Those Jensen Boys!

by William W. Johnstone

  “That’s why the mail contract is so important to us,” Emily elaborated. “The line probably couldn’t survive just on carrying passengers. The mail keeps us afloat.”

  Ace thought for a few seconds, then asked, “How does Eagleton get the ore from his mine out? Does he ship it on the stage?”

  Emily laughed. “Ha. He wouldn’t do business with us, except for sending and receiving mail, and he doesn’t have any choice about that.”

  “He has his own wagons to carry the gold,” Bess explained. “And they’re heavily guarded.”

  “Any problems with outlaws trying to hold up those gold wagons?” Chance asked.

  Emily shook her head. “Not that I’ve ever heard of. The men who work for him are pretty tough. That’s how come he can use them for things like harassing honest business owners who don’t want to be gobbled up by his little tinpot empire.”

  Ace looked over at his brother and knew that Chance was trying to figure it out, too. Maybe there was no connection between Eagleton, Tanner, and the ambush in Shoshone Gap . . . but that seemed like too much of a coincidence to the Jensens.

  As they rode west across the valley, the talk turned to other things. Chance wanted to know more about the Corcoran sisters, and while Emily was taciturn, Bess was willing to fill in some of their background.

  “Pa worked for the Butterfield line and for Wells Fargo for a long time. He started out as a hostler and worked his way up to managing stage stations. Emily and I were born at stage stations, different ones because Pa had been transferred in the time between. Emily was born in Julesburg, and I was born in Silver City, both down in New Mexico.”

  “We’ve been to both places,” Chance said. “The fella who raised us moved around a lot, too.”

  “Pa said he wanted to settle down in one place, but I’m not sure he really did. Our ma would have liked it, though.”

  Emily said, “Too bad she died before she ever got to.”

  “Yes, that seemed to change Pa,” Bess said with a sigh. “He regretted that he never gave Ma what she wanted, but he knew she thought Emily and I should have a real home, so he decided he wanted to start his own stage line, someplace with a fairly short route so he could run it and still have time for us. He saved his money, and when he heard about the boom in Palisade he moved us there right after it started and established his business. Mr. Eagleton probably would have started his own stage line when he got around to it, but Pa beat him to it.”

  “That’s one more reason Eagleton’s so damn determined to take us over,” Emily put in. “The man can’t stand losing out on anything, even if it’s something that really doesn’t matter that much to him.”

  “What about you two?” Bess asked. “You said you never knew your real folks, and you were raised by a gambler, but surely there’s more to your lives than that.”

  “Not much,” Ace said with a shrug. “Doc Monday brought us up the best he could. I’m not sure he was really cut out to be raising kids, but he tried hard, I’ll give him that. We always had plenty to eat, decent clothes, and a roof over our heads. He made sure we got an education, too.”

  “That’s right,” Chance said. “By the time I was four years old, I could shuffle a deck of cards better than most. You should’ve seen the way I handled those pasteboards!”

  “I was thinking more of the way he always made sure we went to school, wherever we were. He said our mother had been a schoolteacher at one time, so he figured it would be important to her for us to learn as much as we could. We both like to read, so I reckon we probably got that from her.”

  “Your father might have liked to read, too,” Bess suggested.

  Ace shrugged. “Maybe. We don’t know a thing about him. I’m not sure Doc ever knew anything about him, except that his name was Jensen.”

  “Like Smoke Jensen,” Emily said. “The gunfighter. I’ve heard of him.”

  Chance groaned. “Don’t get Ace started on Smoke Jensen. As it happens, we actually met that hombre not that long ago, and he has been wondering ever since then if we might be related.”

  “You met Smoke Jensen?” It was the first time in the relatively short time they had known Emily that she actually seemed impressed by something about the brothers.

  “Yeah, just briefly,” Ace said. “We got in a little scrape in a town back down the trail a ways, and he stepped in to give us a hand. I think he was just passing through and happened to be in the same saloon we were.”

  Emily leaned forward on the driver’s seat as she asked, “Did he shoot anybody?”

  “You don’t have to sound so bloodthirsty,” Bess told her.

  “There wasn’t any shooting,” Ace replied with a shake of his head. “Just a little ruckus. He did draw his gun once, though. He just didn’t have to shoot.”

  “Was he as fast as everybody says?”

  “Hard to tell. We were slapping leather at the same time, so we weren’t really watching him. At least I wasn’t.”

  Chance said, “To tell you the truth, I think I shaded him just a hair.”

  “You did not!” Emily cried in disbelief. “You did not outdraw Smoke Jensen.”

  Chance shrugged casually. “You weren’t there. I’m just tellin’ you what it looked like to me.”

  “How gullible do you think I am?” Emily said with a snort. “Some saddle tramp outdrawing Smoke Jensen . . . that’ll be the day!”

  It was after noon by the time the stagecoach reached the foot of the long climb to Timberline Pass. Making the ascent would take most of the rest of the day, Bess explained as she stopped to rest the team. Going up was a lot slower job than coming down had been.

  “Of course, the last time we had to come down faster than we usually do, since Mr. Eagleton’s men were chasing us and shooting to spook the horses,” she added.

  “I’ve been thinking about that,” Ace said. “They shot over your heads deliberately, didn’t they? That way, if the stagecoach went off the trail and crashed, your bodies would be found in the wreckage but wouldn’t have any bullet holes in them. Nothing to tie back to Eagleton what happened. That’s pretty cunning.”

  “Nobody ever said Eagleton wasn’t smart,” Emily put in. “Just that he’s a lowdown skunk.”

  “Yes, but if he’d go to that much trouble to cover his tracks, why have somebody ambush you in Shoshone Gap? If you were gunned down, everybody would know you’d been murdered.”

  Emily shrugged. “Don’t ask me how a varmint like Eagleton thinks.”

  “One way or another,” Chance said, “he wanted you two girls to wind up dead . . . and that’s something he can’t get away with.”

  “We can talk about that later,” Bess said. “We usually stop here and have something to eat. By the way, we picked up those supplies you boys left at the general store in Bleak Creek.”

  “We appreciate that,” Ace said. “We’ll pay you back for them.”

  “Darn right you will,” Emily said. “We’re not made out of money.”

  They ate in the shade of some aspens, making do with bacon, coffee, and some biscuits the Corcoran sisters had brought from the café in Bleak Creek. It was actually a pretty pleasant meal, as even Emily relaxed and wasn’t as prickly as she had been most of the time.

  However, the shadow of the trouble that had been plaguing the stage line still hung over them, and none of them could quite manage to completely forget about it.

  When the meal was finished and the team was rested, they started the climb to the pass. As Bess had said, it was slow going as the big draft horses strained against the harness and the stagecoach creaked and wobbled. Ace and Chance followed it on horseback, since the road wasn’t wide enough for them to ride alongside.

  Both brothers constantly scanned the slope above them for any sign of another ambush or any other sort of trouble. By the time the coach reached the halfway point of the climb, nothing unusual had happened.

  Bess brought the vehicle to a halt on a wider, level spot where the trail doub
led back on itself in one of those hairpin turns. “We always stop here for a half hour or so to let the horses blow again. Then we’ll tackle the last stretch to the top.”

  Ace and Chance dismounted so their horses could rest, too. From where they were, they could look out across the valley and easily see all the way to Shoshone Gap ten miles away.

  “From up here it looks like the stage road runs straight as a string,” Ace commented.

  “Well, not quite,” Bess said. “There are a few turns. But yes, it’s almost straight. It’s an easy route.”

  He nodded. “That makes it good for a stagecoach. This part we’re on now is the roughest part of the whole run, I reckon.”

  Emily said, “That’s the truth.”

  “Ever have a coach go off the road on the way up or down?”

  “Not yet. Hopefully not ever.”

  Chance said, “If one ever did, anybody unlucky enough to be on it wouldn’t survive the fall.”

  “Let’s not talk about that,” Bess suggested. “We know what the risks are, and we’re willing to run them.” She started to pick up the reins. “The horses are probably rested enough by now—”

  Before she could go on, a loud scraping noise came from somewhere above them, followed by an ominous rumble. Ace jerked his head back, looked up toward the pass, and saw dust starting to rise. That could only mean one thing.

  “Avalanche!” he yelled.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The boulders bouncing and crashing down the slope were headed straight for where the stagecoach was parked. Bess had already turned it to head up the next stretch of trail, so at least it was pointed in the right direction as she slashed and yelled at the team. The horses leaped forward and jolted the coach into motion. Getting out of the way of the rockslide was the only chance.

  It was no good, Ace saw almost immediately. The stagecoach wouldn’t have time to get clear, but the road was a little wider, wide enough for one man on horseback to get past if he was careful.

  Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to be careful, either. Ace jabbed his boot heels into the chestnut’s flanks and galloped up next to the coach. The sheer drop down to the next lowest section of trail was only inches away from the horse’s pounding hooves. Chance followed close behind.

  “Bess!” Ace shouted over the growing thunder of the avalanche. “Come on!”

  She glanced frantically over her shoulder at him and cried, “I can’t abandon the coach!”

  “You have to! Jump while you can!”

  It was a matter of moments before the falling rocks would sweep over them. Bess saw how desperate the situation was and let out a cry of despair. She dropped the reins and launched herself off the driver’s box, landing on the chestnut’s back behind Ace and clutching at him.

  He reached back with his free hand to grab her as the horse stumbled and Bess started to slip. His fingers closed tightly on her vest and hung on. The chestnut recovered and surged ahead of the valiantly struggling team.

  Chance moved up and shouted, “Emily! Come on!”

  Her face, shadowed by the broad-brimmed brown hat and framed by curly blond hair, was pale and drawn with fear. Only seconds remained, but Emily didn’t budge. Chance leaned over in the saddle, held out his free hand to her, and shouted again, “Emily!”

  Finally, she broke the grip of terror that paralyzed her and slid over on the seat. She stood up and launched herself into space as she reached for Chance’s hand. He locked his fingers around her wrist and pulled her toward him. She landed in front of him and wrapped her arms around his neck as he embraced her waist and held her tightly. The horse lunged ahead.

  A heartbeat later, the first boulder struck the coach and crashed through its roof. The impact made the vehicle lean far out over the brink. The horses screamed in pain as the leading edge of the avalanche swept over them and pushed them off the trail. The coach went, too, vanishing along with the team in the deadly wave of rocks and dust.

  Chance and Emily cleared the avalanche’s path by a few feet but Chance didn’t slow down. The onslaught of falling rocks could still spread out and threaten them. He didn’t haul back on the reins until they reached the next turn in the road, where Ace and Bess waited.

  All four of them were covered in dust and quite shaken by the close call. As Chance brought his horse to a stop, Emily and Bess slipped down and ran to each other, hugging fiercely.

  Bess said, “Are . . . are you all right?”

  “Barely.” Emily was breathless as she went on, “I . . . I wouldn’t be . . . if it wasn’t for . . . Chance.”

  “Ace saved me.” Bess turned to look at the brothers. “You saved our lives.”

  “I’m sorry we couldn’t save the stagecoach and the team,” Ace told her. His face was grim and angry.

  “Those poor horses,” Bess said. “Losing the coach hurts, but we have another one. And we have more horses, of course, but—”

  “We damn near lost a lot more than that.” Emily had caught her breath. “We were almost killed!”

  “That rockslide didn’t start by accident.” Ace said.

  “How do you know that?” Bess asked. “Did you see something?”

  Ace shook his head. “I heard a scraping sound, like somebody was prying a boulder loose somewhere above us. I can’t prove that’s what happened, but I’m confident I’m right.”

  Carefully, Bess leaned over the edge to look down at the wreckage of the coach and the broken bodies of the horses visible at the base of the slope. “The road looks like it was damaged in places, but I think we can still get down there. We need to try to recover the mail we picked up in Bleak Creek.”

  “That’s right,” Emily said. “Failing to deliver it could cost us the mail contract with the government. Eagleton could still beat us that way, even if his men didn’t manage to kill us!”

  With Ace and Chance leading their horses, the four of them started back down the trail, picking their way around the debris left behind by the avalanche. Bess was right about the road being damaged—chunks of it had been knocked out—but there was room for them to make their way to the bottom where the rocks had spread out, only partially covering the destruction.

  Bess cried over the dead horses. Emily was more stoic, but tears glittered a little in her eyes, too. They concentrated on digging through the wreckage of the stagecoach with help from Ace and Chance until they found the box that contained the mail pouch. The lid was broken but hadn’t come off. Ace wrenched it loose, took out the pouch, and handed it to Bess.

  “I’ll hang on to this,” she said. “We can still take it to Palisade.”

  “We won’t get there before nightfall, though,” Emily pointed. “The mail will still be late.”

  Ace frowned. “Late’s not as bad as not getting there at all. Under the circumstances, I don’t see how the government could be upset with you for the delay.”

  Emily continued. “That depends on how much pressure Eagleton brings to bear. He’s rich enough to have some friends in high places.”

  “We’ll worry about that later,” Bess said. “For now we still have a long climb ahead of us.”

  That was true. Still on foot, they started up toward the pass once more.

  When Bess and Emily began to wear out, Ace and Chance insisted that they ride the horses. Both sisters argued but in the end, they went along with it.

  “Emily and I could ride double on one of the horses and the two of you could take the other one,” Bess suggested.

  “Or Ace and I could ride our own horses and one of you girls could double up with each of us,” Chance responded without hesitation.

  Ace said, “The horses don’t need to be carrying double going up this slope. Chance and I can walk.” He ignored the glare that his brother directed toward him, took hold of the chestnut’s reins, and began leading the horse up the trail while Bess rocked along in the saddle.

  They reached the summit and Timberline Pass just as the sun was setting. Enough light remained
in the sky for Ace to look across the broad bench that stretched for several miles before the mountains rose again.

  Emily pointed. “Palisade is at the base of that sawtooth peak. The entrance to the Golden Dome is about halfway up the mountain above it.”

  After letting the horses rest for a while, they mounted up again. Ace and Bess were on the chestnut.

  Emily was reluctant to accept riding behind Chance, but he pointed out, “You were happy enough to ride with me after I pulled you off that stagecoach.”

  “That was different. That was a matter of life and death.”

  Chance just sat there in the saddle smiling as he extended a hand to her.

  Emily shook her head, blew out her breath disgustedly, and gripped his hand to swing up behind him. “I’m riding back here. You got a little too free with your hands when I was in front of you.”

  “Purely accidental, I assure you.” Chance looked over at Ace and Bess and dropped a wink where Emily couldn’t see him. Even under the circumstances, Bess had to laugh.

  “What?” Emily demanded.

  “Let’s just go,” Ace said. “It’s going to be well after dark before we get there.”

  The sky turned a deeper blue and then faded to black as the stars began to come out. Twinkling lights appeared in the distance to mark the location of the settlement. Those yellow glows came in handy, giving Ace and Chance something to steer by as they guided their mounts through the darkness.

  Even before they reached Palisade, they heard raucous music coming from the town. “It sounds like your saloons are pretty lively places,” Chance commented.

  “What do you expect in a mining town?” Emily asked. “Men who work underground all day like to blow off a little steam at night.”

  “What’s the law like?” Ace said.

  “There’s a town marshal,” Bess said. “Claude Wheeler. But he doesn’t really work for the town. He’s an employee of the Golden Dome Mining Company, and so are his deputies.”

  “So Eagleton’s got the law in his pocket, is what you’re saying.”