High Country Rescue

by Michael Skinner

  “The moon will be up in a couple hours, and we can get started again.”

  “We are pushing these horses hard, how much farther is it?”

  “We will rest the horses about daylight, then cut southwest across open rangeland. I hope that will get us close if not there by tomorrow night. After you get things cleaned up and put away get some rest.”

  Mark poured himself another cup of coffee and sat down at the base of a large tree and drank his coffee. Meanwhile, Jack washed the pans and dishes in the stream and put them away. He then went over and laid on the grass with his head and shoulders resting on his saddle. Apparently, he had dropped off because he was awakened by Mark.

  “It’s time to go. Get the horses ready, and we’ll get started.”

  Jack said, “I am ready.”

  Jack picked up the reins for Mark’s horse and headed toward the other horses, they were only a few yards away. He put the reins on Mark’s horse, then removed the hobble.

  He was walking him back over toward the fire when Mark took the reins and said, “I will saddle mine you get the rest ready.”

  Jack got his horse and the packhorse ready, then told Mark, “I am ready,”

  They mounted and headed out to the road and turned west again. They continued through the night and stopped at first light.

  As he dismounted Mark said, “We’ll stop here for thirty minutes. Break out some hardtack and jerky.”

  They just dropped their reins and left the horses saddled. Jack got the food out and handed some to Mark.

  Then he said, “I haven’t spent this much time on a horse in some time.”

  “I haven’t either.”

  They walked around eating their jerky and trying to stretch their muscles out after sitting so long. The thirty minutes passed quickly, and they mounted up and returned to the road.

  After a couple of miles, Mark signaled a stop and said, “We will leave the road here and head southwest. We will bypass Montrose and pick up the road going south out of Montrose.”

  “Lead on,” said Jack.

  They rode southwest crossing small creeks and going around small wooded hills. They stopped several times to give the horses a rest, but did not dismount.

  Then about noon as they crossed a small creek, Mark said, “We’ll stop here. Let the horses go to water if they want and get out some more jerky and hardtack.”

  “Okay.”

  They again stretched and tried to loosen up.

  Jack said, “How much further?”

  “I am not sure. I have been by the Johnson ranch once traveling from

  Montrose to Durango. I am guessing about where we will come out on the Montrose to Durango road, but I won’t know until we come to the road.”

  “How will we know if Will Johnson is still there?”

  “I have thought about that. I am not sure that I have met him, so just watching the ranch will not work. I want you to approach the ranch house and ask to see Mr. Johnson. If you see him, tell him that you are looking to buy some cattle as a starter herd for a small ranch north of Montrose. If he is not there, then ask where he has gone and when he will be back.”

  “What do I say if he is there and wants to sell me some cattle?”

  “Tell him you will think about it and get back with him in a few weeks.”

  “Do you think that story will work?”

  “It doesn’t matter if it works as long as we know where Johnson is.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Let’s get started again.”

  They mounted the horses and continued southwest. It was late afternoon when they came to the road they were looking for. Without a word, Mark turned south on the road and continued.

  After another four or five miles without slowing, Mark said, “The entrance to the ranch is just ahead. We will continue south for a little bit.”

  Less than a half mile south of the entrance Mark turned east toward a small wooded hill.

  They passed around the hill to the east side where Mark stopped and said, “We will camp here in the edge of these woods at the base of this hill. If we need to, we can watch the ranch from the top of the hill. It is too late today for you to go to the ranch, but you can go about 10:00 tomorrow morning.”

  Jack said, “Do you want me to pitch the tent?”

  “No, not tonight, we will just sleep in the open tonight. We will wait on the tent ‘till we know Johnson is at the ranch.”

  “Okay.”

  “Drop the gear here and take the horses with you over to that tree line to the southeast and see if you can find any water.”

  They dismounted, and Jack unloaded the pack horse and then took the pack horse and Mark’s horse by their reins and rode off toward the tree line. Mark walked into the trees and found a fairly flat area. Then, using his foot, he scraped away the pine needles from an area about four feet across for the fire. Mark began to gather firewood and bring it to the camp area.

  Jack returned after about forty minutes, and Mark said, “I guess you found water?”

  “Yes, a small clear creek.”

  “Good unsaddle the horses and hobble them for the night.”

  “What do you want for dinner?”

  “Sleep mostly, but let’s start with some bacon and beans.”

  Jack unsaddled the horses and brought the saddles and gear over to the camp area as Mark got the fire started. Jack used the canteens he had filled at the creek to fill the coffee pot which he sat on the fire. He arranged their saddles, then gathered some pine needles and laid out their bedrolls. Then he started dinner. When everything was ready, he called Mark.

  Mark said, “The food is ready so soon, I must have fallen asleep.”

  “It has been a really long day.”

  “That it has.”

  “What do you want to do with the horses tonight?”

  “With the water that far away, we had best run a string line between those two trees and tie horses to that tonight.”

  “I will do that after I get this cleaned up and put away.”

  “Then goodnight.”

  “Goodnight.”

  Jack cleaned up and put the rope between the two trees for the string line. He had to put the reins back on the horses to be able to tie them to the string line, but he left the hobbles on. He returned to the fire where he moved all the coals, he could over against the largest log lying in the fire in the hope that would give him coals to restart the fire in the morning. He went to his bedroll where he was asleep as soon as his head hit the ground.

  The sun was up and shining in from the east when Jack awoke. He looked over at Mark and saw that he had his blanket pulled over his head. Jack set up stiffly and pulled his boots on, and then he went to the fire and added some kindling to the coals and got the fire restarted. He poured some water in the coffee pot and set it on the fire. When the water was hot, he added the coffee. He poured him a cup and sat back down on his bedroll to finish waking up.

  Then he heard Mark say, “Is that coffee I smell?”

  “Yes, it is, and it is ready when you are.”

  Mark sat up and set the blanket aside and put his boots on.

  He moved slowly toward the fire and said, “I had hoped that I would feel better than I do this morning.”

  “Me too, too much time in the saddle.”

  “I think all I need this morning is coffee and hardtack.”

  “I am alright with that.”

  Jack got the hardtack out and gave a couple of pieces to Mark. Then he added some more coffee to his cup and sat down with his coffee and hardtack. He finished his hardtack and got some more coffee and went to check on the horses. He walked over to the string line and checked them out.

  When he returned, Mark asked him, “Is everything okay?”

  “They are fine, they are tired like us, but their feet look good.”

  “Good, we need them to be able to go when we need them.”

  “I will clean up here a little before I go. I
will head north before I cut west to the road.”

  “Okay, I will wait here until you return.”

  Jack closed up the canvas bag he had gotten the coffee and hardtack out of and folded his bedroll. Then he picked up his saddle and walked over to his horse. He saddled his horse and slowly headed north.

  After about a mile he turned west toward the road. He then turned south on the road and headed toward the entrance to the Johnson ranch. He was a little nervous when he turned west into the ranch. The ranch house sat on a small rise about a quarter of a mile from the road. There was a barn and corral to the south of the house. As Jack approached, he turned toward the corral where a couple of men were working some horses.

  As Jack neared the corral, one of the men looked up and said, “Howdy.”

  Jack said, “Howdy.”

  “Can I help you?”

  “Yes, I was looking for Will Johnson, is this his ranch?”

  “Yes, it is, but he is not here now.”

  “Where is he?”

  “He went to Durango on business, said he would be gone two weeks.”

  “I am sorry I missed him, he doesn’t know me, but someone in Montrose said I might be able to buy some cattle off him.”

  “He will be back in two weeks.”

  “Okay, thank you.”

  Jack turned and rode away, and the ranch hands returned to work. Jack went back to the road and turned north. He only traveled north far enough to get north of the wooded hill then he turned east. He circled around the hill back to camp.

  Mark had heard him coming and was on his feet at the edge of the trees and asked, “What did you find out?”

  “He is not there. Left three days ago, for Durango on business and will be gone two weeks.”

  “That’s not good. Let me think.”

  As Mark turned and walked back to camp, Jack tied his horse to the string line with the other horses and joined Mark at the fire.

  Mark said, “Have you ever been to Durango?”

  “No”

  “I want you to go to Durango and try to find Will Johnson. There are two hotels and a boarding house there. Ask for him at all of them. If you find him use the same story. If he is not staying in any of them, check at the livery and general store and ask if anyone has seen him. There is a telegraph in Durango, wire me in Gunnison and let me know if you have found him or if you have not. If you find him wire me the message ‘I have found the package.’ and you stay in town and watch him, and wire me when he leaves and which way he is headed. I will wire back instructions. If you do not find him, then send the message ‘I cannot find the package.’ Then you head back to Gunnison. Tell nobody where you have been.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I am going back to Gunnison as fast as I can.”

  “Do you want me to take the pack horse?”

  “Yes, I can travel faster without it. I will take my horse and some jerky and leave now. You pack up everything and take it with you. When you finish in Durango just bring it all back with you.”

  “Be careful and hope the deal works out.”

  Mark grabbed some jerky and put it in his saddlebags, rolled up his bedroll and saddled his horse.

  Jack watched him ride off toward the northeast and thought, if he doesn’t slow down the horse won’t make it.

  chapter 12

  The Mine

  Dan slowly awoke, but didn’t move. He tried to think about where he was and what had happened. He had a blanket over him, and it was dark. Slowly, his eyes focused and he saw the dimly lit rock wall. From somewhere in the back of his head, he realized that if he was lying on his back, it wasn’t a wall, he was looking up at a rock ceiling. He then remembered the mine, and with a rush, he remembered the bear and Alice! He wanted to move fast, but all he could do was to slowly roll to his side. He saw Alice kneeling near the fire, and she was adding wood to the fire.

  He called to Alice, in what he thought was a loud voice, but Alice did not turn, so he called louder, “Alice, are you alright?”

  She turned quickly and with relief on her face, she said, “You’re awake! Thank God you are awake! I was so worried,” as she ran to him.

  As she knelt beside him, he said, “Are you alright?”

  “Yes, I am okay, how are you?”

  “I think I am okay, but what happened? The last thing I remember is the bear charging.”

  “The bear is over there.”

  Dan turned his head and saw the bear lying dead toward the entrance to the mine and said again, “What happened?”

  “I didn’t know anything was wrong until I heard the bear. Just as I screamed, you fired the rifle. The bear charged into you, hitting the rifle I guess, and knocked you backwards about five or six feet. You went down hard and hit your head hard on the floor of the mine. I looked at the bear expecting him to come at me, but he just laid there. Then I went to you, but I couldn’t wake you.”

  “How long was I out?”

  “A little more than twenty-four hours.”

  “You mean that it is the end of the next day.”

  “Yes.”

  “I can’t believe I was out so long. And you’re alright?”

  “Yes, I was just really scared that you would die, and I did not know what to do. After I got the pack off you, I dragged you back into the mine and built a fire. I got the canteen and poured some water on your head and face, but that didn’t help. After I settled down, I could tell you were breathing normally, so I guessed that nothing inside was broken or at least not broken too badly. Then this morning I dragged the pack farther into the mine and got the food cache down.”

  “I guess it’s not my time to go yet. About what time is it?”

  “It must be just after sunset because there was just a little daylight left when I looked out of the mine before I started the fire.”

  “Okay, give me a minute.”

  Dan sat up carefully, then he rose to one knee, and slowly stood up holding on to Alice to steady himself. He started to check himself for injuries. He felt the back of his head, and there was a knot there, and his right shoulder was very sore. He touched his shoulder but didn’t feel anything unusual, but needed to know if it worked all right. He moved his arm slowly up and down and then rotated it around at the shoulder. He stretched and tried to see if he could feel anything else that hurt. All the parts and pieces seemed to work, but he was sore all over, and it was really painful to move his right arm up and to the left.

  Worried, Alice said, “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, it seems to be alright, just very sore. Let me walk around a little bit and see how I feel.”

  Dan walked to the mouth of the mine and out into the starlight. Even with the moon not up yet the night was not totally dark with the Milky Way lighting the sky. He carefully took a deep breath and was relieved that it did not hurt. He squatted down and stood back up to check his knees and twisted at the waist to check his back. His knees felt fine, but the right side of his back was sore when he turned. He must have bruised it when he was knocked to the ground by the bear. Then, as he stood there, he started to think about what the loss of a day could mean.

  Meanwhile, Alice returned to the fire and added wood to build it up, so she could cook. She stared into the fire as it grew and started to cry. As she turned away, she cried harder and harder and couldn’t stop. Finally, she stopped just as she heard Dan coming toward her.

  When she didn’t turn to face him, Dan went to her and asked, “Are you all right?”

  Without turning, she said, “I am okay.”

  Dan went over to her and turned her around.

  Looking at her face, he said, “You have been crying, what’s wrong?”

  “I was so scared when you were knocked out, and I thought that I was going to be alone. And then I was so much more than happy that you were going to be alright. I just felt so much I just had to cry. I am sorry, you must think I am a little girl.”

  “No, don’t be so ha
rd on you yourself. All of this has been so much so fast for you, that not even counting the bear this would be hard on anyone.”

  Dan told Alice to sit for a few minutes and rest. As Alice took a seat on the edge of her bedroll on the other side of the fire, Dan poured some water from the canteen into a pan and placed it on the fire to warm.

  He went over and sat beside Alice and said, “When I was planning this rescue at the Colonel's house, he asked me if I remembered the girl, I knocked off the corral fence at the 4th of July celebration four years ago. I had such a brief image of you before you went over the fence that I wasn’t sure I remembered you. But as I planned and traveled into here, I had an image of you as a little girl. But since the morning I saw you hanging up the wash at the ranch house I have thought of you as a woman. No little girl could have handled the emotions you have gone through for the last two years, and the roller coaster that the last few days have been. I am very impressed by how you have handled everything.”

  Alice looked at Dan and said, “Thank you.”

  Dan put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her next to him.

  He held her tightly for a while and then released her and said, “You sit here for a few minutes, and I will get some food ready.”

  Alice protested, but Dan insisted. He went to the pack and removed the bag with the food in it. He got the black tea from the bag and picked up some of the items from the food cache that Alice had brought in. He returned to the fire and added some of the tea to a pan of water and set it on the edge of the fire. In another pan, he poured in a can of beans and a can of beef and placed it on the fire.

  He returned to Alice and asked, “Are you feeling better?”

  “Yes, I am and thank you.”

  “Are you hungry?”

  “I didn’t really think about it until you asked, but I am very hungry. I didn’t eat much while you were out.”

  “I am sorry you had to go through that night and day alone. I know it had to be very hard on you.”

  “Yes, it was. At first, I thought you were dead and then when I realized that you were alive I had to get you separated from your pack before I could drag you into the mine. After I got you into the mine, I checked you out the best I could, but I still wasn’t sure you were not going to die. After a couple of hours, I thought you would be okay, or at least I told myself that.”