by A. T. Butler
“How deep is that cave, Joel? How many men do you think he could be hiding?”
“Oh, it’s big enough for quite a group, but there’s only the two horses.”
“That’s true, but—”
Jacob’s planning was interrupted by the sound of yelling coming from up near the campsite. He shut his mouth quickly and ducked down further out of sight as three figures came stumbling out from the mouth of the cave and into the open campsite.
A blonde girl, her hair hanging loosely around her shoulders, her purple calico dress dusty and torn in places, stalked out from the dark crevice, walking backwards toward the campsite. Her right hand was held high above her head, and though Jacob couldn’t see for sure from this distance, she appeared to be wielding a weapon of some kind. Maybe a rock. On its own, held in her small hand, the rock might not do that much damage, but Jacob had seen how much power and strength a woman could have when she was in danger. He would bet on the girl in this situation any day. After all, she had already figured out how to free herself from whatever binding they had previously had her in.
Two men, dirty and rough, stalked out of the cave after her. She was trying to walk backwards, away from her pursuers, and kept checking over her shoulder for where she was going to step next. Jacob found himself holding his breath, anxious for her to gain the upper hand. Should he move to help? The two men both had guns trained on her, and a sudden movement from him might cause one of them to pull the trigger.
Flora continued her backward stagger. Trying to look in three different directions would prove difficult for anyone and the men all watched as she put her foot down in the wrong place, stumbled, and fell into the dirt. The outlaws — one must be Pickens — stalked forward toward her. Their lecherous grins made Jacob shudder.
“Flora!” Joel cried in a strangled whisper.
Jacob put his hand on the boy’s shoulder to keep him from rushing out and revealing their hiding places.
“We’ll get her, Joel. But we have to be smart and plan it.”
“Now! We have to get her now!”
Jacob nodded, not bothering to try to calm the boy down. If all went according to plan, in just a few moments he could have the girl. It was time to take their shot.
“Stay where you are, son. It won’t do Flora any good to have you shot because those despicable men spotted you.”
“But—”
“This is our best chance,” Jacob said. “Joel and I take the one on the left. You two men take the one on the right. If we all shoot at the same time, they won’t have a chance to fight back, even if one of us misses.”
“Watch out for Flora,” Joel said.
“She should be out of the way. She’ll be fine. Don’t shoot to kill, though. If possible, we need to let the law determine these men’s fate. Everyone understand?” The faces around him all wore expressions of grim determination, but nodded. “Ready? On my count,” Jacob whispered, taking careful aim. “One. Two … ”
Before he could finish his count, they were interrupted by the sound of hooves galloping nearer. Jacob’s stomach dropped.
Chapter Ten
“Hold your fire,” Jacob said to his men.
He lowered his own revolver and darted ahead a few steps to the next wide tree trunk between Flora, the men who held her captive and himself.
“Damn,” he whispered to himself.
They had missed their chance at easily overpowering the villains while there were only two of them. The horses he had heard approaching came around the curve in the trail from the opposite direction — three more dirty, rugged men rode up to the campsite from the opposite side of the mountain. Jacob could see at a glance that these were not men from Elk Springs. These newcomers had spent the night outside, undoubtedly after having ridden the several hundred miles from Santa Fe. Jacob was glad he wasn’t any closer just because he wouldn’t want to have to smell those fellas.
But now Jacob and his team were outnumbered. Five to four, not even including the encumbrance of helping Flora get away on top of overpowering her captors. The easy moment had passed him by and now he would have to come up with a better plan.
He needed to get closer. If he could get close enough, Jacob would be able to listen to their plan. The more information he had the easier it would be for him to identify their weaknesses and infiltrate or ambush them. Jacob looked around. The forest wasn’t dense enough for him to be able to get much closer. The trees in the White Mountains were primarily some variation of pine. They were tall and straight with increasingly smaller branches as they stretched toward the sky. He could dart from tree to tree, but in the spaces in between or even his broad shoulders sticking out around the width of the trunk could give him away. He could send Joel, who was thinner, but he wasn’t sure the boy would remember all the details to report back.
But he didn’t have any other options. Every hesitation put Flora more at risk.
Jacob glanced once more at the five outlaws that were congregating around the mouth of the cave. Not one of them even glanced in his direction, so sure were they that they had gotten away with their kidnapping. And for good reason, Jacob thought to himself. He, Joel and the other two men hadn’t even started on the trail for almost two days after Flora had been taken. That would have been plenty long enough to lull Pickens into a feeling of security. Between that time gap, and the clear goal of coming to this cave, of course Pickens was feeling invincible. Of course he wasn’t concerned about any rustling noises in the forest around him.
That arrogance and obliviousness would be just what Jacob could use to his advantage.
He looked back at the other three men and caught Boyd’s eye. He held up his hand, indicating that they should wait where they were, then pointed to himself, and farther up the incline. Boyd nodded, his hand on his gun, glancing anxiously between Jacob and the group of ruffians past him.
Jacob was satisfied. The men would remain where they were, but keep an eye on providing him cover in case things went wrong. He couldn’t afford for a single thing to go wrong. He had already missed too many chances to rescue the poor girl.
The bounty hunter all but tip-toed through the ground cover and dried pine needles that blanketed the mountain beneath his feet. Three long steps to the next closest big tree trunk. Pause to listen for any indication he had been spotted. A peek around the trunk to check his progress and then four more loping steps to the next wide trunk. He had to stand sideways, his right shoulder leaning against the wood, to ensure he stayed hidden. Jacob took off his hat and held it against his chest, worried that the brim might have stuck out and given him away.
He slowed his breath and listened.
“Manage to beat it out of her yet?” the first voice asked.
Jacob heard a shuffle, leather, maybe some metal, and hooves pawing at the ground. He couldn’t risk poking his head around the tree again. They group of outlaws was now only about thirty feet up the slope from him. Judging by the sounds, though, Jacob would guess that the men were busying themselves in making camp, planning to stick around this spot for awhile.
“No,” a second voice answered.
There was a muted thud and a tiny whimper that made Jacob think that Flora had been kicked or punched. His temper flared and it took all his patience to keep himself from rushing up the hill, guns blazing. He calmed himself — getting Flora killed in a fire fight wouldn’t help anyone.
“She still claims it’s not actually a mine,” the second voice continued. “I dunno, Morris. Maybe she’s telling the truth.”
“Maybe. But then, if she is that means we have no more use for her.”
Jacob could practically hear the sneer in the man’s voice.
“Just let me go,” a sweet, feminine voice sobbed. “Let me go home. I showed you where the mine was supposed to be.”
“Supposed to be,” the second voice repeated. By now Jacob guessed that was likely Homer Pickens. “But I don’t see even a flake of gold in my hand, yet, missy.”
/> “I don’t know how to mine gold,” she cried. Jacob was gratified to hear some strength and sass come into her voice. The girl had a backbone yet. “I’m just a girl. You think if I knew how to mine gold I’d just leave it in there?”
“She has a point, Homer.” A mumbling third man joined the conversation and Jacob snickered quietly to himself imagining the scene.
“Shut up!”
A piercing yelp split the air as Jacob heard the unmistakable sound of a hand slapping flesh.
“My lip!” she cried. “I’m bleeding!”
Jacob felt a wave of fury rolling over him. Robbing banks or rustling cattle was one thing. Though he didn’t agree with it, Jacob understood what might drive a man to that kind of activity. But laying a hand on a woman? Assaulting a delicate creature? Not to mention doing all this to her while she is tied up and unable to even runaway from such violence.
No, these men would pay. There was no excusing that behavior.
This would take some strategy. They needed thoughtful planning to take them by surprise or to sneak in to rescue the girl.
Jacob retreated back to where the others were waiting. He shook his head in answer to Joel’s questioning look.
“We can’t stay here,” he said. “We—”
“I’m not leaving her! You go back, if you must. I’m going to find a way to rescue Flora.”
“Joel, I’m not going back to Elk Springs. Keep your voice down. We just can’t stay in this spot. It’s too exposed. Let’s go back to the horses and reassess.”
Joel looked like he wanted to protest. He kept glancing back to where Flora had disappeared down the dark mouth of the cave and wasn’t moving his feet. Jacob firmly wrapped his fingers around the boy’s upper arm and dragged him away.
Chapter Eleven
Jacob dragged the boy away from the mouth of the cave and led the group around the curve of the mountain, between the trees, walking as quietly as they could to not draw attention to themselves. Jacob had a feeling that the men would be distracted for quite awhile, between looking for gold, fighting among themselves and keeping Flora in line, but it still behooved him to be cautious.
When they had reached the trail again, on the other side of the boulder, Boyd took the lead back to where their four horses had been tied.
“We’ve got to go back,” Joel insisted with a hiss.
Jacob unbuckled the leather cover of the pack on Blaze and pulled out a side of jerky. He tossed a piece to Joel and took a bite himself, chewing slowly while he thought out the next steps.
“We will go back, son,” he said, patiently. “But you saw those men. Five of them. Now that we know more of their plan, we can take advantage of it.”
“What’s their plan?” Zeke asked.
Jacob explained what he had overheard, about the mine and about how they thought they needed Flora.
“That’s ridiculous,” Joel said. “There has never been a mine there.”
“I know that. You know that. Seems these boys don’t want to believe that.”
“But what are they going to do to Flora while they’re trying to find the gold?”
Jacob shook his head. He didn’t want to put it into words.
“What will they do when they finally accept that she can’t help them?” Joel grabbed Jacob’s arm, pulling on him, starting to panic.
“So, here’s what I’m thinking,” Jacob said, not answering Joel directly. “They look like they’ll be going in and out of the cave. Which means that at some point, not all five of them will be together. One or two of them will be isolated if we watch carefully enough. We just need to wait for the right moment, overpower the one or two that remain outside and take it from there.”
Boyd nodded. “Yeah. I think that could work.”
“But we have to time it exactly,” Jacob emphasized. “Too late or too early and we could find all five of those madmen swarming down on us.”
“Do you know who they are?”
Jacob shook his head. “No, I don’t. Which means I’d rather we don’t kill them if we don’t have to. I always want to take them alive if possible, but more so now that we don’t even know their identities. Standing by idly while a girl is held hostage is not admirable, but it’s also not a crime worthy of death.”
Joel grumbled under his breath, but Jacob chose to ignore it. The kid was under a lot of pressure and had never been in this high stakes of a situation.
“Let’s not have any confusion,” he said. “I will decide when the right moment is. You all will follow my cue, my lead and my instructions. If I detect any mutiny among you,” he pointed to each man turn, “I will turn my considerable skill to subduing you first. Believe me when I tell you I am more than capable of taking all three of you on if I have to.”
“Got it, Boss,” Boyd said, answering for the others.
Jacob looked specifically at Joel, and the young man nodded too.
“Alright. Follow me.”
He led the group of men through the trees, back towards where the outlaws’ campsite was, but around the other side of it. Jacob cut his own path through the trees to the right and uphill of the boulder, up over where the cave entrance cut into the mountain. The slope of the mountain grew steep as the four made their way back to the cave. The overhang was bare of trees, and even the low shrubs were sparse.
“Leave your hats,” Jacob instructed in a whisper.
They left a pile at the foot of one of the pine trees and crawled forward on their bellies. Elbows pulling them forward along the dirt, the men stayed as silent as possible. From behind him, Jacob heard Zeke blow out air through pursed lips, likely pushing a weed or spider web out of his face.
They slowly, carefully approached the edge, knowing that just below them, only ten feet away, were five men who could easily kill them as soon as they saw them. Jacob gestured the men forward, so all four were lying low to the ground in a row, looking over the edge to the campsite.
Now all they had to do was wait for the right moment. Once there was just a single outlaw outside the cave, Jacob would simply jump down the few feet to the ground below and take him prisoner.
It should be easy. It would just take time.
At the moment, four of the five men plus the girl were sitting in the dirt around the campsite. One of the men was roasting something over the embers and the others were fiddling with their various weapons or tools. To Jacob’s eyes it seemed like they were all just wasting time waiting for something.
One of the men’s voices floated up to them. “I didn’t ride all the way out here from Santa Fe for no gold, Pickens. If Jack can’t find nothing down there you’ll be compensating me by other means.”
“Oh shut up, Morris,” Pickens answered from across the campsite. “You’ve traveled farther for far less. That whore of yours in New Orleans ain’t worth half what you can get here.”
“And yet I still got nothin’ in my hand.”
“The gold is in there. Four different people told me this here girl knew where the mine is.”
“Sure don’t look that way to me. Looks like we been lied to. Are you a fool, Pickens, to believe this little girl?”
“Let’s see what little Flora has to say.” Pickens stood up and crossed the space in two steps to leer over her.
“That’s Miss Kimball, to you,” she said, her voice pure venom.
Such courage was rewarded with a hard slap across the face. Jacob winced when he heard the crack, but silently cheered the girl for standing her ground.
“Don’t you talk back to me, girl.”
There was a beat of silence, Flora’s head hung down, recovering from the blow. When she looked back up at Pickens, Jacob could see that something in her had broken. She no longer cared to keep her captors happy or to even ensure her own safety. With brow furrowed, she glared at the outlaw with fury, holding his gaze directly and without breaking eye contact lifted both feet up. With her ankles still bound, she had less leverage but managed to slam the full strengt
h of her legs into the man’s knee.
Jacob thought he heard something crack, as Pickens collapsed to the dirt.
Two of the other men hurried forward to subdue the girl, yelling and cursing at her, but Pickens stopped them.
“She’s mine,” he said darkly, holding his hand up to stop them.
Flora seemed to whimper as they watched Pickens climb painfully to his feet.
“No,” she whispered.
He limped toward her, bearing down, looming over her. Flora scooted backward in the dirt, awkwardly with her hands bound behind her back, her feet still bound at the ankles. She backed up until her back hit the enormous boulder, hitting her head in the surprise. Pickens reached her easily, grabbing one ankle and pulling her roughly toward him. He grabbed the skirt of her dress in both hands and ripped it roughly all the way from her hem to her waist.
“No!” Flora cried, sounding truly afraid for the first time.
Chapter Twelve
“No!” Joel cried.
“Shhh. Joel. You have to keep your voice—”
“No, I won’t. They can’t do that to her. I can’t let them!”
“Joel, you’ve got to—”
Zeke reached up and wrapped his arms around Joel’s leg. The kid tried to kick him off, but Zeke managed to hang on, wrestling the kid on the ground and at least temporarily stopping him from giving away their position. But the twenty year old was too strong, too wiry. He struggled and pulled and slipped out of the older man’s grasp.
Jacob tried again to calm the kid down, but Joel acted as though he couldn’t even hear what was being said six inches from him. He easily shook off Jacob’s hands as he climbed to his feet.
