Escape from Fort Benton

by Scott Connor

  He bent his wrist round to fit the key in the lock and with a flick sprung the lock and pushed open the cell door. Nathan moved to push the door closed, but Kenton had already kicked it fully open and was hurrying past him to the door.

  He beckoned them to follow, and with no choice, Nathan hurried after him.

  Kenton slipped out of the jailhouse and stood beside the door. He glanced left and right, then edged to the side to let Nathan and Jeff follow him out.

  Jeff closed the door behind them while Nathan joined Kenton in looking around.

  The night was still. The only noise came from the saloon and nobody else was visible. Even the tower appeared to be unguarded.

  ‘This,’ Nathan said, ‘might be a good time to talk about—’

  Kenton slapped a hand over his mouth, silencing him.

  ‘Like you said to me, be quiet,’ he urged. Kenton kept Nathan’s mouth covered for several seconds then raised his hand. ‘Now, we have to get away. Where are your horses?’

  Nathan winced as he felt another twinge of concern, but he had to acknowledge the sense of their getting away quickly.

  He pointed. ‘The stables.’

  Kenton nodded and, keeping to the shadows, he hurried along beside the jailhouse wall, then scurried across to the stables. Nathan and Jeff waited until he’d found the shadows, then, one at a time, ran after him.

  When Nathan joined Kenton, he saw no sign that anyone was looking their way from the dark buildings. When Jeff joined them they hurried along in the shadows and slipped into the stables, heading to the far end to a stall nearest the main gates.

  ‘Only two horses?’ Kenton asked when they reached their horses.

  ‘Yeah,’ Nathan said. ‘I’ll take that horse. You can ride doubled-up with Jeff.’

  As Jeff started to ask why he had to be the one who rode doubled-up, Kenton shook his head then pointed at the horses in the stalls around them.

  ‘Forget that. We’ll just take another horse.’

  He moved towards the next stall, but Nathan grabbed his arm, halting him.

  ‘We don’t steal.’

  ‘But you do break men out of jail, and that’s far too serious a crime to be worrying about committing another crime right now.’ Kenton looked at Nathan’s hand until Nathan raised it, then swung round to face him. ‘You got a gun?’

  Nathan’s mouth went dry, but he faced up to Kenton and shook his head.

  ‘We broke you out of jail and that means we say how this escape goes. We won’t use a gun, just like we won’t steal a horse.’

  Kenton met Nathan’s gaze, receiving a steely glare in return, while Jeff backed him up with a flexing of his large fists. He sighed and when he spoke again, his voice was softer.

  ‘All right. You’re in charge and if you don’t want to steal or use no gun, that’s what we’ll do.’ Kenton patted Nathan’s shoulder, the action cheering Nathan for the first time since they’d freed him. ‘But we might face trouble on the way out and then we’ll need a few warning shots to escape. So what do you say?’

  Nathan considered the more compliant Kenton, then nodded.

  ‘I guess you’re right. We’ve both got a gun.’ Nathan pointed at his saddle-bag. ‘But like I say we—’

  Kenton barged past him and headed to Nathan’s horse. He rummaged in the bag, emerging with Nathan’s gun and leaving the initialed Peacemaker inside.

  He thumbed back the six-shooter’s hammer then placed the chamber to his ear and whirled it, nodding. Then, with a few deft twitches of the wrist, he loaded the gun.

  ‘Any other guns?’

  ‘Unless things get mighty desperate, Jeff’s will stay in his saddle-bag.’

  A momentary smile crossed Kenton’s features, sending another twinge of concern rippling through Nathan’s stomach.

  Kenton hefted the six-shooter, the metal catching a stray beam of light through the open stable door.

  ‘Have you got anything else worth taking?’ he grunted.

  ‘Taking?’ Nathan said.

  As Kenton sniggered, Jeff snorted.

  ‘I’ll tell you one thing for sure,’ he said, pointing at him, ‘we won’t take you with us if you don’t start acting a whole heap more grateful.’

  Jeff rolled his shoulders and looked to Nathan for support, but Nathan had seen the intent behind Kenton’s question. He took a long pace towards Kenton, but that only encouraged Kenton to swing the gun round to aim it at his stomach.

  ‘A pity,’ Kenton said. ‘Then I’ll just have to take your horses and see what I can get for them.’

  Nathan raised his hands and backed away a pace.

  ‘You ungrateful snake,’ he muttered.

  ‘Yeah,’ Jeff said while raising his hands. ‘We broke you out of jail and you’re repaying us by robbing us.’

  Kenton shrugged. ‘Just think yourself lucky I’m not going to slit your throats.’

  Chapter Five

  ‘I can’t believe he did that,’ Nathan said from the stable door as Kenton galloped through the gates, leaving them stranded in the fort.

  ‘I can,’ Jeff grumbled, then glanced into the stables. ‘But I’m not stealing someone’s horse, no matter how much trouble we’re in. So I reckon we have to get out of the fort and find somewhere to hide before the sun comes up.’

  Nathan acknowledged Jeff’s honesty in this desperate situation with a pat on the back. Then they slipped away from the stables and, keeping beside the fort wall, headed to the gates.

  They were ten paces away from the heavy open gates when a voice tore out from the jailhouse.

  ‘Kenton Taylor’s escaped,’ Sheriff Buckthorn cried out, hanging on to the jailhouse door. He pushed himself away from the door, swayed, then snaked his way towards the saloon. ‘He’s gone. They’ve all gone!’

  They slid to a halt. If they headed through the gates, Buckthorn would be sure to see them, so they slipped back to press themselves to the fort wall and hide in the darkest shadows.

  They were rewarded for their caution when Buckthorn stomped to a halt and swung round to look towards the gates, then pointed.

  ‘They’re getting away,’ he shouted. ‘I can still see them.’

  As he hurried on to the saloon, calling out for help, they agreed that if Buckthorn was intent on raising a posse to chase after Kenton, they should stay here.

  Nathan directed Jeff to head along the wall. The gates were thrown wide open and there was a gap between the gate and the wall of several feet, which they slipped into.

  The gate was solid enough to ensure that nobody would be able to see them hiding there even in daylight. Through a thin gap between two planks, they watched an inebriated gaggle of men spill out of the saloon, then hurry over to stand before the gates and peer into the darkness.

  Within minutes, Buckthorn had gathered together sufficient people to chase after Kenton. These men’s enthusiasm was liquor fuelled and their raucous shouting confirmed that they reckoned a chase was a good way to end the evening.

  A group of red-coated men emerged with Mayor Decker and these men stayed away from the rabble. Decker’s men huddled and watched the group led by the inebriated sheriff mount up, then hurtle off into the night with much whooping and hollering that was sure to warn Kenton of their pursuit.

  Then they looked to Decker for instructions. He, with authoritative pointing in various directions and some low orders that Nathan couldn’t hear, organized them for leaving the fort. When they rode out through the gates, these men used a measured pace.

  The customers from the saloon who hadn’t chased after Kenton milled around. Some headed to the gates and squinted into the darkness while wagering on whether or not Kenton would get away, and, if not, which group would catch him.

  When the whooping from the sheriff’s group had faded into the distance, they accepted they wouldn’t be able to see what was happening in the dark and returned to the saloon.

  When the fort had returned to quiet, they slipped out from behind the gat
e. As Jeff glanced around, Nathan’s gaze centered on the tower.

  It loomed over them with its dark form outlined against the cloudy night sky beyond. The windows were black holes and now that their misguided actions had proved that freeing Kenton wasn’t connected with the $10,000, Nathan couldn’t help but think about the possibility of the money being behind one of those windows.

  ‘You know,’ he mused, ‘I reckon—’

  ‘Stop reckoning and stop staring at that tower,’ Jeff urged, tugging Nathan’s arm. ‘They won’t be gone for ever.’

  ‘But they will be gone for a while.’ Nathan pointed at the tower. ‘As we can never come back here, I reckon this is the last chance we’ll ever get to find out whether we can use our key.’

  Jeff shook his head. ‘Won’t you ever learn to ignore that curiosity of yours? We interfered in a gunfight and killed a man. We got beaten up. We got arrested. We got told to leave town or face a firing-squad. We broke an outlaw out of jail. And now we’re wanted men and we’re stranded in a fort.’

  ‘Yeah, and more important than that is the fact we’ve got nothing to show for it all.’ Nathan considered Jeff’s belligerent stance, then set off towards the stables. ‘Come on. It’ll only take a few minutes.’

  Jeff still loitered by the gate, and for several paces Nathan thought he wouldn’t follow him, but when he kept going Jeff sighed and hurried after him.

  Staying in the shadows, they circled around the edge of the parade-ground to reach the stables, then slipped inside and hurried to the other door to emerge opposite the tower. There, they confirmed that no guards were outside the door.

  Then they hurried across to the tower where they pressed themselves against the wall, catching their breaths, before slipping in through the doorway.

  They hurried through the tunnel to emerge into the plaza. The light level here was so low they had to walk slowly with Nathan leading and with Jeff resting a hand on his shoulder as he used his memory of the layout to reach the steps.

  In the dark, they both stumbled on the first step, but then they pattered up them, rounding them on their circular path. With the only lights in the fort coming from the saloon, they were in almost complete darkness and they walked with their hands outstretched.

  Some light drifted into the corridor outside the mayor’s office to light their way, but that again faded as they embarked on the climb up the second set of steps.

  Their progress was easier when they emerged out on to the roof. Here they had the ambient light from the cloudy night sky and the low full moon even threatened to break through the clouds, giving them enough light to see the area beyond the fort.

  Nathan could see the settlement and the trail beyond on which Decker and Buckthorn would be chasing after Kenton, but he couldn’t see the riders.

  With a burst of anticipation lightening his step, Nathan headed to the storeroom where the door was still open. Jeff followed him in, ducking to avoid the low doorway. Then he stepped to the side and held the door wide open to provide him with some light.

  A stack of five identical caskets stood by the far wall. The casket the men had brought up sat by the door.

  Nathan hurried across the room, then removed the key to try the topmost casket. The key stabbed against the lock and refused to enter no matter how hard he pressed.

  A glance at the other caskets confirmed they all had identical locks, but he still tried them, without success.

  With each failure Jeff grumbled. When the last casket failed to open he kicked the casket by the door, but his action rocked the lid up before it crashed back down.

  In the darkened room, each man looked at the other, grinning. Then Jeff dropped to his knees and threw back the lid.

  He snorted, then rocked back on his haunches to let Nathan see inside. No money was in there, just rows of rifles, the polished wood glistening in the faint light.

  ‘No money, just guns,’ Jeff murmured. He stood up and laid a hand on Nathan’s shoulder. ‘So now we go. Agreed?’

  Nathan closed the lid. He was about to agree with Jeff, but a thought came to him.

  ‘Just give me one more minute and then we’ll go.’

  Jeff winced as Nathan slipped past him, then hurried to the steps to the tower. Nathan peered through the barred inset window into the room beyond. It was deserted.

  He fingered the door, searching for the lock, but the door was broken where the lock would once have been and the light pressure of his touch was enough to open the door. He paced inside.

  Aside from the straw strewn over the floor, the room was bare. Two windows were on each of three walls. The fourth wall backed on to the storeroom and, in the place where the windows would have been, two grilles were set into the wall.

  Unwilling to accept that his quest had ended, Nathan stood before the nearest window. With his hands thrown up on either side of the window and his shoulders hunched, he considered the fort.

  ‘That minute’s up,’ Jeff said from the door.

  From behind thick clouds the moon emerged, bathing the fort in harsh light and, realizing that he was standing in full view before the window, Nathan swung back to press himself to the wall.

  ‘Yeah, but let the moon go away again before we sneak off,’ he said.

  Jeff joined Nathan in standing against the wall, as the moon cast long rectangles of cold light across the room, confirming it was empty.

  ‘It’s a pity we failed, but we’ve tried everywhere,’ Jeff said.

  Nathan now noticed several ground-in tobacco-stains on the floor amongst the straw and detected the stench of cigar smoke. Then he saw the grilles in the wall that backed onto the storeroom.

  They were three feet square with five solid vertical bars. Behind the nearest he saw a few inches of the thick wall reflecting the moonlight, then nothing.

  ‘Perhaps we haven’t tried everywhere yet,’ he mused.

  Nathan lowered his head to pass by the window and shuffled over to the grille by the door, but just as he was reaching out to it, the moon slipped behind cloud again, plunging the tower into darkness.

  ‘Whatever you want to do, do it quick,’ Jeff said.

  In the dark, Nathan ran his fingers up and down the bars, then reached inside. A breeze cooled his hand, coming from behind the wall.

  Although he could see nothing ahead, the musty smell and coolness gave him the impression that there was a considerable space beyond the grille.

  He reached up, but he felt nothing beyond the wall, and the same to the left and right.

  When he felt downwards, his hand closed on a block of metal, and his questing fingers found a hole – a keyhole to a lock. He couldn’t help but gasp.

  Nathan kept a finger on the hole then removed the key and, using his finger as a guide, reached through the grille and slipped it in the lock. The key disappeared inside.

  ‘Cross your fingers.’ Nathan looked at Jeff. ‘This could be it.’

  Nathan turned the key and a click sounded.

  ‘It worked!’ Jeff said. Then he lowered his voice. ‘It worked.’

  ‘It sure did,’ Nathan said.

  Chapter Six

  Nathan removed the key then stood up. He pushed the grille, but it didn’t move.

  He leaned back to open the door and give him more light. Then he gripped two bars and shoved.

  Jeff rolled his substantial shoulders, then joined him. The two men strained hard as they pushed the grille, but it still didn’t move.

  Then, with a bashful glance at each other, they stopped pushing and pulled. With a lurch and a grinding of metal on metal, the grille swung upwards and away from the wall, revealing the darkened space beyond.

  With Jeff patting his back, Nathan poked his head through the hole. He reckoned he was looking into a gap between the wall to the tower and the wall to the storeroom.

  Further along was the outline of light thrown through the second grille onto an interior wall. The cool breeze running over his face was stronger now.

&
nbsp; ‘What do you see?’ Jeff asked.

  ‘It’s a space between the walls, but I can’t see nothing without more light.’

  ‘We can’t risk getting any. It’d be seen all over the fort.’

  Nathan nudged his head out, then swung his legs back in and climbed into the space. He stayed crouched down as he peered out at Jeff.

  ‘Agreed, but we have to find out what’s in here now, don’t we?’

  ‘Yeah, but . . .’ Jeff flinched back, his ear cocked high. Then he crouched over and hurried to a window. He glanced up, then ducked down and returned to the grille. ‘Riders are coming back to the fort.’

  ‘Buckthorn or Decker?’

  ‘I don’t intend to stay long enough to find out. This is our only chance to find out what’s behind there, but do that finding real quick.’

  Nathan nodded, then turned, still crouched, and raised his hands above his head, confirming there was enough room for him to stand. He stood up and splayed his hands wide, feeling ahead.

  He had to act quickly, but walking in darkness was uncomfortable. He imagined a wall was just inches from his nose and with every faltering step, he dreaded slamming into it.

  He shuffled ahead for two paces before his fingers touched a wall. Then he took three slow paces to the right before he reached the wall to the side and level with the door.

  He swung round, placing his back to the wall. The faint square of light from the other grille was ahead, but that only gave him a point of reference and not enough light to see what was within this enclosed space.

  He shuffled his feet along the floor, questing in long sweeps ahead of him, but he only scraped across grit. He moved forward until he was level with the grille, then took another two sweeping paces.

  Outside, Jeff murmured confirmation that Decker was leading the returning riders. Nathan took another pace, then swept around with his feet.

  He felt nothing, and so Nathan accepted that unless the $10,000 was in an obvious place, he was unlikely to happen across it.

  ‘How close is he?’ Nathan asked, abandoning his cautious approach and taking a long stride forward.