Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Caleb heard the branches by the trail shake and had his Colt in his hand before the figure of a boy jumped in front of Pirate. He quickly reined in his mount and holstered his revolver, recognizing who it was standing breathlessly in front of him.
Gabe had been up to his knees in mud. Pine needles and last year’s cottonwood leaves clung to his coat and trousers.
Frank Stubbs had warned him that Elijah Starr and his men were heading for his ranch. Caleb had hoped that by the time they got there, the boys would have already finished their chores and gone.
From the look in Gabe’s face, though, Caleb feared the worst. He swung down from his horse and was at the boy’s side in an instant.
“Are you hurt, Gabe?”
The teenager shook his head.
“What happened? Where’s Paddy?”
“He’s at the ranch,” he said, still breathing hard. “So’s Miss Sheila. She came with us today.”
Damn. Caleb cursed himself for not coming earlier. Riding all night if he had to.
“We’ve got some lumber to take out to Miss Imala, but we stopped at your place first. While we were there, this gang arrived. They came in so fast, we didn’t have time to do anything. But Miss Sheila told me to run for the trees before they saw me. She said to go to Elkhorn for help.”
“You done right, Gabe.”
Caleb went to Pirate and pulled his Winchester from the scabbard. He was close enough to the ranch that he’d do better on foot. Less chance of being discovered before he got near enough to figure out a plan. Besides, Gabe and Pirate had another job to do.
“You going after them alone, Mr. Marlowe?”
“How many of them are there?”
“Eight, including a one-eyed man who’s giving orders. I waited around first to make sure they weren’t rough handling Miss Sheila or Paddy.”
Caleb’s father had a penchant for ‘rough handling’, as Gabe called it. Particularly when it came to his treatment of women and children. If Elijah Starr laid a finger on Sheila or Paddy, he’d tear him limb from limb.
“Did he hurt them?”
Gabe’s eyes slid away. “I saw him slap her once when he took her shotgun away.”
Caleb felt the blood begin to roar in his head.
For an instant, all he could see was Sheila standing on the porch, chin lifted, refusing to back down. He could hear her telling him she could take care of herself. He could see the flash in her blue eyes whenever someone told her what she could or could not do.
And he could see Elijah Starr striking her. The image hit him harder than the rattlesnake. Harder than the knife wound.
Fighting his fury, he forced himself to stand and get any other information Gabe had. “What else did you see?”
“They tied her and Paddy up and shoved them inside your cabin.”
“Anything else?”
“The one-eyed man and a few of the others mounted up and rode this way. I was getting ready to run but I was afraid they’d catch me if they were going to town. I didn’t know what to do, so I waited. I was thinking maybe I could bust them out of there.”
Gabe looked back in the direction he’d come.
“What happened after?” Caleb asked. “Did they come back?”
That would improve his chances of getting to Sheila and Paddy.
Gabe nodded. “I heard some shooting from out this way. It was close. Then, just a few minutes later, Judge Patterson and Mr. Fredericks and two other men came in with them. And from the way they were being escorted, it looked like the judge was their prisoner.”
“Fredericks too?”
“No, that was the strangest thing. He looked like he was on the side of the one-eyed man. The two fellas that came with him looked like they were too.”
So Frissy had turned on Patterson. Caleb recalled the shooting in Elkhorn last week.
Pig Face wasn’t as fast as he should have been in trying to protect his employer.
He wondered how many of the other bodyguards who were supposed to be protecting the judge were actually working for the railroad people.
“You heard gunshots?”
“From that way, I think.” He motioned down the trail in the direction of the ranch. “I reckon it was when they ran into the judge.”
Eight men, including his father. Frissy and the two hired bodyguards. Caleb had to take down eleven men to save Sheila and Paddy and the judge.
They’d tried to kill the judge already, and it was possible he was already dead.
The image of Sheila’s face flashed in his mind’s eye. The last time he'd seen her, she'd been standing in front of the cabin with the sun on her hair and that handkerchief pressed into his hand. Come back soon. She'd smiled when she said it. Then she'd kissed him.
Caleb closed his eyes for a fraction of a second.
No.
He wasn't going to picture her tied up in that cabin. He wasn't going to imagine what his father and those railroad cutthroats might do if they decided she was useful to them. And he sure as hell wasn't going to imagine getting there too late.
He opened his eyes and looked toward the ranch.
For years he'd ridden into danger because there was nobody waiting for him if he failed. That wasn't true anymore.
“Gabe, you done real good.” He put a hand on his shoulder. “Now, I need you to take Pirate and ride straight to Elkhorn. Go to your father first, and then go to the sheriff. Tell them everything. Get them out here. If you can’t find the sheriff, get Doc Burnett. He’ll know what to do.”
Gabriel was up in the saddle in an instant and was off in the direction of Elkhorn.
Caleb set out on foot as fast as his injured ankle and leg would take him.
He hadn’t gone far before he came upon two bodies lying in the brush by the trail. They were still warm and the blood on the ground fresh. He didn’t know them, but he had no doubt they’d been the judge’s hired guards. So all of them hadn’t been double-crossers.
When he was getting close to the spot where the forest opened up into the valley, he left the wide trail and cut through the pines until he reached the river.
Finding a shallow enough place to ford, he wrapped his gun belt around his rifle, held them high over his head, and waded in.
The water was cold and the current tried to pull him downstream, but he managed to keep his footing and get across.
On the far bank, he strapped on his twin Colts and started for the cabin.