Drowned Man's Lode — Robert McCaig

A fortune in gold is underwater -- one man is determined to get it and another is hell-bent to keep it there.Engineer Mike Kendall is hired by a mining company to tunnel into a mountain in Montana to drain a flooded gold mine. But it's an extremely risky job, made even more dangerous by powerful individuals who will do anything stop him for their own, sinister reasons.Mike Kendall is a big man...but in mining circles his brother Morley was a bigger man. It was something like jealousy that drove Mike to Blue Grouse to drain the rich and dangerous Castle Lode. It was a big job-too big for a man if he was afraid or if he made one mistake. Underground water, gas, cave-ins, the unknown quantity at the heart of the mountain-good enough reasons to be afraid of Castle Mountain. But there was another reason. Phil van Zandt, the millionaire owner of the Queen o' Hearts had his own ideas about the job-a job he didn't want finished-and his ideas were accidents and avalanches.A different sort of western, a good adventure yarn. Kirkus Reviews