So that was where he had stored it. She ought to have climbed up there and looked first thing. Wearily, she lifted her face to gaze up at him. “I think so.”
“Hold tight. I’ll go get it. Your ma’s going to hold the end of the lasso to help you a little.”
Sally couldn’t see that it was any easier now to keep Pa’s head out of the water, especially since he had slipped into unconsciousness. The board wasn’t helping at all. She willed her numbing arms to hold on and her back and legs to keep supporting both of them.
A few minutes later, her mother called, “Someone’s coming. Someone in a wagon.”
“Thank You, Lord,” Sally whispered. She could hear distant voices as Ma explained the situation to the newcomer.
Johnny reappeared above her. “Eph Caxton’s here, Sally. He’s going to help me get the ladder down. Stay over to the side now.”
Mr. Caxton poked his head over the edge of the well.
“Miz Paynter?”
“Yes. Hello.”
“I’m going to help your husband. We’ll put the ladder down easy if we can, but we might have to take off the windlass. I misdoubt the ladder’s long enough to reach bottom, though.”
Sally pushed back against the side of her prison, holding her father as close to her as she could. The space was tight, but his legs had stopped helping support him long ago, and she knew he would sag beneath the surface if she loosened her grip.
Johnny and Eph managed to work the ladder into the well without dismantling the windlass. They let it down slowly until they held it by its top rung. The bottom hung a few inches above the top of the water.
“I’m going to let go,” Johnny said.
The ladder plunked downward, wobbled, and stood against the wall of the well. Sally felt her father’s body move. The ladder must have hit his feet.
“All right now, let go of him,” Johnny said. “Eph will hold his head up with the lasso.”
“What if it doesn’t work?” Sally asked doubtfully.
“Then we’ll have to hurry.”
She reached for the floating board and tried to rest Pa’s head on it, but his face still flopped into the water.
“Hold him up,” she cried. “Johnny, I can’t do it. He’ll drown if I leave him.”
“Take it easy. Can you lay him on his back and put that board under his head?”
She wasn’t sure it would work or if there was room enough to shift his position that much, but she tugged at him until he lay back against her shoulder again.
“Pa, wake up.” She fumbled for the board and pushed it underwater and beneath his head. “Pa, can you hear me?” She pulled away from him, and his body floated for the moment.
“That’s it. Hurry, now,” Johnny said. “Climb the wooden ladder, but hold on to the rope.”
Feeling slightly befuddled, Sally grasped the well rope and put her weight on the bottom rung of the wooden ladder. It wobbled and tipped but then seemed stable. She climbed to the second step, then the third.
“How’s he doing?” she asked. The brightness above her made it hard to see any detail below.
“He’s all right. Come on up until you can reach my hands.”
Johnny leaned over the side and extended his arms down the well, but he was still several feet above Sally. She climbed another step. Water streamed from her clothing. The ladder had only two more rungs, and the top one was a good eight feet below the berm.
“It’s not high enough,” she said.
“Use the rope.”
She balanced carefully, with nothing to hang on to this high up but the well rope. The loops were too low to help her. If she could reach them, they might make the difference.
“I made loops,” she gasped. Johnny’s face was only a few feet away now.
“Loops?” he said, frowning.
“Like on the clothesline. For Pa, but he couldn’t use them.”
“Hold on to the ladder,” Johnny said. “Let go of the rope.”
She released it and clung to the top of the ladder’s sides, hunched over and shaking. Johnny cranked the well rope up with the windlass, while Eph kept the lasso taut around her father’s torso. Johnny caught the lower part of the rope and slid the knots Sally had made upward along the wet rope.
“All right, now you can use these for steps.” He let the rope fall back down where Sally could reach it. The lowest loop hung a foot above the ladder rung she was standing on.
She grabbed the rope and held it for a moment, feeling stupid and slow. After a couple of deep breaths, she guided the loop and carefully fitted her shoeless foot into it. She grimaced and clung to the rope so she could step up into the next loop with her other foot.
“Now move the bottom one up,” Johnny said.
“My feet hurt.”
“Can you reach me now?” He leaned over and stretched to grasp her fingers.
Sally let go of the rope with one hand and strained upward. Their hands met.
“Good girl! Give me your other hand.”
The rope loop bit into her arch as she pushed up on her top foot and gripped his other hand.
“Yeah! On three,” Johnny, said, grinning. “One, two, three!”
He hauled her up to the berm by brute force, and Sally plummeted out onto the dirt beside the well. Her mother immediately wrapped her in a blanket. It felt good, despite the searing sun.
“Let’s get you inside and find some dry clothes for you,” Ma said.
“We have to get Pa out.” Sally pulled back against her guiding hand.
“I’m going down now.” Johnny was already lowering himself over the edge of the well. “You go get dried out. Eph, you ready?”
“Ready,” Eph said.
“Come,” Ma whispered. “You’re not decent.”
Sally looked down at her dripping chemise and petticoat and drew the blanket closer about her. “All right, but you stay with Pa. Make them bring him in to our bed.”
Sally picked up her shoes and staggered toward the house. The bottoms of her feet still hurt, and her arms and legs felt tired to the point of uselessness. Still, she managed to get inside the house. At the sight of the outlaw’s body, she pulled up short. Did Johnny even know this man was in here? “Dear God, help us!”
She lurched to the bedroom and closed the door. As quickly as she could, she peeled off her drenched clothes and threw them in a pile on the floor. Her fingers, still stiff and uncooperative, balked at the corset strings, and she cast the garment aside and pulled on a fresh dress.
Knocking came at the door before she could take her hair down to comb it.
“Sally, dear, are you ready?” her mother called. “They’ve got him out. Johnny’s carrying him inside now.”
Sally opened the door. “They’ll have to overlook my appearance.” At least she had a complete dress on. She rushed to the bed and flung the quilt back.
“No, leave that,” Ma said. “I’ll have to strip his clothes off, and we don’t want to get the mattress wet from them.”
Sally helped pull it back in place as Johnny and Eph carried her father in and stretched him out on top of the quilt. Johnny began at once to pull Pa’s shoes off, and Eph set to work on his shirt. Pa’s face was stark white, and Sally could barely make out the movements of his chest as he breathed.
“Who’s that feller out in the kitchen?”
Johnny’s terse question reminded Sally of the earlier events.
“I believe it’s Flynn.”
Johnny dropped Pa’s second shoe and stared at her. “Their leader?”
“Yes. And Cam seemed ready to take over that position when Flynn fell.”
“Well, Cam won’t be doing any more terrorizing,” Johnny said. “If I lug Flynn outside to Eph’s wagon, can you heat some water and make some strong tea for your pa?”
“Of course.”
Ma moved into his spot and began to help Eph work the wet clothing off her father’s body. Sally turned away and walked with Johnny the few steps to h
er kitchen.
“If I’d known, I would have stopped when we came through,” Johnny said, gazing down at Flynn’s inert form.
“I know, and I wanted you so desperately to help Pa. Guess I should have made that clear. But it happened so quickly.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t even know your folks were here. What’s been going on while I was gone, Sally?”
“They came on the train to keep me company until you came back.”
“Well, your pa has paid dearly for that decision.”
“If they hadn’t come, I’d be dead, or in the outlaws’ camp. Pa held them off.” She brushed a stray tear from her cheek. “They shot him through the window, and then Cam threw him down the well.”
Johnny clenched his jaw and eyed the back door. “Looks like the leader busted in through the back—that right?”
Sally nodded. “Ma was right here by the stove with Pa’s Colt, and she blasted him.”
Johnny stared at her. “Your ma shot that man?”
“Yes.”
“I saw another’un in the barn when I went to get the ladder,” Johnny said.
“That must be the one that tried to come in the front window. Either that or Pa got another when he was shooting through the window.”
“Come here, girl.” Johnny pulled her in against his chest and held her so tightly Sally could barely breathe, but she didn’t want him to let her go. “Seems I owe your folks a big debt.”
“Where’s Sheriff Jackson?” she asked.
“Taken the prisoners into town.”
“So, the posse got them all?”
“There was three left standing when we got done over at Caxtons’.”
“Cam was riding with them when they came here,” Sally said. “He tried to get me to open the door. He didn’t know I had Ma and Pa here—thought I was all alone.”
“If I’d known that, I’d have killed him for sure,” Johnny said. “As it was, I couldn’t pull the trigger when I came face-to-face with him. I was so shocked, to think he would do this.”
“Who shot him?”
“Eph. Good thing, too. He was drawing down on me.”
“We’ll have to thank him properly after things settle down,” she said.
Johnny nodded. “I still can’t believe it, hardly. I asked Cam about Colorado before he died. Told him about the notice Fred Jackson got. He admitted it, Sally.”
“He killed that man up there?”
“Yeah. Why didn’t I realize it right away?”
“You thought Cam was a decent fellow.”
“It’s funny in a way, because we were never that close at the Lone Pine. Cam wasn’t one I’d have picked for my best buddy. But you work with someone day after day, and you get to know them, and you know they’ll stand by you if something happens. And then something did happen, and I didn’t think twice about trusting him.”
“I guess that’s something we can learn from.” Sally put her hand on his back and rubbed it in small circles. Was it so different from her trusting Johnny the day he met her at the depot, because she thought he was Mark? She probably should have been more cautious as well. “I’m sorry. But I sure am glad you’re the one who came back in one piece.”
Johnny was silent; then he straightened. “When the shooting was done at Caxtons’, one of the gang told us there’d been a fracas here. I lit out when I heard it.”
“I’m glad you did. I couldn’t have held Pa up much longer.”
“Come on, let’s get that water heating.” Johnny opened the lid of the firebox. “I’ll build up the fire. Can you get more water?”
“The well water’s a mess now,” Sally said. “And I dumped the bucket I had in here on the fire outside. There’s a little in the teakettle, though.” She picked it up and judged its weight.
“Make the tea, then.”
The bedroom pitcher still held a quart or so of clean water, so Ma used that to clean her husband’s wound. Meanwhile, Johnny and Eph loaded the outlaws’ bodies into the wagon next to Cam’s. Sally got her comb and hand mirror from the bedroom and put her hair to rights then walked out to where Johnny was covering the bodies with an old blanket.
“I’ll ask the doctor to come out here,” Eph said as he climbed to the wagon seat. “And I’ll bring you a barrel of water later.”
Johnny waved in acknowledgment. He took off his hat and slapped it against his thigh as he walked over to join Sally on the stoop. “Now, Mrs. Paynter, you have a lot more to tell me.”
“Yes, I do,” she said. “But you need some dry clothes, and I believe there’s still chicken and dumplings on the stove, if it hasn’t burned on or dried out.”
“I don’t care if it has,” Johnny said. “I’ll eat it anyway. And I need a proper introduction to your mother.”
CHAPTER 28
Dr. Neale made a return visit to the ranch two days after the attack and pronounced Jeremiah Vane well enough to take a little solid food and sit up if he felt like it.
Johnny joined Sally in the kitchen while Mrs. Vane had a final word with Dr. Neale.
“Looks like your pa will be all right,” he said.
“In time.” Sally picked up the bucket of water by the stove and poured half of it into the wash boiler on top. The well water was almost clear now, but they were still hauling what they drank from the Caxtons’.
“It’s been a shock to see Pa so weak,” Sally admitted.
Johnny nodded. Sally was as solicitous as her mother in tending Jeremiah, but he could tell it pained her to see her father in his present condition. “He’s getting better, though.”
“The doctor says he needs to stay in bed a couple of weeks, at least. He won’t even consider letting him travel before that.”
“We’ll see how it goes,” Johnny said. “I can’t see him riding a train, even as far as Abilene, for a while. He needs to get his strength back.”
She smiled. “You know, five years ago, before I left Texas, he was a strong man. He could load or unload a ton of freight in less than an hour. That’s how I remember him. Now he seems to have aged more than five years.”
“Sweetheart, he was shot two days ago. Give him time.”
“I know.” Sally walked to the table and sat down. “The day I met them at the depot, he had seemed older to me, but not old.” She glanced at Johnny. “Was that the same day the outlaws came? It all seems such a jumble.”
“I reckon it was. And the day I came home.”
“Mmm. Well, Pa’s hair is much grayer now. I don’t think it was that gray before the shooting. And he’s so frail.”
“That will change, especially if you and your ma feed him up like Doc Neale said.”
“I guess so. But I’ve sort of realized my folks are getting older.”
“So are we, when you get right down to it,” Johnny said.
“Well, yes, but…” She shook her head.
Dr. Neale came out of the bedroom, carrying his bag. “Well folks, I’m off.”
“Won’t you stay and have a meal, Doctor?” Sally asked.
“No time. I need to stop in at the Hoods’ and check on old Bill and also on Mrs. Bill’s new baby.”
“Mary had her baby?” Sally cried.
“Yes, a healthy little girl.”
“How is Mr. Hood doing?” As Sally talked, she went to her worktable and wrapped a couple of biscuits and a slice of cake in a napkin.
“He’ll be all right if his wound doesn’t get infected. Bill’s a hard man to keep down, though. He’s already fussing about all the work he can’t do.”
“Take this.” Sally held out the napkin package. “You must get hungry, driving around to see everyone who’s ailing.”
“Thank you kindly,” Dr. Neale said. “Sheriff Jackson’s still got a wounded outlaw at the jail. He sent the others on to Houston. I hope we can get the last one fit enough to send him off.”
“I sleep a little easier, knowing that gang’s been caught,” Sally said.
Johnny walked ou
t to the corral with the doctor. When he returned, Sally was back at work in the kitchen. “I’ll put dinner on the table in fifteen minutes for you and Ma and me.”
Johnny nodded. “And I’ll spell your ma while she eats. Do you need anything now?”
Sally glanced around the kitchen. “I hate to say it, but I could use more water.”
Johnny grabbed the bucket and went out to the barrel near the stoop.
A short time later, Sally persuaded her mother to join her in the kitchen for the meal, while Johnny helped Pa eat his dinner.
“Pa’s getting pretty good at feeding himself,” she noted as she put a tray with two dishes of beef stew in Johnny’s hands.
“I’ll let him do as much of the work as he wants to,” Johnny said.
He carried the tray into the bedroom, and Jeremiah, propped up on pillows, smiled wearily.
“Got a mind for some stew?” Johnny asked.
“Maybe a little.”
Johnny settled him with his bowl and sat down in a chair beside the bed to eat with him. When Johnny finished his own bowl, Jeremiah was only halfway done with his. Each time the older man lifted the spoon to his mouth, it seemed to take a great effort.
“Want some help?” Johnny asked.
“No, I’m fine, but thank you.” Slowly, Jeremiah managed to get another spoonful to his lips.
“It’s probably good for you to do it yourself,” Johnny noted, remembering how helpless he’d felt when his arm was broken.
A couple of minutes later, Jeremiah let the spoon rest in the bowl and sighed. “Guess I’m done for the time being.”
Johnny took the bowl and set it over on the tray on top of the washstand.
“Sir, I just want to say how much I appreciate that you were here when Sally had the trouble with the outlaws.”
Her father smiled faintly. “It’s not like we planned it.”
“Oh, I know, but…I’m just glad she didn’t have to face them alone.”
“So am I. Things would have gone badly. That is, worse than they did.” Jeremiah looked down at his bandages. “The doc says I’m lucky. The bullet didn’t hit anything vital. And they could have shot me again. I believe they would have killed me outright if Sally hadn’t spoken up. She stood up to the fellow—the one they called Cam.”
The Outlaw Takes a Bride Page 29
