"Ahead," J.D. called. He slid his six-gun from the cross-draw holster and fired several times at the outlaw who had dismounted and worked to get a stone out from under his horse's shoe.
The attack took the road agent by surprise. His horse tried to rear, lost its balance and knocked him over. Sitting on the ground, the outlaw fumbled for his pistol. J.D. raced past and wasn't inclined to go back. Kate got off a couple shots, both missing. The sharp reports had the benefit of frightening the man's horse. It limped away, leaving him without a mount. And then she galloped past.
J.D. heard the outlaw cry out, "Jesse!"
And then he left the seated man in his dust. They galloped for a few minutes before turning back in the direction they had come. Blackmun would think they'd ride a straight line to get away. Whatever they could do to be where the gang wasn't expecting them appealed to J.D. In a few minutes, he pointed to a way that led back toward the trail they had taken into the mountains. Such speed tuckered out their horses, forcing them to slow and finally stop.
"How long before they find our trail?" Jesse looked behind, but the woods hid any trace of the outlaws.
"How bad do they want you?" Kate asked.
"Real bad. Ben's never gonna give up 'til he catches me."
"It looked that way. He didn't tie you up but had a guard watching you like a hawk." Kate fell in beside Jesse. J.D. urged his horse ahead to pioneer the trail to safety. He wanted to hear what the young man said, but he wanted to get away from Blackmun's gunmen even more.
"He wouldn't do that."
"You're something special to him, aren't you?" Kate spoke softly, urging him to share his pain with her. Jesse rode with his shoulders slumped and head down, a beaten man.
"I'm nuthin' to him. Not really."
"He warned the parson not to marry you and Abigail. This is more than a blood feud, isn't it?"
"Blood," Jesse said in a voice almost too low to hear. "That's what he's got on his mind after David got himself hung."
"David? David Blackmun?" Kate's guess hit hone. Jesse turned even more morose.
"Yeah, David shot up a town when he was drunk. I don't even know what town. He got himself lynched. This was less than a month after Big Bob fell off his horse during a train robbery and got run over by the locomotive."
"Another relative?"
"Both of them were Ben's brothers. Sally run off years back after our ma and pa were killed by Arapaho."
J.D. forced himself not to jerk about when he heard what Jesse said. Kate eased even more from him.
"David and Big Bob were your brothers? And Sally was your sister?"
"Yeah."
"Ben Blackmun wants you to join his gang because you're his brother?"
"Something like that. Ben's always thought he was the head of the family after our folks got scalped. I never cottoned much to his idea of gettin' by."
"You ever ride with his gang?"
"He wants me to because he thinks he can trust me 'cuz I'm a blood relative. I don't much like bein' a wrangler. It's hard work and don't pay much, but I like it more than gettin' shot at by bank guards or chased down by the law."
"Having a woman as fine as Abigail want to marry you shows you're right. She'd never love an outlaw."
"Never knowin' if I was comin' home, maybe dead in a ditch alongside the road after a botched stagecoach robbery, I know all that. It's why Ben wanted to stop me from gettin' hitched."
"We need to find a place to hole up," J.D. said, letting the others catch up with him. "Unless you want to keep riding in a storm."
He watched the clouds building up over the mountains at about the same place the sun had risen a couple hours earlier. The wind pattern showed the power of the storm boiling over the summit and heading down canyons. The clouds looked like bear claws tearing away at the rock, but it warned of ravines filling up from the storm. Although it wasn't raining where they rode, the water hitting square miles of solid rock sent floods in their direction. It was only a matter of time before the gullies overflowed their banks and cut them off.
"Let's keep riding as long as we can," Kate said. "The storm will slow Blackmun down as much as us. The more distance between us when the rain hits, the better."
J.D. heard a raindrop spatter against his hat brim. There wouldn't be much more riding.
"That way," Jesse said. "Looks like an island in the middle of the arroyo, though there's no water."
"I don't want to get caught," J.D. said. Then he realized this wasn't what Jesse meant.
"One of the gang?" Kate squinted to get a better look at the man astride a horse on the dry island.
"Doesn't matter. We're not going to stick around and palaver." J.D. veered away, but Jesse hung back.
"That's my brother. That's Ben."
The rain fell more heavily now. The storm in the higher elevations began to send frothy torrents down the arroyo.
"He'll have to ride through the rushing water to get to us. This is the time to get away." J.D. saw that his words fell on deaf ears. Jesse had pulled up and waved to his brother.
"What the hell are you doing?" J.D. wheeled about and interposed himself between the brothers. "He might not have spotted us."
"I don't like him and all he's done, but he's my brother. He doesn't deserve to be drowned."
The roar of flood water crashing down the ravine muffled his words. J.D. saw that Ben Blackmun started to cross, then thought better of it. A few inches of water could sweep a man off his feet. A foot of rushing water now filled the arroyo. This much would knock a horse off its feet and sweep its rider downstream. The only good thing about being caught up like that was the victim wasn't likely to drown. The swiftly running water would slam a man about against the rocks and kill him long before water gushed into his lungs.
"Jesse," Kate said urgently. "He killed Parson Thomas. You, of all people, know what else he has done. He tried to keep you from Abigail."
"He could have killed her instead of Thomas," J.D. said, adding to his wife's argument. The rain hammered against his hat now. "We have to find shelter fast."
"He's 'bout all I got left in the way of family. He's a no account, no good back shooter, but he's my brother."
J.D. judged distances and how likely he was to get his six-gun out and lay the barrel alongside Jesse's head. Kate had a better argument.
"Abigail is your new family. He ma and pa will be yours, too. Custis doesn't seem like much but Maybelle is a good woman. Like your Abigail."
Jesse leaned forward, swiped at the rain, saw how his brother was entirely trapped now, then turned away.
"I don't want to leave him. I don't."
"You don't choose who're blood relatives, but you can pick your friends. Make some who'll always have your back." J.D. saw Jesse still hesitated, but Kate's arguments had their effect. He nodded in defeat.
J.D. turned into the teeth of the storm and rode for what looked like safety, but in the face of such a fearsome rain, finding anywhere would be unpredictable.
Chapter 6
"The whole damn mountain is gonna wash down on top of us." Jesse huddled to one side of the lean-to J.D. had built from his and Kate's canvas dusters.
Arguing the point wasn't going to get them anywhere. The sky had opened up and threatened to drench them all for the next week. The once dry arroyos now overflowed their banks with the fierce, sudden summer rain. J.D. knew the spring runoff from melting snow had cut most of the rocky ravines, but this was an especially powerful storm that stalked the Grand Tetons year round. The patter of rain against the canvas made talking difficult, but J.D. moved closer to his wife to rob her of some body heat. Their clothes were drenched, and the wind whipping about made them all shiver. Getting dry wood for a fire was out of the question.
"You talk to him. He won't listen to me."
Kate looked at her husband, took his wet hand and squeezed it.
"I'd rather talk to you." She sighed when she saw he was serious. Abandoning her grip, she scooted
across the rocky patch and leaned against the rock. "You look down in the mouth. We won't get caught. Your brother's not going to track us in this. The best Indian scout in the entire West couldn't track in this gully washer."
"Our trail's all muddied up," Jesse said. "I worry Ben'll come after me when the rain lets up. He knows where we have to be headin'."
"Back to Wilderness."
"Yeah." Jesse fell silent for a spell, then said, "Maybe it's not so good I marry Abigail. She deserves more 'n the likes of me."
"Don't talk yourself out of a good thing," Kate said. "It might be your brother will give up trying to recruit you for his gang."
"You don't know him. He never admits he's wrong. He never gives up. By the time the sun comes up again, he'll be after me."
J.D. doubted that. The gang leader had been stranded on a rapidly eroding island of rock and sand. The frog strangler had only gotten worse. Blackmun must have washed away since there was no way he could have reached the safety of higher ground.
"I can't protect her. No matter what, Abigail will be his next target. That's the way he thinks. The parson crossed him, so he died. If I want to marry Abigail, Ben's gonna get rid of her, too. Bang." He made his thumb and index finger into a mock gun and made like he had fired, then blew away phantom smoke.
"He's that much of a killer?" Kate glanced at J.D., who only shook his head. They couldn't figure out how much of Ben Blackmun's character was real and how much existed only in Jesse's head.
"More. I heard tell he wiped out an entire wagon train just to get their water. Women, children, it don't matter to him. I heard 'bout the massacre from Ben's right hand man." He pulled his knees up tighter and rested his chin on his folded hands as he stared into the dancing curtain of rain. "Uly—Ulysses Borman—is as big a killer as my brother. That's why they get along."
"He runs his gang like a cavalry company. Was he in the army?"
"Naw, he just read all about the war. He's only three years older 'n me. But he can tell you every troop movement made on either side and why the winners took the day and why the other side lost."
"One guard called him Major." Kate turned her own gaze out into the rain.
J.D. barely heard Jesse's answer over the incessant pounding rain on the canvas inches above his head.
"He likes the sound of it. Major Blackmun. It's all made up. He'd make a piss poor soldier. He likes giving orders but can't take 'em. Not at all."
"We have to go back to Wilderness. It's not fair to Abigail to let her think you died out here."
Jesse held back a sob. "Might be better if she thinks I died. I can ride away and try to make a new life somewhere else. A new summer name, somewhere Ben'd never find me."
"He found you here even though you're going by the name Smith," Kate said. "If he's that persistent, there's nowhere to run. Make your stand here."
"I don't want nuthin' to happen to Abigail. Everything up 'til now's bad enough. I don't know what I'd do if Ben killed her because of me."
"We'll get on the trail in a few minutes. Rain's letting up," J.D. said. "The quicker we get back to town, the sooner you can see that Abigail isn't going to let you go, no matter who your blood kin is."
"You're wrong about that, Mr. Blaze." Jesse craned his neck around and peered up at the sky. "Not about the rain peterin' out, though."
J.D. fished a watch from his vest pocket and peered at it. They had been pinned down for the better part of the day, and it would be dark in a couple hours. Common sense told him to pitch camp right where they stood, but a gnawing doubt inside forced him to get back on the trail. Jesse sounded too sure of his brother's intentions—and his determination. The outlaw had to have washed away when the flood waters boiled down from the higher elevations. He had to.
And if he hadn't, they needed to put as much distance between them and the gang as possible. Jesse was right when he said tracking wasn't a concern for his brother. Returning to town required them to follow the trail to the main road and then go right on into Wilderness. The mountains kept them from getting fancy about circling about and coming at the town from a different direction.
"You want to ride out now or wait for it to stop raining?" Kate snapped the canvas duster clear of water and handed it to him.
"We get on the trail," he said without hesitation. In a lower voice he asked, "You think he means it about standing up Abigail like that? Just hightailing it and never giving her so much as a fare-thee-well?"
"He's scared, and not just of his brother. Being out here's given him too much time to think about what he's getting into with her. A lifetime seems mighty long when you're barely twenty."
"Out here, a lifetime gets measured in minutes, depending on how you live your life."
"I'd rather spend a minute with you than live another hundred years without you, J.D. "
"I knew there was a reason I married you." He gave her a quick kiss.
She snorted and pushed him away.
"You got that wrong. I married you. If I hadn't, I'd still be waiting for that justice of the peace."
"At least he didn't catch an ounce of lead in his brain during the ceremony."
"You're such a romantic galoot," she said. "I love you in spite of that."
The heavy rain had become little more than blowing mist by the time they hit the trail. Again, J.D. brought up the rear while Kate rode in front with Jesse sandwiched between them. The way he talked, he might make a break at any time. For two cents, J.D. would let him. All that kept him alert to any such bid to escape was the way Kate would act if he allowed it. She and Abigail were friends, and J.D. had to admit he had taken a shine to Abigail, too. Letting Jesse run out on her was a mark of cowardice. If nothing else, let Jesse tell her to her face that the wedding was off.
Kate stopped suddenly and waved J.D. to come forward. Before he had drawn even with her he saw the problem.
"Damnation, Jesse was right." He eyed the trail and how Blackmun's gang had laid an ambush. If it hadn't been for the recent rain wiping previous tracks from the trail so the outlaws left fresh ones, he knew they might have ridden squarely into a crossfire.
"On either side of the trail, high in the rocks," Kate said. "We either go down that trail or..." Her words faded away. There wasn't any other path out of the mountains. Not that they knew of. Given time, J.D. knew they could scout a new way to Wilderness through branching canyons or even by plunging deeper into the hills and coming out of a pass miles away. From there, finding another pass leading to Rock Springs or Wilderness was possible.
The only trouble he saw with that was time working against them. The longer they stayed in this canyon, the more likely Ben Blackmun was to trap them.
"I'll surrender to him," Jesse said. "There ain't no call for you two to get all shot up."
"Sorry, it doesn't work that way," J.D. said. "We promised Abigail to bring you back in one piece."
"Besides," Kate went on for him, "do you think your brother would just let us ride off? From all you've said, he'd gun us down to get rid of any witnesses."
"You could promise not to tell the marshal." Even Jesse realized how lame that sounded. He shook his head. "I gotta do something."
"Back," J.D. said. An idea formed in his head, a desperate idea and one that only a crazy man would conjure up. At the moment, he was tired, hungry, soaked to the bone and shivering from cold. The time for desperate schemes had come.
"They didn't spot us," Kate said. "I watched the one highest on the rock to the right. He never twitched. Considering how bad they are at hiding what they're up to, we've got all the time we need."
"Ben's not the most patient man in the world. Besides, he's sorely pissed at you for stranding him on that island. How he got off, I don't know, but he'll want to even the score."
"He rode onto the hill of his own accord," J.D. said, but he understood what Jesse meant.
As he rode, he craned his neck around. A mile deeper into the mountains he found what he was looking for. Above the
trail a large rock clung precariously in place, a victim of the heavy rains. A simple shove would bring the rock tumbling down the hillside.
Jesse saw his interest and laughed harshly.
"That ain't gonna work. Even if you caught Ben and Uly, the others wouldn't give up. There's no way you are catching the whole gang. You'd need to bring down an avalanche the size of an entire goldarned mountain for that."
"They'd be riding single file along this part of the trail," J.D. said. "That's what I'm counting on."
"What's your idea?" Kate was as much in the dark as Jesse. Her eyebrows arched when she heard what J.D. wanted her to do.
"Get him out of his shirt and jeans. I'd want his boots, too, but before the day's through, he is going to need them."
"There's plenty of vegetation," she said, dropping to the ground and tugging up some of the bushier ones. The rain had loosened the roots. Even so, Kate had to use a knife to hack most off even with the ground. Those roots went down so far they wrapped around the core of the earth.
"Come on up with me," J.D. said. He had to grin at Jesse's discomfort. He had stripped off his clothes as ordered. Now he stood in his union suit and boots. With his hat pushed back on his head, he looked like the old timer who had come to town and tied one on, forgetting where he had lost his clothes.
They worked their way up the slope. J.D. grabbed a heavy limb and indicated Jesse should find one of his own. They reached the large rock he had spotted from the trail.
"Get the wood under it. You want to get good leverage to send the rock tumbling down onto the trail."
"It's easier to try and shoot them," Jesse said. "This is plumb crazy to think you can get more 'n one or two."
"All I need is for the rock to smash one."
For a half hour they worked and finally J.D. was sure they had set the trap. He tested one lever, then worried that Jesse and Kate wouldn't be strong enough to send the boulder rolling down. If they weren't, all hell would be out of school.
"You stay here and wait. My wife will join you in a few minutes."
Blaze! Western Series: Six Adult Western Novels Page 35
