Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
In daylight and in darkness, in snow and in ice, with a clear trail or without, Caleb pushed on toward his valley. And now, after two brutal days, his ranch lay just ahead.
The journey had nearly killed him. Coming across the mountain—climbing the jagged peaks and picking his way through the deep snows in the dark valleys—he sometimes felt his mind wandering and had to make himself stay alert.
He was exhausted, hungry, half-frozen. Every muscle in his body felt like it had been stomped by an angry buffalo.
By sheer force of will, he kept going.
More than once, he’d nearly turned Pirate loose and lain down in the snow to sleep. The temptation had been there. But every time it came, another thought followed.
A supper table at Doc Burnett's house. Henry’s laughter. Paddy asking questions faster than anyone could answer them. A glimpse of golden hair bent over a book.
Home.
He had one now.
His place lay between here and Elkhorn. The sky was steel gray and it looked like more snow was about to barrel down from the peaks to the west. He’d been riding through the gathering gloom of late afternoon, but he wasn’t stopping until he reached his cabin.
Once Caleb got there, Henry would take care of Pirate while he tried to extract himself from his torn and bloody clothes.
Then, a warm meal and a couple of hours of sleep. That was all he needed.
Then he’d be ready to get on with his business in town.
He still had miles to go, but the end was almost in sight. Pirate recognized home, as well, and Caleb felt the energy flow back into the noble animal.
Halfway up the valley, a blast of wind brought with it the expected snow, and Caleb fought to keep his spirits from flagging.
The flakes were heavy and wet and stuck to him and to Pirate’s mane.
He yanked down his hat to protect his face and eyes, and pulled up his bearskin coat to hide his neck from the wet, stinging cold.
“Come on, boy,” he urged his mount. “There’s a warm stall and extra oats ahead for you. And you’ve earned it all.”
Night had taken the snow-covered landscape tight in its grip by the time he saw the wide, dark shape of the cattle huddled together by the rise.
Caleb smelled the trouble before he saw it. The acrid scent of smoke, pushed down and spread wide by the weight of the falling snow and the wind.
He peered ahead and saw the sky brightening and then lighting up. Flames poured out of the open ends of the burning barn.
“No!”
Caleb dug his heels into Pirate’s side and pushed the mount faster up the rise.
His stomach dropped.
As he reached the top, he saw them. He counted four men with torches.
Yellow and orange flames completely engulfed the roof and upper walls of the barn. The roar was almost deafening, and popping explosions sent sparks fifty feet in the air. Henry’s cabin was on fire as well, the open door and windows spewing fire like the gates of hell.
As he raced toward the buildings, Caleb saw the pair of horses and the mule in the corral silhouetted by the flames from the cabin. The animals were running helter-skelter, panicked by the sights and the smells, and Caleb cast a quick look at the barn, knowing Henry’s horse had to be in there.
The torch-wielding villains had already heard him coming hard and three of them weren’t waiting around to see who it was. They were sprinting toward their mounts at the edge of the darkness, shooting over their shoulders as they ran.
Caleb turned Pirate toward the burning buildings, and the buckskin bravely obeyed. Reining in by the barn, he leaped from the saddle and shooed his mount away from the inferno.
Drawing his Colt, Caleb spun and opened fire on the men. One of them was still on Caleb’s porch. The villain hesitated and then turned and kicked in the door. He drew back his arm to throw the flaming torch inside.
The bullet from Caleb’s Colt should have killed him, but some evil angel was looking after the rogue. The slug struck the torch in his hand, splintering the wood and knocking it into the snow. Not about to press his luck, the cur left it and bolted for his horse, a bay pinto.
Seated on horses that were wheeling and rearing, the others gave up shooting in Caleb’s direction, and a moment later they were all racing away into the darkness and the falling snow.
“Henry!” Caleb shouted into the night. “Where are you, Henry?”
Hearing no response, he buried his mouth and nose in his sleeve and ran into the flaming barn. Henry valued his horse more than his own life. This would have been the first place he’d go if he saw the barn ablaze.
It took only seconds to see that Henry was not here. The stalls were empty. He went out as quickly as he went in. Racing by the corral toward his friend’s cabin, he yanked open the gate, and the frightened animals galloped out into the night.
A moment later, Caleb was at the cabin door, the heat scorching his face.
“Henry, you in there?”
There was no answer except for the roar of the fire and the sounds of charred wood cracking and falling inside.
Caleb took a deep breath and pushed in against the furnace-like waves of heat.
Flames leaped at him like darting snakes.
His face and eyes felt like they were about to catch fire, and the sleeve of his coat caught as sparks dropped into the fur.
His friend wasn’t in there, alive or dead, and Caleb ran out, plunging his arm into the snow.
“Bear,” Caleb called out, searching for his dog.
There was no sign of him. Out on the white meadows, the cattle were moving down the valley, away from the fire, and the horses had disappeared in the darkness.
He hoped his dog had been smart enough to sense the danger and go into the forest or get out ahead of the herd.
Caleb moved away from the cabins and the barn toward the edge of the rise.
He searched for any sign of his partner or his dog.
Every drift and shadow filled him with worry that the snow covered the corpse of one or the other.
Eventually he circled back to the cabins, puzzled by the absence of both of them.
He looked out through the darkness, suddenly feeling every bruise and every aching muscle. His head was about to explode, and the smell of burnt wood was overwhelming his senses.
Henry’s horse was missing. With any luck, his partner was sitting safely at the Belle. If he’d been here, Caleb had a good idea Henry would be dead right now.
A rafter burst and a piece of Henry’s roof sailed off into the air and fell against Caleb’s cabin. The embers of the wood flared in the breeze, threatening to set the wall on fire. He went to it and kicked it clear, where it hissed as he covered it with snow.
Walking around to the front of his cabin, he picked up the torch the attacker had intended to use. Going inside, he saw it appeared that nothing had been disturbed since he left. He went back out and pushed the head of the torch into a drift.
Caleb gazed into the dark where the four men had gone. The blackguards had come, intending to burn everything, wanting to destroy all the progress he and Henry had made.
Not just lumber and nails. Not just a barn and a cabin. They had tried to burn down his future.
He had no doubt they would have driven off what was left of the herd if he hadn’t arrived when he did. Again, he hoped Henry was all right.
First, the longhorns coming from Texas were stolen. Now, his property put to the torch. He had no doubt it was all connected.
His father was behind it, determined to destroy him. Destroy everything around him. Everything he’d finally found worth keeping.
An explosive crash behind Caleb caused him to spin around in time to see the flames above the barn reach the heavens. The roof had collapsed, and a few moments later, the walls collapsed inward with another rush of spark and smoke and flame.
“On my mother’s soul, you’ll pay for this,” Caleb swore. “By God, I’ll make you pay.”