Gone to Ground

by Cheryl Taylor

  A second failure.

  Entering the room, Rickards saw a space similar to the first, except that the bed in this case was a set of double bunks. Several crates were stacked along one wall. Once again there was no sign of immediate occupancy.

  Likewise, the next room contained nothing but two sets of double bunks, and a few chests.

  Rickards turned for the last room.

  They have to be here, Rickards thought. The tension was becoming unbearable. Relax, he ordered himself, relax. If a mouse squeaked under your feet you’d probably shoot a toe off.

  “O’Reilly,” Rickards called from the doorway. “O’Reilly, come out unarmed and you and the children won’t be hurt. You have my word on it.”

  Rickards paused, listening. No sound from inside the room.

  They have to be here. But, why was there no sign of people in the other three rooms? Why would they all be hiding in the one room? The Gordian knot in Rickards gut was growing to mammoth proportions. They couldn’t know we were coming.

  Taking a deep breath, Rickards reached for the final door and threw it open with a bang.

  37

  Maggie exploded out of a deep sleep to a cacophonous erup

  tion from the front of the house outside and below the cave where she and the others were sleeping; Houdini, the rooster, making his daily announcements, gunfire, a man screaming.

  Gunfire. Screaming.

  Maggie scrambled upright, desperately looking around the dark cave, trying to see the other inhabitants. A low growl issued from the corner of the cave where Lindy’s bed was located, and a whimper indicated that Lindy herself was awake.

  “Maggie,” a low whisper sounded several feet off to her left. “Get over there and make sure Lindy and those dogs keep quiet.”

  “Christy...” Tremulous voices, scared.

  “O’Reilly, where...” Christina’s voice sounded from across the cave.

  “Quiet,” O’Reilly’s sharp command caught everyone’s attention and the panicked voices died down rapidly.

  “Maggie, take care of Lindy,” O’Reilly began to rap out orders in a hoarse whisper. “Mark help your mother with the dogs. Christina, go to your brothers. Alysa, help Christina. Everyone keep quiet. Whisper if you must talk. No flashlights. Whoever is there might be able to see the glow.

  Maggie crawled over to Lindy, bumping into Mark on the way. Lindy’s whimpering stopped as she cuddled into Maggie’s arms, head tucked firmly under her chin. The sounds had ceased outside, but the dogs continued to growl quietly in spite of Mark’s efforts to quiet them.

  Maggie could see the outline of the opening, illuminated by the paler gray of the early pre-dawn sky. Silhouetted against the lighter pearl gray was the shape of O’Reilly as he carefully tried to determine the source of the noise.

  After what seemed like ages, O’Reilly turned and slowly made his way back over to where Maggie was waiting.

  “I can’t see down to the house, but it appears that there are several men there. One’s on the outside and may have been shot, or injured somehow. I’m guessing the others are in the house. There are probably a couple up near the north end of the valley, and I’m betting that there will be at least one or two more at the south end.”

  “Who are they?”

  “I think we’ll have to assume that they’re Enforcers,” O’Reilly said. “I suppose it could be a band of ghosts that just came across this place, but they tend to hide out nearer to supply lines. When the sun comes up we’ll be able to get a better idea who they are, and their numbers.”

  The light from the opening was gradually increasing as dawn moved toward day and Maggie could vaguely see O’Reilly’s face about a foot from hers. She could feel his breath brushing across the skin of her face. His eyes closed for a moment and he shook his head gently.

  “I’m sorry, Maggie, I thought for sure we’d have more warning; hear a seeker or something. I guess one might have passed in the night and they simply thought this was a place to check out. Maybe the barn and windmill made them nervous. I don’t know.” His eyes opened again, glinting faintly in the ever increasing light.

  His expression lightened briefly. “Actually, your nemesis may have proven to be our only early warning system..”

  “What do you mean?” Maggie asked. She was acutely aware of Mark several feet behind her with the dogs, listening to everything that was said. She could hear soft whispering from the other side of the cave where Christina, Alysa, Nick and Ryan had been sleeping. Apparently Christina and Alysa were comforting the boys, keeping them quiet.

  “I think that Houdini must have surprised the men, causing at least one of them to open fire. You may have to rethink your chicken pot pie plans.”

  “Did they kill him?” Maggie asked, but before O’Reilly could answer, a crow wafted in through the outside opening, announcing to all that Houdini was still alive and flapping.

  “Better luck next time,” O’Reilly said with a chuckle in his voice, patting her shoulder gently.

  “It would be a whole lot easier to be grateful to him if I didn’t know the next time I walked into the chicken yard I was going to have my shins beaten black and blue,” Maggie said ruefully. “I would be more than happy to give him his medal of honor posthumously.”

  “Yeah, right. Face it. If Houdini had died, you’d be feeling pretty guilty right about now.”

  “I’d live,” Maggie grumbled.

  O’Reilly leaned in closer, dropping his voice lower. “When the sun comes up, we’ll watch to see what happens. If they are Enforcers, and I’m pretty sure they are, and if they begin an extensive search of the valley, we need to be ready to move.”

  The day before O’Reilly had cornered Maggie in the barn with adjustments to his escape plan that, while she didn’t like them, unfortunately made sense, if anything did these days. In the updated plan, they would need to find a large, relatively flat stone, not too heavy, but large enough to cover the entrance to the small cave where they were hiding; about two or three feet by three feet.

  Assuming that the Enforcers found the valley and managed to find the entrance to the caves, Maggie was to keep the children and dogs in the hideout. O’Reilly would slide the rock over the opening. Then he would head back toward the mouth of the caves. There was a small side cave about a hundred yards from the entryway. Several rock falls had left piles of debris along the walls where he would hide until the Enforcers passed, heading further inside the mountain.

  After they went by, he would emerge and head for the entrance. Once there he intended to make a noise of some type designed to get his pursuers to turn around and chase him. His idea was that he could lead them out of the caves, and up the canyon toward the north where he would hopefully lose them in the brush and rocks. If he was successful, they would think he’d made a run for the north of the state after having sent the children on ahead.

  As Maggie pointed out, there were a number of serious drawbacks to O’Reilly’s plan. They needed to find a rock small enough for Maggie to move from inside the passageway leading to the cave, yet large enough to cover the entrance fully. Should O’Reilly be captured or killed while leading the Enforcers on a wild goose chase, it would be up to Maggie to get everyone out once danger had passed.

  “Besides,” Maggie stated, “How likely is it that they won’t fully check out every nook and cranny on the way into the caverns? Or post a guard at the entrance? You know damned well that the likelihood of you making it out of the caves is not very high.” She looked O’Reilly in the eye, daring him to refute her analysis.

  “It’s a chance we’ll have to take,” O’Reilly answered, meeting her stare. “If I’m captured, I will try and convince them that I’ve sent Christina and the other children on ahead on horseback and I stayed behind to delay pursuit. They don’t know that you, Mark or Lindy are here, so they’ll only be looking for the four children. Since Alysa’s family is from the four corners area I’ll try and get them to believe that the children are h
eading in that direction.”

  Maggie bowed her head, eyes closed. The thought of losing O’Reilly tore at her and she wasn’t sure she had the strength. She swayed slightly and suddenly O’Reilly’s arm was there, holding her upright.

  Opening her eyes she faced O’Reilly again. Chin tilted upward at a stubborn angle, she demanded, “Why can’t we just all go into the cave, pull the rock over the entrance and stay there until the Enforcers leave the way we originally talked about?”

  O’Reilly’s hand dropped away from Maggie as he looked at her with sadness in his eyes. “Face facts, Maggie, it wouldn’t work. Even if we could pull the rock fully over the passageway from the inside, there would be no way to erase the signs of it being moved. Any halfway thorough search of the caves would find it and we’d all be sitting ducks. Hell, all they’d have to do would be sit outside and wait for us to be forced out from starvation or thirst. This is the best chance we have of getting you and the kids out alive.”

  “What about going deeper into the caves?” Maggie offered, unwilling to give up so easily. “You said the network goes on for miles. Pull the rock over the opening, then head further back.”

  O’Reilly shook his head slowly. “We can’t afford having the Enforcers spend too much time in the caves. Even with the rock, if they take their time searching, they’re bound to find the opening. A careful eye will see that the signs of our passage end at this one cave. Besides, I wouldn’t have time to erase my footprints if I head deeper into the caves. They’ll follow and there’s a good chance I’ll be trapped in a dead end. I’d rather take my chance in the open. I know this land much better than they do and there are many small canyons and other caves to hide out in outside Adobe Canyon.”

  O’Reilly stopped and watched Maggie intently.

  “You promised you wouldn’t sacrifice yourself,” Maggie insisted, an angry sob in her voice.

  O’Reilly reached out toward her, but she threw his hand away furiously.

  “I promised I wouldn’t sacrifice myself needlessly.” O’Reilly said. “Believe me, if I thought there was any other way that had as much chance of success, I’d take it.” He reached out and pulled her braid lightly. “I don’t want to leave you either. All things considered, I’m not sure Arizona can survive if I leave you loose on the land.” He attempted a smile, which Maggie didn’t return.

  The silence between them stretched into minutes as Maggie mulled over the proposition O’Reilly had just laid in front of her. Finally, taking a deep, shaky breath she said, “Okay, we’ll do it your way. But I swear if you get captured I will hunt you down and...”

  “Rub hamburger in my hair, douse it in A-1, stake me in front of a mountain lion’s den and give him an engraved invitation?”

  Maggie choked on a laugh and began coughing so violently that O’Reilly began to look concerned. Eventually Maggie caught her breath and looked up at O’Reilly. “I will not only stake you out for the mountain lions, but I will invite the coyotes and vultures to clean up whatever’s left.”

  “Fine, we’ve got a deal,” O’Reilly said, nodding, “Now that we have the dining arrangements made, lets go look for a rock.”

  Ever since O’Reilly presented his plan to her, Maggie had worked hard to convince herself that none of it would be necessary. Either the Enforcers wouldn’t find the canyon, or, if they did, they wouldn’t find the entrance to the caves.

  In spite of her diligent positive thinking, things were rapidly moving in the wrong direction.

  Maggie watched as O’Reilly moved back over to the opening in the outer wall of the cave. Outside the daylight was steadily growing. Soon the sun would leap over the horizon and illuminate the hole in the cliff face. The wall was thick, however, and it should be possible for O’Reilly to keep an eye on most of the valley without danger of exposure.

  As O’Reilly maintained a watch on the canyon, Maggie began checking on the children, making sure that everyone was all right following their abrupt wakening. They were all looking calm, but frightened. Nick and Ryan were sitting huddled together, with Christina and Alysa nearby. Mark was sitting at the back of the cave, near the passageway, petting the dogs. His eyes followed Maggie around the cave as she got everyone jerky and water for breakfast. Several times as she passed by she placed a hand on his shoulder or head, giving him a reassuring smile, which he tried to return.

  The children had been deliberately left in the dark regarding the particulars of the plan to avoid capture by the Enforcers. Maggie and O’Reilly both agreed that it would be better not to burden the younger members of their new family with the knowledge that O’Reilly might be forced to put himself at risk to save everyone else. The kids knew there was a plan, and that it involved hiding in the cave, covering the entrance with a rock, but that was all they knew.

  With all the older children settled, Maggie gave Lindy to Mark, whereupon she promptly crawled off and began playing with Gypsy and Jack. Maggie softly approached O’Reilly where he stood watch.

  “Have you seen anything yet?” she asked quietly.

  “A bit. From what I can tell, there are seven or eight men. Maybe more, I’m not sure.”

  “What are they doing? We haven’t heard anything for awhile now”

  “It’s hard to tell with the house being right below. I don’t dare lean out in case someone sees me. It appears that the largest group of men is investigating the house. Someone is injured, probably shot when Houdini surprised them. It also looks as though they’ve posted several men at the north end of the canyon,” O’Reilly nodded in the direction of the far end of the valley.

  A shot of adrenaline coursed through Maggie’s system. “Have they found the caves?”

  “It doesn’t appear so. At least they’ve been pretty quiet from what I can tell. I think they were just sent there so that it would be impossible for us to make a break for it in that direction. I’m guessing there are at least one or two stationed at the south end as well.”

  “Do you know who it is yet? Is it that captain you spoke about; Rickards?” Maggie tried to look out the opening as well, careful not to lean too far.

  “I can’t say for sure, but I can’t imagine Rickards sending men out here without coming himself.” O’Reilly stared out into the valley. “I’m sure that if they’re Enforcers, then Rickards is leading them.” O’Reilly looked down at Maggie and the next time he spoke, his husky voice was even softer so that it wouldn’t carry to the back of the cave.

  “We can’t wait too long. It makes me nervous having those men so close to the main entrance. It may take them awhile to get up this high in the caves, but I must have time to get the rock across the entrance, wipe out signs of it being moved, and make it to the side cave. If I wait too long I’ll get trapped and caught for sure.”

  “No, we agreed to wait until we knew for sure that the caves were going to be found.”

  “I don’t think we have that sort of time. It’ll be okay. I won’t leave the caves. I’ll hide in that small niche just as we agreed. If they don’t find the caves, no harm, no foul. I’m just uncomfortable with those men already up at the northern end of the meadow, poking around.”

  Maggie’s shoulders slumped as she gave into the inevitable. “You’re right,” she sighed. “I know it’s the smart thing to do. I just don’t like splitting up like this.”

  “Don’t worry,” O’Reilly said with a grin. “I have no intention of becoming lion poop.”

  The sound of a slamming door drew their attention. Four men emerged into view from below the opening in the cliff face. The leader, a tall muscular man, paused for a moment, the others waiting behind him for a signal of some type. From Maggie’s bird’s eye perspective, it was impossible to see any of the men’s faces.

  At the sound of the door, one of the dogs at the back of the cave let out a soft bark, followed by a growl.

  Without turning from the opening, Maggie whispered back over her shoulder, “Mark, I need you to quiet the dogs.”

  Whe
n there was no answer, Maggie turned from the opening. “Mark, I asked...”

  Mark was nowhere to be seen.

  38

  Rickards threw open the last door and stepped into the

  room.

  Again, nothing. The fourth door hid a small pantry, shelves built into the rock wall. Several metal garbage cans sat on the floor. Inspecting them, it was obvious they’d held flour, rice and other staples at some time in the past. Now nothing but white dust covered the bottoms. O’Reilly and the children were not here. He’d failed and O’Reilly won. Again.

  Rickards turned and stormed from the room and the house, coming to a stop outside the front door. He stood there, head bowed, breathing deeply. He was aware of Donner, Johnson and Peters approaching from behind, but didn’t turn to acknowledge them.

  Minutes stretched out until finally Rickards raised his head and looked forward into the gradually increasing morning light. Taking a final deep breath, he turned and looked at Gomez. “How’s the leg?”

  “It’s just a flesh wound. Bled like hell, but I’ll live. It’s a long way from the heart.” Gomez grinned up at Rickards from where he was sitting on a large rock on the edge of the flat area in front of the house.

  “Guess we’ll have to get Donner to work on his aim. At that distance he should have scored a better hit.”

  A snort of laughter from behind Rickards indicated appreciation for the comment from someone. Probably not Donner.

  Rickards turned to look out into the valley again for a moment, then said, “Okay, it’s obvious that someone has been here recently. There were cattle and horses here only a few days ago, and they’re not here now. Someone had to be taking care of the chickens. So, we’re going to search this entire valley to see if we can find where they’ve gone. Look for tracks, trails, anything that might give us a direction.