“Your pa got on me last time he was here because I hadn’t fixed this gate yet. I don’t want him gettin’ on me when he and your ma come for lunch.”
“What are you talking about, Johnny? Papa didn’t get on you. All he did was tell you that the gate looked like it needed some work.”
“Sometimes I think he still thinks he’s a colonel in the army and this ranch is an army post.”
Mary Kate laughed. “I was born and raised on army posts. Believe me, this ranch is nothing like an army post.”
Johnny chuckled, then started screwing in the first woodscrew. “Yeah, it is. This is Fort McVey.”
Approximately one-quarter of a mile from the McVey place, Boyd Ackerman was surveying the scene through a pair of binoculars.
“Do you see anyone else beside them two there, Major?” Casey asked.
“No, there’s just the two of them,” Ackerman said as he lowered his binoculars.
“Well, then, let’s just ride on down there and take care of business.”
“We will ‘take care of business’ in the proper way,” Ackerman said. “Sergeant Casey, take Jerrod and the two Hastings brothers, and using that ridge line for concealment, get around to the right side of the barn. Corporal Jones, you take Waters, Baker, and Powell, and, using the creek bed, go up to the left side of the house. When you are in position, send me a signal by flashing a mirror.”
“Yes, sir,” Casey and Jones answered.
“Boyle, Smith, when they are in position, you two and I will ride on down. McVey isn’t likely to be spooked if he thinks there are no more than three of us.”
Casey and Jones, with three men each, mounted their horses.
“And remember, don’t hurt the woman. She’s worth twenty thousand dollars to us, but this whole thing depends on her not getting hurt,” Ackerman said.
“Give us about ten minutes, Major, and we’ll be in position,” Casey said.
“You will do it in five minutes,” Ackerman said.
“Yes, sir, five minutes,” Casey agreed.
Ackerman watched the two groups ride off.
“Tell me, Major, what makes that woman worth so much money?” Boyle asked.
“You remember Colonel Hamilton, don’t you?”
“How can I forget the son of a bitch? He was the one that charged me ’n Corporal Jones and Sergeant Casey with murder.”
“Well, Colonel Hamilton is a civilian now, and he is one of the wealthiest men in the state of Montana. The woman we are about to capture is his daughter, Mary Kate McVey. I intend to hold her for ransom. I’ve no doubt but that Hamilton will gladly pay twenty thousand dollars to get her back.”
“What about the woman’s husband?”
“We will dispose of him. He is of no use to us.”
A couple of minutes later Ackerman saw first one flash, then another.
“They’re in place,” Ackerman said. “Let’s go.”
Ackerman, Boyle, and Smith started toward the ranch.
“There,” Johnny said, testing the gate, opening and closing it. “See how smooth it is? The colonel can’t complain about that.”
“Oh, hush, Johnny,” Mary Kate said with a little laugh. “You know Papa doesn’t complain. He suggests.”
“Might I suggest, young man, that when responsibility calls, you answer straightaway?” Johnny teased, perfectly mimicking Edward’s accent, pronouncing the word answer as “ahnswer.”
Mary Kate laughed. “Johnny, you’re awful, making fun of . . .” she paused in midsentence. “Johnny, there’s someone coming.”
Mary Kate pointed to three men who were riding toward them.
“I see them.”
“I wonder what they want?” Mary Kate asked.
“I don’t know. Water maybe? Directions?”
“There’s plenty of water all around, you know that. Johnny, I don’t feel good about this.”
“I’ll see what they . . . damn!” Johnny said. “They’re riding right through the garden.” Angrily, Johnny called out to the two riders.
“What the hell is the matter with you men? Are you blind? Get out of there! You’re riding right through the garden!”
The three riders continued through the garden without so much as an indication that they had even heard Johnny.
“Oh, my God, Johnny! It’s Major Ackerman!” Mary Kate said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I’ve known him for years!”
“What do you want, Ackerman?” Johnny called as the three men came through the garden, then rode right up to Johnny and Mary Kate.
“I want nothing from you,” Ackerman said. He drew his pistol and pointed it at Johnny.
“Here! What are you . . . ?”
That was as far as Johnny got before Ackerman fired, the sudden and unexpected sound of the shot loud.
The impact of the bullet plowing into him felt like he had been hit in the chest with a hammer. The pain was excruciating, then it was as if he could feel his body flowing down, like water from a bottle, and the world went black as he collapsed.
Mary Kate saw Johnny slump to a sitting position against the gate.
“No!” Mary Kate shouted. “You shot him! Why did you shoot him? He was no danger to you!”
A weeping Mary Kate fell on her knees beside her husband. “Johnny! Johnny!” She put her hand on his cheek. “Johnny!”
“You’re wasting our time,” Ackerman said. “Tell me, Mary Kate, do you have a favorite horse?”
“What?”
“A horse. Do you have a favorite horse? If so, point him out. You’re coming with us.”
“Are you crazy? I’m not going anywhere with you,” Mary Kate said. “I’m not leaving Johnny like this! Get out of here, now!”
Mary Kate turned and started back toward the house, only to be confronted by eight men who were approaching her. She stopped in her tracks.
“Cooperate and you won’t get hurt. Resist and you will be. Either way, you will come with us,” Ackerman said.
“Why are you doing this?”
“For two reasons,” Ackerman replied. “One is economic opportunity. The other is to exact a bit of revenge for what your father did to me.”
“Revenge? After all this time, you want revenge? It’s been four years.”
“According to the French novelist Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos, ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold,’” Ackerman said with an evil smile.
“My God,” Mary Kate said, lifting her hand to her mouth. “You really are crazy!”
“Sergeant Casey?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Post the demand there on the fence above the body.”
“Yes, sir.”
Johnny regained consciousness, and he heard Ackerman tell someone to post something on the fence above the body. What body? Is Ackerman talking about my body? Am I dead?
Johnny wanted to call out to Ackerman, to tell him that he had better not take her, but he was unable to speak and unable to move. He saw them ride away, now many men, not just the three who had been here first. Again, he opened his mouth to shout, but no words came.
If I’m dead, why am I still hurting? I’m not dead. But if I die, how will anyone ever find out what happened to Mary Kate? They came for her, and they took her. Why?
Johnny remembered then that Colonel Hamilton and Mary Kate’s mother were coming for lunch. They would be here shortly. He wouldn’t have to hang on for much longer.
Brimstone Ranch
“Megan, if you don’t hasten, we shan’t be to Megan and Johnny’s house in time for dinner, let alone lunch,” Edward said.
“I’m hastening, I’m hastening, so that we shan’t be late,” Megan said, teasing him by pronouncing the word as “shont.” As she hurried out of the house she was carrying a basket.
“What’s that?”
“Fried peach pies. You know how much Mary Kate loves them. Johnny, too.”
“I thought they were goin
g to feed us. I had no idea we were going to feed them. What if she’s already made dessert?”
“Fried peach pies can keep for a long time,” Megan said, climbing into the surrey.
Edward snapped the reins, and the team started out at a spirited trot.
“I wonder how long it will be before we have any grandchildren,” Edward said.
“Oh, heavens, are you that anxious to make me a grandmother? I look old enough now.”
“Nonsense, my dear, you are quite as beautiful now as you were the day I first saw you.”
“As I recall I was with two of my brothers, and we were delivering cattle to Fort Collins. I was dressed just like them; how could you even tell I was a woman?”
“It was the way you were carrying yourself, my dear. You had a certain savoir faire about you that suggested, here was no mere cowboy. And upon closer examination I saw a beautiful young woman.”
Megan laughed. “And you are as full of blarney today as you were then.”
“The term blarney would bespeak an Irishman. I am English.”
“Ho, and don’t I know it. It’s . . .” Megan stopped in midsentence and pointed to circling birds ahead. “Edward, what is that?” she asked.
“Birds.”
“They aren’t just birds, and you know it. They are vultures. Edward, what is it?”
“Don’t get yourself all in a dither yet. I’m sure it’s nothing more than a dead deer, or something.”
“It’s too near where the house is. They wouldn’t let a dead deer just lie there.”
Edward urged the team into a gallop, and, even before they got there, they could see Johnny sitting on the ground, supported by the corral gate.
“Oh, my God! It’s Johnny!” Megan said.
“But where’s Mary Kate?”
Edward pulled back on the reins and put on the brake, causing the surrey to slide to a stop. Jumping out, he hurried over to Johnny. Johnny was still alive, but barely.
“Good,” Johnny said, barely able to speak. “You got to me before the buzzards did.”
“Johnny, what happened? Who did this? Where is Mary Kate?”
“Ackerman,” Johnny said, the words strained. “Boyd Ackerman took her.”
“Ackerman! Are you sure?” Edward replied.
“Yes,” Johnny said. “Boyd Ackerman.” He let out one long, last, rattling breath, then his head fell to one side.
“My word, Megan,” Edward said. “He’s dead. It’s almost as if he stayed alive just long enough to tell us about Ackerman.”
“Ackerman? Major Ackerman from Fort Ellis?”
“I’m afraid it is.”
“I’ve read that he has taken to the outlaw trail. But what would he want with Mary Kate?”
It wasn’t until then that Edward saw a paper, posted on the fence just above Johnny’s body.
“Perhaps this will tell us,” he suggested, pointing to the paper.
Leaving Johnny, Edward removed the paper from the fence.
WE’VE GOT MARY KATE
SHE’S SAFE FOR NOW, BUT SHE WON’T BE
IF YOU DON’T COME UP WITH $20,000.
POST AD IN NEWSPAPER AND YOU WILL
BE CONTACTED
“My word! Ackerman has taken her for ransom!” Edward said.
Already more than five miles away from the ranch, Ackerman and his men were riding down the road in a military formation. The main body was riding in a column of twos, but Ackerman had one man riding a quarter of a mile ahead in point, and another a quarter of a mile behind, in trail. They were instructed to return to the main body immediately to report anything that might represent a danger to the formation.
Mary Kate had been wearing jeans while she was helping Johnny repair the gate, and because of that, she was able to sit astride the horse. Using a small piece of rope, Ackerman tied her hands to the saddle pommel. He had assigned Casey to ride with her and, holding the reins of her horse in his hands, Casey and Mary Kate were riding abreast, in the very first row.
They rode through the rest of the day, then just as the sun was a bright red disc balanced on the western horizon, they reached an arroyo.
Ackerman held up his hand. “Company, halt!” he called.
The column came to a stop.
“Bugler, sound ‘Recall,’” Ackerman said, and Powell lifted his bugle to play “Recall.”
Shortly after “Recall” was sounded, the two outriders returned.
“Sergeant Casey, post a guard detail. We’ll spend the night here,” Ackerman said.
“Yes, sir. Waters, Jerrod, you two will take the first relief.”
The two men ground-hobbled their horses, then went out to assume guard.
“Say, Major, what are we going to do with the woman?” Travis Hastings asked.
“What do you mean, what are we going to do with her? We aren’t going to do anything with her,” Ackerman replied.
“The reason I ask is, I figure that as long as we got her, we may as well make the best of it,” Hastings said. With a lascivious smile, he started toward Mary Kate, and she cringed back in fear.
“What do you think you are doing?” Ackerman asked.
“What the hell does it look like I’m doin’? I’m ’bout to have me a little fun.”
“If you so much as touch her, I will have you shot,” Ackerman said.
“Come on, Major, what would it hurt? I mean, she’s here, why not take advantage of it?”
“The major is right, Hastings,” Casey said. “Why take a chance on messing things up? With the money we’re goin’ to get from her, you can have the best-looking whore in all of Montana. Hell, you can have the two best-lookin’ whores.”
“No, he can’t, Sarge,” Dale Hastings said. “How’s he goin’ to have the two-best lookin’ whores in Montana if I’ve got ’em?”
The others laughed then, including Travis Hastings.
“All right, all right, I’ll wait,” Travis Hastings said.
“Why are you doing this, Major Ackerman?” Mary Kate asked. “I remember you from Fort Ellis. You were always very kind to me. What happened to you?”
“Surely you remember the difficulty that occurred between your father and me.”
“I know there was a trial of some sort. I didn’t pay that much attention to it.”
“You didn’t pay much attention to it,” Ackerman said scathingly. “Yes, there was a trial of some sort,” Ackerman replied. “A trial that destroyed my military career. Unlike your father who had his commission given to him, I earned mine. I was a West Point graduate.”
“I’m sorry,” Mary Kate said.
“Yes, well, being sorry doesn’t make me a colonel, does it?”
“What do you plan to do with me?”
“That depends upon your father.”
“What do you mean?”
“I left a message for your father, explaining that he can have you released safely, in exchange for twenty thousand dollars in cash.”
“Do you really think my father will give in to that kind of pressure?” Mary Kate asked.
“He will if he ever wants to see you alive again,” Ackerman said.
CHAPTER TEN
Mary Kate had no idea what time it was, but the fire they had built when they first camped in the arroyo had burned down so that now there was nothing left except a few glowing embers, and a very thin rope of smoke that curled up into the night sky. All the men who had bedded down around the fire were now asleep, that fact verified by heavy snoring from so many.
If she was going to escape, now would be the best time to try. Quietly, barely daring to breathe, she got up on her hands and knees and began crawling away from the fire and the sleeping men. Not until she was about twenty yards away did she stand up.
Once on her feet she looked back toward the campsite. There still had been no movement among the sleeping men. She had made it! She felt such a sense of elation that it was all she could do to keep from crying out. Turning back away from the camp, she st
arted to walk out of the long draw.
Suddenly Baker, one of Ackerman’s men, stepped out in front of her.
“Where do you think you’re going, missy?”
Baker grabbed her and then, to Mary Kate’s horror, he started trying to tear off her clothes.
Mary Kate screamed.
“Here! What is going on?” Ackerman called from back at the camp.
“I caught her, Major. She was tryin’ to escape!” Baker said.
“Bring her back.”
“Yes, sir.”
“He . . . he was trying to tear off my clothes,” Mary Kate said. “I think he was trying to rape me.”
“No such thing, Major. She was just fightin’ me, that’s all. Maybe some of her clothes got tore.”
“You did a good job of stopping her, Private Baker. You are to be commended.”
“Yes, sir, thank you, sir.”
“Return to your post.”
Mary Kate watched it all in disbelief. Not only the fact that Baker’s obvious lie went unchallenged, but also the, she thought, ridiculous charade at pretending they were still in the army.
“Lie back down,” Ackerman ordered.
“You know he lied, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“He lied, but you did nothing about it. I thought you were his commanding officer.”
“I am. But sometimes it is prudent to be flexible. I needed you back, and in one piece. And I advise you not to try this again. Conditions may be such that when the next man catches you, I might not be around in time to stop the inevitable unpleasantness. Now, I want you to promise me that you won’t try anything like this again.”
“What’s going to happen to me, Major Ackerman?”
“It depends on your father, girl. If he cares for you as much as I think he does, he will do whatever it takes to get you back safely. And right now, that means he has to come up with twenty thousand dollars. And you, Miss Hamilton . . .”
“My name is McVey, Mrs. McVey,” Mary Kate corrected.
Defiance of Eagles Page 9
