The sheriff of Blantonville, Brin Flowers, was at the bank within three minutes of its being robbed. He saw the dead bank manager and his face became grim. His deputy, Frank Walters, was there, too. “Frank,” Sheriff Flowers said, “get a posse together right now and we’ll go after them.”
One of the patrons of the bank who had been there during the robbery spoke up. “Sheriff.”
Flowers looked at him, a man named Billings. “Yeah, what is it?’ The sheriff was in a hurry.
Billings was understandably still scared and flustered, but he managed to say, “That…outlaw…the leader…said that if a posse followed them that, well, they’d kill the woman they took.”
That stopped Flowers. He didn’t know about the kidnapping. “They took somebody?”
“Yes…yessir. That new lady…Bob Bedford’s niece…she might take over his ranch…” Billings’ voice had trailed off at that last statement, as he saw the angry expression on the sheriff’s face.
“Oh, wonderful,” he said, and rubbed his hand across his jaw, thinking.
Deputy Walters asked him, “Do you still want me to get that posse together, sheriff?”
Flowers was a good sheriff, but not especially bright, and not especially good at making decisions when faced with a dilemma like this one. “Maybe we better kick this one around a little, think of how to approach it.”
Somebody shouted out, “But they got our money, sheriff!”
Flowers made a calming motion with his hands. “We’ll get your money back, Ted, I promise you. But we don’t want to risk the life of that young lady. Let me get the mayor and the city council together and we’ll come up with an appropriate plan of action.” Sheriff was, after all, an elected position, so that made him a politician, too.
Well, I wasn’t a politician. I had been standing in the crowd, listening, watching, and not terribly surprised at the sheriff’s decision, though thoroughly disgusted by it. Those thieves would be in Canada and have Susan raped 100 times before the politicians came to a decision. I knew what to do. But I thought I’d get a little help.
I walked down the street and entered Bret’s Saloon. Not surprisingly, Garret was sitting at a table, playing cards. I expected he would be. He saw me come in, and nodded. After our initial bit of discord on the trip to Blantonville, we had gotten along ok. I walked over to him.
“The bank was just robbed,” I told him.
Garret shrugged it off. “Sheriff’s problem, isn’t it? I didn’t have any money there.”
“The robbers kidnapped Susan.”
That got his attention.
“Where’s Yarbrough?” I asked him.
“Right behind you, Kendrick.” I turned and saw him. He had just stood up from a table where he had been sitting.
Garret put his cards down and spoke to the other players. “Gentlemen, an emergency has arisen and I must take leave of your excellent companionship. I assure you we shall continue this game at as early a date as possible.”
One of the other gamblers wasn’t so happy about it. “You gotta give us a chance to win our money back.”
Garret was actually gracious about it. He picked up only part of the pile of money in front of him. “I will take only what I came in with.” Then he smiled. “Plus a little extra for my time. The rest you may divide up as you wish.” He stood up and looked at me. “Let’s go.”
I had my hands on my hips, staring at him. “Where’s that other thug you work with? Buddy Myers.”
Garret’s eyes narrowed and I could sense Lance freezing as well. “How do you know about him?”
“Is he here?”
“He’s in Blantonville,” is all he would commit to.
“Get him and meet me at the bridge just north of town in 15 minutes. Bring some provisions, I don’t know how long we’ll be gone.” I turned on my heel and walked out.
I jogged to the food market just down the street and bought a couple pounds of jerky, some coffee, beans, and a few more things. Then I went to the livery stable and saddled my horse, whom I had named Bear because he was as strong as one and brown to boot. Two minutes later, I was waiting at the bridge.
In ten minutes, Garret, Lance, and a third fellow, a big, burly man with hard eyes, came riding up. I looked at the latter man. “Myers,” I presume.
He nodded, scrutinizing me closely. “And who are you?”
“Kendrick. Now let’s go. There are five horses, here are their tracks…”
“Not so fast, Kendrick,” Garret said. “We want to know who you are before we go anywhere with you.”
Lance spoke up, irritably. “I don’t care who he is, Garret. We can sort all that out later. Those guys have got Susan and we’ve got to get her.”
Garret’s eyes held mine for several seconds. Then he nodded. “All right.” He motioned to me with his head. “Lead on.”
We took off at a canter, following the outlaw tracks. “How good are you at tracking?” Garret asked me.
“I’ll find them, if it doesn’t snow and wipe out all traces of them. And then I’ll find them anyway, but it’ll take a little longer and they’ll have more time to play with Miss Bedford. There are five of them, well, six if you count Susan. They are on five horses, one of them carrying two people. I don’t need to be able to read sign to figure that out, but the horses’ hooves tell it to me, too.” Lance peered down and nodded. He may have had some tracking experience as well from the way he was examining the ground.
Garret looked at the sky. It was overcast and the temperature was dropping. “Snow appears mighty possible.”
“Then let’s don’t waste any time.”
We sauntered on. The road wound through grassy, rolling hills, heading for mountainous, pine-covered land about 20 miles north. “They’ll be tough to find if they get into those mountains,” Lance said. “Especially if it snows.”
Nobody responded. His comment was superfluous.
Garret spoke up a few minutes later. “We heard a rumor in town that they’d kill Susan if they spotted a posse following them.”
“Then we can’t let them see us, can we.”
I kept glancing down at the road, following the five horse tracks. “Can you tell how far ahead of us they are?” Lance asked.
“An hour, no more, but they are pushing their horses pretty hard. They’ll have to stop soon.”
We neared the foothills of the mountains and the trail forked. To the right, the road wound up the foothills and disappeared among the trees and behind a hill about two miles away. The trail we had been following went straight ahead—well, it was crooked as a snake, too, but we could see it farther. It was obvious which way the robbers had gone.
I pointed right. “They went that way.” So that’s the way we went.
A couple of minutes later, Myers asked, “Any idea who we’re dealing with?”
“Unless I miss my guess, James Johnson and his gang,” I replied. “Five of them. They operate in this area.”
Lance whistled. “Tough bunch.”
Myers squinted his eyes at me. “You’re a lawman, ain’tche.” A statement, not a question.
“Nope,” was all I responded.
“Why are you keeping your identity so close to your breast, Kendrick?” Garret asked.
I looked over at him and smiled wickedly. “When do you show your cards, Roman?”
He laughed at that. “Only when necessary. Ok, you win. You’ll tell us who you are when you want to.”
“I’ve told you who I am. My name is Kendrick. I even took you to my home.”
He ignored the last comment. “You only have one name?”
“That’s all I need to be able to respond.”
We rode on in silence. The wind was picking up and we could hear it sweeping the trees not far ahead of us. The afternoon was wearing on, the temperature was dropping, and so were the clouds. I pulled my coat collar up over the nape of my neck and hunkered down into it. It was cold, but I kept my eyes on the trail.
It was indeed the Johnson gang that had held up the Blantonville bank, and James was the one who had snatched Susan. They had stopped, but only long enough for Susan to get up and sit in front of the leader.
“Aren’t you a gentleman,” she said to him derisively.
He shrugged. “You can go back to the position you were in, if you prefer.”
“If you get handsy with me, I will.” Johnson laughed at that.
He had pulled down his mask so Susan got a good look at him, and all his gang. Johnson was probably 40, pretty nice looking, except for his cold eyes. The young outlaw who had noticed Susan initially was indeed a handsome fellow, but the other three were complete ogres. One of them had buck teeth and hair in his ears, one of them had only three or four teeth and no hair at all, and the other had brown teeth, stained by years of tobacco chewing, and it looked for all the world like he had found a way to spit the juice into his own hair because it was dark brown, greasy, and slimy. Susan shuddered when looking at them, mainly because of the way they looked at her.
They took off again, holding their horses to a fast trot. Susan wanted to talk because it helped steel her nerves a bit. “Where are we going?”
“Canada.”
“Why?”
“U.S. lawmen have no jurisdiction up there and the Mounties won’t bother us as long as we don’t rob any of their banks.”
“Hey, boss,” the blonde youngster called out. “You got any idea how much we took from that bank?”
“Don’t know yet, Ronnie, but it looked upwards of $20,000.”
“Wheeeee,” Ronnie replied. “That’ll buy a lot of likker and women.” Then he laughed. “Not that we need to be buyin’ women for a while.” Susan grimaced at that. The meaning was clear.
She asked Johnson, “When are you going to let me go?”
“Aw, you don’t want to go home yet, do you? We haven’t had any fun yet.” That was Ronnie, not James Johnson.
“Shut up, Ronnie,” Johnson said. “I’ll make the decisions on the woman.”
“Ok, boss,” Ronnie grumbled. “But you are going to let us have a piece of her, ain’t ye?”
“I think that’s likely, if you’ll be a good boy.”
“That go for us, too, boss?” Buckteeth asked.
“You, too, Frog.”
“Frog?” Susan couldn’t help but asking.
“Yeah,” Johnson replied. “He ain’t too bright, but he’s pretty good at hoppin’ to it when I tell him to do something.”
“Thanks, boss,” Frog said.
Johnson continued. “The other two are Biff and Cueball. They are nice fellows once you get to know them.”
“I’m sure,” Susan responded with obvious sarcasm. Then, “You never did answer my question. How long are you going to keep me?”
“Don’t know yet. If a posse follows us, not long.”
“I was hoping you were kidding about that.”
“I never kid.” Susan didn’t like the sound of that.
“But then they’ll have no reason not to chase you any more.”
“You won’t care.” Susan wasn’t getting anywhere with this.
But she was getting a little piqued and that overcame some of her fear. “So, if a posse follows us, I get killed. If they don’t, I get raped. Some choice.”
“Life’s not fair sometimes, lady. That’s what you get for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Susan went silent as the anger ebbed and melancholy overwhelmed her. The horse cantered on, heading for the mountains, but she didn’t notice. She tried to shake off the depression and think of some way out of this. They’ll have to stop sometime to sleep…I’ll try to make a break then…maybe I can steal a horse…if they see me and shoot me, well, that will be better than being gang-raped…
It wasn’t much of a plan and she knew it. She wondered if a posse would follow, risking her life. Then she thought again about Garret, Lance, and Kendrick and wondered if they would do anything when—if—they heard about it. After the way she had teased Garret and Lance and left them frustrated, she thought they probably wouldn’t think she was worth it. And Kendrick certainly has no reason to…She sighed, trying to lift her spirits somehow.
But with five hard men against one woman, and no assurance of any outside help on the way, it was hard to be optimistic.
And she became even less optimistic when Johnson started speaking again…
Garret, Lance, Buddy Myers, and I plodded on, following the tracks of the five horses of the Johnson gang. We were entering the foothills now. More pine trees, though not thick yet. The land was rising and the road began winding through a canyon between two high, craggy hills. Except for the scattered pines, there wasn’t much vegetation. The surrounding hills were covered with ancient boulders that seem to have been tossed up into the air by a capricious, angry god who then walked away and let them fall where they may.
“A good place for an ambush,” Lance commented softly.
“Yeah,” I agreed, looking around the hills.
Then I studied the ground again and frowned. I stopped my horse, staring at the road. Lance came up beside me. “Uh oh,” he said.
“What is it?” Buddy asked.
I looked up into the rocks one more time, searching. Then my eyes got big, and I yelled, “Down! Now!” And I rolled off my horse just before a rifle bullet whizzed right past where I’d been sitting.
Lance, Garret, and Buddy didn’t ask why I yelled, especially when the bullets starting zinging past them like a bunch of angry bees. I heard somebody grunt—Lance, I think, but I was too busy rolling and rolling and rolling to get behind the nearest boulder. A bullet kicked up dust into my mouth, and I hacked and spewed it out. Another bullet clipped the cuff of my right sleeve, but other than that, I escaped unscathed. I looked around, and Garret was behind me, and across the road Buddy and Lance were huddled behind another boulder. The rifle fire from the hills subsided when there were no more obvious targets to shoot at.
By instinct, I had grabbed my rifle from its boot on my way off Bear. The horses had scattered when the bullets started flying. I glanced at Garret beside me. “Are you ok?” I asked him.
“Yeah, I think they winged Lance, though.”
I looked across the road and Lance was grimacing. “Where did they get you?” I asked him.
“Tore a groove along my right shin. Painful, but I’ll be ok.” He was trying to stop the bleeding.
We were all hunkered down behind boulders. This wasn’t good. They were shooting down at us, we were shooting up at them. If we could shoot at all. Shooting up is not necessarily bad, the problem was, we didn’t know where they were. But they knew where we were. They had us pinned, not visa-versa.
I looked at Garret. “Got any bright ideas?”
“Uh…surrender?”
I chuckled. “You first.”
“I thought you were the boss. You’re supposed to lead.” We were bantering, of course, trying to keep calm and relaxed.
“Got a deck of cards?” I asked him. “I’ll cut you for it.”
“Fresh out of cards. Maybe we can think of something else. Have you ever been in a spot like this before?”
“Yeah. Sorta.”
“What did you do?”
“I won. I was one of the guys up there.” I motioned with my thumb up the hill.
“Ah. Much easier there. Do you think they have Susan?”
“I’m hoping so.”
And then we heard a voice shouting at us from up the hill.
“Sheriff?”
Garret, Lance, and Buddy all looked at me. I shook my head and put my index finger over my lips in the classic “shhh” sign.
“Sheriff, can you hear me? I told you what would happen if you got a posse and followed us.”
Again, I didn’t answer.
A few moments later, the voice was angry. “Sheriff! You better answer or I’ll roll this woman down the hill full of lead.”
That’s what I wanted to hear—sorta. They had Susan. This time I responded. “The sheriff isn’t down here. And when was the last time you saw a posse of four men?”
That quieted him a moment.
“Who are you then?”
“Just some men passing through. Why were you shooting at us?”
That really stumped him. I motioned to Buddy to try to work his way around behind them from his side, then made the same motion to Garret. They both nodded and took off.
“We thought you were the sheriff and his posse.”
“What have you done that would make you fear the sheriff, fella?” I had to stall for time to let Garret and Buddy get into position. This was going to be tricky, though, because there were five of them, and we didn’t exactly know where they were. Except it was fairly easy to place Johnson’s voice.
“It ain’t none of your concern, mister.”
“And you’ve got a woman up there with you, too?” I shouted. “Just who are you, and what kind of man are you?”
His voice was angry. “I told you it was none of your concern! Shut your trap!”
“Well, now, that’s a great idea. Would you mind telling us what you want us to do, seeing as though you men did everything you could to ventilate us a while ago?” I leaned my head back, searching for Garret. I could see him slipping from rock to rock, then behind a tree, slowly moving upward. I knew he knew what he was doing, and I hoped he, and Buddy on the opposite side, could find at least two or three of Johnson’s men and get them in a vice. The touchy part was what Johnson might do to Susan…
Speaking of whom, she was indeed with Johnson, high up on the hill, behind a semicircle of three foot high boulders, with a wall behind them. The gang leader had spread his men around, on both sides of the road, just in case a posse did show up. The four of us who followed the outlaws were supremely lucky that we hadn’t received more wounds than we had. But it’s not easy to hit a moving target with a rifle, and fortunately we were on the move just before Johnson’s men opened up.
Susan was lying next to Johnson, and he was keeping an eye on her, even more closely now because when he first started shooting, she had bumped his arm to throw off his aim. He had cursed her and slapped her away, but by the time he got his gun back in line to fire, there was no one to shoot at. So she had already helped the cause.
Of course, she had no idea who was down there—a posse? Johnson hadn’t said anything about how many there were. But then, when a voice started to answer him, she closed her eyes and issued a silent prayer—she had recognized that voice. He came. Oh, he came! A tear rolled down her cheek. And since Kendrick had indicated there were more than just him, that might mean Garret and Lance, too. Maybe others. Four. That’s what he’d said. Who was the other? Well, that didn’t matter. All she knew was that help was down there, and she was going to do her part, if possible. She watched for her chance…
Johnson had been quiet for a little too long and I needed to keep him and his men distracted, if possible, until Garret and Buddy were ready. “Hey, you up there! Are you deaf as well as insane? Are you going to keep us pinned down here all night?”
“I told you to shut up!”
“Well, I will if you’ll answer my question.”
Frankly, Johnson didn’t know what to do. He was thinking about sending a couple of his men around to flank us—just as I had done with Garret and Buddy—but he had them in such good defensive positions that he didn’t really want to move them. And he didn’t really trust that I was telling the truth. I didn’t sound like some yokel who was just passing through. Maybe a posse was coming; that would mean more men. And he didn’t really want to kill Susan. We should have kept going, he thought. But the horses had needed a rest badly. He had positioned his men, just in case they had been followed. It wasn’t the sheriff down there, he knew that. So, who were these four guys?
He made his decision. “You guys down there get on your horses and head back to town. We’ll give you three minutes to find your horses and get out of here.”
“Geez, you ARE insane! Do you think we’re going to come out from behind these rocks and give you a chance to blow us away? No way, Jose.”
Johnson was really frustrated now. “I told you that you could go. Now, get going or I’ll kill the woman!”
“You and your men come down here where we can see you. And bring the woman. Then we’ll leave. We aren’t going to give you a chance to pick us off from behind those rocks.”
“You got one minute to get on your horses and ride. Or the woman dies.”
“You kill that woman and we’ll hunt you down to the end of the earth.”
“Your time is running out!”
Yeah. I was under no illusions what he would do. If Garret and/or Buddy didn’t start something quick, I’d better think of something. Double quick.
Susan had less than a minute to live.
She knew it, too. And she was going to do something, regardless. Johnson was keeping one eye on her and one eye on the road. But if she had to dive at him, she would…
“Thirty seconds!” Johnson shouted.
I looked at Lance. He was looking for Buddy. I tried to spot Garret. Couldn’t see him. At 10 seconds, I was going to come out from behind that rock, blazing away. At what, I didn’t know. But it might distract Johnson enough to give Susan a chance to do something.
Johnson had tied her wrists—behind her—and ankles. But she was in a position to move. As inauspiciously as possible, she coiled herself, preparing to leap…
“Fifteen seconds!” I glanced at Lance. He was looking at me. “I’m fixing to go, Lance,” I told him. And he grabbed his rifle and prepared to charge with me.
Then Hades opened her gates….
First, I heard Garret call out. “All right, drop that rifle and get your hands up!”
Then Buddy. “Drop it, feller, or get a lead supper.”
Then, with Johnson distracted, Susan launched herself at him. He saw her coming, but a fraction too late. She hit him in the side and knocked him askew, and then she went over the top of the front boulder, lost her balance, and started tumbling down the hill. “Kendrick!!” she yelled, but couldn’t stop her momentum. Rumbling, bumbling, stumbling…rolling…
Shots began to be fired from every direction. Lance and I came out from behind our boulders. I saw Johnson firing at Susan…
She rolled and that’s all that saved her. Johnson couldn’t get a steady shot at her, but he got close. She heard the bullets zing by, even felt the breeze of one of them that whined past her ear. But, with her hands tied and feet tied, she just couldn’t get hold of anything to stop. She struck the side of a tree with a grunt, and kept on rolling…
I saw Johnson shooting at Susan. Lance did, too. Then I saw someone pop his head above a rock and aim at Lance. “Get Johnson, Lance!” He was already firing. I swung my rifle, and fired. One less bad guy.
Lance’s first shot missed Johnson, hitting the rock right in front of him and sending chips into his face. Johnson cursed, and swung the gun down towards Lance.
It was the last thing he ever did.
Lance fired at Johnson again, and missed again. I heard him curse. I fired at Johnson, but didn’t miss. The bullet hit him in the chest. He cried out, arched, and slowly toppled forward. He fell over the front boulder and came tumbling down the hill after Susan…
The two men that Garret and Buddy had called out to both resisted, which earned them a one-way ticket to hell. There was only bandit left. He had heard Garret shout. Then Buddy shout. Then shooting. Then Susan yelled. He pointed his rifle, first at Garret, then at Buddy, then at me, then at Susan…and then at nobody. A bullet from Garret hit him square in the heart.
Susan finished her Jack and Jill imitation by smashing, back first into a rock near the bottom of the hill. She grunted loudly and was dazed, but it didn’t hurt her too badly. Her momentum had been slowly down; the boulder simply finalized it. I saw her and rushed over to her, Lance a few steps behind me. I saw that her eyes were close and an expression of pain was on her face, but she was breathing, albeit hard. I knelt down beside her.
“Susan, can you hear me?”
She opened her eyes, gave me an agonized smile, and nodded.
“You’re safe now,” I told her, “but I need to check for broken bones.”
She nodded again. But managed to say, “But…don’t you…get…fresh…with me.”
“Only in my wildest dreams.” She laughed, then groaned, and coughed.
I felt of her arms and legs while Lance cut the ropes that bound her. I didn’t feel any broken bones. I felt her ribs; she winced, but that was all. I gently rolled her over onto her stomach. She didn’t scream, so I knew her back wasn’t broken. I rolled her back over and told her, “I don’t feel anything broken, but you’re liable to be sore for a few days.”
“Too bad she didn’t hit the rock with her head,” Lance said. “Wouldn’t have hurt her a bit.” Then he grinned. “Would have cracked the poor rock, though.”
“Oh, shut up,” Susan said through gritted teeth, and Lance and I laughed.
Garret came up. “How is she?” he asked.
“Bumped up a bit, but she’ll be ok. Did you find their horses?”
“Buddy’s looking for them right now.”
Lance and I helped Susan get to her feet. She wobbled a bit, and leaned on him for a moment, but she took several deep breaths and nodded. “I think I’ll be ok. Give me a minute.”
Garret was looking at me. “All right, no more monkey business. Who are you?”
“I was the man who was going to take you, Lance, and Buddy back to Arizona to stand trial for bank robbery. Or robberies, plural.”
Three people stared at me—two of them, Garret and Lance—very unfavorably.
“Oh?” Garret replied. “Is that so?”
“Yep. But, gee whiz”—and here I smiled at them—“I just couldn’t find you guys. You disappeared somewhere and…” I shrugged. “I guess that’s the way it goes.”
Lance said, “I thought you said you weren’t a lawman.”
“Not.”
“Bounty hunter?”
“No. Retired ranger.” Then I smiled at them. “But there is a reward out for you three. $1000 each. I could use the money.” Then I shrugged again. “Easy come, easy go.”
Susan was looking, wide-eyed, from Garret to Lance to me. She said to me, “You mean…they are outlaws? Bank robbers?”
Lance looked at her, with some tenderness. “We were till we met you. How could a man be…wicked…around a woman like you?”
Susan blushed, then turned away, probably so we couldn’t see the tears in her eyes.
“Well,” Garret said. “That may be part of it. But we’re tired of running from the law. Thought we might be able to come up here and get lost, start over.” He looked at me incredulously. “You followed us all the way from Arizona?”
I nodded.
“Why didn’t you arrest us when you saw us in Riverton?”
“Had to have Myers, too. You led me to him, as I figured you would.”
Garret shook his head. “Who are you?”
I smiled. “Kendrick.”
“What’s your first name?”
I turned my smile to Susan. “You know. In fact, you all know.”
Susan slowly shook her head, and Garret and Lance were puzzled. Lance was thinking out loud. “No, we don’t. Unless Kendrick is…” The light dawned. “…his first name. Kendrick. Ken.” His eyes met Garret’s. “No wonder the so and so found us and followed us all the way to Blantonville.”
Garret knew now, too.
Susan’s head went back and forth between the two men. “Will somebody let me in on the secret?”
Lance laughed. “Susan, his first name is Kendrick. His last name is Ross. Kendrick, or Ken, Ross.”
She looked at me and blinked a few times. I gave Garret and Lance a wry grin. “I don’t think she’s impressed.” They laughed.
“Oh, I am. I am.” I just shook my head and laughed, too.
Garret said, “You aren’t…going to turn us in?”
I looked at Susan. “I told you Garret was a rattlesnake, didn’t I.” She nodded. “And that Lance was a puppy dog, Garret’s puppy dog.” She nodded again. “You didn’t believe me, did you.” She shook her head.
I looked at Garret and held out my hand. “I don’t, either. Rattlesnakes and puppy dogs don’t risk their lives like these men did today.” Garret smiled and shook my hand. I held out my other hand to Lance. He smiled and took it. “Puppy dog?” he said.
Then Lance looked at Susan. “I still need a job?”
She smiled back at him. “We’ll see.”
Buddy had found all the horses, and had even gone to the trouble to load up all the outlaws onto them. “Money’s all here, too, boss.” He said that to me. Then he grinned. “Minus the $10,000 commission I took fer helping you out, o’ course.”
“Of course,” I said with a laugh. The big man was likeable.
Garret said to Buddy, “Do you know who this fellow is?”
“Sure. Ken Ross. Knowed it all along, but I played along with him. Figgered I could always shoot ‘im later if he needed it.” He shrugged. “I reckon I can understand why a feller might want to be a-nonny-moos fer awhile. We done it before.”
Garret and Lance were nonplussed. “How did you know?”
“Said his name was Kendrick. Ken. Ross. Obviously he’s hell on wheels. Doesn’t take much smart.”
Garret and Lance made faces at each other. “And we thought HE was the dumb one,” Garret said. We all laughed.
It was almost dark by now, so we decided to camp out for the evening rather than make the trek into Blantonville. The snow had held off, and the sky appeared to be clearing a bit. We found a nice place off the road to build a fire. A stream ran by about 100 yards away. Garret was doing the cooking. “I want to wash up,” Susan said. “I’m going to the stream.”
“You need any help?” Lance asked with a grin.
She smiled and glanced at me. “Only if a mountain lion happens by.”
“Not impossible, actually,” I said. “La--, uh, Buddy, why don’t you take a rifle and go with her. If she screams, you turn and shoot.”
“I’ll go with her,” Lance said. “I don’t mind.”
“No, no,” Buddy said, “I’ll do it. It’s not a problem. Ranger told me to do it so I will.” He grinned at Susan. “An’ I promise I won’t peak none, Miss Bedford.”
Lance snorted. “Then you’re an idiot, Myers. I sure would.”
Garret had heard the talk. “You know, Ranger, there are some mighty big lions in this country. Might need two guns. I’ll go, too.”
“You finish cookin’, you jackanapes,” Lance said. We all laughed.
As sore as she was, Susan was enjoying this bantering. Three…four…Buddy has a certain charm to him as well…which one?…enjoy all three, then…Ken?…
She walked to the stream, Buddy following right behind her. She was thinking, smiling…all three…Three…Garret?…Three…Lance?…Three… Buddy?….then….then…
What’s a girl to do? She smiled some more….But then, another thought. He came for me…he didn’t have to, but he did…that’s three times now…
Why would he do that?
I wasn’t sure of the answer to that question, either. She had seemed to take to Buddy, too. I might be fourth on the totem pole now. I sighed. I’ll just go back to Arizona…
And do what? I wasn’t even sure I had enough money to get back there…
When we rode in the next morning, the Blantonville city council was meeting in the town hall to decide what to do about the stolen money. Sheriff Flowers wasn’t too happy to see us, but the rest of the town was. We were given a $1,000 reward for recapturing the money, and there was another $1,000 reward for the Johnson gang. I figured we’d split it five ways—give Susan a cut, too—but the others wouldn’t hear of it.
They gave it all to me.