by A. T. Butler
“She needs me!” he cried, jumping down to the campsite below.
Jacob ducked his head, praying that the other men would think to do the same. They had to hide from view, for when the outlaws would inevitably look up to where the boy had come from.
“Joel Colfax!” Flora cried in amazement.
Jacob put out his hands, stopping Boyd and Zeke from going after Joel. There was no sense in all of them putting themselves in danger. If he was careful there might still be a way to salvage this. If Joel would just …
Jacob and the other two men listened helplessly. There was no response from the kid. With his head down and hidden, Jacob could only hear what was happening to Joel. He would have to guess. There were several heavy thuds that sounded like punches to his gut or back, along with a crack that certainly marked a hit to his head.
“Joel,” cried Flora, subdued.
Jacob shook his head to himself. Even without seeing what was happening, it was clear that whatever men had been outside the cave when the kid jumped down were plenty to trounce him.
“Lord God in Heaven,” Boyd said under his breath.
“Damn it!” Jacob scrunched up his face, closing his eyes against the reality of his new situation. With Joel now captured their entire balance of power was in doubt. “Damn,” he whispered again.
He tapped the other two men on their arms. When they looked at him, Jacob pointed back down the mountain and began to crawl backward, out of sight and out of hearing of the outlaws below. He heard the other men following him. He had to start over with a new plan. Again.
Once he was a sufficient distance away, Jacob got to his feet, dusted the dirt off of him and strode another dozen feet into the forest for greater cover.
Zeke and Boyd were close behind him. Their searching looks reminded Jacob of how little his team was prepared for this kind of stand-off. These two men had likely never dealt with outlaws of Pickens’s ilk and were looking to Jacob to show them how it is done.
“Well,” Jacob began slowly. He took a deep breath and let it out as quietly as he could. “This complicates things.”
“We can’t … You’re not serious?” Boyd said fearfully.
“What? That it’ll be difficult to get Flora and Joel back? Why the hell do you think we’re even here, Boyd?”
“Just us three against them five? I dunno Jacob. We had a chance when there was just two of them. We mighta could done something with Joel still with us. But now? I just don’t see how we’re going to free them kids.”
“There must be a way,” Jacob insisted. “There’s always a way.”
“No. Huh uh.” Boyd shook his head. “It’s over.”
“Yeah, Boyd’s right,” Zeke said, nodding. “We all got families. We can’t be putting ourselves at risk any more than we already have. My wife is expecting me home. You gonna be the one to tell her I got shot trying to rescue some stranger?”
“Your families? Let me ask you something, Mr. Boyer. You got a daughter?”
Zeke nodded.
“A son?”
“Three boys and a girl.” He stood up a little straighter and puffed up his chest with pride. Jacob noted the shine in the other man’s eyes when he mentioned his kids. This was a man who cherished his family, and was proud of them. A man who valued his home life. A man who America was built on.
“And,” Jacob lowered his voice even more and leaned forward, “what would you do if one of those children was taken from you, like Flora has been taken from her own father?”
Zeke swallowed hard and looked down at the dirt under his feet.
“Those helpless young ones in that cave are just as loved and just as precious as your own. Do you want to be the one to go home to Mr. Kimball and tell him we gave up? Will you go back with me to Cork to tell Mrs. Colfax we left her son with five of the worst men to grace this part of the country?”
Zeke looked up at his brother-in-law and the two seemed to have a silent conversation about their options. A shrug of a shoulder and a twitch of the lip and the two men came to a decision.
“Alright,” Zeke said, nodding more excitedly. “We’ll stay.”
Jacob was a little surprised by how easily he had swung from one decision to another, but didn’t want to question it too hard for fear of changing the man’s mind again.
“Okay, then. I still think the original plan is our best bet,” Jacob said. “We can wait til one of those fellas is outside the cave and the others are inside, and take them out one at a time.”
“Like an ambush?” Boyd asked.
“Exactly. As long as we stay out of sight from the mouth of the cave we should be just fine.”
“They’ll never guess what’s coming,” Zeke said with a grin. “They’re just grimy criminals. There’s no way they will be able to beat us.”
“Zeke,” Jacob said seriously. “We can’t underestimate these people. There’s a reason they are still free and not rotting in a jail cell somewhere. We have to be smart about this.”
“Alright then. What are we waiting for? Let’s get to it so we can get home.”
“Patience,” Jacob said in a carrying whisper. But Zeke was already about ten yards ahead and may not have heard him.
The three crept down the trail, toward where the enormous boulder was blocking the outlaws’ view of their approach. Jacob strained to listen, to get a sense of what was going on just out of his view. It seemed too quiet to have many people out, but Jacob could smell the campfire burning down to embers.
“I don’t hear anything,” Zeke said, excitedly. “We can get them now! The next one that comes outta there is gonna get a bullet in the side.”
He strode on ahead, ignoring Jacob’s hissing commands to wait and be careful. Zeke was making too much noise. Jacob couldn’t reach him to pull him back before the other man popped his head and shoulders around the corner of the large stone wall. He moved into view of whoever might be at the campsite before he even had his pistol ready.
“Zeke!” Jacob whispered, desperate to only be heard by the one person.
A gunshot tore through the quiet.
Jacob started forward to help Zeke, but he was too slow. The man cried out, first in pain from the bullet piercing his upper arm, and then again from the pain of being seized and manhandled by the outlaws that had been on guard.
“Who the hell is this?” one of the men asked angrily. “Where did you come from? You meddling sons-a-b—”
“Who else is out there?” the other man asked.
Jacob held his breath and backed away from the trail. He held Boyd back, flat against the boulder, watching as the grimy outlaw strode out from behind their cover into view. He looked right and left; he peered into the forest in front of him. With the hard afternoon light, the shadows between the trees were dark and distinct, hiding movement. As long as the man didn’t come around to their side of the boulder, Jacob and Boyd would be safe.
Jacob readied his revolver, holding it steady and aimed at the curve around which the outlaw might come.
After a few seconds of half-heated searching, the man returned back to the campsite, out of Jacob’s line of sight.
“Grab that one,” the voice commanded on the other side of the boulder. “If he’s come after these two, there’s more to their story than they’re telling us.”
“What are we doing with them? What if there’s more of ‘em?”
“Let’s take ‘em down to the depths of the mine. Maybe being down the shaft will jog their memory.”
Jacob heard a series of pained cries, as Flora, Joel and Zeke were seized and likely dragged down into the dark, narrow cave. He could smell the fire outside the mouth of the entrance still burning, but try as he might he couldn’t hear any human. The several pairs of footsteps faded away down the path and Jacob and Boyd were left alone.
“How can we get them now?” Boyd asked in a panicked whisper. “We have to go back to town. Get more men.”
Jacob shook his head. There was still a w
ay to do this. He just had to outthink the gang leader and stay one step ahead. They had to be quick about it, though. Before Zeke bled out. Before the men realized that Flora and Joel couldn’t help them. With every moment that slipped by, the chance of getting all of their group safely back to Elk Springs grew smaller and smaller.
He and Boyd retreated to consider their options and make a plan.
“Jacob we need to go back. We need to get help. We can’t do this. There’s too many of them. There are too few of us. We can’t. Jacob, we can’t”
“Come on, now, Boyd,” Jacob said soothingly. “Calm down now. If we take the time to go all the way back to town, who knows what will happen to them.”
“Yeah but—”
“It’s too far. That’s too much time. We have to figure this out on our own.”
“Jacob, I don’t know …”
“Do you want to go, then?”
Jacob gave the man a hard look. He needed to know if he was alone in this, if he would have to concoct a plan that was him against the entire outlaw gang, if he had any other kind of help on his side. Boyd swallowed, under Jacob’s gaze and looked down at his feet.
“I guess … I … Yeah. Okay. You’re right. My sister will skin me alive if I come home without Zeke.”
Working as quickly as they could, Jacob and Boyd spent the next fifteen minutes finalizing the plan for what would hopefully be their final assault.
With all the tools they need in hand, Jacob and Boyd headed back down the trail, toward the cave for one final attempt at rescuing the captives. It felt like he kept repeating himself — tentative attack only to be taken down before he even started. If this plan didn’t work, Jacob despaired of ever rescuing the other three. He already worried about the innocent girl being in their clutches for too long, and what had happened to her in all the time Jacob couldn’t see.
But he squared his shoulders and readied himself for the battle ahead.
Jacob cautiously rounded the corner, around the boulder, and approached the mouth of the cave. With the heat of the afternoon, the group of outlaws had retreated into the cool of the cave. The echoes of their shouting at each other, pickaxes, clanging and arguing came echoing out of the hole in the ground.
“We’ve come to claim the bounty,” Jacob shouted.
Chapter Thirteen
Jacob stood in the mouth of the cave, knowing that he could be targeted and shot with no effort from his enemy. His entire frame would be backlit, his silhouette providing the exact target for the outlaws in the cave below.
“Bring out the outlaws,” Jacob shouted again. “We’ll be claiming their bounties. You have no right to them.”
Boyd stood off to the side of the cave. His hands trembled almost imperceptibly as Jacob called for the dangerous men to show themselves.
“What bounties?” he asked in a whisper.
Jacob shushed him with a hard glance. “Stay out of sight,” he instructed. Deep down in the darkness of the cave, he heard the outlaws muttering to each other, probably debating the next step. It was always to Jacob’s advantage when he came across a group with no clear leader. Their infighting would work in his favor.
“Go to hell!” a deep voice shouted up at him.
“Jacob …” Boyd said worriedly.
“I’m here for the three I know you have,” Jacob yelled. “There’s no use protecting them. They need to meet their justice.”
More muttering and heated discussions floated up from the cave. Jacob pressed on loudly.
“The girl may have tricked you into thinking she’s innocent, but the law says otherwise.”
By now Boyd had stopped muttering his confusion, but his expression told Jacob he was still not following.
“If there’s a bounty, we’ll be the ones collecting,” a voice shouted back to Jacob.
He grinned to himself. “Maybe we can come to some sort of agreement. I’d be happy to discuss it in the light of day.”
He held both of his hands out, so in the silhouette it was clear he was not holding any weapons. If he could draw at least one of them out …
Before he had even finished the thought, Jacob heard footsteps echoing off of the rock walls, getting ever louder as one of the men stalked out of the cave toward him. As he moved into the light, Jacob saw that he was the tall, bullying man the others had called Morris.
“Let’s see those hands,” Jacob said. “I’m not armed; I don’t want to negotiate with a man who is.”
“Who said anything about negotiating?” the man asked with a snarl. He pointed his shotgun at Jacob, who kept his hands in the air. “You’re gonna give us the details of that bounty. And then we’re gonna leave here with the prisoners. Shoulda thought about that before you opened your big mouth.”
“Wait now.” Jacob kept his hands in the air, signaling his innocence, but took a small step toward the man. Behind him, Boyd waited, eyes huge and fearful but still ready to play his part. “We can talk about this. How’re y’all going to move three outlaws without horses?”
The other man’s face grew dark. “What did you do with our horses?”
In a panic, he turned to follow the trail to where their horses had been corralled but Boyd was ready. Before the tall man had even finished his pivot, the other had swung down and hard with a shovel he had swiped from the outlaws’ stash. The direct hit knocked the man unconscious immediately.
Morris collapsed into Boyd’s arms, and was dragged away. Jacob did his best to disguise the silhouette of this interaction from whoever might be watching below, but now his window of opportunity was closing even faster.
“Morris?” a voice called up from below. “Where’d you go?”
“Your friend went to go check on the horses, since you have such a ride ahead of you.”
Jacob glanced off to the side of the trail, pleased to see Boyd had already tied and gagged their first man.
“Come on out now. Bring the hostages with you. Their bounty will feed us for months.”
After a beat of silence, the same voice called up again. “Where’s Morris?”
Jacob glanced over and the man was still unconscious.
“He’s busy. I told you. There’s no point staying here any longer. By now you probably have figured out that there’s no real gold mine, right?”
“Wait. How did you … ?”
“That’s their scam.” Jacob took a step farther into the cave. “That trio has bilked half a dozen people out of finders fees and false maps by claiming they knew the way to a secret gold mine or silver mine. How much did the girl’s story cost you?”
“Well, actually, we—”
“Shut up!”
Jacob grinned to himself, imagining the men fighting down below, not paying attention, giving him a little more ground to press his advantage.
“So, that’s why there’s such a big bounty out for them.” Jacob continued, pretending he hadn’t heard their exchange. “And why I don’t intend to leave this mountain without them.”
There was one last pause before they shouted to him again.
“Go to hell! We’re not giving anything up. Especially not if you have Morris.”
“Alright then. I tried reasoning with you. I tried being nice. No more. You have ten seconds to come up out of there before I blow you out.”
“Bullshit!”
“Let us go!” Flora cried.
Jacob felt a twinge of guilt. She didn’t know him. She hadn’t met him. And it was unlikely that either Zeke or Joel had had a chance to talk to her privately. For all the poor girl knew, he was just as dangerous as the men who currently held her captive. Out of the frying pan into the fire.
“Are you going to save yourself and those bounties you have tied up?” Jacob asked. “If you don’t die immediately from the explosion, you’re sentencing yourself to a long starvation or suffocation from the cave in. Best come out now.”
“I’m calling your bluff,” Pickens said. “There’s no way this girl is any kind of crimina
l.”
Jacob took a deep breath, considering his next move. But he was out of maneuvers. This was the last thing he could do before he would either have to admit defeat for the first time or risk getting everyone killed.
“Ten … Nine … Eight …”
As he counted down, loudly, he moved to the side of the trail where earlier he had planted the prop. It had to be convincing and it had to be ready in advance, in case negotiations had gotten to this step.
“…Five … Four … “
Jacob turned his back to the mouth of the cave so the men inside were blocked from seeing what he did. The bundle of dried branches was bound tightly. It was small and narrow, as close to the dimensions of a stick of dynamite that Jacob could manage. With one longer branch sticking out of one end, in silhouette it resembled dynamite so closely that Jacob was the only one who could tell the difference.
“…Two … One!”
Jacob held the end of the bundle over the still smoldering campfire, waited for the spark to catch, and then tossed the smoking decoy down into the dark cave.
“Here it comes,” he shouted.
Chapter Fourteen
With every dangerous criminal that Jacob Payne hunted down, there would always be a small moment, a breath of time when he doubted himself, when the plan could collapse, and he could fail. Immediately after he tossed the smoking bundle down into the cave, Jacob closed his eyes tightly and clenched his fists. That brief second to say a desperate prayer calmed his nerves.
He opened his eyes when he heard the yelps and cursing coming from the darkness. Jacob walked a few steps down into the mouth of the cave, closer to where his homemade smoke decoy was burning and hopefully forcing the outlaws out. Behind him, Boyd stood ready and waiting silently. The forest filled with the commotion, shuffling, and yelling bouncing off the rock walls coming from their enemies.
“Leave them!” one of the men yelled. “They’re not worth it!”
“No!” Flora cried.
“Let us go!” Joel yelled.
It must be chaos down there, Jacob thought. He didn’t know what kind of lantern or light source they had been working with, but as he couldn’t see anything in the corridor ahead, it must not be much.