Involved: Day 12

Word Count: 72,201

Summary of Events:

Oliver came to court again and got Charlotte upset when he told her that they had things to discuss before they got married, but refused to tell her what they were, other than that they were important to him. No longer responsible for keeping an eye on Kelly at all hours because of Kelly's incarceration, Samuel was dedicating his time to finding a way to get at Mr. Allison without the sheriff nearby when Mr. Annesley called him into the General Store to talk . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“I know all my customers well, as one ought to in a town of this size,” Mr. Annesley said. “And I know what a lot of them usually purchase. Last week I had a couple women come in and ask for only half of what they usually did because they couldn’t afford any more than that. I refused because it’s food, they need it to survive, and so I started this credit ledger. In it I’ve recorded every single time I’ve given someone something without being paid for it since last week. I would merely have absorbed the loss normally, but many of the customers have insisted that they’ll pay me back as soon as they have money, so I’m keeping a record so that they can do so.”

Mr. Annesley flipped through several pages filled with writing.

“In hardly more than a week I’ve filled nearly a dozen pages with hundreds of dollars in foodstuffs,” Mr. Annesley continued. “These people have no money, and no means to get any.”

“And I’m supposed to care because . . . ?” Samuel asked.

“The men of these households work for Kelly,” Mr. Annesley replied. “With Kelly not operating his business, at first because of bereavement and now because of incarceration, the men of these households have no work, no income, and they’ve run out of money.”

“I’m still not entirely following,” Samuel said.

“This is a mining town,” Mr. Annesley replied. “At least three quarters of the men in this town work in one silver mine or another, and no less than half of those men, or three eighths of the whole population of this town, work for Kelly. Because he’s not operating his company they have no income, and they have nowhere else to find work because there’s nothing else available. And even if they did, they’d ruin Kelly then because he’d have no workers when his company is able to resume operations.”

“And so this is my responsibility because I’m his brother-in-law and, as it happens, geographically nearest to him,” Samuel asked flatly.

“To put it simply, yes,” Mr. Annesley replied.

“But I know nothing about mining other than that it kills people,” Samuel replied. “I can’t help them.”
“I’ve been thinking about it during my slower parts of the day, such as now,” Mr. Annesley replied. “And I think I’ve come up with an idea of what we can do.”

“It’s a good idea already,” Samuel said.

“Why?” Mr. Annesley asked, looking surprised.

“It’s ‘we’, not just me,” Samuel replied.

“Oh,” Mr. Annesley said. “Well anyways, my idea is that we go to Kelly’s mine office and see if we can’t get the company going again. I’d help because I know how to run a business, which I don’t get the impression you’ve ever done before, and you would occupy the office and keep track of things there and then the men would be able to work.”