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Chapter III - The Prospectors

The next morning, Sheriff Silverstar had found the two attempted robbers and had dug a grave for one and inducted the other into the hospital for his wounds. The robber confessed his crimes of breaking and entering, trespassing, attempted robbery, and attempted assault on two ponies. Given that he confessed to Silverstar, the court found it reasonable that he be placed immediately into the city jail with a fairly high bail due to the severity and number of his crimes. While Sheriff Silverstar thought to talk to Braeburn about the incident, due to the particularly violent manner he had dealt with it, the stallion's story basically put Braeburn's moves on the right side of the law and thus he thought it a waste of time to deal with the stallion.

Applejack and Twilight stayed at Braeburn's house a few more days, partly because of not wanting to go on the train but mostly because Twilight was still wracked by the experience. The day after the robbery Applejack accompanied Twilight to the hospital to make sure she suffered no injuries. Thankfully, the doctor said that she had nothing wrong with her though did recommend for Twilight to take it easy for a few days if only to calm down from the traumatic experience, and Braeburn offered up his home for them to stay in as long as needed before Twilight returned on the train to Ponyville. Soon word of the events had reached the rest of Appleoosa, and it wasn't long afterwards before the town was singing praises of Braeburn's protectiveness, courage, and what a comfort it was knowing that a stallion like him was in town.

The only one in the entire town not pleased was Braeburn himself. The night of the robbery he didn't get any sleep, and when he went to bed the next night he was restless. He commissioned a local artisan to build a stand for the revolver and its case and placed the stand in his room. For all of the night after the robbery, even after Twilight and Applejack had managed to get to bed, Braeburn sat staring at the weapon, thinking. It was strange to him; the thing felt good in his hooves and did help protect the mare he had fallen in love with and retrieve the stolen items. But he had spilt another pony's blood, one that he killed with a single shot and another that he had almost left out in the desert to die. And he had been gotten a sort of thrill from it. It was a horrifying thought to him, and it kept him up for two nights.

On the third night after the robbery, he sat in the kitchen with the revolver, staring at the three bullets left in the cylinder and the three empty chambers that had been fired. He spun the cylinder absentmindedly, feeling the cool of the metal barrel under his hoof. It caused a shiver to go up and down his spine, and it terrified him to think of that night.

Braeburn heard a set of footsteps and found Twilight standing at the door of the kitchen. "Twilight!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing up so late?"

"I just wanted a drink of water," Twilight yawned, "though I think I could ask you the same question." The purple mare levitated out a glass, filled it with some drinking water, and went over to the table to sit down next to Braeburn, who had gone back to looking at the revolver. "You're still thinking about the other night, aren't you?"

Braeburn nodded. "I'm not sure which I'm scared of more: the fact that two ponies nearly got away with robbing my house and attacking you or the fact that I nearly killed both of them without hesitation."

Twilight sipped her water and brought a hoof over to Braeburn, who set the revolver back in the case but didn't close it. "You may have reacted in a way strange to you, but you did it in the right circumstance, didn't you? You used it to save my life and recover the lost items."

"Twilight," Braeburn said, voice trembling. "I shot one of them straight through the head. I shot the other one's hooves in such a way that he would have had to crawl back to Appleoosa to get treatment if Sheriff Silverstar hadn't gone and found him. And the weird thing was it just felt so easy to do."

Twilight set down her water and scooted her chair over closer to Braeburn. "Listen to me, Braeburn: just because you attacked those ponies in self-defense doesn't mean you're a killer. You are still a strong, amazing, kindly pony. Think about it: if you really killed them in cold blood, would you be feeling the guilt you're feeling right now?"

Braeburn hadn't thought about it that way before. He had just been wrapped up in the strange and uncomfortable feelings surrounding killing the pony that he failed to recognize it was his own guilt. "I... I suppose you're right."

Twilight smiled.

"But... why then? Why didn't it come out some other time? I've had robbers trying to steal crops before, so why didn't I have any problems with that sort of instinct before then?"

Twilight thought about it. "Well, according to the book The Psychology of Revenge I have at the library, perhaps you wanted to get them back for threatening you. Maybe you feel you've been pushed around long enough. Maybe you feel that you had something to protect."

"I did," Braeburn said. He looked over at Twilight and into her violet eyes and felt his heart skip a beat. "I do."

Twilight blushed and looked away. "Well, me and Applejack are going to be heading back home in a few days to let you be free for the harvest season coming up. We'll be back to visit at some point or invite you on down to Ponyville."

Braeburn gave Twilight a sad smile, noticing his voice had stopped trembling. "It'll be lonely without you around."

Twilight nodded. "Don't talk like it'll be 'goodbye'. I'll come around and see you again sometime. And besides, we still have a whole day left before our train comes through. We can still spend some time together before I have to go."

Braeburn turned his smile into a cheeky grin. "You want another dancing lesson?"

Twilight giggled and leaned closer to Braeburn. "Which sort of dancing: our hooves or our tongues? Because I certainly liked learning that one."

Braeburn's eyebrows raised, and he felt his own cheeks get red hot when he saw Twilight motioning with a hoof for him to come to the bedroom. Relieved to have at least gotten past the worst of the night's memories, he followed Twilight into his bedroom and caressed her mane gently as Twilight pulled him towards her, causing them to fall on his bed.

In the bedroom across the hall, Braeburn could hear Applejack groaning.

Two days later, just before the harvest season started, Applejack and Twilight left to go back to Ponyville, saying their goodbyes and promising to return some time later once the harvest season had ended back in Ponyville and in Appleoosa. Braeburn walked them and their belongings to the train station and waited with them until the train from Dodge Junction arrived. Braeburn and Twilight kissed each other, and Braeburn hugged his cousin Applejack, before the two got on the train, and they waved to him from the train car as they left. Braeburn stayed on the station waiting until they had gone far away to the point where the dust and the sun had obscured them from sight before heading back home and resting. He didn't leave his house again that day, not even to go to the dance hall like he usually did.

* * *

The next day, Braeburn was up bright and early before the sun, eating a short breakfast before getting himself ready to go out into the orchards with a straw in his mouth. His twenty hired hooves arrived shortly after the sun started peeking order and Braeburn started making sure that every single stallion that had signed up was ready to work. A few others had arrived along with the twenty.

"Word in town is that you need some extra help this year," one of the newer stallions said. "We came over to see if you needed any help."

Braeburn sized them up. There were only three of them, which wasn't too bad and he could still get away with a profit with paying them. They were on the bigger side and kind of bulky, too, which meant they could work hard and long. "What are your names?"

One with a dark brown coat and black mane with a dagger covered in barbs for a cutie mark stepped up; he looked the youngest of the bunch and spoke with a rough baritone. "The name's Cold Steel, but you can just call me Steel. My friends here are Silversmith and Coal Dust. We've all come from Dodge Junction; we couldn't find work there anymore on account of some of the town being torn up for a mine, so we moved out here this past summer. It's been odd jobs ever since."

Braeburn nodded, sizing up the stallion standing a head taller than himself. "Doesn't sound like the right names for a bunch of applebuckers."

"They said in town you were the most reliable one to find work."

"It's been nearly a year since I went to Dodge Junction, but I heard about that mine. Never thought it would make it where anyone had to move."

"We neither," Steel replied. "Now, it doesn't matter what we do, so long as we can feed our families."

Braeburn nodded. "You pull your weight, you make sure that you help bring in the apples before the season's out, and I'll make sure you get paid and will give you a good word when the season's over and you're looking for a proper job."

Steel finally broke into a smile. "Much obliged."

Braeburn nodded. "Alright, everypony!" he shouted. "Get yourself to the barn and start pulling out the barrels! Remember: three around each tree in a triangle shape so most of the apples fall in there. Water's available in the keg by the barn, but I expect to be done with this and applebuckin' by two. Slack off and I'll deduct from your pay; work hard and I might let you get a little more of the share. Let's get to work!"

The twenty-three ponies all shouted in unison "Yes, sir!" before they all headed to the barn, each grabbing a barrel and starting to place the barrels in threes around each tree. Empty, each could be carried by one pony and the barrels were quickly transported from the barn and across the acres of trees stretching all the way down the river until the grass turned to sand and couldn't support anything else. Braeburn worked alongside the ponies, carrying barrels out himself though still shouting at ponies who appeared to be slacking.

Braeburn met his scheduled time and the ponies began applebucking. Instead of all the ponies participating in the job, four ponies - including Braeburn - were applebucking the trees, filling the barrels until hardly an apple could fit inside them. Four others took these filled barrels and started loading them into two wooden carts, where two of the larger ponies would carry them back to the barn at the top of the ridge overlooking the orchard. At the barn, four more ponies unloaded the carts, while the rest of the workers started sifting through the apples and seeing which were good enough to sell and which had to be thrown out due to imperfections, then separated by cultivar and packaged before having them taken down to a large, cold cellar underneath the barn where they were stored to keep them fresh. As many as one hundred fifty barrels a day passed through Braeburn's barn starting on the second day, but today only fifteen trees were bucked before Braeburn called it day's end and finished with the work with the sun still in the sky. As the ponies were leaving, he approached Cold Steel and his two friends.

"You did good today," Braeburn said. "I'll be pleased to have someone like you on the team after that performance."

"Thank you, sir," Steel answered. "It's good to be back doing honest work."

Braeburn patted him on the back with a hoof. "At the end of the season, all three of you will be getting a big fat check. Might even be able to end the season early and get a little extra with the extra help."

"Again, thank you, sir," Steel answered.

"Please, call me Braeburn," Braeburn said with a slight smile on his face. "I'd rather you not be so formal. After all, I'm working out there in the field with you."

"My family taught me to treat my employer with respect and to be gracious for the work given," Steel said. "I'd prefer if I call you 'sir', but so long as you're fine with it, then Braeburn it is. Also, if you need a helping hand with anything else, feel free to call me up. You giving me this work and offering to help finding a job afterwards... it's more than I ever expected, especially after what happened in Dodge Junction."

"If you keep working for me like you are," Braeburn said, "I have no problems helping a newcomer like you out. Same goes for your friends. It's tough out here in Appleoosa, and we have to stick together like brothers if we ever intend to survive out here."

Steel stuck out a hoof towards Braeburn. "Thank you, brother," he said with a smile.

Braeburn accepted the gesture and shook the stallion's hoof. He was beginning to like this colt and hoped he could see him around more often.

* * *

A few weeks later, nearly three-quarters of the orchard was bucked and half the apples were brought into storage. Braeburn drove his workers harder every day, and soon they were ahead of the other orchards in Appleoosa, and with the apples in storage sooner, Braeburn knew they would stay fresher for longer, which meant higher profits when it came to selling the apples, and a bit of extra pay for his coworkers. As a result, none of them minded when Braeburn drove them harder to get it finished early. Worked continued on even through the weekends, as any time the apples were left on the tree was time for the apples to rot according to Braeburn.

Cold Steel and his companions continued to work under Braeburn throughout the harvest season. It might not have been their preferred field as per their cutie marks, but they were grateful for the work and worked as hard as they could. Steel himself worked alongside Braeburn bucking, while Silversmith helped unload buckets and Coal Dust was attached to a cart. For his hard work, Braeburn went to the office and helped Steel and his companions with finding jobs, getting all of them work for when the harvest season finally ended.

One day at the end of work, Braeburn was talking with Cold Steel by the water tower getting drinks when two earth ponies came up to them that Braeburn had never seen before. The first one was yellow-coated with a brown mane and had a gold pickaxe cutie mark. The second was brown-coated with a yellow mane and had three lumps of gold for his cutie mark. They approached Braeburn each of them wearing small hats that shaded their entire faces and faded the color of their greenish-gold eyes.

"Are you the proprietor of this farm?" the yellow-coated one asked.

Braeburn looked at Steel, who shrugged. "I am," Braeburn said, turning back to the ponies. "If you're looking for work, the harvest season's nearly over and I've got all the hands I need."

"Oh, we're not looking for work," the yellow-coated one said, pointing to himself and his companion in turn. "My names Lucky Strike, and this here is Gold Digger. We're prospectors searching for gold. You see, we've detected traces of gold in the river outside your property and the only place we haven't checked is the part of the river that is on your land."

"So, we've planned a little proposition," Gold Digger continued from where his partner left off. "We'll pan the river for gold for a few weeks and see if we find anything. Once we have gotten our fill, we'll sell the gold, give you ten percent of what we find, then leave and that'll be the rest you'll see of us."

The offer sounded enticing, but... "Give me a day to think about it. Come back tomorrow at this time and I'll have an answer for you then."

"Are you sure?" Gold Digger asked.

"It'll be a huge hall if we find even a little gold," Lucky Strike said. "We know the places that'll buy it for the most bits."

"I said give me a day to think about it," Braeburn said, voice raising to the point where the two ponies and Steel flinched. "If you two aren't from around here, I got no idea what your intentions are, and you'd better realize you can't rush things around here without there being some sort of conflict with your actions."

The two Earth ponies didn't even speak. They sort of huddled together under Braeburn's gaze.

"Now," Braeburn said, voice lowering but the fire not leaving, "you get off my farm, head back to town, and come back at the proposed time and I might have an answer for you. Get up. Go!"

Gold Digger and Lucky Strike nodded. "We'll be staying in town at the local watering hole if you have your answer for us early." Then they galloped off back to town without another word.

Steel watched them leave alongside Braeburn. "I don't like the sound of those two," he said.

Braeburn looked over to Steel and noticed a look of worry and unease that he hadn't seen in him before. "I've been meaning to ask you about what happened to Dodge Junction ever since you mentioned being unable to find work. Seeing your reaction to them, it sounds like a similar situation happened there. Please, tell me what happened."

Steel sighed. "Me and my friends all worked in Dodge Junction. I worked as a ranger, a sort of law-enforcement officer. Silversmith made jewelry from precious metals, and Coal Dust worked in a small factory. We had things good. We worked, we got paid, we hung out with each other. Now, Dodge Junction's a fair bit bigger than Appleoosa is, but it still is nothing like the bigger cities and kept things simple."

"Then a pony came along saying he found gold in the mountains just outside Dodge Junction," Steel continued. "He bought himself some land outside of Dodge Junction and started mining for a while. Turned out there was a large gold vein there. Prospectors of all sorts gathered there and started mining. Well, word about the size of the vein eventually got around to the heads of government themselves. They came in with the army, booted out some of us living and working there, and took over half the town to build a mining operation."

"Have you wrote a letter to Shining Armor, Captain of the Guard?" Braeburn asked.

"Neither Shining Armor nor his troops were involved in this. Shining Armor's a good pony and visited Dodge Junction once. He was a lot kinder than these were. Hung around and had a drink with us like a normal pony. But these... these ones were under a different insignia. Sort of looked like an eight-point compass rose, not the stars and shield of Shining Armor."

"Couldn't you have protested?"

"We tried. A bunch of us did. But these ones started going off of 'martial law', saying that the amount of prospectors had made the town unruly. I told them it was a load of horse apples and that if there were any problems, we rangers would have had it covered." Steel looked over to Braeburn. "We didn't."

Braeburn was silent for a moment, and Steel sniffed particularly loud as though holding back his emotions.

"When did you leave?"

"Soon after. I found Coal Dust and Silversmith in the same position as I was, and we packed our things and left. Got on the first train we could find heading out here. None of us were willing to head to a big city, but we knew the harvest season was rolling around here in Appleoosa, so we came here."

Braeburn looked at Steel, then back in the direction of town as though Lucky Strike and Gold Digger would be coming up the road any minute looking for an answer. "What do you think I should do?"

Steel inhaled deeply. "Don't let my story affect you. Perhaps things will turn out different here. But when they find their gold, don't let them stay. Have them get their gold and get out. If any others hear about it, you'll be bringing the same trouble down on you. I wouldn't blame you for it, whatever happens. It wasn't the fault of the pony who lent them their land. It was when the military came in that there was trouble."

Braeburn nodded. "I suppose in the worst case scenario, I could simply state that there was a trespassing violation and have them all arrested."

Steel nodded assent, but didn't respond.

"I want you to do something for me," Braeburn said.

Steel looked at Braeburn with interest.

"You said you were a ranger," Braeburn said. "What did that entail?"

"It was like your sheriff and your police force," Steel replied, "only on a much wider terrain. Sometimes we would set off and patrol the hills and desert around Dodge Junction in addition to being on patrol in the town."

Braeburn nodded. "I'm thinking of taking him them up on the offer. What I'll do, though, is go to town and get you a knife, one with a longer blade. What I'll have them do is report to me along with the others working the harvests. You'll go out there with them with the knife out of sight and keep an eye on them. Check in with me around midday, tell me how they're doing, then head back. If they have any problems, you draw that knife and bring them back to me, preferably without a scratch on them. You do this and I'll give you a little extra pay when the harvest is over."

"What about the applebucking?" Steel replied.

"I can take one of the stonger ones from packing duty and get him applebucking. I have no idea how long they'll want to be there, but I figure I can give them a timeline of two weeks and they'll have enough gold and they'll scoot."

Steel sighed. "It'll be risky, but if that's what you want, then I'll go ahead with it. I just hope what happened in Dodge Junction doesn't happen again."

* * *

The next day at about the same time, when Braeburn and his workers had finished with their work and had loaded all the equipment back in the barn, Braeburn met with Cold Steel and they walked around to the front of the barn to wait for the two prospector ponies. While they were waiting, Braeburn gave Steel a bag with a dagger - with a blade as long as Steel's foreleg from knee to hoof - and told him to place it around his neck so that the prospector's didn't suspect anything right away.

A few minutes afterwards, Lucky Strike and Gold Digger came trotting down the road towards the barn. Once again they had on their hats that shaded them, but this time they had pans and sifters and pickaxes. Braeburn noticed a hungry look in their eyes, particularly in Strike's, as they approached them, almost running when they came close by.

"Well, Mister Braeburn?" Lucky Strike said as they drew close. "What's the verdict? Can we poke the river on your property for gold?"

Braeburn looked over to Steel, who nodded. "Gentlemen, I've come to a conclusion. You may look for gold in the river on my property, but there are a few conditions."

"We don't care!" Gold Digger said. "Just tell us what they are!"

"Then sit down and calm yourselves," Braeburn said, "because the first condition is you have the same hours as my men when we're all at work. If you're out there either before I am or until long after I am, I will immediately call Sherriff Silverstar and report you for arrest for trespassing."

The stallion's heads drooped and they sat down, though they kept their ears perked.

"Second condition is you don't start messing with my orchard for any reason. I don't care if you're hungry, you don't touch one of the apple trees or pick any of them. These are my crops on my land, and they're my livelihood around here; I sell them to the townsfolk here in Appleoosa and elsewhere, so if you want one, you just got to wait until they get sold at the markets and stores."

Braeburn motioned to Steel standing next to him as he continued. "Thirdly, my friend Steel here will be watching you. He'll be with you from the time we get started working and make sure to bring you in when we're done, as well as reporting to me periodically throughout the day. So long as you don't go crazy, you can harvest the river for gold for the next two weeks."

"Two weeks!?" Gold Digger exclaimed.

"That ain't hardly any time at all!" Lucky Strike said.

"It is if you don't have to pay me anything," Braeburn said, unwavering in his speech. "Also, need I remind you this isn't free land? I bought it with my bits, I have the deed for it from the desk of Princess Celestia herself, I established my home and orchard on it, and that means whatever I say goes. You have a problem with it, you go find somewhere else to dig up your gold. I'm certain that if you were to ask any other pony here, they wouldn't be as charitable."

The two prospector ponies looked at each other.

"Those are my conditions. Take them or leave them, that's your choice."

Lucky Strike pulled Gold Digger a short ways away and they started talking animated to each other for a while. Braeburn watched the animated gestures, but couldn't hear what they were saying. After a minute, they walked back up to Braeburn and Steel.

"We'll take it." Gold Digger replied.

"Good," Braeburn said. "Now get going and come back tomorrow morning if you want to start with your search."

"Are you sure we can't scout the river today?" Lucky Strike asked.

Braeburn didn't say anything. He just glared at the two.

"Just one pan?" Gold Digger asked.

"If you don't leave my property, the deal's off."

Lucky Strike and Gold Digger nodded and galloped away back to town as though Braeburn and his gaze were behind them every step of the way. Braeburn waited until they were long out of sight before he turned to Steel.

"Tomorrow morning," Braeburn told him, "come and report to me at the barn. When we're all heading out to the orchard to buck, you go ahead and go straight for the river. Make sure they don't try any funny business."

"Will do," Steel said. "Also, if you're feeling any guilt, I think you did the right thing and treated them the right way. Dust always told me those types get greedy if you let them search for too long. Either they go mad from finding it and want to get more, or they go mad from not finding it and start tearing things up."

"I just hope two weeks isn't too long," Braeburn said.

Braeburn walked alongside Steel as they made their way to the farmhouse and the road back to town.

"Why didn't you accept it?" Steel asked.

"I don't trust them," Braeburn replied.

"Yet enough to sift for gold on your property?"

"That's why you're going to be there. To make sure I can trust them."

"That doesn't fully explain why you didn't accept the offer they made you yesterday."

"I don't need any gold," Braeburn said. He motioned to the property: the orchards, the large barn with storage, and the farmhouse. "I've lived well enough off selling the products of my orchard. And with the size this year, I'm expecting to make more than ever, even with you and your friends working for me. I have enough to keep me happy without gold fever," Braeburn said in a lower voice than usual. He raised his head almost enough to look Steel in the eye. "And I wager you'd like to keep it that way."

Steel nodded. "You have a point."

The following morning, Lucky Strike and Gold Digger came up with all the other workers on Braeburn's orchard. After Braeburn had gotten everyone else started heading towards their stations, he made sure Steel had his dagger and sent him off with the prospectors to the river. Braeburn took one of the stallions from packing duty that he thought was strong and assigned him to help buck and work resumed as usual.

The schedule was a bit different, but Braeburn didn't mind. Neither did any of the other stallions. Every morning the work duty was assigned with the slight change made to the lineup of who would be bucking trees. Every afternoon Steel would come over to Braeburn in the orchards and give him a report of where they were on the river and if they had found anything. Every evening Steel would escort the prospectors back to the barn where Braeburn would watch as they left his property. It went this way for a week without anything eventful; Strike found a few slivers of gold but nothing noteworthy and Steel never had to resort to force for anything.

At the start of the second week, Braeburn and the rest of the workers had reached the back of the orchard. When Steel came in for his afternoon report, he called over to Braeburn and pulled him aside.

"They hit a big one this morning," Steel said. "Found a small lump at one point towards this back edge. They started sifting through the river and found a lot more where that came from."

"Have they gone crazy yet?" Braeburn asked.

"I don't think so. I've been keeping an eye on them. They seem pretty reasonable so far, but depending on how much they turn in, I'd say have them pull out early. Get them enough to be satisfied then kick them out before they turn up the whole river looking for more."

Braeburn nodded. "I'll think about it. if they've had a big haul a few days before the end date, I'll tell them they probably got all the gold there was in the river and send them on their way. Keep me posted if they hit anything else."

Steel nodded and went back to his post at the river.

But by the end of the day, the lump and a few pans full from into the early afternoon was all that was found in the river. The next day didn't show anything, and the next didn't have any gold show up either. Three days after the find, still nothing more had shown up at any time that Steel reported back to Braeburn. As a result, Braeburn decided to let the prospectors go until the end of the two week time, surprised that there was gold on the land but convinced they weren't going to find anymore.

A day before the end date, however, another lump was found towards the far end of the river on the side with the orchard. Even more gold was found in pans, and by the end of the day Lucky Strike and Gold Digger had found double the amount than they had the entire rest of the time. Braeburn was surprised about the find, and Strike gave him a small lump of gold just out of generosity and surprise they had found that much on the orchard, and agreed to leave peacefully and not bother Braeburn again once the last day had ended.

On the last day of applebucking and the prospectors' stay, Braeburn was working in the orchards when Steel came up to him earlier than the noonday report. He quickly pulled aside Braeburn and spoke with him in hushed whispers so that the others couldn't hear.

"One of them pulled out a pickaxe and intended to use it on the grounds," Steel replied. "I didn't use the knife, but I did restrain him and pulled him back and told him that I was going to get you and inform him of it."

Braeburn nodded. "Lead the way."

The two ponies galloped to the part of the river where the prospectors were. Braeburn went over to them, cowering next to the river with all their equipment. Braeburn walked up to them. "Steel here said you were going to use a pickaxe on my land. Explain."

"W-well we were searching for gold," Gold Digger started.

"Then Digger here said 'I bet you with the load we found yesterday there's got to be a bunch underneath the ground'," Lucky Strike said. "I figured he was on the right track but knew Steel was watching us."

"So he held back for a little while, but every once in a while I could see him reaching for his pickaxe and I had to constantly remind him. There was one time where he pulled it out and refused to put it away, so I took it from him."

Gold Digger puffed out his chest proudly, but when Lucky Strike started speaking again he immediately shrank back. "But then, I was sitting here panning the river when I turned around and saw him using the dang thing on the rocks. It was then that your buddy here came over and lifted Digger with a hoof and pulled him far enough off the ground that the pickaxe couldn't reach."

"That's true, sir," Steel replied, turning towards Braeburn. "I lifted him up off the ground and held him there until he let go of the pickaxe. I don't think he's got any damage, but if he did that's my fault. But you said they weren't to touch your property, so I was holding him to it."

Braeburn turned to Gold Digger. "You got any wounds?"

"No sir."

Braeburn nodded. "I want you to get your things. Pack up, and leave. I don't care if the day isn't over yet!" Braeburn shouted at the two as they started to protest. "You violated the conditions we set on our first day! I told you that you could pan the river so long as you didn't start messing with my orchard. You just about went and took a pickaxe to it!"

"But it's the last day..." Gold Digger protested.

"Please, give us another chance," Lucky Strike begged.

"Why are you asking for another chance? You had a huge run of luck yesterday, I think you've got all the gold you need. Here..." Braeburn reached inside the pocket of his vest and pulled out the lump of gold and threw it at them, hitting Gold Digger on the forehead. "...take back your gold. Pack your things and leave before I call Sherriff Silverstar on you for trespassing. And if you dare fight it, I have a witness."

The two prospectors looked at Steel, who flared his nostrils and snorted. The two prospectors packed their saddlebags with their equipment and the gold they found and fled through the orchards, back up the ridge, and down the road towards Appleoosa.

"Don't think they're gone forever," Steel said when they had left. "They've found the gold and want more. If they want it, they'll come back when they think you aren't looking."

Braeburn nodded.

At the end of the day, Braeburn paid his workers and gave Steel a little extra for doing guard duty over the prospectors. Steel and his companions came up to each shake Braeburn's hoof. "Thank you again for everything," Steel said. "If you need anything else, come around and find us. We'll help out with whatever you have." His companions nodded assent, then they left.

Braeburn was really going to miss that colt.