"That sounds like a good enough plan. Hopefully we'll find something soon."
Georgia agreed, but added, "When you go to Collinwood, we should pick up a few more supplies. We're just about out of potatoes and beans. The men have been catching enough fish and the hunting's been good for the meat, but we don't have much else to go with it. Most importantly, though, we're running low on coffee. If we run out of that, you may have a mutiny on your hands." She chuckled, and Austin and Grant joined in, but nodded.
"I don't want that happening," Grant said. "Thanks for telling me. Thank you for doing the cooking for us, too, Georgia. I didn't plan for you to do all of it."
"It hasn't been much, Grant, and it's fine. I don't mind cooking while the men are hunting and gathering wood."
"I know it sure tastes better than it would if I was cooking it," Grant said with a smile, before riding off to look at a spot one of the men was questioning.
When he rode off, Austin slowed his horse a bit and encouraged her to do the same. When they were a few feet behind the rest, he asked, "Are you doing okay, my dear wife?"
"Yes, of course. Why are you asking?"
"Maybe you're better at this than me then, because I'm getting a little tired of riding all day and finding nothing. I know you're very good with horses and riding, but I also know you're not used to spending this much time in a saddle, so I wanted to be sure you're doing okay."
"You're right," she admitted, "I'm not used to this much at once, but I'm doing okay, really. I do hope we find something soon, though. I hate to think of him getting away free, but I'm more worried about the woman he took with him. I hope she's still alive."
"So that's what's been on your mind," Austin said, stopping his horse. "I should have known."
"What do you mean?"
"I could tell you've been thinking about something. I've been concerned about you."
"Concerned? Why?"
"Your mind hasn't been on what we're doing, honey, and that worries me."
"Nothing's been happening. It doesn't take a lot of concentration when nothing happens."
"That's what worries me, honey. You have to be very alert at all times. What if he gathers a group of buddies and comes after us? They could sneak up on us at anytime. We have to be ready for that, or a pack of wolves, or anything else that may come up suddenly. Or he could see us coming and run. If we're not alert, we won't see him."
She sighed, but nodded. "You're right. I hadn't thought of that, but you're right. I'll try to put the poor kidnapped woman out of my mind."
"Good. I know you're concerned, but the best way to help her is to stay alert so you don't miss any clues as to where he may be. You've proven to me you're very good at tracking. You need to be watching as closely as anyone out here. Let me know if you think someone's been through here recently, okay?"
She squared her shoulders and nodded. "You're right. If I'm busy thinking about her I may miss the clue that will lead us to her. I'll do better now, Austin, I promise."
"That's my girl," he said as he leaned over to give her a quick kiss.
"Thank you, husband."
"For the kiss?" he asked with a grin.
"That, too, but thank you for talking to me. I needed to hear that."
"I know," he said with an ornery grin. "Now go find the clue we've been looking for." She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss before she rode off, looking closely at the creek bank. He smiled and followed after her.
***
Cord and Elliott got a few hours in before the darkness forced them to stop for the night. After a few hours of sleep, they got an early start the next morning, eating some biscuits and ham as they rode. They made good time, moving as fast as they thought they dared push the horses, stopping frequently to let them rest and drink from the creek. Vera sent enough food along with them for a couple days so they wouldn't have to stop and find some meat and cook. By eating as they rode, they made good time.
It was late, after ten o'clock, when Cord slowed them down. "Do you see that up ahead?"
"I do. Do you suppose it's who we're looking for?"
"Not sure," Cord answered. "Let's try and get closer and see if we can tell how many of them there are." Elliott nodded and they slowly made their way forward. Cord stopped him again. "There's quite a few of them. I think it's probably the posse," he whispered, "but they probably have someone watching, so be ready. We're going right in, though. If you try to hide, they're more apt to draw their guns." Elliott nodded and they started forward again.
As they got closer, as Cord predicted, a man yelled, "Hold it there. Who's coming?"
"Clark? Is that you? This is Cord, foreman at the Rippling Waters ranch. Is Sheriff Montgomery with you?"
"Yes, he's here. Come on in, guys. What's going on that brings you clear down here in the middle of the night?"
"I'll tell you, but I'd really like to tell the sheriff and Austin at the same time. It's pretty important that they hear it right away."
"I heard him, Clark. I'm coming," the sheriff said.
"Me, too," Austin said.
"I think about all of us are awake," Jacob Hanson said. "We may as well all hear it at the same time."
"Good idea," the sheriff said. "Everyone that's awake, gather around the fire and let's hear what these men have to say."
As men were pulling pants on and gathering at the fire, Austin and Georgia went to talk to the men. Cord seemed a little worried. "Sorry I left the ranch, boss, but Elliott came to talk to me. His son found something, and I think you guys need to see it."
Austin nodded. "If you felt it was important enough for you two to come down, I'm sure it's important."
"Okay, Cord," Sheriff Montgomery said. "What is it you want us to know?"
Cord handed him the telegram. "Sheriff, Elliott's boy, Ben, found this on his land. We talked about it and figured we better get it to you. We're not sure exactly what it means, but there's a couple things it might mean that scared us a bit, so we brought it down to you."
The sheriff took the telegram and held it to the fire so he could read it. "It's to Sam Wyler," he said, looking at Austin and his deputy. "Found a spot a couple days ride south. Stop. On the Black Creek. Stop. Panned a little and found gold. Stop. Can meet at Collinwood saloon. Stop. Same as before. Stop. Fifty dollars and ten per cent. Stop. Got news on Sanders. Stop. Signed, J. Silas."
The sheriff looked up, and for several minutes everyone was deep in thought and looked at each other. Finally, Austin started thinking out loud, and others joined in. "I won't even ask if J. Silas is Joe, because no one knows. I guess we have to look at the possibilities if it is, though."
"That's what I was thinking," the sheriff said. "If it is, he's in on this."
"And he knows Pete's alive, so if he met with Wyler, Wyler knows Pete's alive, too," Georgia said.
"And staying at our ranch," Austin added. "That means he may not be safe there."
"Or Maria," Georgia quickly added.
"We took both of them over to Elliott's house," Cord quickly said. "Along with two of our hands, Trace and Dustin, boss. They're going to stay there and watch the place in case anyone new shows up. The rest of the hands are staying at the ranch, but they're also watching for any visitors."
"You didn't show this to Deputy Silas, did you?" Sheriff Montgomery was obviously worried.
"No," Cord assured him. "We didn't want him knowing we found this, just in case it's him. We were afraid to say anything to anyone, so we left late last night and rode hard all day to find you."
"So what do we do now?" Jacob asked. "Do we assume Joe, or whoever this J. Silas is, spoke to Wyler and told him Pete's alive and at the Barrington ranch? If so, we need to get back up there."
"It sounds like J. Silas is finding places with gold, and selling the information to Wyler. Apparently they're on private property, so they're both engaging in illegal activity. If they think we know this, they may decide to come after us, before we can find and arrest them.
We better be careful. They may get several buddies together and plan to ambush us," the sheriff said.
Austin nodded. "Again, Sheriff, it's your call. What do we do now?"
"We're close to Collinwood. I think first thing in the morning we'll go there and see what we can find out. I'll talk to the sheriff, and we'll see if he knows a J. Silas. If not, we'll do some asking around, see if anyone's heard of him. If we don't find anything there, we'll move to the Black Creek and go a little further south. If we don't find him, we'll head back north, following the Black Creek. If we don't find him, I don't know what else we can do until we get a little more information."
After a little discussion, everyone agreed with the plan. It was obvious Cord and Elliott were exhausted, so they were told to get some sleep. Austin volunteered to help Clark on guard duty, and two more men agreed to relieve them in a couple hours so they could get some sleep, as well. The rest all headed back to sleep.
Everyone was up early the next morning, anxious to get moving. They rode into Collinwood late morning. Sheriff Montgomery suggested they all go to the local restaurant and have a real meal while he talked with the sheriff. They had just gotten their food when Grant showed up with another man, who he introduced as Sheriff Nathan Cunningham. The two of them sat down and joined them for breakfast, and they talked while they ate.
Sheriff Cunningham didn't know of anyone named Silas, nor of any mining activity in the area, but he offered to help. "Let me do some checking for you, Grant. The folks around here don't open up too much to strangers, but if I ask around I may have better luck. I'll start with the two saloons. The owners are good about telling me if something untoward is going on. I'll talk to them first, and then ask around about a man named Silas.
They all ate while Grant filled him in on what they knew about Sam Wyler and what he'd done. With that knowledge, after breakfast Nathan headed to the saloons, promising to let them know what he found out. Grant, Austin and Georgia went to the general store and stocked up on the food and supplies they needed, while the rest of the men went to the saloon.
By prior arrangement, they met at the restaurant in the hotel lobby for supper. Unfortunately, Nathan hadn't found out a thing. No one had heard of anyone named Silas or Wyler; nor had they heard of any mining going on in the area.
After a rather lengthy discussion as to who may know what and what they may be doing, Grant decided they would go to the Black Creek. There was some disagreement as to which way to go. Grant pointed out, "The telegram says about a two-day ride from where he was. We don't know exactly where he was to begin with. More importantly, does he mean a two-day ride if you push the horses, or a slow, comfortable two-day ride? My guess is it's within a half a day's ride from Collinwood, but we don't know which way. We're going to follow the creek south for half a day. If we don't find anything, we'll go back north and home, following the Black Creek."
"I think that's a good idea," Austin offered. "We sure don't want to come all this way, assume he's north of here, and miss him." The others agreed, and they left right after supper. They wanted to get to the creek by nightfall. After camping for the night, they would get an early start in the morning.
***
Ty Cameron, the ranch hand Cord put in charge before leaving, was finishing up morning chores and heading for the bunkhouse kitchen for breakfast when he saw a man riding up. He watched as the man went directly to the house. He sauntered over in the same direction. "Hello. Something I can help you with?"
The man stopped and turned toward Ty. "I hope so. My name's Ted Sanders. I've been looking for my cousin, Pete. I heard he'd been hurt and he's here. I came to visit, and see if he wants me to help him back home. If he's not ready to travel yet I can wait until he is. Is he here?"
Ty had been contemplating this very event; someone asking about Pete, so luckily, he had his answer all ready. "I'm sorry, Ted, but you just missed him."
"Missed him? Where did he go?"
"Once he got to feeling better he started talking about leaving. We tried to get him to stay until he was stronger, but yesterday morning we found a note thanking us for the help. He said he wasn't going to inconvenience us any longer, and he was gone. That worries me because I don't think he's ready to travel yet, but there's not much I can do about it. He didn't say where he was going, and I don't even know when exactly he left. It was sometime between about ten o'clock the night before, and about six o'clock yesterday morning when we went to check on him."
Ted was visibly upset. "He didn't give you any idea where he might go?"
"Not really. I've been thinking about it a lot, and the only thing I can think of is he mentioned once that he'd been headed west. I think he said he had an uncle or something, maybe another cousin, that lived further west somewhere. It was a family member, so you probably know who he's talking about. The only thing I can think of is maybe he headed there. Did he say at Ogden, I think? Do you have some relative out there?"
"Yes, we do have an uncle at Ogden. You think he was heading there?"
"That's where he was headed originally, so that's my only guess." Ted nodded. "Are you going to head that way, too, see if he went there? If you do, I don't think he'll be making very good time. You may catch up to him before you get too far. I'd sure feel better knowing he's got someone riding with him."
"I've got to go into town and do a few things, get some supplies and send a telegram or two back home, but then I think I will head for Ogden. Thanks for the help you gave him, and the information." He tipped his hat and mounted his gelding and headed back toward the road.
Ty watched him a minute or two before going into the bunkhouse. Amos met him at the door. "Trouble?"
"Maybe. He said he's Pete's cousin, but I don't believe him. According to Austin, Pete said he doesn't have any family. I told him my guess is he's going to Ogden, where he said he had an uncle or some relation. This guy said yes, they have an uncle in Ogden."
"That ain't good," Amos said.
"That's what I'm thinking, too. He said he's going to go into town and send a couple telegrams back home and get supplies, then head out to Ogden. I wonder what he's really going to do."
"I don't know, but I don't like it. Should we get word to the boys over at Wagners'?"
"I'm not sure I want to chance it. What if he doesn't believe me any more than I believe him? He could be someplace close, watching us to see if someone goes somewhere. I don't want to do that and lead him right to Pete."
"That's good thinkin'. If he is watching, we don't want to give him nothin'."
"I sure don't want to lead him right to Pete, so we'll just have to hope Trace and Dustin are on their toes and can stop any trouble before it happens. I think I'll take Landon with me tomorrow and go to town to get supplies."
"What do we need?"
"Information mostly," Ty said with a grin. "I'll think of something we need. While I'm in there, I'll stop in and talk to Deputy Silas. I'll tell him I had to come into town for supplies and ask if he's heard anything from the posse."
"Do you think that's a good idea? Do you trust him?"
"No, not really, but if he knows I'm in town he's apt to suspect something if I don't stop and talk to him. I have to act like I don't know a thing, and that I'm concerned about the boss and the rest of them that went after him. You never know when he may say something to give us a clue if he's in on it or not."
"Okay," Amos agreed. "He might at that. But you be careful. Don't let it backfire by giving him a clue."
"I know," Ty assured him. "I'll be careful."
***
The group woke early along the Black Creek. The men had a fire ready for Georgia to make coffee, and they had a quick, easy breakfast of scrambled eggs and biscuits they'd brought from the restaurant the night before. They followed the Black Creek, watching closely for any signs of someone having been there recently.
They were encouraged when Georgia saw signs of a possible campsite near the edge of a woods. They rode over to look
closer, and it did indeed look like there had been a campfire within the last day or two. Looking closer, they found a few footprints heading toward the creek. There wasn't any sign of mining activity around the creek, though, which made them think Wyler or someone else may have camped there overnight, gone to the creek for water, and gone on down the creek the next day.
That made them think they may be going in the right direction, so they continued on enthusiastically. By noon, though, they hadn't seen anyone, and the hoof prints Georgia was able to track from the campsite they found led off, away from the creek and toward a small town. Grant made the decision to go a little further. An hour further down they came upon a couple riders stopped by the creek. They watched carefully as they approached from three different directions. There wasn't any mining going on.
Grant yelled out to them, and approached carefully, with just Jacob with him. As it turned out, it was two brothers going home for a funeral. "I'm sorry to hear about your loss," Grant said. "Have you been following Black Creek long?"
"Not very far, no. We camped back up there last night."
"Yes, we saw where someone had camped up by the woods."
"That was us, yes. We just picked the creek up maybe a half mile up further. It was late when we reached the creek, so we just went far enough to find a good place to camp."
"Well, you guys be careful and have a safe trip home. We're heading back north."
Not too far back up the creek, the rest of the posse joined back up with Grant and Jacob, and they headed back north. By night they were back to the place they started that morning. They camped for the night in the same place, again planning an early start the next morning.
***
Ty and Landon went to town the next morning. They stopped at the general store and got some more flour and sugar, along with a few more supplies. Ty even got some yarn and thread, knowing they usually got yarn for Maria whenever they went to town. He was trying to make it look like Maria was still there, in case anyone was watching them.
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