It had all happened so quickly and when Colby killed Ole Butch, Helena knew exactly what kind of man they were dealing with. But this man had no idea the wrath that was about to pour down on him.
"He killed Ole Butch. Will he hurt my Mama?"
Mr. Barnes looked into Helena's wet eyes.
"Don't you have work to do?" Helena glanced at Joel.
"Not until the Wyler's are here I don't. You and the boy can rest easy."
Helena murmured, "Thanks Joel…"
He nodded.
"I want Mama…" Jimmy cried.
"I know darling, your Pa and Grandpa will get her back, you'll see." Helena promised.
Ben and Jason ran inside the house and saw Jimmy clutching Helena and crying. Joel stood in the doorway.
"What happened?" Jason asked.
Ben grabbed Jimmy and cuddled him to him as Helena tried to explain what had happened.
Pedro had put the horses up and then came running into the house, standing beside Joel.
"A man named Colby Newman happened." Helena explained as Jason squatted down beside her and held her hand.
"What did he want?"
"Gabby! He took her!"
"Took her!" Ben shouted, and started to pace the room with Jimmy on his shoulder.
"He's holding her for ransom. Said he'd send a note about the money soon." Helena cried.
Jimmy raised his tear soaked eyes to Ben. "He killed Butch."
Ben's face turned red with anger. Jason's brows drew together slowly. "I'm sorry you had to see that Jimmy. Don't you worry. Butch is in a better place now. I'm sure of that. But we'll get your mother back, I promise."
"Who is this man, never heard of a Colby?" Jason insisted.
"He's the man that killed her first husband, Frank. He thinks Frank robbed him and she knows where the money is. But when he found out she was married to a Wyler, he decided it was easier just to ransom her. Anyone with any sense could see Gabby and Jimmy have no money. My God, they were half starved when they came here. Maybe he would have let it go, but when he called her Mrs. Campbell, she was quick to let him know that she was Mrs. Wyler."
"Where did this happen?" Jason asked.
"On the side of the road about mid way between here and town. We ran into him a time before when we came to town, but Gabby insisted that we'd probably never see him again and not to mention it to anyone." When Jason's head jerked up to look at her, she explained. "She didn't want to worry anyone."
"Did you see which way he took her?"
"No, I couldn't he whipped the horses and they ran before he even left." Helena cried. "I had my hands full just taking care of the horses."
Jason saw her tears and took her in his arms. "It will be alright. We'll find her."
"She's had so much on her. She was just beginning to feel comfortable here. Just beginning to relax and enjoy life, now this. There seems to be no peace for her." Helena cried.
"He won't hurt my Mama, will he?" Jimmy asked as he pulled Ben's chin around to look him in the eyes.
Ben shook his head and kissed Jimmy's cheek. "No son, he won't."
"I want my Mama…" Jimmy cried.
Seeing how distraught Jimmy was Helena took Jimmy from Ben. "Let's go get some milk and cookies and then you can take a nap."
"I don't want a nap, I want Mama." Jimmy cried.
"Your father will take care of her."
Jimmy glanced at Ben, "Promise?"
"Promise!" Ben nodded at him.
As Helena and Jimmy went in the kitchen, Jason and Ben looked at each other.
Ben frowned; he couldn't let his feelings into this yet. He had to think clearly. "We need to let the Sheriff know about this and see if maybe this fella has a warrant out on him. I wonder how he's going to get a note to us?"
Jason went to the window and stared out. "We gotta handle this right, Ben. We don't know this man, or what he's capable of."
"If he hurts one hair on her head, I'll kill him with my bear hands." Ben shouted.
"My God…you're in love with her!" Jason turned to look at his son, as a slow smile spread across his face.
Ben's head jerked up. "I guess I am…"
Jason smiled, happy that his plan had worked. "I'm glad, but it might make things harder these next few days. Joel, I want you to ride into town for me."
"Yes sir." Joel nodded.
"And thanks for staying with Helena and Jimmy." Jason nodded with a smile.
"You bet." Joel bit off a chaw of tobacco and leaned against the doorframe. "There was always a chance of him coming back to get them too."
Jason wrote a note to the Sheriff telling him what happened and asking him to check his wanted posters on Colby Newman. "Tell him to come as soon as he can."
"Yes sir, I will." Joel took the note and headed for the barn to get his horse.
"I want to ride out there and see if I can pick up a trail." Ben growled, more at himself than anyone in particular.
"Why don't we let Pedro do that? When the message comes, we gotta figure out how to handle this. He's going to be demanding money, we know that, but we gotta figure out how we can get her back without being hurt."
"He said he wants fifty thousand." Helena remembered.
"That's not as much as I anticipated. He could have asked for a lot more, but let's not let him know that." Jason frowned.
"Are we going to give him the money?" Ben frowned at him.
"Not unless we have no choice. But in the long run, money isn't as important as someone's life."
"Never thought something like this would happen. She never talked about who killed Frank."
"This kind of thing comes with being a Wyler. I should know. Your mother was kidnapped once." Jason sighed.
"What happened?" Ben asked staring at his father. "I don't remember anything about that."
"You were too little. We got a posse up, hunted him down and killed the son of a bitch, that's what happened."
"Where was Mom all that time?"
"Tied to a bed in the shack it was probably a good thing she was, she didn't catch a flying bullet."
"You shot it out with Mom in the shack?"
"Had too. I didn't have the kind of money that man thought I did. And one of the deputies got close enough to the cabin to see them inside. He wasn't gonna send her out just because we ask him to, you know. I thought he'd try to use her as a shield, but he never did, he just shot it out with us."
"I don't know if I can just stand here and do nothing." Ben paced the parlor.
"We gotta use our heads, we got to put all our scruples together and figure out how to handle this. We don't know whom we are dealing with. He might kill her anyway."
Ben didn't want to hear those words. He wouldn't accept that. He couldn't. He'd just began to come back to life; he wasn't going back into that dark shell again. And he wasn't going to let Gabby die. He'd lost enough women in his life and the feelings that were growing between him and Gabby were more powerful than any he'd ever known.
Pedro came inside. He looked rather sheepishly at them. "I should have ridden along. Helena told me she was getting the yearly supplies. I should have helped."
Helena had carried Jimmy to bed and was walking down the stairs. "We were on the road coming home from town. About half way home, when he stopped us. We wouldn't have stopped but he somehow managed to get a huge branch in the pathway, we had no choice but to stop."
"Did you recognize this fella at all?" Ben asked.
"Si…she said she thought he was in Colorado and that him being here meant he was after her. That his name is Colby Newman and that he was the man that killed Frank, her dead husband. She told me that when the Sheriff came to investigate Frank's murder that Colby said he was robbed and that her husband had tried to stake a claim to the mine. Later Colby approached her about her having the money. She tried to explain she didn't know anything about any money…"
"And he thinks she has it?" Ben finished.
"I don't think he's w
orried about that any more. I think he thinks he can get more out of the Wyler's than any money her husband might have stolen. He's holding her ransom, that's what he is doing. Said he'd send a note and let you know where to bring the money." Helena was staring at the floor.
"Did he say anything else?"
"Not that I can remember, no. But…Gabby was so scared of him. He must be a pretty violent man." Helena cried.
"We'll no more about him when the Sheriff gets out here." Jason sighed.
"What did he look like?" Ben asked her.
"He was tall, kind of dark, black hair, dark eyes. He did wear a black hat with Conchos on the band, and silver spurs. He had long hair…came down past his collar, and he looked like he might have dipped, as his lips was all black and brown. Butch tried to get him, poor ole thing. He jumped out of the wagon and right on top of him, knocking him on the ground. The man pulled a gun and shot him dead. Jimmy wailed all the way home. He's so upset."
"Pedro," Jason called him over to him. "Take a couple of your best trackers and see if you can find any signs of the man or Gabby. Follow the road to town Helena told us it was about half way between, so that should give you some idea where they were, and wagon tracks should be easy to spot. He was on a horse, right?"
"Si, a black and white paint." Helena remembered.
"See if you can pick up any tracks. If you do, don't go too far, come back and let us know what direction they took off. If he was carrying her on his horse, the horse should have left some tracks."
Pedro nodded. "Si…we will find the tracks. We'll be back as soon as we can."
"Good. And thanks."
"Si," He glanced at Ben who was pacing. "We'll get her back…"
"Yeah…we will." Ben fretted wiping his face with his hand.
"I'm going up there to see if he's asleep, I'll be right back." Ben told Jason.
Jason nodded.
Ben climbed the stairs and opened the door to the bedroom where Jimmy was laying in the dark. "You asleep yet?"
"No…" Jimmy cried.
"Jimmy did you know this man?" Ben asked as he came to sit on the side of the bed and he laid his hand on his arm.
"No sir….I mean…I seen him…once, when he came to the cabin. He's mean. He broke most of Mama's dishes and threw things around the place, and shook Mama bad."
"Then he's threatened her before."
"He shook her and scared her. She was afraid to go out of the cabin for days after he came. She wouldn't let me go out either."
"That's probably a good thing. Jimmy, I want you to know I'll do everything to get your mother back safe and sound. So I want you to try to be a big boy and not worry. Grandpa and me, and the boys here, we'll get her back, it might take a few days, but we'll get her back. I promise you that. Can you be a big boy for me, and help Helena."
Jimmy got up on his knees and hugged Ben around the neck. "I'll try…"
"Good. Try not to worry."
"Butch sure was brave…Do you think he'll go to heaven now?"
"I think most good animals go to heaven. He sure was good. We'll miss him, won't we?"
"I got a name for the new pup, Pa."
"Great, what is it?" He asked staring down at Jimmy.
"I want to call her Callie."
"That's a decent name. Where did you hear it?"
"In that dirty town, there was this little girl, she was about my age. She was the only kid little as me. She loved dogs. I wanted to play with her, but she was always sick. Her Ma wouldn't let her play. But the one thing that made her smile was this old dog. He was mangy and almost as sick as she was. He made her smile. She had a pretty smile, Pa."
"What happened to her son?"
"I don't know. We left and came here, I never saw her again. But there was something about her smile. I told Mama if I ever had a girl dog, I'd name it after her. Is that alright, Pa?"
"That's very alright, son. I'm sure she'd appreciate that, too."
Jimmy smiled.
"Now, you go to sleep and get some rest. This will all be over before you know it." Ben tucked him into bed once more.
"Pa…"
"Yeah…"
"I love you…"
Ben stood there in the dark staring down at him and was so choked up he didn't know how to answer. Then it came to him so easily. "I love you too Jimmy."
"Night Pa."
"Night, son"
Chapter Eighteen
The dirty mine shack where Colby took Gabby hadn't been used in years. He'd been living there ever since he first saw her in town. At least that's what he told her.
"Now you are gonna be here a while, so you might as well relax and fix us some grub. I got bacon and beans laid out and I just bought some of that store bought bread they had at the General Store. Couldn't resist it, it smelled so good." Colby smiled at her. The way he talked, he acted as though they were old friends.
Gabby stared at him mutinously.
"Might as well stop fumin' at me. Ain't nothin' you can do about this situation girl. And if those Wyler's think anything of you, they'll be bringing the money soon enough. But I'm gonna have to tie you up this afternoon so I can figure a way of getting' this note to them." Colby flashed the note in her face. "I mean I can't take you back to the ranch, now can I?"
Gabby slumped her shoulders and resigned herself to her new fate.
"That's better, now fix us something to eat, I'm hungry." He demanded.
Gabby got up, went toward the counter to slice the bacon, and looked for a pot to cook them in. The pot was dirty, so she washed it and then put the beans on to cook. Colby had fired up the stove the minute they got there so it was ready to cook on. There was coffee from earlier that morning, so she reheated it too.
When it was ready, she took the two plates that she washed and put them on the table, then served the food.
Even though she wasn't hungry, she made herself eat. She had to keep up her energy. No telling what the rest of the day might bring.
He ate with a flourish and when he was done, he went outside to get some supplies. He came back in with a piece of wood and a string. He was making something with it, but she couldn't be sure of what.
By the end of the day, she realized it was a bow and arrow. She couldn't imagine why he'd need it, as he had a gun.
Strangely, since they arrived at the cabin, Gabby hadn't been scared any longer. She didn't know why, but she wasn't.
Colby was a strange sort, on one hand he seemed dangerous, on another, he didn't. She kept getting mixed signals about him.
"Now I gotta tie you up good, because I gotta go put this on the ranch door and come back. So you just sit tight and don't be trying to get lose, because it won't do you any good."
He gagged her and then tied her to the bunk bed, her hands and her feet. He tied them tight so she wouldn't try to get lose or she'd hurt herself.
"I'll be back directly." He informed her and left.
Gabby tried to go to sleep. If she could sleep maybe, she'd wake up and it would have all been just a bad dream.
~*~
Ben was just getting up from the supper table when he heard a noise at the door.
"Did you hear that?" Ben asked his father.
"Yeah, whatever it was, it was at the door." Jason nodded.
Ben edged toward the door, checking out the window, seeing nothing, and as he stood in the darkness, he thrust the door open.
There on the door, was a note pinned with some kind of homemade arrow. He threw the arrow away and took the note inside.
"Bring fifty thousand dollars in small bills to Four Corners Bluff, walk down the road to the highest point on the hill. Stop; put the money on the ground and leave. After I have the money safely with me, I'll turn the girl lose. No tricks or lawmen or she's dead!"
Jason read the note several times. "I've got that much in the safe here at the house. Cattle money."
"Good." Ben nodded. "At least we won't have to go to the bank to get it."
They were putting their heads together to figure out how to handle it, when the Sheriff rode up and came to the door.
"Jason, Ben, got your message. Sorry I'm so late getting out here, but I wired the Sheriff in Apache Wells Colorado and he confirmed that Colby is wanted for murder. Seems he killed another fella up there that tried to take his claim. The judge wasn't as lenient the second time. I apprised him of our situation. He advised to be extremely careful that Colby had nothing to lose."
Ben nodded silently.
"We've been trying to figure out how we are going to handle this Doyle. Here's the ransom note." Jason handed it to the Sheriff.
"Fifty Thousand…how long will it take you to get this?"
"I've got it right here, Doyle, its cattle money I keep handy." Jason told him. "I can't figure him out; he could have asked twice this amount."
"So it's tomorrow, huh?"
"Tomorrow!"
"Alright, I can plant a few men up that way and one of you can take the money up the road, we can keep an eye out for which way he is coming. The one thing you gotta expect in something like this, he'll either let her go, immediately, or he'll try to kill her quickly and get away, or he'll bring her along and use her as a shield. That's why it's important to have someone watching him while he's getting that money. If we don't find her before we deliver the money, we'll have to follow him back and try to get her."
"Above all, I want her alive, Doyle."
"Of course you do, Ben. I understand that. So you'll have to let me put some men around the place. I got a couple of sharpshooters; they can get the job done."
"Something is bothering me about this. Fifty thousand isn't much. He should know that. What if he tries to keep her and do this again?"
"It's possible. We've just got to try and stop him—this time. So there won't be a next time."
"Now, you got any maps of that area?" Doyle asked.
"Sure I do. Old survey maps."
"Get them out. Let's have a look at what we are looking at." Doyle informed him. "Tell me, how did he know she was a Wyler, you two ain't been married that long, Ben. And he's from Colorado."
Love As Big As Texas Page 18
