by Terri Farley
Darby brushed her hands against each other, then said, “Let’s go see Tutu.”
Hoku’s head jerked up. Her eyes blinked as she’d come out of a doze, but when Darby tried to lead her, the filly wouldn’t move.
“C’mon, girl,” Darby coaxed, “we’ve got to tell her about the pig, and I’m not leaving you here.”
Everything Darby had observed made her believe the black boar was rabid, and horses could get rabies, too.
“We’ll walk over to Tutu’s, tell her what happened, then go home and tell Jonah. We really don’t want Megan to show up tomorrow morning to look for Tango and run into trouble with a boar,” she said.
“Hoku!” Darby gave the rope a firm tug. “I can’t leave you here alone.”
She wouldn’t go alone, either.
If she were Tutu, she’d insist her great-granddaughter stay safe in the cottage rather than return to territory roamed by a rabid pig, whether there was a horse waiting for her or not.
Darby tried sweet-talking the filly. She tried striding out to the end of the lead rope as if she just assumed the mustang would follow. Hoku didn’t move.
She didn’t say it aloud, but Darby thought Hoku was acting like horses she’d read about, which stayed in the “safety” of their stalls, refusing to leave even when fire roared around them.
Finally, Darby gave up. They’d leave at first light. By then, Hoku would have recovered.
Darby found a stout branch that had fallen on the rain-forest floor and stripped the leaves from it. That would make a passable club. She’d protect herself and Hoku from the pig if she had to.
I only have to make it through the night, Darby thought. Even a rabid pig must have learned a lesson today. Wouldn’t he avoid a place where he’d been stuck under a fence, yelled at by an insane human, and practically trampled by a horse?
The pig didn’t come to the stream at dusk. He didn’t show up at midnight, either.
Afraid her camping lantern could be dangerous because the boar could stagger into it, spill lantern fuel, and cause a fire, Darby read a book by the beam of her flashlight.
Exhausted and sore, Darby thought she’d have to fight to stay awake, but the opposite was true. She couldn’t fall asleep.
Darby flipped through Jonah’s book and learned about Hawaii’s endangered nene goose. She read the section on feral pigs, too, and one fact kept rising to the surface of her mind long after she’d finished the chapter.
Because of their tough hide and the scar tissue on shoulders, feral pigs can only be killed with bullets, the passage had said.
Megan had been afraid of Cade because he carried a rifle everywhere he went. That’s what she’d said. So if Cade had had a rifle that day in the rain forest, why hadn’t he used it to save Ben Kato?
The black boar still hadn’t shown up at dawn, but Megan, Cade, and Kit did.
Darby heard their approach and struggled into jeans to cover her skinned knees. Tears filled her eyes by the time she pulled up her zipper and made it into her only wearable shirt.
Yesterday, she’d been surprised that her muscles only ached a little from her smash-and-tear, stumble-and-drag journey at the end of Hoku’s rope. But today she ached everywhere. Even her fingernails hurt.
Darby limped to the edge of the clearing. The first thing she noticed was that Megan rode Navigator. Darby didn’t have even a second to feel jealous, though. The instant he spotted her, the big gelding tossed his head and gave a short, happy neigh.
Darby blew the Quarter Horse a kiss, then she looked closely at Megan and Cade. The two rode into the clearing side by side. Even though they weren’t talking, the silence that had been like a wall of ice between them was clearly melting.
Kit jogged Conch past the others.
“Hey there, cowgirl,” said the foreman.
Darby felt a thrill of pride at the greeting and she waved.
Kit Ely held his reins in his right hand, while his left rested on the thigh of his short leather chaps. With his night-black hair and dark skin, he might be mistaken for a Hawaiian, though he was really half Shoshone. But that wasn’t what made Kit remarkable.
Darby admired the way he kept Conch quiet. The grulla gelding was a challenge to Megan, and she was a good rider, but Conch obeyed Kit without question.
Kit rode with such ease, Darby wouldn’t have believed he’d been badly injured riding rodeo broncs if she hadn’t heard about the accident from a good source.
Kit’s left wrist was “dust,” according to Sam Forster, and Sam had heard the description from Kit’s brother Jake.
“Filly looks fine,” Kit said.
He gave Darby a conspiratorial wink. They shared an admiration for mustangs that Jonah didn’t have. Her grandfather had said it would take Hoku at least a year to become fit enough to ride, but Kit had believed Hoku’s wild-horse toughness would cut the recovery time needed after her voyage and relocation in half.
“’Course,” Kit added, smiling at Hoku’s excited neighs to the other horses, “she sounds a mite lonesome.”
“She’s fibbing,” Darby said. “She’s had Tango for company.”
“Has she?” Kit sounded surprised.
Darby wished she hadn’t revealed that quite so soon. She didn’t want to tell Kit everything that had happened with the pig. At least not yet.
But Kit was an expert tracker. In fact, if she’d given his presence just two minutes of thought, she would have realized he was here to help find Tango.
Kit rode around the outside of the corral, eyes fixed on the ground, then widened his search while Darby went to the others.
Although Megan and Cade had joined forces to recapture Tango, there was still an awkwardness between them.
“You rode,” Darby said suddenly.
“Only because Tutu gave us permission,” Megan said. “We’re allowed to come in on horseback and catch Tango, but Tutu made us promise we wouldn’t gallop after her until we’d tried plan A,” Megan said.
But then Megan detailed plan B instead.
Joker and Navigator were both good roping horses, Megan explained, and since she and Cade threw lucky loops most of the time, Cade would send Joker galloping after Tango, then put a loop over her head.
“I’ll lag behind, so she knows I’m still her friend,” Megan said.
“Or you’ll be there with a second rope, if I miss my throw,” Cade said.
“You won’t,” Megan said. Then, seeing Darby glance toward Kit, Megan added, “Jonah wants Kit to track that crazy pig you saw. Then, after we catch Tango and all ‘us kids’ are gone, Jonah expects Kit to come back and kill it.”
The idea would have horrified Darby yesterday, but after facing the pig, she wasn’t so sure.
“I don’t know if he’s crazy,” Darby said. “But I saw that boar yesterday, and I think it does have rabies.”
Cade straightened in his saddle, watching intently as Kit jogged up on Conch.
Right then, Darby noticed Cade wasn’t the only one with a scabbard on his saddle.
“Judgin’ by tracks, we got one sick hog,” Kit said. “Let’s get your plan rollin’.” He nodded toward Megan. “Horses are our first priority. I want them outta here until I take care of that boar.”
Kit’s opinion meant she’d had a good reason to be scared yesterday, Darby thought. Then she swallowed and asked Megan, “What’s plan A?”
“Bubbles.” Megan dismounted with a smile, unbuckled her saddlebag, and took out a plastic jar.
She winked at Darby, confirming that she’d believed what Darby had said: Bubbles had lured Tango here in the first place.
Darby heard Hoku’s hooves and looked over to see the filly pacing. The mustang was all lathered up, as if she’d been running.
What’s wrong, girl? Darby sent her thoughts toward the sorrel. Too many people? Too much commotion? Or do you smell trouble?
“Let’s do it.” Kit’s resolute voice brought Darby’s attention back to plans A and B as the foreman scanned t
he woods around them. “You three can talk while you loosen cinches and tie up the horses. Megan, how about you get out there by the stream in ten minutes?”
“Got it,” Megan agreed.
“I’ll give you until noon to coax Tango to you. If she doesn’t come, then we’ll try something else. I want all these horses out of here before dark.”
“Then,” Megan said carefully, “no offense to anyone, but I think my best chance to catch her is if I’m out there alone.”
Everyone nodded, and though Darby longed to watch Megan’s reunion with her rose roan mare, she knew the older girl was probably right.
“So, why didn’t Jonah come?” Darby asked as she tethered Navigator while Megan loosened his cinch.
Before Megan answered, Cade interrupted, pointing at Darby’s elbow.
“What did you do?”
“Gosh, is that down to the bone?” Megan gasped.
“It’s nothing,” Darby said.
Cupping her hand over the scrape to hide it, she could feel that it had started bleeding again.
“We can fix it real quick,” Cade said.
“It doesn’t hurt or anything,” Darby protested, but she realized Cade had been looking at Kit, assuring the foreman that first aid wouldn’t take long.
When Kit nodded, Cade stopped listening to Darby.
Working as quickly as Tutu had while making her antiasthma potion, Cade used his knife to gather some of the fern velvet Jonah had made her touch. Then he pressed it to Darby’s elbow and left her holding it in place while he searched for a ti leaf.
“Jonah got into a squabble with his sister, Babe. Your aunt,” Megan muttered.
Darby remembered Tutu using her fingertip to draw a line on the tabletop, showing how she’d divided the family lands between Jonah and his sister.
“And then poor Jonah had to stay at Babe’s five-star resort to talk things out,” Megan said, smirking.
“Oh yeah,” Darby said. She vaguely remembered the Sugar Bay or Cove or Something Else Resort that Kimo had pointed out on their drive from the airport to the ranch.
Cade returned holding a broad green leaf and told Darby, “Your tutu did this for me, and it worked real well.” He bound the ti leaf over the fern velvet. “Just leave it to heal for a week and you won’t even know you were hurt.”
“Thanks,” Darby said.
Since she’d been banned from watching the execution of plan A, Darby groomed Hoku. It didn’t soothe the filly as it usually did, but Darby kept at her brushing for over an hour before she stopped.
Hoku stood with her head low. Sweat darkened the golden hair around her white-starred chest to a yellow-brown.
“This is all just too much, isn’t it, girl? First the pig, now all these people, and horses on the other side of the fence while you’re inside.”
But Hoku’s ears didn’t prick up to listen to Darby’s voice. The mustang just looked at her, dull-eyed.
Megan had settled by the stream with Tango’s old halter, hoping the mare would recognize its scent. She blew bubbles, too, and every now and then, the breeze brought Darby the sound of Megan talking.
Cade perched in a tree overlooking the stream, so he could alert Megan if the rustling she heard coming toward her wasn’t Tango, but the boar. And though Darby knew which tree he’d climbed, Cade was so still, she couldn’t spot him.
Kit rode the perimeter of the kipuka without saying if he was looking for the boar or the rose roan. And Darby forgot all about him until she left the corral.
“Come ride with me,” Kit said as Darby locked the corral gate behind her.
Without a second thought, Darby agreed. More nervous than achey, she hurried, as fast as her sore legs would carry her, over to Navigator, and resaddled him.
For one moment she was afraid her muscles were too sore to lift her foot into the stirrup, and she yelped as she swung her right leg over Navigator’s back, but once she was settled in the saddle, she felt okay.
As they rode, she noticed Kit checking out her scraped elbow, the way she rolled her shoulders to keep them from stiffening, and the careful way she held Navigator’s reins to keep them from rubbing her tender palms.
“Is this a setup?” she asked him, surprising herself with her ability to joke with the foreman. “Did you ask me to ride so that you could see if I did something stupid to get myself all banged up?”
“Naw,” Kit said, squinting at the landscape ahead. “You can tell me now, or later. I don’t care when, exactly, but you’re by golly gonna spill the beans.”
So Darby told Kit what had happened yesterday.
Maybe he pointed out hoofprints from Hoku and Tango and the pig just to keep her talking longer, Darby thought, or maybe he was trying to teach her something, but she found herself excited to tell someone about her adventure.
When he didn’t scold her, she kept talking.
And even though she meant to leave out the part where she rolled down the hill and came to rest in the middle of a family of pigs, she didn’t, because then she couldn’t have bragged about Hoku coming back to her.
They rode up a hill and rested the horses at the summit. From there, they could see the entire kipuka. It really wasn’t very big. In fact, when Kit pointed at a tiny valley that funneled past the stream and into the clearing, Darby gasped, “That’s Tango!”
“Yep,” Kit said. “Standing right where she can watch Megan, but not going any closer. We’re wastin’ that terrain,” he added, but Darby didn’t understand what he meant.
As they headed back downhill, Kit said, “Yesterday? That was a lot to handle on your own.”
It wasn’t quite a reprimand, but Darby told him, “I didn’t want to. I tried to go tell Tutu, but Hoku wouldn’t leave her corral.”
Kit nodded. “Even mustangs get that way, thinking home base is the only safe place to be.”
“And when I thought of that pig coming back and trapping her inside…” Darby looked over at Kit, but he made no sign of agreement, so she added, “I know I should have gone for help, but I just couldn’t leave her.”
But maybe Kit had stopped listening.
“That’s it,” he said, pointing at Darby. “We’ll trap Tango just like we trapped that bronc at the Salinas rodeo.”
“We will?” Darby asked, but Kit just motioned for her to catch up.
“Let’s go,” he said. “It’s almost noon and I want to cut those two off before they move on to their crazy plan B.”
Darby nudged Navigator with her heels and joined Kit in a lope, but then she shouted, hoping he could hear her through the breeze the horses made, “There’s no plan B without Navigator!”
From the shade of his black hat, Kit flashed her a grin. He gave her a thumbs-up sign, too, but they let the horses continue loping, just for the joy of it.
Chapter 13
Kit squatted in the dirt, drawing with a stick. It didn’t take long for him to explain that one of the easiest ways to catch a panicked horse was by cornering it.
“All you need’s bait—and for that we can put all the saddle horses in the pen with Hoku and feed ’em early—and enough people walking side by side to make a human chain to cut off her escape.”
On the map he’d drawn in the dirt, Kit showed them how the little valley funneled past the stream, then opened into the clearing.
Cade, Megan, and Darby nodded in excitement.
“We just lay up real quiet until she has her drink of water at the stream,” Kit said, “and when she starts smelling that hay and going to investigate, we move after her, slowly. And when the corral’s in sight and Tango’s deciding what to do, you”—Kit nodded his head at Megan—“just mosey up and put her halter on.”
“Piece of cake,” Megan said, and with that reminder, each of the horse trappers grabbed something to eat, then returned to the rain forest to wait for Tango.
It was late afternoon, three o’clock at least, Darby thought. Her thigh and calf muscles trembled as she crouched in the foliage.
And then Hoku warned them that the rose roan was coming.
The filly let loose a ringing neigh that made birds rise crying from the trees. Then Darby felt the ground beneath her tremble as something crashed through the rain forest, coming toward them.
Skittish but excited, Tango loped right past the stream and the humans in hiding. Her ears pricked forward with almost coltish interest.
“Fall in,” Kit said in a stage whisper, but Tango’s lope had already carried her out of earshot.
The pink mare didn’t look back as Cade, Megan, Kit, and Darby walked after her, leaving six feet or so between them. They followed the mare closely enough that they saw her shy at Darby’s shelter, then startle at the sight of the corral. She stopped, then sidestepped as Hoku pressed her sorrel face against the corral fence rails.
Navigator, Conch, and Joker joined Hoku at the fence and stared, transfixed by the other horse.
Tango threw her black mane and it slapped back down on her neck. Her nostrils distended as she sniffed the bottom of the gate.
With a frown and silent shrug, Megan looked over at Darby.
“What’s she doing?” Megan mouthed, but when Darby curved her index fingers on either side of her nose in—she thought—a perfect imitation of boar tusks, Megan just shook her head in confusion.
Tango raised her head, trying to see the hay inside the corral, until she looked seventeen hands high.
“Now,” Kit whispered, gesturing Megan forward.
She carried the leather halter and strolled toward the mare. Tango glanced over her shoulder and turned back to the corral and then she shied, as if she hadn’t believed her eyes the first time.
Megan stopped, held her hand out for the pink mare to sniff, and waited. In just a few minutes, the mare approached close enough for Megan to ease the halter on her head. In a few more, Megan led her toward the gate, where Cade, the only other person the roan knew from her captive life, opened it.
Darby watched all of this from the back, but it seemed to her that Megan walked with pride as she gave Tango an openhanded pat on the rump, telling her it was all right to join the other horses.
