Leander set such a hard pace down the mountainside that Blair almost wished she hadn’t gone with him. She could be safe now, asleep, instead of half falling down the dark, steep cliff. Twice, she skidded down on her back, but managed to catch herself before she fell too far. Lee seemed to be saying that since she’d been fool enough to want to come with him, she had to look out for herself.
They finally came out at the bottom of the steep ridge and looked out over the little mining community.
“I guess it’s useless to ask you to stay here, isn’t it?”
“Entirely,” she replied.
“All right, then, stay close to me. Don’t get more than two feet from me. I want to know where you are every minute. You understand? And if I tell you to run, that’s just what I want you to do. No questions, no arguments. And be as quiet as you can.”
Blair nodded in answer to his warnings and began to follow him down into the camp.
It was late and most of the lights were out. Only a few saloons were still open and busy. They ran from the cover of one building to another, and Blair could feel her heart pounding with excitement.
“We’ll have to break into the company store first. I’ll need a crowbar to get that lock and chain off.”
They crept to the back of a large building that was nearly in the center of the town. Three times, they had to duck when people walked by.
“Blair,” Lee whispered, “I’ve got to break this glass. I want you to laugh to cover the sound. Make it a loud laugh, like a pros—like a lady of the evening. No one will pay attention to a familiar sound like that, but they’ll come running to the sound of breaking glass.”
“Leander,” she said stiffly, “I am not as experienced as you are. I have no idea how a lady of the evening laughs.”
“Suggestively. Sound like you’re trying to get me to go into the woods with you so you can do pleasurable things to my body.”
“That should be easy,” she said, and meant it.
Lee wrapped his hand in his handkerchief and prepared to smash through the glass in the door. “All right. Now!”
Blair tossed her head back and gave a raucous laugh that filled the air, and when Lee looked back at her, there was admiration in his eyes.
“I’ll take you up on that offer as soon as possible,” he said, even as he reached inside and opened the door. “Stand over here and be ready to run if someone sees us.”
Blair stood to one side of the door and watched Lee as he made his way about the store looking for a crowbar. Behind her were stacks of canned goods, bags of flour, a barrel of crackers. On one shelf were six little barrels of honey. Looking at them, Blair smiled, as they reminded her of the bears.
Suddenly, without having a specific plan, she grabbed a rucksack from a pile on the floor and shoved two barrels of the honey into the bag and put it on her back. By the roll of wrapping paper on the counter was a pencil so, quickly, she tore off a corner and wrote a note.
“What are you doing?” Lee demanded.
“Leaving an IOU, of course. After tomorrow, I’m sure the entire town will know we blew up part of a mountain, and people will know we had to have stolen the dynamite. Unless you usually carry some in your medical bag. You weren’t planning to just take this without saying who did it, were you? Someone else would be blamed.”
Lee looked at her for a moment. “Good thinking,” he said at last. “There’ll be no reason for secrecy tomorrow. But I don’t want to be caught tonight. Let’s go. Wait a minute. What do you have on your back?”
“Honey,” she answered, and she didn’t give him time to ask more questions before she left the store ahead of him. He closed the door carefully and, unless you looked for it, you couldn’t see the broken glass.
Lee led her through the camp, back to the outskirts, and once it occurred to her that he knew the place awfully well. But then, she’d heard that he sometimes treated injured miners.
They walked over ground that was crunchy from slag, and the slight wind blew coal dust into their eyes. Behind the railroad tracks, behind a fifty-foot-tall mountain of coal dust waste, behind the long rows of ovens where the sulfur was burned from the coal, was the explosives shed.
Rubbing her eyes, Blair stood in the shadows while Lee pried the door off the shed. As quickly as possible, he shoved sticks of dynamite under his shirt and wired the door shut. He wouldn’t leave it hanging open for a passerby to help himself to what was inside. Whoever opened it next would still have a difficult time.
“Let’s go,” he said, and Blair began the steep ascent to the top. At times, the ground was directly in front of her face and she had to pull herself up.
Lee was waiting for her at the top, but he didn’t give her time to catch her breath. They nearly ran to the cabin. “I’m going to saddle my horse and leave it in front. I thought you might get out of bed to get something to eat, and you might forget and leave a knife within her reach. I’ll be waiting outside to follow her when she goes back to the canyon.”
“We,” was all Blair said, but the way she looked at him made him sigh.
“All right, but get inside now and wait for me.”
“I have to tend to a personal matter first—in the bushes,” she said, and she didn’t know whether she was blushing from her words or from the fact that she was lying.
Lee didn’t even look at her as he saddled his horse. Blair ran up the side of the hill toward the bears’ den. Cautiously, she approached the black hole of the cave, listening for any sounds. Holding her breath in fear, she picked up a rock and smashed it against the corked hole in one of the barrels of honey she’d taken from the pack on her back, then listened again for sounds of movement. Still quiet.
Turning the barrel so the honey ran onto the ground, she began to make her way down the mountain toward the cabin, leaving a thick trail in the leaves and grass.
Lee’s horse stood ready and saddled in front of the cabin, and Blair managed to remove the cork from the second barrel of honey without any noise before she tied it on the back of the saddle. For a moment, she hesitated about what she was doing, because if Françoise took too long to cut herself loose and the bears smelled the honey first, then the bears could go for the horse before it had a rider. Timing was everything.
She climbed in the cabin window and saw, even in the dark, Lee frowning at her because she’d taken so long. As quickly as she could, she removed her medical uniform. She wanted to look as if she’d just wakened.
Françoise was lying on the floor and Blair could see that there were raw places on her wrists where she’d tried to get out of the bindings. Blair’s stomach lurched. She’d taken a vow to relieve suffering, and she hated to be the cause of pain in anyone.
Françoise opened her eyes as Blair walked by.
“I guess I haven’t recovered since you tried to starve me,” Blair said, as she sliced a piece of cheese from the chunk on the corner of the table. “It won’t be long now before the sheriff will be here.”
“If he were coming, he’s had time. The man who came with Leander has been killed by now.”
“Too bad,” Blair said nonchalantly. “He’s Taggert, the one with the money.”
With a fierce yawn, Blair put the knife on the table and picked up the piece of cheese she’d cut. “I’m going back to bed. Sleep well,” she laughed before leaving the room.
As soon as she was out of sight of the woman, she began to dress, slowly and silently, while she placed herself so that she could see Françoise. The outline in the moonlight showed that the woman lost no time in taking the knife from the table and even less time in cutting her bindings. She was out the door in seconds.
“Let’s go,” Lee said as soon as he heard his horse take a step.
“Let me guess, more walking,” Blair said heavily, feeling very tired.
“When we get through with this, you can stay in bed for a week,” Lee said. “With me.”
“That sounds restful,” Blair said sarcastically.
/> Lee led her down a sheer rock face. She had an idea that if she were to see this place in daylight, she’d refuse to try to climb it. As it was, she didn’t seem to have a choice. They had to beat Françoise back to the box canyon.
Lee stopped abruptly and below them lay the canyon. It was quiet around the darkened little cabin, and she wasn’t sure there was anyone in there.
“They’re waiting for her. I don’t think they make a move without her telling them what to do.”
“Lee, it’s taken Taggert a long time, hasn’t it? Do you think he’s all right?”
“I don’t know. There were many of them against one of him.” He moved to the mouth of the canyon and began to place the dynamite. “As soon as we get them sealed in here, I’ll ride back to Chandler and get help.”
“Ride? On what?”
“Here, hold this,” he said, handing her a fuse. “I’ll show you later. Now, it’s all set. We just have to wait for our lady outlaw.”
They sat there in silence for a few minutes. “She should be here by now. I hope she isn’t lost.”
“Or gone elsewhere,” Blair added. “Lee, I think I should tell you something. It’s about the honey. I—.”
“Quiet! I think I hear something.”
It was nearing daylight and in the hazy dawn they could just see the outline of a rider on horseback. The horse was giving the rider a very hard time, and the slim woman was having difficulty controlling it.
“Up there! Now!” Lee ordered Blair, and she began to run to the safety of the higher rocks.
The next minute, all hell broke loose. Françoise began screaming and, in the canyon below, men started running and shooting their guns before they even knew what was wrong. Blair stopped on her way up to look back, and she saw the Frenchwoman on the big stallion, fighting to control the animal, and behind her were two bears, loping along, stopping now and then to lick the rocky ground.
Blair heard a muffled sound from Lee, and the next thing she knew, he was tearing up the hill, his arm catching her about the waist. All the while, he was whistling in an odd way, two short, piercing tones, then repeated.
“Get down,” he said and shoved Blair so that she scraped her elbows on the rock. She scooted forward until she could see into the chaos in the canyon below. The horses in the corral were going crazy now that the bears were in the canyon with them, and the people were running around trying to shoot the bears, calm the horses and escape the confusion. Françoise was pulling on the reins of Lee’s horse, and screaming and pointing at the entryway, as she tried to get the men to listen to her.
Suddenly, Lee’s big horse reared and dumped her onto the ground, then the animal turned and started running toward the entrance, oblivious to the bears that stood in his way.
“He’ll get caught in the blast,” Lee said, standing to see better into the canyon. There was a great deal of sadness in his voice when he spoke of the inevitability of losing his beloved horse.
The horse kept running and the bears got out of its way.
Less than a minute later, the dynamite exploded, closing the entrance to the canyon and trapping the outlaws inside. Lee was knocked to the ground by the blast, but the dust hadn’t settled before he was running down toward the opening. When he was halfway down, his big horse came running to him with rolling, terrified eyes. Lee hugged the animal’s head and talked to him to quiet him.
“What the hell were those bears for?” Lee yelled at Blair, who’d followed him down. They could hear the shouts and shots in the canyon below, and the dust hadn’t settled yet from the explosion.
“I didn’t mention it, because I knew you’d patronize me, but it’s been too long,” Blair said, almost shouting, not letting him frighten her. “Taggert’s been gone more than enough time. I knew the outlaws were going to find us before long, and then we’d be stuck in that cabin with a dozen men shooting at us. They can climb out of that canyon fairly easily, but I thought that maybe, if it were timed right, the bears could delay things. I do hope no one hurts the bears. All they wanted was the honey.”
Lee started to say several things to her, but nothing seemed to fit. “I’ve never seen a woman who didn’t have a sense of danger. Don’t you realize that you could have been hurt?”
“So could you,” she said, with her chin in the air.
He grabbed her by the arm, not yet ready to forgive her. “Now, I’m afraid to leave you here while I go for the sheriff.”
He didn’t have a chance to say anything else because at that moment, the sheriff and six men came running up the mountainside. They were completely out of breath.
“You all right, Doc?” the sheriff asked, panting, his big chest heaving. For all his gray hair, he was a man in good condition, and he’d made it up to the canyon in very little time. He’d known exactly where the canyon was after Taggert had described it—and he also knew, better than anyone else in town, Leander’s propensity for taking things into his own hands. “Taggert said you were in trouble.” The next moment, his mouth fell open as he looked over the rim into the canyon below. The people were like toys as they ran around the rock walls and looked for ways to get out. “You do this, Doc?”
“Me and the Missus,” Lee said in a drawl that made Blair giggle.
The sheriff pulled back from the edge while the men of the posse kept watching. “Don’t let none of ‘em escape,” he said over his shoulder, as he stood there looking at Blair and Leander. “It looks like you found your match, boy,” he said to Lee and there was anger in his voice. “How come you couldn’t wait for me to get here? Why’d you have to take the law in your own hands? Somebody could have been hurt by this. Those people down there have killed men. And that Frenchie leader’s meaner’n a snake. I’ve warned you about this sort of thing before. One of these days you ain’t gonna come out of one of your do-gooder scrapes alive.”
“What’s he talking about?” Blair whispered, having never seen the sheriff angry at anyone before. She’d known him all her life, but he was a gentle, quiet man to her.
“What took you so long?” Lee asked, ignoring Blair’s question and the sheriff’s anger. “We were afraid something had happened to Taggert.”
“He got nicked on the head by a bullet and was out for a few hours. That’s why it took me so long to get here. We just learned of you capturin’ that woman a few hours ago. But it looks like we’re too late. She get away?”
“She’s down there,” Lee said.
“Not for long, she ain’t,” one of the men of the posse said. “That’s a woman climbin’ up the side of the canyon.”
Blair looked toward the man and, as she did, her peripheral vision caught sight of a movement. She saw one of the sheriffs men, almost hidden by a tree, put his rifle to his shoulder and aim. He’s going to shoot her, Blair thought, and she knew that no matter how bad a person was or what he’d done, she couldn’t stand by and watch that person be killed. Blair took a flying leap at the man and managed to land close enough that she hit his leg and knocked his aim off. The rifle fired into the air well above Françoise’s head.
But Blair hadn’t thought about the consequences to herself, and the next moment she was trying to hang onto the cliff edge, her feet dangling over the side.
The sheriff and Lee reacted instantly, each man on his belly, grabbing an arm and pulling her to safety.
“She’s the one for you all right,” the sheriff said, his voice heavy with disgust, as he helped pull Blair onto the safety of the rocky ledge. “You just be real careful of her and don’t let her get hurt.”
“I’m doing everything I can to protect her from herself and from me,” Lee said solemnly.
Blair sat on the ground at the feet of the two men, dusting herself off and looking down into the canyon where she’d almost fallen.
“All right, boys,” the sheriff said. “Somebody volunteer to stay here and watch ‘em while we go get some help. And they all better be alive when I get back.”
“Sheriff, you mind i
f you don’t mention our names—or Taggert’s—in this? And could you send somebody over to the company store of the Inexpressible and claim our IOU for the crowbar and the dynamite?” Lee paused and smiled a moment. “And send the bill to my father. He owes me.” He turned, the reins to his horse in one hand, and took Blair’s hand in his other.
“Where you off to now?” the sheriff called as they went up the mountain.
“On my honeymoon,” Lee called over his shoulder.
“You be careful. That Frenchie escaped, and I don’t imagine she has any love for the two of you.”
As Lee waved to the sheriff, he whispered to Blair, “Love is just what I have on my mind.”
Chapter 24
Blair started walking, but she didn’t last long. The combination of little food, less sleep, and even more excitement, at last got to her. When she started to stumble, Lee picked her up and put her on his horse and led the way. Blair nodded off to sleep and the times that she nearly fell from the horse, Lee was there to catch her and put her back on.
They seemed to travel for days and, at one point, Blair was sure that she’d never even seen a bed in her life, much less slept in one.
The sun was hanging low in the sky when they finally stopped and Lee lifted her from the horse. Listlessly, she opened her eyes to look at a large log cabin with a stone foundation.
“Where are we?” she asked, but wasn’t really sure that she cared. All she wanted to do was sleep.
“It’s my father’s hunting cabin. We’ll stay here for a few days.”
Blair nodded and closed her eyes as Lee carried her inside the cabin. She was vaguely aware that he was taking her up some stairs, but she was too tired to be sure. By the time he placed her on a bed, she was sound asleep.
She awoke to an odd sound outside the window, and as she blinked the sleep out of her eyes, she grew curious as to what the sound was. She tossed the cover back, then gasped when she found herself to be nude. There was a man’s shirt on the end of the pine bed and she put it on. Looking down from the window, she saw cows dotting the landscape, and below the window a cow and calf were chomping grass and making the sound that had wakened her.
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