Outlaw Pass (9781101544785)

by West, Charles G.

  When they reached a point where Bonnie felt she couldn’t climb any farther, Black Otter pointed toward a notch in the slope below them that appeared to be a gully leading down into the tree line. “Go down now,” he said.

  “Well, hallelujah,” Bonnie replied, “I thought I was gonna have to crawl up on my horse, too.” Watching Finn grasping his saddle horn for fear his horse was going to slide during the steep descent, however, she was just as happy to be on foot.

  Once they entered the mouth of the gully, their way was not so steep. Still, when watching their guide when he paused to determine the best path to take, they could see it was obvious that he had never led a horse along this trail before. His judgment proved sound, though, and before much longer, they were making their way down through the pines again, this time to a hogback that linked them with the neighboring mountain. Black Otter followed a game trail through a belt of pines so thick that it was dark as night at ground level. Still he pushed on, never slowing his pace until they emerged to find themselves entering a large meadow. Across the meadow, and down again through another belt of trees, they followed until on the opposite side of the second mountain. “Not far now,” he told Bonnie as they waited for Lacey to catch up. “There,” he said, and pointed to a spot across a narrow valley where a broad stream flowed down from the mountain. Bonnie and Finn strained to see what he was pointing to, but they could see nothing but more forest, although a thin ribbon of gray smoke wafted lazily up from the dark trees.

  After descending to the valley floor, they were at last able to ride the horses, and Black Otter led them across to the base of the mountain where the stream turned and meandered in a crooked path down the valley. Only then did the three white strangers see the single tipi tucked back in a stand of fir trees. A woman working on a deer hide near the fire stopped and stood up when she saw the party approaching. Her first thought was to run, but then she saw that it was her husband leading the line of horses and mules. She then walked slowly out to meet them.

  “Why do you bring the white people here?” Little Flower asked, at once alarmed as she peered at the odd trio of strangers. She had heard the shooting on the far side of the mountains and had fervently prayed that Black Otter was nowhere near it.

  Answering in his native tongue, he said, “They are the friends of Big Hunter. One of them, the man, is wounded. They were attacked by bad white men. Big Hunter stayed behind to let us get away.” Big Hunter was the name Black Otter had given his white friend on the occasion when they first met, and Adam had given him a gift of one of the deer he had shot.

  At once distressed, Little Flower could not help thinking of the danger she and Black Otter had faced when they had fled from their native land in Idaho Territory to escape the soldiers who wanted to drive them to the reservation. “Why do you bring these people here?” she repeated. “The bad white people will follow them to our camp, and we will have to run again.”

  “They are running from the bad people, just as we ran from the soldiers,” Black Otter replied. “They mean us no harm, and they do not want to remain here in these mountains. I think Big Hunter is big medicine, and I will help him escape these people who would do him harm.”

  “She doesn’t look too happy to see us,” Bonnie remarked. The two women and Finn had been waiting while Black Otter explained the situation to his wife. Since no one of the three knew even a smattering of words in the Bannock tongue, they were not certain but what they might be ordered to move on immediately. “Do you understand any of that talk?” Bonnie asked.

  “Not a word,” Finn replied, just as the conversation between husband and wife ended, and they both turned to face the three white people.

  “Little Flower,” Black Otter said, introducing the Indian woman. “She will give you food. Maybe Big Hunter be here soon.”

  “Who?” Lacey asked Bonnie.

  “I guess that’s his name for Adam,” Bonnie replied. “Here, help me get Finn off his horse.” She was ready to accept any hospitality offered, with or without a smile on Little Flower’s face. With help from the two women, Finn dismounted and sat down near the fire to rest. The hazardous ride along the steep mountain slopes had taken a lot out of his tired body. “I’ll break out that old coffeepot of yours,” Bonnie told him. “I doubt if these folks have any.”

  It was a rugged trail Adam followed, making him wonder if he had not lost it in several places when it led him across wide areas of solid rock where there were no tracks. Remembering Black Otter’s directions to his camp, he wondered why it was necessary to keep climbing up the mountain instead of circling it lower toward the base. The question was answered, however, whenever he emerged from the belts of pines to reveal sheer cliffs that stood over deep canyons. Though difficult to travel, the barren mountaintops presented any number of places to wait in ambush for anyone following him. With that in mind, and hoping to stop his pursuers before they could catch up to Finn and the women, he kept an eye out for the best choice for ambush. When he came across an outcropping of rocks that were broad enough to conceal his horse and give him an unobstructed field of fire, he decided that he would find no better. So he dismounted and led his horse behind the wall of rocks. Drawing his rifle from the saddle sling, he selected a protected spot to await his pursuers, thinking they should not be far behind. The time ticked slowly by with no sign of the three outlaws. Still he remained there for a couple of hours before coming to the opinion that they must not have realized that he had withdrawn from the camp. They had evidently given up on continuing up the stream to his camp, and consequentially, did not follow his and Black Otter’s trail out of the camp. Maybe they had stopped to take possession of the six extra horses. It puzzled him, for it seemed unlikely that the three had given up and quit the chase, but it was something to hope for. Finally, he decided they had. Looking up at the midday sun, he continued on his way, thinking that it might not be wise to let the sun go down and catch him still high up on the mountain.

  Leaving the expanse of rock, he came upon a broad meadow and sighted a deep gully that appeared to lead down toward the pines again. It looked to be a reasonable way down the mountain, so he decided to take it. Much to his surprise, he discovered a trail of hoofprints leading into the mouth of the gully. Dumb luck, he thought. The gulch led him to a hogback leading to the next mountain. By the time he found his way to the valley and Black Otter’s camp, the afternoon was wearing away.

  Seldom taking her eyes off the open valley they had crossed to get to Black Otter’s camp, Lacey sat drinking a cup of the coffee Bonnie had made. They had eaten some of the venison that Little Flower had dried before, and while not yet exhibiting cordiality, at least the Indian woman no longer looked at her with a frown etched in her bronze features. Lacey could not blame her for feeling threatened. She would in her place. She glanced away from the valley for a few moments to look at Bonnie. Her sister in the ancient profession never seemed timid in any circumstance, and was already in the process of taking over the camp. She had dived right in with preparing food for them, making coffee, roasting strips of deer meat that Little Flower had provided. Lacey wondered if Bonnie was as fearless as she purveyed. At that moment, Bonnie looked up to meet her gaze and smiled. Then her eyes suddenly opened wide and she exclaimed, “Adam!” They all turned to discover the solitary rider coming across the valley floor. Black Otter immediately grabbed his bow, but there was no mistaking the bold figure riding the bay gelding.

  Lacey dropped her cup, spilling the coffee in the sand, as she jumped to her feet and ran to meet him. Bonnie stood up, but remained by Finn’s side. That little girl is working herself up for a big disappointment, she thought. As far as she could tell, Adam had shown no particular interest in Lacey beyond the concern he might feel for any vulnerable woman. But Lacey was becoming more and more dependent upon their tall rescuer, and Bonnie feared the girl might be interpreting his concern as deeper feelings for her. After all, Jake had planned to carry her away from the evils of Bannack, an
d Adam seemed to be taking his brother’s place. I hope I’m wrong about this, she thought, fearing that a second disappointment might be too much for the insecure girl to bear.

  “Well, I see you folks got here all right,” Adam said to Lacey when she ran up to walk beside his stirrup.

  “I was worried about you, Adam,” Lacey said. “You were gone so long.”

  “That’s a fact,” Finn called out. “We’re all glad you showed up. Thought you mighta got into a little trouble.”

  Adam stepped down. Patting Lacey gently on the shoulder, he told her, “No need to worry about me. If somethin’ happens to me, you’ve still got Bonnie and Finn to get you outta here.” To Finn, he said, “No trouble—I waited awhile back up on the mountain for those three fellows to show up, but they never did. I think they musta gave up.”

  “That don’t hardly figure, does it?” Finn replied, thinking of the amount of gold loaded in the ten bags, of which only he knew the real value. “I ain’t sure we’re done with them yet.”

  “Me, either,” Adam said, “so let’s get you ready to ride and get on out of these mountains.” He turned to Black Otter then. The Bannock warrior was standing, waiting to introduce his wife. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am,” Adam said in response to her curt nod, at once sensing a slight hostility in her manner. Uh-oh, he thought, we got Black Otter in trouble with his missus. Thinking there was no way he could blame her for her attitude, he told Black Otter that he intended to leave right away for the Madison Valley. “I don’t wanna bring any more trouble to you and your wife,” he said.

  “I help you fight,” Black Otter said.

  “You’ve already helped me, my friend, and I thank you and Little Flower again, but I don’t wanna bring those murderers down on your camp.”

  “Stay one night,” Black Otter insisted. “Rest, rest horses, go in the morning.”

  “All right, we’ll leave in the mornin’,” Adam finally said, much to his companions’ relief. He pulled his saddle off the bay and led the gelding down near the water to graze with the other horses and Finn’s mules.

  “Damn!” Cruz swore loudly. “There ain’t nothin’ but one cliff after another on this mountain.” They had ridden almost halfway around the mountain, and tried climbing up several different ravines that looked to have promise, only to be turned back by a cliff, or a rock ledge. “You’re one helluva Injun scout,” he said sarcastically.

  “Well, I ain’t got no way of knowin’ what’s at the end of a gulch if I ain’t ever been up it before,” Red Blanket replied. “It ain’t got nothin’ to do with scoutin’.”

  “This ain’t gettin’ us nowhere,” Seeger complained. “We might as well go on back and try it up that stream again. They mighta pulled outta that camp by now—mighta come down that stream as soon as we left.”

  Seeger’s comments caused Cruz to hesitate, thinking that he might be right, and the thought of being snookered by the hired gun and his whores was enough to bring his blood to a boil. He was reaching the point where he was ready to follow Seeger’s suggestion and go back to the stream below the waterfall, when they came to the hogback that linked the two mountains.

  Red Blanket stared up at the trees that covered the high ridge between the two mountains for a few minutes before declaring, “We can ride up that ridge. That mountain ain’t so steep on this side. We might be able to go up it, and go round it, and come out above their camp.”

  His suggestion sounded as if it entailed a lot of hard work to take the horses up the mountain, but it seemed a reasonable approach to attack the fugitives’ camp from above. And no one had any better solution to their problem, so Cruz said, “What the hell? Let’s go. There better be a helluva lot of gold up there,” he added, as Red Blanket led out.

  As Red Blanket had predicted, the climb up the hogback was steep, but not a hard climb for their horses. “We’re gonna have to get off the horses and walk up the back of that mountain,” Red Blanket advised when they had reached the top of the ridge. He stepped down from the saddle and started to lead his horse back up the slope, but was stopped abruptly by something he saw in the pine straw. “Hold on!” he exclaimed, and held up his hand to halt Cruz and Seeger behind him.

  “What is it?” Seeger asked.

  “Wait a minute,” Red Blanket replied impatiently while he knelt down to examine the floor of the pine forest. Crawling along on his hands and knees, he suddenly let out a chuckle. When Cruz, equally impatient, asked what he had found, Red Blanket got to his feet to announce his discovery. “This oughta tickle you. Them folks has already left that camp. They’re on the run.” He pointed over Cruz’s shoulder. “They came down off that mountain and crossed over this hogback.” He turned to point again. “And went yonder way.”

  This sparked Cruz’s and Seeger’s interest immediately. “How do you know it was them?” Seeger asked.

  “Who else would it be?” Red Blanket replied. “Ain’t no doubt, anyway. The way this straw is tore up, it was more’n one or two horses come through here, and it weren’t long ago.”

  “How long?” Cruz wanted to know.

  “Hell, I don’t know,” Red Blanket responded, “not long. I’m an Injun. I ain’t no damn fortune-teller, but we can’t be that far behind ’em.”

  Once again, Cruz’s mind was working on the possibility of acquiring a large amount of gold, and now it was out in the open. Plummer had said he knew exactly how much there was, but maybe Plummer was bluffing. The thought of capturing Finn’s treasure with just the three of them to know how much was really there was cause to consider all the options available. The immediate priority was to overtake the fugitives and take possession of the gold. After that was accomplished, he could take the time to decide the best way to handle the situation, and whether or not he had further need of Seeger and Red Blanket. “Let’s go get ’em, boys,” he finally exclaimed. “Lead out, Red Blanket, and mind you don’t lead us into no ambush.”

  The first shot came after they had eaten a supper of more venison with some pan bread that Bonnie had made with some of Finn’s flour. The bullet found a victim in the form of Lacey Brewer as the young girl passed before the fire, bringing the coffeepot to fill Adam’s cup. She issued no more than a whimper before crumpling to the ground with a .44 slug in her stomach. That shot was followed by a volley of rifle fire that swept the camp, sending the fugitives to the ground to seek cover, and Adam scrambling to drag Lacey out of the firelight. Amid the chaos that ensued, he heard Little Flower scream in fear and Bonnie yell Lacey’s name. There was no time to see what Finn and Black Otter were doing. Adam had to assume they were taking cover to repel the attack. He pulled Lacey back in the shadows where he had dumped his saddle, and drew his rifle from the sling. He had to take a moment then to try to see where the shots were coming from and how close they were before he could give Lacey his attention. “Lie quiet,” he said softly. “I’ll be right back.” He rolled over several times and inched his way up to a low mound close to the edge of the stream, and waited for the next volley. It came in less than a few seconds, and he immediately sent an answering series of shots toward the muzzle flashes. A few yards away, he heard the distinct sound of Bonnie’s carbine. After another moment, the solid sound of Finn’s rifle sang out. “Lacey’s hit!” Adam called out. “Anybody else?”

  “We’re all right,” Bonnie yelled. “I don’t know about Black Otter and Little Flower. Where’s Lacey?”

  “She’s over by my saddle,” Adam answered. “I’m goin’ back to her now. Keep your eyes peeled.” He crawled back to the wounded girl.

  “Adam,” Lacey cried when he returned to her side, her voice pitiful and frightened. “It hurts bad, Adam.”

  “Where are you hit?” he asked. “Oh, Lord,” he blurted immediately after, when he saw the dark stain spreading rapidly on her shirt. Then, afraid that he might have frightened her, he quickly tried to reassure her. “You’re gonna be all right. I know it hurts, but you’ll be all right.” Even as he said it, he
knew her chances were not good. There was nothing he could do to help her.

  There was a lull in the shooting and a few seconds later, Bonnie crawled over to join them. “How bad is it, honey?” she asked Lacey.

  “It hurts,” Lacey whimpered.

  Bonnie looked at Adam and he shook his head, telling her what she had feared. Then, seeing Lacey’s bloody shirt, she understood. Lacey was gut-shot and bleeding internally as well as soaking her shirt. She put her carbine down and put her arms around the dying girl, holding her close to comfort her. Speaking quietly to Adam, she said, “You’d better keep your eye on the others.”

  He nodded, then looked again at Lacey. It was obvious that the young girl was fading fast, and it grieved him to see her suffer so, but he felt helpless to do anything that might make it easier for her. The shooting from the valley floor started anew and he told Bonnie he was going to go back to the bank of the stream where he had a better chance of a lucky shot.