Lisa's Way

by Robert Collins

  ***

  “Have a good trip?”

  Wayne was the first to speak. He, Donna, and Little Wolf met the wagons as they pulled into camp. The three walked up to Lisa’s wagon, while the others clustered around Ray.

  “Good enough,” Lisa said.

  “The people in Cave City are well?” Little Wolf asked.

  “They’re doing better than when we left them. Cookeville has sent their wagon down and back.” She eased her wagon to a halt. “The folks there have been talking about sending the wagon to Richmond.”

  “You told them what was going on?”

  “Of course.” She climbed down. “Ned, take the reins.”

  “Put this on the north side of the camp?” he asked.

  “That’s right.”

  Ned glanced backward. “What about that?” Ray and his new good pal had abandoned their wagon to talk to their friends.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Little Wolf said.

  “Thanks.” Lisa patted his arm. She turned to Donna. “Practice been going well?”

  “Yup. Tell you the truth, I think some of our people are itching to mix it up.”

  “You did remind them that people do get hurt fighting?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good. I don’t want anyone getting cocky or careless.”

  “They won’t.”

  Lisa turned to Wayne. “You get your wife and the kids settled okay?”

  “They’re fine.” He glanced at Donna, then turned and spoke to Lisa. “We’ve been talking since you’ve been gone.”

  “Plotting behind my back? That’s not like you.” Lisa narrowed her eyes. “At least, I thought that wasn’t like you.”

  Wayne smiled. “You can always trust me, Lisa.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Actually, we’ve been talking about this place.”

  “Big Springs?”

  “No, this. Springdale, wasn’t it called?”

  “Oh, the town that was here. Okay. What about?”

  Wayne waved to either side of them. “First, have you thought about doing something about this?”

  Lisa had to admit that she hadn’t. It wasn’t an issue at the top of her list of things to tackle. She knew that something might have to be done eventually. This spot was a good one for a town. The roads leading out were still in good enough shape to be used. She didn’t know the lay of the land to the west. She knew enough of the area east that forging a trail between Cookeville and Richmond, bypassing this place, would be terribly difficult. She also wasn’t comfortable with the idea of wagons going non-stop from Richmond to Cookeville along the road; these ruins would make an ideal bandit hide-out.

  There was also the matter of the portal. With no one to watch over it, would it continue to be safe to use? Robbers could be a problem, but so could someone trying to flee justice. If they could get through, with no one here to keep watch, they could disappear into the wilderness. There was even the chance than someone with less than altruistic motives could come here and collect tolls. Something would have to be done about this collection of ruins sooner or later.

  “Do you have an idea?” she asked.

  “Someone needs to reclaim this town,” Donna said.

  “Someone who we know won’t exploit the situation,” Wayne added.

  “Like who?”

  “Well, like us.”

  Lisa glanced at Wayne, then Donna, then Wayne. “Wait. I thought you guys didn’t want to settle down.”

  “Just a moment,” Wayne said, “let me explain. We aren’t talking about us becoming farmers, or giving up what we’re doing with you.” He nodded to Donna. “Your idea, you tell her.”

  Donna raised both her hands. “What if we set up a trade store and an inn first?” She smiled slightly. “We keep trading and traveling, but we can start from a base.” Her smiled widened. “You said we can get to your world and White Rocks from here, right? Trade from those two towns you were at have to come through Springdale to get up to Richmond.”

  “Yeah. There’s a town to the southwest, Greenville, I think. Wagons would have to come through here to get there and back.” Lisa nodded. “Okay. So why you?”

  “Who else would you trust? Who else would anyone else trust? We’re getting the experience. Wayne, Dave, and Kathy have kids to raise. They can’t be on the road, it isn’t safe. Why not settle here?”

  She took a moment to consider the idea. “That makes lots of sense.” A memory of an old question popped into her mind. She smiled to him. “It just occurs to me that your idea knocks down a concern that came to me back on White Rocks.”

  “Which was?”

  “What might happen to what we’re doing if something happens to me. I wanted to talk to you and Little Wolf about that. We’ve been so busy, and not in all that much danger, so I put it aside.”

  “It doesn’t matter, since we’re staying?”

  “Not as much, no.”

  “Great. I can’t wait to tell everyone. Maybe some of them...”

  Something about Wayne telling everyone bothered Lisa. She raised her hand and said, “Wait. I don’t think you should do that.”

  “Why not?”

  She answered him slowly as what bothered her took shape. “We’ve got two risky tasks ahead of us. We have to stop that feud, and stop those bandits. We shouldn’t plan for the long term when there’s danger right in front of us.

  “Besides, you ought to prove yourselves to the folks up in Richmond before you settle here. They won’t mind you being their neighbor if they know they can trust you. The best way to gain their trust is to do what we came here to do.”

  Lisa took a step closer to them. “Don’t get me wrong,” she added, “I’m glad you want to do it.” She smiled to them. “Let it be something you fight for, if you need motivation.”

  She glanced back. Little Wolf and Ned had finished with the wagons. They, and everyone else, were coming towards the three of them. “Time to get back the immediate problems,” she said. “Let’s get to it.”

  ***

  “I’m probably the only who doesn’t know.” Lisa smiled to Mayor Ross, Dave, Jane, and Alek. “Bear with me, okay? Great.”

  “Mister Lawson,” Ross said, “tell her what those folks from Southport told you. Let’s start with that.”

  “You mean that family that was attacked?”

  “Yes. I also spoke to a few others who made it from there over the last few years. Just in case, y’know? The new family told me they didn’t know how many attackers there were. Their guess was four.” Dave shook his head. “I think there might be at least eight. The attackers fired first, then a few rushed the group. The survivors fled back up the road. That’s how the attackers made off with their possessions.”

  “No warning?” Lisa asked.

  “None.”

  “Sounds like a pretty vicious group. Did the others from Southport have run-ins with them?”

  “Yup. Same attack, same result.”

  “I wonder what they’ll do when they see an armed group moving up from Richmond?”

  “You’d need at least eight armed men,” Ross said. “Do you have that many in your group?”

  “More.” Lisa turned to Dave. “Is that all you found out?”

  “Well, that one family did say the town is barely hanging on. They thought more people would flee if those killers weren’t waiting for them. If we can deal with them, things up there might improve.”

  “Right. If that’s all, let’s move on to that feud. What have you found out there?”

  Dave nodded to Jane. “I’ll let her tell you what she found.”

  “Jane?”

  “Yeah.” The younger woman smiled shyly. “We ran out there and took a look around.”

  “That was pretty dangerous.”

  “We can take of ourselves. We kept quiet and under cover. Besides, you said you wanted us to be scouts.”

  “I didn’t quite mean that.” Lisa frowned an instant more, then eased her ex
pression. “Okay, Jane, what did you see?”

  “They’re both pretty small. I don’t think either had more than thirty homes. They both had one big building in the center.” She nodded to Alek. “Show her the drawing.”

  Alek handed Lisa a piece of paper. Where he’d gotten his paper Lisa had no idea. He brought it with him when he and Jane joined her group. Lisa thought he might have gotten more in Great Junction. When he wasn’t doing something else he was drawing something. Lisa believed he was good; he could capture a scene almost like a photograph in an old book. Now it seemed his talent was being put to a more practical use.

  The sketch he gave her was of a building that seemed to her slightly similar to the church Lisa had grown up with in Mountain View. The building was twice as long as a house, about as wide, and somewhat taller. Instead of arched windows, this one had long rectangular windows. It was built of hewn logs, not cut lumber. It didn’t have a steeple or a sign over the double entrance doors.

  Lisa thanked Alek for the drawing, then asked Jane to continue.

  “Both towns got a fence around them,” Jane said. “The fence at Butler is half as tall as Wayne. The one at Poplar Ridge goes up to your tummy.” Jane glanced at Alek; he handed over another drawing.

  This one showed that the fences were made of logs stacked on top of each other. The ends of the logs overlapped, leaving gaps between logs. Each log pointed at an angle. One log would be on the ground pointing one way. One end of another log was on top of the end of the first; the other end sat on yet another log on the ground, pointing the same direction as the first.

  “Those angles,” Dave said, “they’re strong defensive positions.”

  “How so?”

  “You’d have logs protecting you if you shot an arrow along either direction the logs pointed.”

  Lisa stared at the drawing. It took her a moment to see what Dave was talking about. She nodded when she understood. It also occurred to her that someone could duck behind the logs to avoid being hit. That person’s opponent would have to be a good shot, and fairly close, to be able to shoot between the logs.

  Along those lines, Lisa asked Jane, “Is there much open ground past these fences, or are they brushing up against the wilderness?”

  “Both towns got fields between the fences and the trees.”

  That made some sense to Lisa. Those people couldn’t live on meat caught by hunters. They had to have some grains and vegetables. Still, it would be a better defense to have only open grassland between the fence and the trees. The fact that nether town did suggested that neither had yet launched a full-out assault or a siege against their enemy. As long as it hasn’t come to that, there might still be a chance to bring peace.

  “Alek drew maps of both towns,” Jane said. “You want to see them?”

  “Not yet,” Lisa answered. “So, who’s stronger?” she asked to no one in particular.

  “I think Poplar Ridge is,” Dave replied.

  “They are farther away from us,” Ross said. “If things were bad there, they couldn’t get anywhere else without having to go near Butler.”

  Jane nodded in agreement. “Their fields looked to be in better shape. I saw more folks moving around.”

  Lisa turned to the Mayor. “Do you know if anyone here sympathizes with Poplar Ridge? Any newcomers make it in from there in the last year or so?”

  “Yeah, a family made it in last fall. They’ve got a boy about your age.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “He got into a fight last winter. Another boy said something bad about both those towns. Kid said that everyone in both towns were stupid to be fighting. That Poplar Ridge boy off and slugged him. I’ve also heard word around town that the boy would rather be home fighting than staying here and learned to be a blacksmith.”

  “Okay. Don’t let me forget that.”

  “Why?”

  “We’re going to deal with those robbers first.” She counted the reasons off on her fingers. “It’s simpler. It probably won’t affect what happens between those towns. The people in Southport need help, and it looks like they need it now. Last, my friends need experience. I don’t want them getting mixed up in a fight without proving that they can handle themselves and work together when things get really bad.”

  Ross sighed. “Can’t argue with those reasons, Miss Herbert. Is there anything we can do?”

  “Yes. See what your people can spare, especially food. The folks up in Southport clearly need food. Those robbers sound desperate. Enough food might tempt them into attacking.”

  Dave looked at Lisa. “You’re going to make us targets?”

  “It’s either that, or we hunt for those robbers. In woods that none of us knows.”

  Dave needed only an instant to consider the options. “Put that way, I guess we don’t have any choice.”

  “No, we don’t.”

  I hope our friends understand that, and that they understand what that might mean.

  CHAPTER 14

  Lisa asked her friends to quiet down. She wasn’t in a joking mood. The job ahead was serious and dangerous. She wanted to convey those facts to her friends, both with words and with attitude.

  “We’ve made a difference everywhere we’ve been,” she began. “Up to now we haven’t had to fight anyone to do what we’re trying to do. Now we have to risk our lives. We almost certainly will have to fight.”

  She’d thought long and hard about what she was going to say. She considered an address that would slowly lead her friends to uncomfortable truth. The composition bogged down. She tried another approach, only to realize that softening the facts would cover them. It would be far better to be direct, to state the truth harshly. To make it plain, and therefore unavoidable.

  “We’re going to move our camp up to Richmond today. Tomorrow some of us with make the run up to Southport. The folks there are hurting. They need our help.

  “But the trip won’t be easy. There’s a group of outlaws robbing everyone on the road. These bandits aren’t like Ned and his friends, a group of guys trying to get along anyway they can. They’re vicious. They don’t give any warning, they just attack. And they kill.”

  Lisa saw her friends flinch in their own ways to that statement. Ned’s was most telling: he shook his head in disgust. She’d learned that even when he was “collecting tolls” he had a code. He never stole from people worse off. He never took more than he and his comrades needed. They never wounded anyone, much less killed. They’d talk first; if a fight looked imminent, they simply ran. In fact, none of the outlaws on White Rocks behaved much differently. There seemed to be an unspoken acceptance of the fact that violence only led to more violence. Murder was bad for business. They might be headed that way eventually, but until Lisa entered the picture that was still in the distance.

  Wayne and his friends knew a slightly different history. Robbers on Lone Star had on occasion resorted to violence. Even those outlaws had some sort of prohibition against outright killing. They might shoot first, but only to wound. They also didn’t attack any traveler on the road, but only those with something of value. Lisa suspected that it was because bandits were hindering trade that the Rangers arose. There had been exceptions, of course; Allie’s parents were killed in a bandit raid when she was a small child. Everything Lisa had heard suggested that Lone Star hadn’t witnessed the kind of nastiness that now confronted her.

  “What’s the plan?” Ray asked. “Do we go after them?”

  “We don’t know the terrain,” Lisa answered, “except that it’s wooded and hilly. There could be dozens of hiding places.”

  Ned raised a hand. “Couldn’t we get guides?”

  Lisa shook her head. “The only folks to leave Southport either flee back or run on to Richmond. No one in Richmond has tried to head out after these robbers. There just doesn’t seem to be anyone who knows the area well enough.

  “Instead of that, we’re going to give them something to attack. We’ll take three wagons of goo
ds up to Southport. We have to do that anyway. We’ll have plenty of guards. The driver and the side-man will be armed, and there will be two guards in back of each wagon. The side-man and the guards in back will carry their bows loaded and at the ready. The driver will keep his loaded and in his lap. No one talks. There’s a chance we’ll hear an attack seconds before the first arrow flies.”

  “Why would they bother to attack a heavily-armed group?” Donna asked.

  “If they’re robbing anyone they see,” Ned replied, “they’re desperate. If we got enough food with us, they might risk a fight.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m counting on,” Lisa said. “We let them come to us. Unlike the people they usually attack, we will fight back. I don’t think we’ll get all of them. Maybe the fact that someone is fighting back with scare them off. Maybe they’ll try again on the way back, and that convinces them. Or maybe wagons will just have to go up there protected for a time. No matter what, the folks in Southport need help, and help has to get through.”

  Donna raised her hand. “Who’s going, or do we volunteer?”

  “I’ve made some choices. I have my reasons why some of you should or shouldn’t go. I won’t force anyone to go, but if we don’t have enough I will.”

  She began with Ned and his friends. She chose all of them except one, Doug. He was the little brother of another in that group, Dan. He was younger than Allie, and still not very good with a crossbow. The one thing he was good at, getting into places others couldn’t, wouldn’t be of much use.

  From Wayne’s group she picked Ray and the three other single young men. Lisa then looked at Donna. “You can opt in, or stay here,” she said.

  “I’m there.”

  “Then that’s it.”

  “What about you?” Little Wolf asked.

  “I’m going.”

  Wayne was the first to protest. “We can’t risk losing you! You’re too important.” Others in the group agreed with him.

  Lisa waved her hands for calm. “Please, please. It’s very kind of you all to say that. Don’t take this the wrong way, Ned, but you and your friends still need a little watching.”

  “Do you have to be the one?” Ned countered.

  “No. But who else also has the experience to make deals? I can only think of Ellen, and she is not going. Wayne can take charge if something happens to me. Little Wolf knows how to operate the portals, and he’ll hang on to my portal manual. You can go on without me.”