As they moved on, Caleb had guided them without faltering, always able to find the tracks even when they had seemingly vanished, and always there had been the hoofprints, sometimes in other places the overly large footprints, and occasionally the animal paws they had seen earlier.

Just under a half hour away from the train tracks, the men and woman arrived at a stream. Following the water, they came to a spot where they found a lathered horse drinking noisily from that stream. The rear of a buckboard was visible just a few feet away inside the mouth of the mine shaft. The moonlight didn't go much further in than the mouth, but apparently it was enough for the law man to confirm where they were.

"That buckboard in there belongs to Doc Hodges," he said. "Not that horse, though, not that I know. It musta been one taken from the train."
This message was last updated by the player at 17:11, Wed 03 Oct 2012.

Daniel nodded at Marshal Phelps confirmation. "Looks like we foun' th' place. Lez go see wha' might be inside." He looked around at the others, most notably Coraline who was bright enough to bring a lantern with.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:01, Fri 05 Oct 2012.

Morgan kept his hand on his Colt, carefully studying the scene for any signs of movement, or anything out of the ordinary.

Keeping his voice low, he asked, "This Hodges fella. He keep company up here ever, or is he pretty much a loner?"

Coraline held her lantern to shed some light on their surroundings, moving to the mouth of the mine to see how far the light reached.  "We've come this far.  Might as well go a bit further.  Anyone have a canary?"  Holding her fan in one hand and the lantern in the other, she started through the maw of the mine without waiting to see if anyone else was following, too curious for her own good.

"Wait!" Gabby says, alarmed, and runs after Coraline. "Don't even joke about that, ma'am. Mine fumes ain't no laughin' matter!"

"What are you scared of?  Exploding?" She gave the old man a look that said she clearly wasn't.  Either she'd die or she wouldn't.  There was no worrying about it, either way.

"Do you know why miners done bring canaries down in coal mines, Miss Hawthorne?" Gabby says, giving her a glare. "It's because mine gasses are subtle. If your lantern turns blue, you won't have time to regret it before you've killed not only yourself but everyone else with you. But that ain't the worst o' it. You ain't ever seem someone get the lung. They don't die right away, Miss Hawthorne. Some mines have a gas in 'em that don't just kill you...it turns off your ability to breathe regular. You die gasping, like you're been choked...only you're still dyin' even after they take you out of the mine. You die slow. I seen it back in California, after the Maze broke open. It ain't a pretty way to die, Miss Hawthorne. The canary's there to git sick afore the other miners do, so they relaize there's a danger and can git out."

He gives her a haunted look. "Don't joke about that sort o' thing. You ain't ever been through it. You don't want to be."

"Since you obviously have, why don't you go first and keep the rest of us safe," Coraline suggested, secretly amused at Gabby's tirade.  She wasn't going to argue with him, but she thought that the true danger wouldn't come from bad air or a build up in gas.  It'd come from a giant monstrosity that had been stitched together by some mad scientist.  She glanced back to Daniel.  "Has anyone seen that scrambling hand anywhere?  I thought it was going to lead us some place."

Keeping pace with the group, Morgan said, "Gabby, we'd honestly benefit from your expertise here. You, better than anyone, will know the dangers of this place. I've never done a day of mining in my life. I'll keep right alongside you, but Miss Coraline's right, it might be best if you took the lead."

Daniel kept a stern look on his face as Gabby explained all the details of mine gas. It's not like they were planning to be under the rock overlong. However, Gabby certainly had the most experience with this stuff, so Daniel nodded at the Marshal's suggestion, "Mebbe show us how it's done, Uncle? You know all 'bout th' underground dangers."