Mother Lode Page #2

You owe me nothing.

Have a salmon.

There it is.

How do you know it's the right lake?

Look, it's the right lake.

Son of a b*tch.

- What? What's wrong?

- He's not here.

There's no plane.

You're not gonna try to land here, are you?

Piece of cake.

Andrea!

Jean!

- Are you okay?

- What happened?

- What happened? What happened?

- Hang on. Just hang on.

Tie this off.

Hope you swim better

than you can fly.

What did we hit?

We hit the goddamn water.

If I could have just kept the nose up...

- Listen.

- What?

Shh!

There. Hear it?

Bagpipes?

I think it was coming from farther up.

Hello, in the cabin?

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

Jean.

Who be you?

Hi.

I'm Jean Dupre, and, uh, we had a little

trouble with our airplane so we just...

What might your name be, lassie?

Andrea.

Just Andrea?

Surely,

you were brought up better, girl.

I'm Silas McGee, late of Inverness,

late of the Rio Maran...

...Joburg, Balmoral, The Klondike...

...and presently of the Cassiar,

as you can clearly see.

How do you do,

Andrea Whatever-Your-Name-Is?

Spalding. Andrea Spalding.

That's my name.

McGEE:

Miss Andrea Spalding.

It is my sincere pleasure

to make your acquaintance.

Mr. Dupre.

Frog name, that?

- Uh, Norman, actually. My ancestors...

McGEE:
Never mind.

A man's not responsible

for who his ancestors slept with.

Beg pardon, miss.

I haven't had company in years.

Will you have a cup of coffee?

What, uh, brings you young people

into these godforsaken parts?

We're looking for a friend.

He was prospecting for a mining outfit

a couple of weeks ago.

We flew in here this afternoon,

but, uh, we had a little accident on the lake.

- You're not hurt, are you?

- No. No.

Can you take us out of here?

Good Lord, yes, of course, I can.

I've got to go down to Telegraph Creek

in a day or two for supplies.

I'll have room for you in my canoe,

if you like.

Yes, thank you.

You know, I've been a bit

of a prospector myself, I have.

Do sit down. Set yourselves down.

I haven't the temperament

to clean up after myself as I should.

But as I was saying,

I did a bit of prospecting in my time.

All over the world, you see.

But it's here I've been these many years.

How many years have you been up here?

Nigh on 30, lad.

Doing what?

Why, mining, miss.

That's what it is, I believe,

when a man crawls...

...in a hole before the sun comes up and

shinnies down into the slime of the earth...

...and drills and blasts and picks

and shovels his way through solid rock...

...in a tunnel hardly big enough

to sit up in.

And then hauls out three or four ton

in a bucket...

...and climbs back up to the air

after the sun goes down...

...having never seen the light of day.

Yes, that is mining, is what it is.

This friend of yours...

...what would he be prospecting for,

if I might ask?

- Molybdenum.

- Gold.

Gold.

Gold, is it?

Aye, that's lovely stuff, it is.

There were a gold rush right here,

but I suppose you know that already.

- What kind of a mine do you have?

- Why, silver, Mr. Dupre, silver.

That's my bread and butter.

I've got an ore vein...

...bringing me 8 or 10 ounces a ton

day in, day out.

Of course, there's always the chance

of a wee bit of gold...

...chasing the color

now and again, you know.

You work alone?

This friend of yours, you're thinking

he'd be up in these mountains?

Well, he had this map.

McGEE:

A map? Ha.

A map, is it?

Ha-ha-ha. Everybody's got a map.

I've got 40 or 50 of them right here.

Every one of them says, "Here lays

the gold," or, "Treasure buried here. "

If there was even the smallest flake

of gold left in these hills...

...do you think I'd not be there?

Sugar, miss?

Please.

Watch how you're wasting it there.

It comes all the way from Prince Rupert

at a dollar a pound.

Just black for me.

What sort of map would that be?

Your friend's map.

Aeronautical chart. His name

is George Patterson, had a 180 on floats.

We thought you might have seen him.

Might it also be he made a strike

and you're looking to take it from him?

- Might that also be the case?

- It isn't.

He just disappeared about a month ago.

It's a big wilderness.

You're an aviator, Master Dupre?

I saw you make that landing

on the water this afternoon.

Not an easy approach

between those peaks.

Uh, no, uh...

Ahem, crosswind.

- Crosswind, aye.

- Mr. McGee, do you play the bagpipes?

Do you think every Scotsman

plays the pipes, girl?

- Well, we heard this pipe music when we...

- You heard no such thing.

I'll not have that infernal instrument

played around here, I can tell you that.

It sounds like the wailing of the dead.

They do not burn proper

without a chimney, you know.

Well, uh, we should be getting back,

set up camp.

So soon?

- No, we really do have to leave.

- Do not leave.

Don't leave.

I was just going up to my diggings.

Why don't you come along?

See the inside workings

of a real silver mine.

I've got to blow out

a hanging wall stringer.

Tonight?

It's nearly 10:
00.

Miss, 400 foot down,

it makes hardly no matter...

...whether it's night or day

or anything in between, now, does it?

McGEE:

It was, I believe, just after the war.

Me and my partner,

we come into the country...

...looking for the great everlasting source

of all the gold...

...been washing down these rivers

for a million year.

We met an old Indian down in Dease Creek.

He was dying.

We helped him as best we could

to ease his passing.

Before he died, he gave us the claim

to this here mine.

The old bastard swore the walls

were lined with gold...

...just waiting to be scraped off

with a shovel.

Hold on to the back of the ladder here,

in case the rungs give way.

Do you really wanna go down there?

Not really. No.

You know, there hasn't been

a claim filed up here in 40 years.

You wanna watch yourself here.

What's down there?

McGEE:
If you had a long enough rope,

perhaps you could tell me.

It was here when we found the mine.

Some of these tunnels

are near 50 year old.

Here it was, we came upon

a decent vein of silver.

We worked it for a season.

Me and my partner, Ian,

was blasting out this chamber...

...what we call a stope,

when that hanging wall fell on him.

Took me three days to get to him.

Had to come in through the air shaft there.

You have to dig air shafts?

Brings fresh air down here, lass,

so as we can breathe.

Then why is it blocked off?

- I've been using her for backfill...

...a place to put the useless rock

from my diggings.

What happened to your partner?

He died.

This tunnel is my working drift...

...where I followed that cursed vein

near 30 year.

Damn the seepage.

I'll have to pump it out tomorrow.

It's getting so a man can hardly work.

When Ian died, I wandered about the world

for many a year...

...but I always knew I'd come back.

You knew you could make a living

from the silver?

Of course not.

It was the gold, the glory hole,

waiting at the end of the next tunnel...

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