Whatever happened to those two, they had it coming.
Kaiser dismounted and started for the door, but Wheeler beat him to it.
He held up a hand. “I’m cooperating with you, Jed, but this is still my town. Let me talk to whoever is in here.”
Anger welled up inside Kaiser again, but he tamped it down and jerked his head in a curt nod. “Very well. You know what you need to do.”
“That’ll depend on what we find,” Wheeler said mildly. He opened the door and strode into the stage line office with Kaiser close at his heels.
Bess Corcoran sat at one of the desks in the office with what looked like a stagecoach schedule spread out in front of her. She looked up, appeared to be surprised to see the two lawmen crowding each other a little as they came into the room, and put a smile on her face. “Marshal Wheeler. And Marshal Kaiser. Well, this is something you don’t see every day. What can I do for you gentlemen? Do you need to book seats on one of our trips to Bleak Creek?”
“Why would I need to do that?” Kaiser burst out. “I’m not even from here! I live in Bleak Creek!”
Wheeler gave his fellow lawman a reproving glance, then turned to Bess. “Sorry to bother you, Miss Corcoran, but we’re looking for your sister Emily and for those two young fellas who’ve gone to work for your father.”
“You mean Ace and Chance Jensen?”
“That’s right.”
Bess shook her head. “I haven’t seen any of them for a while today. They might be out in the barn, though. Have you checked out there?”
“We have men looking there right now,” Kaiser said.
“Is there some sort of problem?” Bess asked, looking confused.
Once again, Kaiser couldn’t control himself. He took a step forward. “You know good and well there is, young woman! Those Jensens are outlaws! Fugitives! And so is your sister for helping them escape from the law!”
“Take it easy, Marshal. Yelling isn’t going to help anything.” Wheeler looked at Bess again. “You’re sure you don’t know where they are? This is the law asking, Bess. You don’t want to lie to the law.”
“I wouldn’t. I give you my word, Marshal Wheeler. I really and truly don’t have any idea where Emily, Ace, and Chance are right now.”
The brothers followed Emily as she led the way up the steep, winding mountain trail.
It was a good thing Kaiser and Wheeler had stood around arguing for a few minutes, Ace thought as he climbed.
Nate had stood just inside the partially open barn door and kept an eye on the lawmen. As it was, the three of them had barely had time to throw saddles on their horses and lead the mounts out the back of the barn before it was too late.
Emily had taken them on a twisting path through the settlement’s back alleys until they reached the outskirts of Palisade and started up the rocky slope.
Chance had said, “Wait a minute. Isn’t this the way to Eagleton’s mine?”
“Can you think of anywhere less likely for them to expect to find us?” Emily had asked.
She was right about that, but Ace was still worried. He looked around. Not much vegetation to use as cover. The nearby pass was called Timberline for a good reason. Some trees grew around the town, but they didn’t have to go very far up the mountainside before the only growth consisted of small, scrubby bushes, which wouldn’t offer any concealment if anybody happened to look up and see the three of them fleeing from the posse.
Emily didn’t follow the main trail to the mine for very long. She veered off onto a smaller path that branched and grew still smaller as it weaved through giant slabs of rock that had tumbled down in ages past. When Ace looked down the slope behind them, he couldn’t see the town anymore—which meant that anyone in Palisade couldn’t see them, either.
Nor did he hear shouting or gunshots or any other sounds of pursuit, and noises like that would have carried in the thin, clear air. All he heard were the horses’ hooves striking the rocky slope as he and his brother and Emily climbed higher.
Finally she called a halt at the base of a sheer bluff that jutted out from the side of the mountain. Some bushes grew there, watered by a tiny spring that bubbled out of the rock and formed a pool less than six feet across. It was enough for the horses to drink and for them to fill their canteens. When Ace hunkered on his heels and scooped up some of the water to taste, he found it to be so cold it seemed to numb his mouth.
“Rocky Mountain spring water,” Emily said. “You won’t find any better. I’ve camped here several times when I came up here to hunt.”
“Does Bess know about this place?” Ace asked.
“She does.”
“Kaiser and Wheeler may try to force her to talk,” Chance said.
“Ha.” Emily shook her head. “I like to josh with her, but nobody’s tougher or more stubborn than my sister when she wants to be. Anyway, they can’t get too rough with her. The townspeople wouldn’t stand for it.”
“I thought most of the townspeople were under Eagleton’s thumb,” Ace said.
“They are, but no matter how much money a person has, folks won’t stand for a woman being mistreated.”
Ace and Chance knew that was true. On the frontier, a decent woman was safe under almost any circumstances.
A man, on the other hand . . .
“They might try to force her to talk by going after your father,” Ace said.
Emily looked like that suggestion worried her. “That’s true,” she admitted. “And Bess would cooperate with them if they threatened to hurt Pa, or even old Nate. She wouldn’t be able to stand that.”
“Kaiser’s liable to bring his posse up here to search for us, even if Bess doesn’t talk,” Chance said.
“Let him. I can dodge a posse.”
“You talk like Jesse James or Billy the Kid.”
Emily tossed her head. “Maybe that’s what I’ll be—an outlaw. But if I am, they drove me to it. Men like Sam Eagleton who think they can run roughshod over everybody else. Somebody’s got to stand up and fight them.”
“You’re doing a good job of it,” Ace told her. “Is this where we’re going to stay?”
“It’s as good a place as any to wait and see what’s going to happen,” Emily said. “It’ll get a little cold tonight, but I reckon we can stand that.”
“Better than a jail cell,” Chance said.
It didn’t take long for word to get around town that the posse from Bleak Creek was looking for Emily Corcoran and the Jensen boys. Buckhorn lounged on the hotel porch and watched the commotion with a sardonic smile tugging at his lips.
He had no use for Claude Wheeler, and from what he knew of Jed Kaiser, the Bleak Creek lawman was even worse. He wasn’t cheerfully corrupt, like Wheeler was, but he was arrogant, stiff-necked, and full of himself . . . just the sort of star-packer who liked to make life miserable for a half-breed kid growing up. Buckhorn probably could have tracked down the Jensens himself if he’d wanted to, but he didn’t give a damn if the lawmen succeeded in catching them.
He still had a grudge against young Ace and Chance, but he could bide his time and wait to settle it. Patience was a virtue in his line of work.
While the posse spread out to search everywhere in Palisade, Buckhorn lit a cigar and went into the hotel. He sauntered over to the desk and asked the slick-haired clerk, “The boss rung for his breakfast yet?”
“About ten minutes ago,” the man said.
Buckhorn nodded in satisfaction. He hadn’t had to disturb Eagleton’s sleep after all, but it was time that his employer knew what was going on in town—including the fact that Jacob Tanner was in Palisade.
Buckhorn climbed the stairs to the second floor and went into the suite’s sitting room without knocking.
The mining magnate glanced up from the table where he was eating scrambled eggs and ham from fine china on a silver tray. “Did I hear something going on outside?”
“Marshal Kaiser from Bleak Creek is in town with a posse.” Buckhorn tapped as
h from his cigar into a fancy ashtray. “He and Marshal Wheeler are looking for Emily Corcoran and those Jensen boys.”
Eagleton frowned. “Kaiser was supposed to arrest the Jensens when they showed up in Bleak Creek with the stagecoach yesterday. I had it all arranged.”
“With your partner Tanner? He rode in with Kaiser and the others.”
“Leave him out of this,” Eagleton snapped. “My business arrangements are really none of your affair, Buckhorn.”
“You’re right, boss,” Buckhorn said easily. “Unfortunately, those plans you had for the Jensens must not have worked out, because they rode back into town late last night along with Emily Corcoran. But no stagecoach.”
“What happened to the stagecoach?”
“No idea,” the gunfighter replied with a shrug. “I reckon it’s still in Bleak Creek for some reason. The important thing is that they brought the mail pouch back with them, so the delivery was made on schedule. Ahead of time, actually.”
Eagleton’s fork rang against the tray as he threw it down. “Damn and blast!” he exclaimed. “Those Jensens are turning out to be harder to get rid of than cockroaches. Brian Corcoran would have given up a week ago if it weren’t for them.”
“You could be right about that. I reckon he’s just about run out of reprieves, though. With no stagecoach and the Jensens and one of his daughters on the run from the law, there’s no way he’ll be able to make the next run to Bleak Creek.”
Eagleton scowled and drank some of his coffee, which Buckhorn happened to know was laced with brandy.
“You say there’s a posse in town?”
“Yep. They’re looking for Emily and the Jensens, but I’ve got a hunch they won’t find ’em. That blond gal is crafty.”
“Could you find them?” Eagleton asked bluntly.
Buckhorn didn’t like the sound of that, but he answered honestly, “I probably could.” He might not dress like a redskin, he thought, but he could track like one.
“Then that’s your new job right now,” Eagleton said. “Find those three and bring Emily Corcoran to me.”
“What about Ace and Chance?”
“Do you even have to ask?” Eagleton said with a sneer. “Kill them, of course.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Ace lay stretched out on his belly atop one of the boulders that surrounded the place where he, Chance, and Emily had made camp. He had climbed up there to keep an eye on the trail, cuffing his hat to the back of his neck so it wouldn’t stick up as far when he raised his head. He was careful to edge up just high enough to look back along the route they had taken.
Emily was convinced that neither Kaiser nor Wheeler knew the terrain as well as she did and that she, Chance, and Ace were relatively safe.
Ace hoped that was right. From where he was, he could see not only the trail but also across the bench where the settlement was located, over the giant rocks that had given Palisade its name, and across the valley to Shoshone Gap. As he studied the landscape stretching out before him for miles, he was more convinced than ever that the theory forming in his head was correct. He needed to find out the answer to one more question, and that would probably be the last thing he needed to confirm the idea.
A sound drifted to his ears, causing him to stiffen with alarm. It was the clink of a horseshoe against rock, just one, but enough to tell him that a rider was moving around somewhere up there and not too far away at that. His eyes intently searched every bit of the mountainside he could see, but he didn’t spot any movement.
That didn’t mean anything. If the rider was good enough to keep his mount that quiet, he was good enough not to be seen.
Ace turned and carefully slid down the boulder toward the spot where it dropped off into the camp. He had to warn Chance and Emily that they might have company soon.
Chance was glad his brother had volunteered to clamber up above the camp and keep watch. That gave him the opportunity to spend some time alone with Emily, which was always welcome. “I don’t know if I thanked you for all your help,” he said as she unsaddled her horse.
“Help with what?”
“Well, if not for you, I wouldn’t have gotten away yesterday afternoon when Kaiser tried to spring that trap on us, and you deserve most of the credit for getting Ace out of jail. You came up with the plan, after all, and ran most of the real risk by causing that distraction.”
“You thanked me.” Emily set the saddle aside. “And you ran some risk, too, so don’t go making it sound like I’m some sort of storybook heroine. I’m about as far from Joan of Arc as you’ll find.”
“I’m not so sure about that. Joan of Arc was supposed to be beautiful, wasn’t she?”
“She was also a kid. I’m not.”
Chance nodded. “I’m well aware of that.”
Emily let out one of her customary exasperated snorts and picked up her rifle. “Maybe I’ll climb up there and see if Ace needs a hand.”
He put a hand on her arm. “Ace will be fine. He’s got the best eyesight of anybody I’ve ever seen. If he spies anybody on our trail, he’ll let us know right away.”
“You sound mighty sure about that.” She was tall enough that her eyes were almost on a level with Chance’s.
“I am. I know my brother. We’ve been watching each other’s back for years. We sort of raised each other. Doc tried, but he wasn’t really cut out for the job.”
“Is he still alive?”
“He is, or at least he was the last time we heard. He’s in a sanitarium down in Colorado. His health took a turn for the worse, so he had to take a rest cure. Ace and I send money back there to pay for it and go visit him when we can.” Chance shook his head. “That’s probably not often enough, but . . .”
“But there’s always something to see on the other side of the hill, isn’t there? Believe me, I know the feeling.”
The conversation had taken a turn he hadn’t really expected, but he wasn’t displeased with the way it was going. Emily seemed genuinely interested and sympathetic. He found that he enjoyed talking to her, and not just because she was so pretty. Although that certainly didn’t hurt anything.
“If you wanted to see some of the rest of the world, I’m sure your sister could help your pa run the stage line,” he suggested. “Well, once all this business with Eagleton is settled.”
“Do you think it ever will be? Like we’ve said before, Eagleton’s not going to give up. Not until he’s dead. Maybe what I ought to do is march over to that hotel where he spends most of the time and ventilate his ugly hide.” She looked utterly fierce as the words came out of her ruby-lipped mouth.
Chance couldn’t help but admire her, but he was also troubled by the direction her thoughts were taking. “I thought you said he’s got a gunfighter for a bodyguard.”
“He does. Joe Buckhorn. I’d just have to take my chances with him.”
“In other words, you’d wind up getting yourself killed for no good reason,” Chance declared. “If you stop and think about it for a minute, you’ll realize that.”
She sighed. “I know. I just get so damn frustrated sometimes. It seems like there ought to be something we can do . . .”
“I know one thing we can do,” Chance said as he moved closer and reached up, cupping his hand under her chin. When she didn’t pull away but rather regarded him levelly, he went on. “We can do this.” He leaned in and kissed her.
She didn’t pull away. In fact, she slid her left arm around his neck and held him closer. She couldn’t put both arms around him, because she was still holding the Winchester.
It was probably the first time he had ever kissed a woman who was toting a rifle, he thought, but things like that seemed to be pretty common where Emily Corcoran was concerned.
Her lips moved warmly against his. He rested his hands on her waist. Excitement grew within him as she surged against him.
Chance knew nothing more than a kiss was going to happen as long as Ace wasn’t far away, up on top of that rock s
lab overlooking the trail, but the kiss certainly held the promise of more, . . .
The promise was broken as Ace slid down from the boulder, landed only a couple of feet from them, and whispered, “Somebody’s moving around not far from here.”
While the members of the posse from Bleak Creek were blundering around Palisade, looking in sheds and behind rain barrels for the fugitives and asking blustery questions of the citizens, Joe Buckhorn saddled his horse and rode to the back of the barn owned by the Corcoran Stage Line.
It took him only a few minutes to locate the fresh hoofprints he was looking for. It stood to reason that if Emily Corcoran and the Jensen boys knew Marshal Kaiser was in Palisade looking for them, they would do their best to get out of town.
Buckhorn was hunkered on his heels, studying the tracks and familiarizing himself with the distinctive marks left by the horseshoes—all horseshoes left distinctive marks if you knew what to look for—when a querulous voice cried, “Hey! What’re you doin’ back here, mister?”
He straightened and looked over his shoulder, moving casually and not getting in any hurry about it. The scrawny old man who worked as a hostler for the Corcorans stood glaring at him and holding a pitchfork in his gnarled hands.
“Take it easy, grandfather,” Buckhorn said. “You don’t want to tangle with me. This is none of your affair.”
“I know you,” Nate said as his eyes narrowed in anger and suspicion. “You’re that ’breed gunfighter who works for Eagleton.”
Buckhorn felt some anger of his own welling up. “Choose your words carefully, old man. I don’t like to be insulted.”
“Reckon it’d be hard to insult a fella who’s already lowdown enough to work for a snake like Eagleton.” The old man brandished the pitchfork. “And you ain’t answered my question. Tell me what you’re doin’ back here ’fore I take this fork to you and let out some air.”
Buckhorn ignored him and turned toward his horse. He wasn’t going to waste a bullet on the old pelican. Besides, he had work to do. He wanted to get on the trail of his quarry before it got any colder.
Those Jensen Boys! Page 17