted his battered valise and stopped to catch his<br >breath. He looked up at the white-shuttered rooming house，<br >perched a good quarter mile away on the steep hillside， and<br >grimaced.<br > "Whoever built this place must ve been part mountain<br >goat." He sucked in a breath before he trudged on. The July<br >sunshine was finally breaking over the dusky blue summit<br >of the snow-capped peaks surrounding Guston. It filtered<br >down in broken shafts through the thick growth of blue<br >spruce and quaking aspen at the outskirts of the mining<br >town. Willem clenched his teeth and inhaled another gulp of<br > "The air at this height lacks body，" he grumbled， and<br >stopped to clear his head. Willem dragged off his cap and<br >looked down at the town. A high mountain breeze ruffled<br >his too-long hair and blew a strand over his eyes. He de-<br >cided to see if there was a cheap barber available in Guston<br >as soon as he was settled.<br >went， with well-laid-out lots and thrivinl<br >watched l~.arried activity of construction a<br >der. Wide banners were being stretched b<br >and the h~.rsh sound of an off-key brass ba<br >steep incline.<br > "What s the damned occasion?" he~<br >Whatever it was， he felt a wave of disappoil<br >him. If Moira was in this area. as the Pin]<br >she would be harder to ferret out with peol:<br >than fleas on a hound. He slapped the cap<br >in irritation and resumed his climb up the gJ<br >last thing he was interested in was being aI<br >people celebrating.<br > He didn t even pause to kick the dirt frol<br >shoes when he reached the boardinghous~<br >door wide and stepped inside. The neat-as-~<br >spotless rugs laid atop gleaming wood flo<br >his tracks. Instantly he backed out to wil<br >from the toes of his shoes on the backs ot<br >but not before the smell of homemade brea，<br >His empty belly roared to life.<br > This was not the usual gold-camp room<br >lem stood in a formal parlor， done in shad<br >blue and cream， while he waited for someol<br >steady thunk of a long pendulum in a ma，，<br >clock ticked off the minutes while he stood<br >toward a shiny desk along the back wall of<br >hand-lettewxl sign proclaimed it to be the R<br >Willem noticed the rows of key hooks atta(<br >seoted wall behind it. Only two of them<br >numbered room keys. The others were va<br >tion Otto s opinion of the boardinghous<br >other miners. A tiny brass bell sat by anoth(<br ><br >