“It was just a very silly misunderstanding that Patrick and I had, but it was soon sorted out,” said Liza.
“As long as it’s sorted; I don’t like to see you two upset with one another. You are normally so very much in unison with each other and that keeps Patrick happy in everything he does. That’s why he’s so good at his job. I really doubt that he is going to find a new track to follow at this late stage so I expect he will be back in a couple of days or so,” said the colonel.
“Ada is looking forward to having your granddaughter living with you. I suppose that will make up just a little for losing Felicity. How are you going to cope with having a little one running around you again?” asked Liza.
The colonel laughed, “If it gets too much for me I can always hide in my office.”
“I don’t think Ada is going to let you get away with that too often. You seem to be coping with the loss of your daughter, Colonel. I know you’re probably hiding your feelings well but it isn’t easy, is it?” said Liza.
“No, it isn’t easy, but you know all about that, don’t you? No doubt you’re keeping yourself very busy. How’s the newspaper coming along?” asked the colonel.
“Yes, it’s going quite nicely. Greg and Laurie are working well together and Laurie’s English is excellent, so it’s taking pressure off me,” said Liza.
“Thank you for calling in today. I wanted to make sure that we were still friends and to compliment you on the way you handled yourself at the hearing; you were very dignified and I was very proud of you, as I know Patrick was. Do you really also know our current President?” asked the colonel.
“Yes, Colonel, I wasn’t lying. I did meet him when I was last in New York, he and his wife came to one of my events, which did my charity the world of good,” said Liza.
“Felicity tried to lay claim to that charity, didn’t she?” said the colonel.
“There’s no point in talking about that; let’s just remember all the good times with her. She did no long-term damage to the charity,” said Liza. “I’ve got to leave you now, Colonel; the boys will be home from school shortly. It has been nice to catch up with you.”
“Yes, of course and I do hope Patrick gets back soon and I also hope that he finds nothing. Much as Mark Kendal committed a terrible crime, I can understand how he felt and I would be most reluctant to see him paying the price for what he did, as I’m sure you would be also,” said the colonel pointedly, a comment which Liza chose to ignore.
As she was walking towards the stables she saw Corporal Shaw who nodded to her and asked her if she was well. “Yes, I’m all right, thank you, Corporal. I trust you are well?”
“I’m well, thank you, just busy making sure that the walls are quite secure now,” said the corporal.
“Yes, I heard that there was a way out that nobody in authority seemed to know about. I dare say they haven’t found the other way out yet, have they?” said Liza.
“What makes you think that there is another way out of here?” said the corporal.
“All right, Corporal, I’ll keep your secret as long as you promise me that it is concealed well enough that it doesn’t jeopardise the safety of all those in the fort,” smiled Liza.
“You have no fear on that count,” said the corporal.
“I’ve invited Laurie and yourself to Christmas lunch with our friends in town, but Laurie doesn’t seem to think that she’s good enough to join us. I do hope you’ll have a word with her to assure her that she is very much accepted in town, unless, of course, you already have plans for Christmas lunch,” said Liza.
“Don’t worry; I’ll have a word with her. If you say she’s good enough, then she’s good enough. Thank you, Liza; I think I would enjoy being with you all then, especially the children,” said the corporal.
Liza then made her way home and she was looking forward to seeing Matthew and John, but not looking forward to the lonely evening and night ahead.
***
Patrick, together with Lieutenant Southern and the scout, had studied the area around where it was assumed that Mark Kendal had left the fort. They spent some time going towards the outcrop and then clambered over parts of it until the scout pointed out where someone could have crossed over to where the army horses were kept. The scout told them that he was going to look further, try to pick up a trail and he would return to the fort shortly when he expected to be able to lead them in the correct direction, although he made it clear that there was very little sign for him to follow.
Just before lunch he returned saying that he believed that he had found an indication of the direction that somebody had travelled, but he was unsure as there had been a great deal of traffic since the lieutenant had disappeared. Patrick, Lieutenant Southern and the four privates left the fort and followed the scout in a south easterly direction, which was slightly different to that originally taken by Sean and his patrol.
They followed some signs for two days and eventually cut across the trail that Sean had taken. That evening they made camp in a small clearing and discussed the next course of action. The scout had disappeared that afternoon and returned later telling them that there was a group of soldiers ahead and they did not appear to have anyone in command of them.
“We’ll rest until dawn,” said Patrick, “and then catch up with these soldiers and find out what they are doing. How many are there?”
“There are eight of them. I think they are deserters, they don’t look and act like soldiers,” said the scout.
“Maybe Lieutenant Kendal has joined with them. We’ll have to go in carefully tomorrow,” said Patrick.
“I didn’t see him with them. I don’t like the way they look, I’ll keep a watch on them tonight,” said the scout.
Patrick said to Lieutenant Southern and the scout that it would be better if they didn’t mention to their men that they thought that the other soldiers could be deserters and when they did meet with them the next day, just to act as if they were meeting a genuine patrol from another fort, as they may well be.
It was a cold night and they kept their fire burning and Patrick felt that, if the other soldiers had been genuine, they would have made their way to them. He felt that they definitely had something to hide and was glad that he had posted a guard through the night, although he found that sleep eluded him. He really hoped that Mark wasn’t amongst such a group. He leaned against his saddle and thought about his Liza and he visualised her in her beautiful red dress and the way he liked to see her and touch her in bed, but he had to put her out of his mind and concentrate on the job in hand. He was very uneasy about the deserters; there were one or two in his patrol who would be more than happy to join them, he had to be very careful and wondered whether Lieutenant Southern was up to making the quick decisions which may have to be made.
He decided that as soon as it was light he would take two men and make his way down to where the scout had told him that the soldiers were, leaving the lieutenant and the other two to keep out of sight but to cover him if necessary.
The scout returned as soon as dawn broke saying that the soldiers seemed to have drunk themselves into oblivion through the night but he agreed that it would be better to keep the lieutenant and the other two soldiers hidden just in case there was any trouble. Once again, he reiterated that he couldn’t see Mark with them which pleased Patrick.
Patrick instructed Lieutenant Southern on what was expected of him and his men and he then made his way down to where the possible deserters were. The two soldiers with him realised that something was not quite as it should be with these men and acted cautiously as they approached. They need not have worried as the men were sleeping off the excesses of the night before.
There was no indication that anyone was in charge, they were all privates which once again led Patrick to believe that they were deserters as any patrol would have at least a sergeant with them. As he looked closely at one or two of them, he noticed that one had been a corporal, but his stripes had been removed which
again was a sign that he was dealing with undesirables.
Patrick dismounted and waited for a short while, but still there was no movement from the men on the ground; he told his men to collect up all the weapons that they could find and when they had done that, Patrick chose one of the men on the ground and kicked his legs until he woke up swearing as he did so. He was most surprised to see a lieutenant standing over him. He started calling to the man next to him, who also swore whilst telling him to leave him to sleep, but his insistence made this man sit up and he too was disturbed to see Patrick standing quietly over him.
“Get up,” Patrick hissed at them, “and wake your other men, NOW.”
Gradually, one by one the men awoke, all of them looking very much the worse for wear.
“All of you, on your feet and stand to attention,” shouted Patrick and when they were in some sort of a line, Patrick asked them who was in charge and where they were from. Nobody answered.
“I must, therefore, assume that you should not be here and you are deserters. Has nobody anything to say?” asked Patrick.
“We’re from Fort Walker, sir. Just on a patrol, checking for hostiles,” said the one who had been a corporal.
“Fort Walker isn’t so far away and there are no hostiles in this area. Get yourselves cleaned up and we’ll escort you back,” said Patrick curtly.
“The three of you are going to escort us back? I don’t think you’ll be able to do that,” said the one time corporal as he went to reach for his gun and was very surprised not to be able to find it.
“Where are our guns?” he growled.
“Safely out of the way, Corporal,” said Patrick. “You can come out now, Lieutenant and bring the men with you,” he called to Lieutenant Southern who appeared with the other two soldiers and the scout.
Patrick told the lieutenant to escort them to their horses and get them mounted ready to ride to Fort Walker, which was a day’s ride away. This was not what Patrick wanted to do; he was now going to have to go out of his way to take these men back to Fort Walker, if that was indeed where they had come from. They packed up the men’s weapons and put them on one of the pack horses, which would be kept well out of reach of these men.
Everyone mounted and they were all on their way. The scout rode with Patrick in the front and Lieutenant Southern brought up the rear with one man and the remaining three men were amongst the deserters with orders not to communicate with them in any way.
“They are not going to let you take them back to the fort without trying to get away,” said the scout to Patrick.
“I know; they are bound to try something. At least we have their guns. The trouble is I don’t believe we are going to make Fort Walker before nightfall, so we’ll have to camp for the night and that’s when they are going to try to get away. I’m not too sure about a couple of our men either. I should have been more cautious in who I picked for this assignment, although I believed we would only be away for two or three days and it would do them some good,” said Patrick.
“I’ll make myself scarce tonight so that I can go for help if it’s needed,” said the scout and Patrick nodded.
Several times Lieutenant Southern had to tell two of their own men to stop talking as he felt that they appeared to be getting too friendly with the deserters. When they stopped for the night, Patrick organised that the men were tied up in twos but he was quite aware of the dissent in two of his own men. The other two were uneasy as they could see that they were totally outnumbered.
Patrick and Paul Southern decided to take it in turns to sleep that night as did the two reliable soldiers. The other two also were told to take it in turns but nobody felt that they would follow their orders. Paul was going to take the first watch and Patrick leaned back and once again thought about his Liza and the two boys. Once he got these men to Fort Walker, he was going to give up the search for Mark; he felt that there was no point in going over ground that Sean had already covered. If Mark had got this far then by now he would be settled in Mexico, or unfortunately be dead.
Patrick closed his eyes and carried on thinking about Liza and home and reflecting that as a soldier he should really be thinking about his assignment and his men only, but it was too tempting to visualise all the good things of home. Unfortunately, Paul Southern also felt sleepy and finally his eyes closed but he was woken by a gun being held to his head and a voice hissing at him not to move. He looked up to see one of his own men holding the gun to him and he suddenly threw his arm up and knocked the gun away and it went off and a bullet caught him in the shoulder. The noise naturally woke Patrick with a start and he was greeted by a gun held to his face. This was the first time that he had ever been in such an awkward situation. He had fought Indians, Mexicans and gunfighters, but he had never been on the wrong end of a gun held by one of his own men and he was furious.
“You do realise what holding a gun to an officer means? It would be in your best interest to take that gun out of my face and give yourself up. I presume you are thinking about deserting and that is a capital offence, giving yourself up now could just mean a flogging,” said Patrick.
The one time corporal came over and said, “The other lieutenant was stupid enough to try to fight his way out of this. He’s not badly hurt but he smarts a bit. Well, Lieutenant, we won’t be going to Fort Walker, we’ll be going on our way to Mexico as we planned to start with. We had wondered what to do with you and the other lieutenant; we were going to leave you here for dead. But we’ve changed our minds.”
Patrick interrupted by asking how badly hurt Lieutenant Southern was and was told that a bullet had gone straight through his shoulder, and although he was bleeding a lot at the moment, it didn’t appear to be a serious wound, which was good as they were going to send him back to where he had come from and Patrick looked puzzled.
“A couple of your men were very talkative, Lieutenant; they gave us a great deal of information especially about you and your wife,” said the ‘corporal’.
“There is nothing about my wife which could possibly interest you,” said Patrick, although he had a feeling that he knew how this conversation was going to end.
“We’ve been told that she’s a very rich lady and that she would pay a lot of money to get you back. We’re going to send your lieutenant back to your post with a letter from you asking for $10,000 for your safe return. From what we have been told, she’ll easily be able to raise that amount,” said the corporal.
“You really don’t want to believe everything that you hear. She wouldn’t pay blackmail at any price,” said Patrick.
“That would be very unfortunate for you. Are you telling me that she wouldn’t pay money to get you back? I was told that she loves you, Lieutenant, which would be reason enough to have you back home safe and sound,” said the corporal.
“What makes you believe that she has that sort of money? And even if she did, she wouldn’t do it, she would know that you would kill me anyway, but she doesn’t have that much money,” said Patrick.
The corporal called one of Patrick’s men over. “Tell me again who the lieutenant’s wife is?”
“She’s the Marchant part of Marchant & Fuller,” was the reply.
“You see, Lieutenant, even out here that name is well-known, so there’s no point in telling us that she has no money. She’s rolling in it. Now, I know you’ve got pen, paper and ink in one of your bags, so I want you to write to your dear wife and tell her to get $10,000 and get it brought to the village near here, where we’ll wait for five days and if nobody reaches us by that time, it will mean that you will be meeting your maker,” said the corporal.
“No, I won’t be writing to her, Corporal, I won’t be pleading for funds on your behalf. There is no point as she wouldn’t be fooled by your insistence that you would keep me alive and besides, she wouldn’t have that sort of money lying around to pay such a ransom,” said Patrick.
“Please don’t annoy me, Lieutenant; I’m not very nice when I get annoyed. Just
write the note and you won’t get hurt,” said the corporal.
“If you’re sending the lieutenant back then there’s no need for me to write a note, so the answer is no, I will not write such a note,” said Patrick and as he said that the corporal hit him in the face and knocked him to the ground where he proceeded to kick him in the ribs, and stomach. He was pulled to his feet and asked again to write the note and he refused and was hit again in the face.
His nose was bleeding, he had a cut on his lip and possibly a couple of cracked ribs, but he still refused to write a ransom note and the corporal realised that he was going to get nowhere with this lieutenant. He turned and walked away leaving Patrick to nurse his wounds.
The corporal went to Lieutenant Southern and told him that he would be going back to Benson with one of his men with the message that they wanted $10,000 for the release of Lieutenant Kelly and the other soldier. The money was to be brought to the outskirts of a town called Los Ramos. If the army was brought to the town both the lieutenant and the private would be shot and the money was to be brought in by just one person. He gave them just five days to complete the action.
“If you’re expecting me to get back to Benson and get somebody to Los Ramos in five days, then you’re really not serious about what you are doing. It took us over two days to get to where we first saw you,” said Paul Southern. “It’s going to take me at least two days to get back to Benson; Liza Kelly isn’t going to be able to get that much cash organised in a day and you are expecting someone to get back to you from Benson in just two days. That would be impossible. It’s going to be two days for me to get back, at least one day to get the money, two days to get back to where you were originally and then at least another two days to get to Los Ramos. You’re asking the impossible; it just can’t be done.”
Against All Odds Page 76