A Colorado Christmas

by William W. Johnstone

  CHAPTER 35

  Ace’s eyes widened as he saw the boulder start to move, but that split second of reaction was all he allowed himself then he was leaping onto the wagon as he called to Chance and Rinehart, “Get out of here! Move!”

  Raised in the West, both Jensen brothers knew about the devastating power of avalanches, and Rinehart realized from the way they were acting that something was terribly wrong. He grabbed his horse and practically vaulted into the saddle like Chance did.

  Ace grabbed the reins and hauled the team of horses around. Rinehart brought his mount up next to the wagon seat and leaned over to slide an arm around Mercy Halliday.

  “Oh!” she cried. “Ed, what are you doing?”

  “Good idea, Rinehart!” Ace said as he slapped the lines against the backs of the team. “Take her out of here!”

  Rinehart lifted the startled young woman off the seat and perched her in front of him on the horse. She started to slip, but Chance was there to reach out and steady her until Rinehart got a better grip on her. Romantic rivalry was totally forgotten for the moment, in the face of the threat.

  “Ed, no!” Mercy said as Rinehart kicked his horse into a run. She reached a hand back toward the wagon, a futile gesture since the mount was already galloping away. “The children—!”

  The orphans were shouting and crying in fear. Most of them didn’t understand what was going on, but they could tell by the way the adults were acting that something was very wrong. They were jolted around as the wagon lurched into motion.

  Smoke’s keen eyes spotted movement where the boulder had been a second earlier. He saw two men up there and knew they had pushed the big rock until it toppled over and started to roll. Snatching the rifle from the floorboard, he brought it smoothly to his shoulder and fired several shots as fast as he could work the Winchester’s lever.

  That was all he had time for. He threw the rifle back on the floorboard, leaped to the seat, and grabbed the reins. He thought the avalanche that was bound to result from the actions of the two men might not reach the wagon, but with the lives of ten children at stake, he couldn’t afford to take that risk. The wagon’s damaged axle would just have to hold together for a while.

  He pulled the team around, yelled at them, and slashed their rumps with the reins. The horses lunged forward in their harness.

  As the wagon bounced roughly over the snow-covered ground, Smoke called to the children, “Hang on, kids!”

  The rumble from the slope grew louder. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that several of the boulders were rolling, knocked off balance by collisions with the first one. They struck the huge drift of snow at the head of the gully, and suddenly the rumble was a roar as tons of snow shifted and slid, picking up more and more of the white stuff.

  Ace heard that ominous, thunder-like sound and looked back to see the avalanche bearing down on them. He whipped the horses, but they could only go so fast in the deep snow.

  The deadly mass of snow and rock raced after the fleeing wagon, which seemed incredibly puny in the face of such onrushing devastation. A cloud of swirling snow had risen from the avalanche and blocked Smoke’s view of the mountain. He couldn’t see the two men on the slope anymore.

  He would deal with them later, he thought grimly. At the moment, his only concern was getting the kids to safety.

  Ahead of the wagon with Ace at the reins, Chance slowed his mount and then wheeled it around, waving Rinehart and Mercy on ahead. “Keep going!” he shouted over the growing racket from the avalanche. “Get Miss Halliday to safety!”

  Chance looked back at his brother at the reins. It seemed like the leading edge of the avalanche was mere feet behind the wagon, but he knew that wasn’t right. He also knew the wagon couldn’t outrun the falling snow and rock.

  He heeled his horse into a gallop again and pounded back the way he had come. Waving his arm, he signaled for Ace to swing the wagon to the left. Ace understood and the wagon suddenly veered in that direction.

  The vehicle bounced crazily from the rough terrain under the snow. It had to hold together. If a wheel came off or an axle broke, everyone on the wagon was doomed.

  Suddenly, the wagon hit a big enough bump that the rear wheels left the ground. Several of the children flew in the air above the wagon bed, screaming in terror. All of them came back down inside the vehicle as Ace struggled to control it . . . except one.

  One of the little boys tumbled out and landed in the snow. That cushioned his fall and quite possibly saved his life, but he was in even more danger from the avalanche.

  Seeing his brother looking around and afraid that Ace would stop the wagon and try to save the little boy, Chance shouted, “I’ve got him!” and sent his horse lunging toward the youngster, who was floundering back to his feet. The snow-covered landscape flashed past Chance as he got every ounce of speed he could out of his horse.

  Not surprisingly, the boy seemed disoriented. He staggered around in circles, fighting the deep snow. Chance was close enough to recognize the boy as the one who never talked, according to what Mercy had told him and Ace. He struggled to recall the lad’s name, then as it came to him he shouted, “Caleb! Over here!”

  Caleb stopped running aimlessly and turned toward him. To the little boy it must have looked like Chance’s horse was about to trample him. But Chance sent the racing mount closely past Caleb as he leaned down from the saddle and hooked an arm around his body. That desperate grab jerked Caleb off his feet and Chance swung the boy up in front of him, wheeled the horse, and galloped after the wagon.

  The leading edge of the avalanche was less than fifty yards behind them, barreling toward them like a runaway freight train.

  Chance looked around, saw that Rinehart and Mercy were well ahead and had in fact caught up with the wagon Smoke was driving. They were going to escape, Chance was sure of it.

  He could have, too, if he had kept going, but he hadn’t been able to abandon Caleb to his fate. Nor was he going to leave Ace. The Jensen boys were going to live or die together as they always had.

  Chance held Caleb tightly against him and hunched his shoulders as small rocks and chunks of snow began to pelt his back. He drove his heels into the horse’s flanks, urging the animal on. The air around them was full of flying snow.

  They broke out of it abruptly. The rampaging engine of destruction that was the avalanche swept past behind them, missing them by a matter of feet. When Chance’s vision cleared, he saw the wagon ahead of them with Ace at the reins, still pushing the team hard to get well clear.

  On the wagon seat, Ace twisted his head to look behind him, and at first his heart sank when he didn’t see Chance.

  Then horse and riders emerged out of the swirling cloud of snow and Ace’s heart took a leap. Chance galloped on, putting more distance between the avalanche and himself and the little boy he had saved.

  Ace kept the wagon moving for another hundred yards before he hauled back on the reins and slowed the team. Chance caught up, drawing alongside the wagon and reining in. They all came to a halt.

  Turning around on the seat, Ace asked, “Is everybody all right back there? Anybody hurt?”

  “We nearly lost the tree!” one of the girls said.

  “We’re all right, I think,” a boy answered Ace’s question. “What about Caleb?”

  Chance moved his horse closer to the wagon. “He’s probably pretty shaken up.”

  Ace stood up on the driver’s box, reached over, and took Caleb from Chance. He set the little boy over the seat into the wagon bed, looked him over, and didn’t see any injuries. Caleb still hadn’t said anything, but his eyes were open wider than usual, as if he were still in a state of shock.

  Hearing a horse coming, Ace turned to look and saw Rinehart riding toward them with Mercy in front of him. There was still a low rumble in the air as snow and rock shifted, but the main body of the avalanche had reached the bottom of the slope and spent its force. The danger appeared to be over.

  Mercy
didn’t wait until Rinehart reached the wagon. She slipped down from the saddle and ran toward them, clambering awkwardly through the snow. It would have been faster for her to stay mounted, but her obvious anxiety made her too impatient.

  “The children!” she gasped as she came up to the wagon. “Are the children all right?”

  “They seem to be,” Ace assured her. “We barely made it out of the way in time, but close doesn’t count.”

  “I thought I saw one of them fall out of the wagon. . . .”

  “That would be Caleb,” said Ace. “But he’s fine, thanks to my brother.”

  Chance had dismounted, and Mercy turned to him and threw her arms around him in a grateful embrace. “Thank you for saving him. I . . . I can’t thank you enough. Either of you. You saved all the children.”

  Ed Rinehart frowned. Not only was Mercy hugging Chance, but she was also thanking the Jensen brothers without mentioning his role in getting her clear of the avalanche.

  Chance clearly didn’t mind the hug, but Mercy’s effusive praise seemed to be making him a little uncomfortable. He looked over her shoulder as she embraced him again. “Here comes Smoke and the other kids.”

  Smoke drove up and brought the other wagon to a halt. His face was set in grim, hard lines, but it relaxed a bit as he asked, “Anybody hurt over here?”

  “No, we all came through it all right, seems like,” said Ace. “I’d call that pretty much of a miracle. What in the world started that avalanche?”

  Smoke’s rugged features hardened again. “Not what. Who. I spotted a couple fellas up on that slope right after they started the first boulder rolling.”

  Ace’s eyes widened as he said, “You mean—”

  “I mean they tried to kill us all,” Smoke said. “And when I find them, I intend to ask them why.”

  CHAPTER 36

  The first order of business was to get the kids and Mercy back to the ranch house. Smoke took it easy with the wagon by not putting too much strain on the damaged axle now that the danger had passed. It held together as both groups slowly made their way back to the ranch house.

  Knowing that someone had tried to kill them, he was even more watchful than usual, just in case the two men he had spotted tried some sort of ambush. His Winchester was on the seat beside him, in case he needed it in a hurry.

  Chance rode with his rifle across his saddle, too, and he and Ace never stopped looking around as they headed toward the Sugarloaf headquarters.

  Thankfully, the return trip was uneventful. Sally was watching for them and stepped out onto the porch to greet them as the two wagons rolled up and stopped in front of the house.

  She knew Smoke as well as anyone on earth, including Preacher, and realized from the look on his face that something was wrong. Quickly, she went down the steps and moved to the side of the wagon Smoke was driving. “What is it?” she asked as she reached up and put a hand on his knee while he was setting the vehicle’s brake.

  “We nearly got caught in an avalanche.”

  “Oh, my God! I thought I heard something earlier. Is everyone all right?”

  “We’re fine, but the two fellas who started it aren’t going to be when I catch up to them.”

  Sally stared up at him for a second before she found her voice again. “You mean someone tried to kill these . . . these children?”

  He had thought about that on the way back and couldn’t see any reason in the world why somebody would want to kill a bunch of orphans. On the other hand, he had made plenty of enemies over the years, although damn few of them had been left alive. Some of them were bound to have brothers, fathers, and sons who might like to even the score, though. That seemed a more likely explanation of what had happened.

  But they could try to figure that out later. “Let’s get these youngsters inside.” He forced a smile onto his face. “And we’ve got a tree to set up and decorate, too.”

  Pearlie and Cal had emerged from the bunkhouse and came up in time to hear that last statement.

  Pearlie said, “We’ll give you a hand with that, Smoke. We’ll be glad to help out, won’t we, Cal?”

  “Yeah,” said the young cowboy. “Maybe in return for some bear sign.”

  “Bear sign?” a little girl piped up in one of the wagons. “What’s that?”

  “Oh, honey,” said Pearlie with a grin, “you got a world o’ good eatin’ in front of you, just waitin’ for you to discover it.”

  “We almost got buried by a bunch of snow,” another girl said, causing Pearlie and Cal to frown in puzzlement.

  “You did?” Cal asked.

  “We’ll tell you all about it later,” Smoke said.

  The children had been terrified during their narrow escape, but with the resiliency of youth, they had put that behind them and were concerned primarily with decorating the Christmas tree. Pearlie and Cal carried the pine inside and set it up in a bucket of dirt they had prepared earlier while the others were gone. Once the children were inside and had taken off their coats, Sally gathered them around the tree and started taking suggestions about how they ought to decorate it.

  Smoke caught the attention of Preacher and Eagle-Eye, who were sitting by the fire in the big living room as they had planned, and inclined his head to indicate that they should join him outside. Preacher knew Smoke well enough to realize that something had happened.

  A short time later, the large group of grim-faced men stood on the front porch, their breath fogging in front of their faces as they discussed the near-tragedy.

  “Who in blazes ’d do such a thing and endanger all them younguns?” Preacher demanded angrily.

  “Those varmints ought to be strung up and horsewhipped, and that’s just for starters!” added Eagle-Eye.

  “I figure it had to be some old enemies of mine,” said Smoke. “I’m heading back up there to pick up their trail. Preacher, I thought maybe you and Eagle-Eye could come with me.”

  “Durned right we will! I want a shot at those rapscallions.”

  “Ace and I are coming, too,” Chance declared.

  Smoke shook his head. “No, I want you boys to stay here. It’s possible that whoever’s responsible for this might try to strike here at the ranch, and I want plenty of good men on hand to protect the place and everybody on it.” He was thinking mostly of Sally when he said that, but there were Mercy Halliday and the children to consider, too. They would also be in danger if the Sugarloaf came under attack.

  “Chance and I were thinking we’d go with you . . .” Ace’s voice trailed off as he saw the resolute expression on Smoke’s face. Although they hadn’t been around him all that much, he and Chance already knew it was a waste of time arguing with him once his mind was made up.

  “How about us, Smoke?” asked Pearlie.

  “You’ll stay here, too.”

  “You’re liable to need help if you track those fellas down. I know you only saw two of ’em, but there’s liable to be more where those came from.”

  “If I need a hand, I’ll send for you,” Smoke promised. He looked at Preacher and Eagle-Eye. “In the meantime, let’s get ready to ride.”

  * * *

  Nobody had asked him what he intended to do, thought Rinehart as the group dispersed. Smoke certainly hadn’t asked him to go along.

  And why would he? As far as Smoke and everyone else on the Sugarloaf knew, he was just a tenderfoot from back East, a man whose business they didn’t even know who had attached himself to the group of orphans. They weren’t going to depend on him for anything.

  In the back of his mind lurked the suspicion that he was the only one who knew the real reason for everything that had happened. William Litchfield had been afraid that his brother’s murderers might go after the missing boy. They might have finally tracked Donald to the orphanage and figured out that he was among the bunch of children. If that was true, the easiest way for the killers to dispose of Donald would be to wipe out all the children. That would be a ruthless, heinous crime, but it would serve
their ends.

  The question was, should he tell Smoke about his theory? The whole situation with the murders back in New York and the missing boy was so complicated it might be too much for him to grasp. On the other hand, he seemed pretty shrewd. And he might be headed into more trouble than he knew, if the men he was going to try to track down were really professional killers from back east.

  “Mr. Jensen?” Rinehart said as Smoke started back inside. “If I could talk to you in private for a moment. . . ?”

  Smoke swung around to face him, and Rinehart instantly saw a spark of suspicion in the other man’s keen gray eyes.

  Quietly, Smoke said, “You sound like a man with something on his mind, Ed.”

  “I may . . . know something about what happened today.”

  “In that case, it’d probably be a good idea for you to tell me about it.”

  A hard undertone in Smoke’s voice told Rinehart that he didn’t have much choice in the matter. For the next few minutes, the detective laid out the situation as concisely and clearly as he could.

  Smoke asked a question now and then and finally nodded. “You could be right. It’d take a pretty sorry hombre to try to kill a bunch of kids like that, but I reckon we already knew that.”

  “I can come along with you if you’d like, when you try to track them down.”

  Smoke shook his head. “No, I think you might be of more use here, in case they circle around and try to hit at the ranch. I assume you’re armed?”

  “I am.”

  “Good. There are plenty of other guns in the house, too, if you need to use any of them. You should probably get one of the Winchesters, make sure it’s loaded, and keep it close by.”

  “All right. I can do that,” said Rinehart.

  Smoke nodded. “I’m glad you told me about this, Ed. I had a hunch there was more to you than met the eye. Good to know what it is.”

  Rinehart had instinctively liked Smoke from the start and realized that he was glad to have the man’s approval and respect. “Just be careful. If those men are hired killers from New York—”