Chapter 17
Klaus was in a chatty mood, which was problematic.
Kyle just wanted to get the horses and leave, but the stable owner would have none of it.
Given the condition some of his horses had recently returned in after their ride through the side, he was determined to find out what the horses would be doing this time around.
Kyle didn’t want to lie, but he also didn’t want to tell Klaus that his horses might get shot at in the process of saving Alice and the other hostages.
“Klaus, we don’t have time for this,” Michael said in his no-nonsense voice. “Sheriff Butler is waiting on us, and he’s probably not taking too kindly to that fact. Now, can we please get the horses?”
“All right,” Klaus said. “But they’d better come back in better condition than last time.”
“The odds of that are—” Warren began, but Kyle spoke over him.
“Don’t worry, we’ll make sure they’re fine.” He frog-marched Warren aside. “Are you crazy? He would never let us rent horses if he knew,” Kyle scolded his friend.
Warren nodded. “Yes, I understand. I’m sorry. I seem to rely even more on logic and statistics when I start getting nervous.”
Kyle sighed and patted his friend’s shoulder. “It’s okay. But now we need to go and save the woman I’m in love with, so let’s try and do it without getting anyone killed.” He rolled his eyes at Warren’s look. “Yes, I love her, okay? It just … sort of happened.”
“You’ll need me to help,” a voice said.
Turning, Kyle saw Jason standing in the doorway. He looked haggard and drawn. His hair was longer than a man usually wore it, and he needed to shave, but there was a light in his brown eyes.
“Doesn’t Chrissie need you?” Kyle asked.
“She’s fine with the Bensons,” Jason said. “Anyway, I can’t face her without Alice. She’ll never forgive me.”
Kyle knew that reasoning well.
“Joel is my cousin,” Jason continued, “And he’s made it a family matter, using me and my farm like this.”
“Do you know where he’s likely to have gone?” Warren asked.
“Sure,” Jason said with a nod. “He’s most likely headed back to my farm.”
“Why would he do that?” Warren asked.
“He doesn’t know that it’s been compromised,” Jason said with a shrug. “At least he didn’t when he ordered the men to head out of town. He’ll know it now, though, and we’ll have to move quickly.”
“Why would they go back there?” Warren asked, still not grasping the idea.
Kyle could understand Warren’s reluctance to accept this. After all, it made no sense. Leaving a burned hideout behind was what criminals did, unless there was a compelling reason to go back there. And what was a compelling reason to thieves?
“They left the loot from the other robberies there,” Kyle said with a smile as he put the pieces together at last. “That’s it, isn’t it?”
Jason nodded. “They’ve been using my farm for ages for that.
At first I didn’t know what Joel was involved in.
He said he was in logistics, getting goods together to transport out west on the train.
I let him use one of my sheds. We might have left it at that, but then one day, one of the boxes split open after it got wet, and all these coins came tumbling out.
” He sighed. “Joel darn near broke my nose when I asked him about it, and that’s when they moved in and my home became my prison. ”
“Do you know how to get us onto your property so that Joel and his men don’t know about us?” Kyle asked.
Jason nodded. “Yes, but we’re going to need the sheriff and his men too. They’re waiting outside.”
It took Klaus’s grooms a couple of minutes to get four horses saddled and ready, and in that time, Kyle, Michael, Warren, and Jason had another meeting with Sheriff Butler.
“I’m sorry that we couldn’t stop those murderous fiends from coming into my town in the first place,” Sheriff Butler muttered. “But now we will rain down some mighty vengeance on them!”
It struck Kyle as mighty words a tad too late.
If the sheriff hadn’t bickered and disagreed and let pride and disdain rule him, none of this would ever have happened.
Nothing that happened in Cherryville or at Jason and Chrissie’s farm would have likely happened either.
It was the two sheriffs’ beef with each other and their towns that had opened the way to allowing the bandits to just stroll in and take over.
But this really wasn’t the time to rub the sheriff’s nose in his business, so he let it slide.
“Yes, sir, and you can, but you’ll have to do it the way we’ve worked out,” Jason replied. He had a page torn out of a notebook, and he showed it to them. “I made this a while back when they first came and took over my farm.”
“Okay,” Sheriff Butler said. “And what am I looking at?”
“The layout of my farm,” Jason said. “I’ve marked all the places where Joel always has men posted.
I’ve also made marks where the men on patrol do their rounds.
I should imagine that he’s loading up carts, but there’s only so much that can be done.
He’s greedy, and he’ll want all the loot packed up.
So that means the majority of men will be here and here. That leaves all of this open.”
Kyle looked at the map and nodded. It made sense, based on what he had seen at the farm the last time he’d been there.
“So, if we have one team,” Michael said, pointing to Jason’s map, “that goes in here and here, we can bring in another team around the back. What’s this?” he asked, pointing at a spot marked with a large X.
“That’s the cellar,” Jason said. “Chrissie and I have been living in it for the last two months. I’m guessing that’s where they’re holding Alice and the other bank hostages.”
Kyle made up his mind then and there that Alice wasn’t going to be spending anywhere near two months in the cellar. She wasn’t going to spend two days there if he had anything to say about it.
God, please help me get her home by tonight, he prayed.
Sheriff Butler had some concerns, but Jason was able to deal with them.
And just like that, the plan was decided, and they finally set off.
It took them about an hour to reach the farm and get themselves into positions to see what was going on. Jason knew his cousin well. He had predicted what Joel would do right down to where the men were stationed on lookout.
Then it was Sheriff Butler’s turn. He split them into three groups.
One would come into the farm through the sugarcane fields.
One would come along the drive. Since they would be the most exposed of the lot, they would wait for the first team to create a diversion before riding in swiftly, shooting.
And then there was the final team. That was Jason, Kyle, Warren, and Michael.
They would be coming in around the back of the barn, sneaking through to the house and into the cellar through the outside door.
Of course, it was locked, but that should be easy enough to deal with.
They would have to get the hostages onto the horses and then ride off. Jason wanted to stay and deal with Joel, but Sheriff Butler said he couldn’t condone murder, even if it was justified.
And so, they waited for the sun to get low on the horizon. It would make it difficult for the bandits to see the first men coming when they came from the west through the sugarcane.
Kyle and the others hid in some bushes near the fence that encircled the property, waiting for their moment to enter.
Theirs was by far the most dangerous of the jobs, and they needed the others to draw the bandits out of the house and the barn.
Of course, that was where most of them were, packing carts with bags of loot.
They had had a good run, these scoundrels, from the look of things.
“It’s about time,” Michael said, consulting his pocket watch. “They should be heading into the yard now.”
Kyle nodded. His heart was in his throat, and he prayed that they were right about Alice being in the cellar. Not that he wanted her in that undoubtedly cold, damp space, but at least if she was in there, she’d be out of danger from any stray bullets.
“There’s the signal,” Jason said. It was a flash of light reflected off a piece of mirror. The charge was about to begin.
Team one was nothing but a rustling movement in the long green sugarcane stalks. They rippled and waved, and then suddenly, Sheriff Butler and his men emerged into the yard. They were close to the bandits who were packing the carts with loot.
Gunshots were fired, and the air filled with the smell of cordite and smoke. Then group two came charging in, adding thundering hooves to the mix.
“Let’s go,” Jason ordered.
Crouching low, he led them down a path to the back of the barn. It was a waste ground of old tins, boots, feed sacks, and other detritus. The bandits had been far from cleanly. They crunched and tripped over the uneven ground until they came to the side of the barn.
Bullets were flying in all directions. Kyle saw a bandit’s chest erupt with a puff of red mist and then he fell over.
One of Sheriff Butler’s volunteers was shot in the neck and died quickly.
Kyle whispered a prayer for the man’s soul as Jason led them around a shed and through the vegetable patch to the side of the house.
There was a set of storm doors locked in place with a bolt and a padlock.
“You wouldn’t happen to have the key?” Michael asked hopefully.
“On a hook in the house,” Jason said. “But I don’t know if all the bandits are outside.”
“Good point,” Michael conceded. “Kyle, help me get this open.”
Kyle moved to help. He tried hitting the thing with the butt of his gun. It didn’t do any good. The padlock was a sturdy, stout thing that looked built to withstand a serious assault.
“I think hitting it isn’t the way,” Warren said. “And we can’t shoot it, or we’ll potentially draw attention to ourselves. Let me see.” He wandered off across the yard.
“Is he crazy?” Jason asked as a bullet thudded into the side of the house just above Warren’s head.