“Well, we need more men. Just me and Gray Wolf ain’t gonna be enough, even with you along.”
“I talked to Judge Parker about that. He’s pretty stubborn. He said he won’t have any more men for at least six months. Not enough to send a band out to get LeBeau.”
Silas studied the tall man carefully. “You ever meet LeBeau?”
Something crossed Waco’s face. It brought a tension, and his eyelids half dropped as if he were staring at a specimen that he didn’t particularly care for. He reached up and ran his hand through his black hair and said briefly, “I’ve met him.”
“You didn’t take to him, I guess.”
“No, I didn’t. I owe Mr. LeBeau something. It wasn’t only to help Miss Warren get her sister back. I’ve been promising myself when I got out of prison to pay LeBeau a visit. I figure he owes me something. I’m gonna take it out of his hide.”
“Men have tried that before and didn’t make it. He’s quick with a gun. Quick as a snake they say, and no more feelings in him than a snake either. He’d be a good one to decorate Judge Parker’s gallows. Let Maledon have a hand at him. He could break his neck with one of them big knots of his.”
“That’d suit me fine,” Waco said flatly. “Here. Finish getting this list together, but watch it. I figure we’d take a light wagon. Don’t know how long we’ll be gone. Won’t have time to run down to buy groceries every day.”
Silas took the list and shrugged. “Well, go have a shot at it, boy. Maybe you’ll have luck.”
Waco left the general store and walked down the main street of Fort Smith. It was a busy day. The streets were crowded with wagons of all sizes, buggies, horsemen, and mule trains. The sounds of voices filled the air, some acrimonious and angry and others laughing. Getting to the hotel, he turned in and went to the desk. “I need to see Miss Warren.”
“Well, she’s upstairs.”
Waco got the room number and walked up the stairs. When he got to the door with the number he was seeking, he knocked, perhaps harder than he had intended.
The door opened, and Sabrina Warren stood facing him. “What is it, Waco?”
“Can I talk to you?”
“I don’t see any point in it, but come on in if you must.”
Waco came in, took his hat off, and turned to face her. “I am gonna make one more try to talk you out of going on this hunt, Miss Warren. It’s not like you think it’ll be.”
“I’m a good rider. I’ve been riding since I was twelve years old.”
“I’m sure that’s true, and I admire that in a woman, but there are other things besides riding a horse. It’s gonna be a hard trip, and when the marshals go out it wears them down, and they’re about the toughest men on earth.”
Sabrina shook her head. “I’m not going to argue about this. We’ve settled on a price. I’m going, and you can just move on out now and let me get some sleep.”
Waco, for a moment, seemed inclined to argue, but he saw the hopelessness of it. He stood for a moment staring at her, wondering what it would take to break her spirit down. He knew that there was a pride in this woman that could sweep her violently and set off a blaze in her eyes. He had already seen it more than once. He, more or less, admired the fire in Sabrina. It brought out the rich, headlong qualities of a spirit otherwise hidden behind the cool reserve of her lips. She had an enormous certainty in her, a positive will, and if things had been different, Waco felt he could have been drawn to her. But he had a job to do and he was not interested.
“We’ll be leaving early.” He turned without waiting for a word, stepped outside, and shut the door. He put his hat on, walked downstairs, and crossed down the street until he found Silas making the last purchases. “Well, that ought to be enough, Silas,” Waco said. “It looks like we’re going on a vacation instead of a manhunt.”
“Never know how these things will turn out. We might be out there two months just huntin’ for LeBeau. He’s harder to find than a flea on a long-haired dog.”
“You got that right. All right. We’ll pull out real early.”
“Gray Wolf is movin’ around town here. I’ll see if I can find him. We’ll be ready when you say, Waco.”
A voice broke into Sabrina’s sleep, and at first she did not know where she was and thought perhaps she was home again with her father speaking to her.
And then the voice spoke again. “Time to get up, Miss Warren.”
Instantly Sabrina sat up, all ideas of sleep gone. Moonlight filtered through the window, and she saw the tall form of Waco Smith standing beside her bed.
“What are you doing in my room?”
“You told me to get you up when it was time to leave.”
“Can’t be time to leave. I haven’t slept more than a couple of hours.”
“Well, we’re leavin’. If you want to stay and sleep, that would probably be a good idea.”
“You get out of my room!”
“Are you goin’?”
“I’ll be there. Give me time to get dressed, and don’t you ever come in my room again!” Sabrina waited until the door closed behind Waco, and then she leaped out of bed and began dressing. She was angry that he had intruded her privacy. “He’s a beast! No more manners than a grizzly bear!” she muttered. She dressed, got her personal things in a small canvas bag, and went downstairs. She was hungry but knew that the restaurant would not be open.
The three men were standing beside the wagon, three horses tied to the back. “Well, you ready to go this nice, cheerful morning?” Silas asked.
Sabrina still felt the gritty sensation in her eyes that came from a sleep interrupted. “Why are we leaving at this ungodly hour? What time is it?”
Waco answered her. “It’s about two o’clock, I reckon. I got a lead on LeBeau and his bunch. We’re gonna go check it out. May be a false alarm. You could just stay in town here, and when we find out if it’s true or not we’ll come back for you.”
“No, I’m going, and I don’t want to hear anything else about it.”
“Well, all right. Get on board then.” He climbed up into the driver’s seat of the light wagon.
Sabrina scrambled to get into place, tossing her bag in the back. She saw the wagon was filled with supplies, including extra rifles.
“Be mighty nice if you stay here and rest up,” Waco suggested.
She did not answer him. She knew he was trying to discourage her, but she was determined not to complain.
The trip was harder than Sabrina had planned. She wished she had brought a pillow or a pad, for the hard seat paddled her rear. She was sore before they had ridden for an hour. The road was nonexistent, nothing but potholes and ruts throwing her from one side to the other. Once she was thrown over against Waco.
He grinned and put his arm out. “Maybe I’d better hold you in before you get thrown out, boss.”
“Take your hands off me!”
“Just tryin’ to be a help,” Waco said.
Turning, she looked back and saw that Silas was practically asleep in the saddle. “It’s cruel of you to make an old man like that keep a schedule like this.”
“I didn’t invite him, boss. I told him it would be rough, and he said he’d been on rough hunts before. Tell you what. I could let Gray Wolf take you and him back, and then he could come back and meet me. We could go on this hunt then. You two can wait, and I’d come and get you in time for you to watch me kill LeBeau.”
“Kill him?” Sabrina bounced in the seat and grabbed to hold on. When she turned to face him, her eyes were large with shock. “What do you mean kill him?”
Waco turned and looked at her with surprise. “Why, I thought you knew that. He won’t be taken, Miss Warren. He’d rather take a bullet than hang.” He saw the truth sinking in and realized that this was the first time that she had thought that far ahead. “What did you think would happen when we caught him? What was your plan to take care of him?”
“Why, to capture him and take him into Fort Smith. He could go to
trial in Judge Parker’s court. He’d pay for kidnapping.”
“He’s got a lot more than kidnapping to pay for,” Waco said. “He’s killed four men that I know of. Two of them in a robbery where he’s been identified. There’s been a paper out on him a couple of years now. None of the marshals have been able to catch him.”
“All I want to do is get my sister back.”
“You think all you have to do is face Trey LeBeau and say, ‘Mr. LeBeau, would you please give me my sister back?’ Nothing like that is going to happen.”
“He might. I’ll offer him money.”
“You could offer it if he gave you a chance to talk. But when he sees me he might start shooting.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Because we didn’t part on the best of terms. I owe Mr. LeBeau something.”
“You’re not hired for that. I would just ask him to give me my sister back.”
“You might as well ask a hungry wolf to give up his dinner.” He slapped the lines on the team and they sped up.
Sabrina noticed that his eyes were never still. He looked from point to point and each side constantly. She had seen Gray Wolf do the same thing and even Silas. They were men on edge. She realized she was in a world that she had never imagined.
Finally Waco said, “These men are killers, boss. They’d think no more of killing a human being than killing a deer.”
The day wore on, and finally, when it was just before dark, they pulled up beside a small stream that Gray Wolf knew about. It was all Sabrina could do to climb out of the wagon. She felt like she had been beaten with a flat board, her muscles were so sore. She had missed practically an entire night’s sleep and now she was so groggy she staggered when she hit the ground.
She leaned up against the wagon and watched the men quickly and efficiently go to work. Gray Wolf gathered up some sticks and built the fire, adding dry wood to it that he found from a fallen tree. Silas was busy with the supplies, getting out some food to be cooked.
It was only half an hour later that she was offered a pancake in a tin plate. “I make the best pancakes in Fort Smith. Better than the restaurants,” Silas said. “Try these, missy.”
All of them had pancakes, and Silas suddenly said, “I reckon we’d better ask a blessing on this food.”
Sabrina was watching Waco and saw a smile turn his lips upward. “My cellmate at the prison in Yuma always said thanks over the meals. Personally, I didn’t think some of ’em were worth thankin’ anybody for, but he was real faithful.”
“Well, he was a child of God, I take it,” Silas said.
“That’s what he said.”
“Did he try to make one out of you?” Sabrina asked.
“He tried, but it was a hopeless task.”
“Let’s eat these pancakes. I brought some sorghum molasses to make ’em sweet.”
They all sat around eating pancakes and eating the bacon that Gray Wolf had fried, and when they were through, they washed their tin plates in the small stream that was fed by a spring.
“I’m gonna hit the sack. I’m plumb played out,” Silas said. He got up and limped over to the wagon, pulled a blanket out, moved away, and rolled up in it. He seemed to go to sleep almost instantly.
Gray Wolf watched him and said, “He is one tired man.”
Silence reigned for a time, until Waco looked to Gray Wolf, who stood peering out in the night, and said, “Why’d you leave your tribe, Gray Wolf? You never told me.”
The Indian turned and gazed down at the two of them, who were still seated on a log. “I was too pretty. The squaws wouldn’t leave me alone.”
Waco suddenly grinned and winked at Sabrina. “Well, I’ve had that problem myself.”
Suddenly Gray Wolf turned and loped out into the darkness. He was soon hidden, and Waco said, “That’s an Indian for you. That’s what they like. Prowling around looking for something to shoot or skin or scalp.”
“But he’s a Christian Indian.”
“Well, that may be so. Gray Wolf ’s a Christian, I think, but he’d kill his enemies quick enough. Mission school can’t take that out of him.”
Overhead the stars began to come out in a magnificent fashion. Sabrina noticed that Waco was looking up at them and asked, “What did you do to get yourself put in prison, Waco?”
He turned to face her, and a serious expression swept across his face. “A woman put me there, boss. I guess that’s why I don’t put too much stock in the breed. They always get a man in trouble.”
Sabrina stared at him. “Did you—did you kill her?”
“No, I didn’t kill her. I might have, but I didn’t have a chance.”
“Well, how did she get you put in prison?”
“I had a friend. . .or at least a man I thought was my friend. I left town for a while. When I came back, my friend and my woman were gone. Took everything I had. Left me with nothing. A thing like that takes the strength out of a man. I didn’t care what I did, so I got into trouble. Got in with a bad bunch. I was charged with train robbery. Lucky I didn’t get charged with murder. Came near to gettin’ killed.”
“One woman hurt you, and now you hate all women?”
“Tells the story completely,” he said, allowing admiration to shade his tone. Then he asked, “You married?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“That’s none of your business.”
Waco leaned back and stared at her. “Might be.” The solid moon was bright, and the flaws on it were obvious. “Why boss, we might fall in love just like in the romance books. You’ve read them stories. Rich, beautiful city girl falls in love with a handsome outlaw; then she makes a man out of him. Then they get married and live happily ever after.”
“That’s something in a book. That’ll never happen, especially not with you and me.”
“Just a minute.” He got up, walked over to where she had put her blanket down on the ground, picked it up, and shook it.
“Why’d you do that?” Sabrina demanded.
“Well, to get rid of scorpions or rattlesnakes.”
His words sobered Sabrina, and she looked fearfully at the blanket. “Do—do they get into a bed?”
“Pretty often. Some fellows believe if you put a rope in a circle around a campfire, snakes won’t cross it.”
“Does that work, Waco?”
“Nope.” His answer did not cheer her up. He came over and handed her the blanket, and as she reached her hand out to take it, he held on to it. “You should be scared right now, boss.”
“Why?”
“Snakes and scorpions aren’t as dangerous to you as a man like me.”
Instantly Sabrina grew angry. “I’m not afraid of you!”
Waco stepped a little closer, still holding the blanket. He could see the fear in her eyes and said so. “Yes, you are, boss. I can see it in your eyes.” He reached out with his free hand and held her by the forearm. “You need to learn to be afraid of things, Sabrina Warren.”
Fear touched Sabrina, for although Silas was there and Gray Wolf was somewhere around, she knew that this man had the power to hurt her if he chose. Suddenly he smiled and said, “Go get some sleep. I’ll keep the snakes off of you.”
Snatching the blanket from him, she went back away from the fire, laid it down, and rolled up in it. But as she lay in the darkness tired, weary, and sleepy, she remembered the strength of his hand. “I’m not afraid of him,” she whispered, but she knew deep down she had been afraid.
By sunup they had risen, eaten pancakes, had coffee and bacon, and started in on a day’s ride. Sabrina did have judgment enough to make a pad out of her blanket and affix it on her seat.
“These hard seats sure hurt a woman’s bottom, don’t they?” Waco asked.
“Some things seem impolite. Don’t talk about that.”
“About what?”
“About my bottom.”
“Well, you’ve got one, I take it, and I know what it is to get sore.”
“Just don’t talk.”
“All right.”
He kept his word, and as they traveled all day, stopping only once for water and some beef sandwiches, they finally reached the outskirts of Hayden, a small town.
“We’ll pull up here and stay for the night. I’m going into town. I’ve got a fellow here who might know where LeBeau is.”
“He wouldn’t tell you, would he?”
“With a little persuasion he might.”
Silas said, “Bring some good grub back. Maybe some good candy.”
They had a good supper with beans and bacon and the last of the fresh bread they had bought. Sabrina went to bed but was awakened at some time in the night by a horse whinnying. She sat up and saw that Waco was stepping off of his horse and tying him to a mesquite tree.
She got up at once. She was dead tired. She said, “Did you find out anything?”
“Maybe. Silas, get up.”
Gray Wolf had been awakened by Waco’s coming. “You know that man’s too old for this kind of thing.”
“Yes, but he’s here and he has to come along.”
“Let the old man sleep a little longer,” Sabrina said, putting a gentle note in her voice.
“Sure.”
“You will?”
“Yeah. I’ll go do some poking around and see what I can stir up. You all stay here and wait for me.”
“No, I’m going.”
“You are the stubbornest woman I have ever run across.”
“And you are the hardest man I’ve ever met. Don’t you feel anything for anybody?”
Silas was not yet up, and Gray Wolf was hitching the team. They were on the far side of it. Suddenly he moved toward her. When she saw something in his face she said, “You stay away from me.”
“Well now, boss, in those romance books at a time like this it gets real romantic. The hero kisses the girl, and she just can’t resist him.”
Suddenly she drew the. 38 she had brought and carried in a holster and pointed it at him. “Stay away from me or I’ll shoot.”
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