They split up. Pa took Mr. Shaw, Miss Stansberry’s brother Hermon, and Marcus Weber with him. Everyone else hid in the woods nearby waiting to see if Krebbs or anybody’d come for the saddlebags. Pa and his three men took off west, up on top of Chalk Bluff Ridge, then followed the ridge trail southwest so as to come around and down on the far side of Squires Canyon where the cave was.
Before they were even halfway along the ridge, right by Red Hill spring, they saw a rider coming toward them. Quickly they got off their horses and led them off the trail, drew their guns, and got ready for a fight. But when the rider got closer they put their guns away. It was Zack.
In the meantime, when we’d all been back at home, the minute Zack heard what Pa and the sheriff planned to do—and he had a big grin when he was telling about it!—he sneaked around the back of the cabin, gave Katie his message, and got Blue Flame out of the barn as quietly as he could. He said he knew Pa would say no if he asked, so he just didn’t ask. Little Wolf knew the woods better than any five men in Miracle put together, and he figured the two of them would have the best chance of rescuing Becky if she was in the cave. He saw Pa heading for town looking for him, but by that time he was way up on the side of Buck Mountain.
By the time Pa and the sheriff and the rest of the men were gathering at our place, he and Little Wolf were already crossing Scotts Flat halfway to Gold Run. When they got to Gold Run, they skirted the edge of town, rode up toward Dutch Flat, and turned off the road before they got to Blue Devil Diggings, so as not to be seen by anyone riding south out of Dutch Flat. They tied their horses, then walked slowly up to where Zack and I and Pa’d been before. Zack remembered the area pretty well and he knew from there they’d be able to get a good look down into the canyon and at the cave.
Sure enough, there were two men standing outside the mouth of it.
They slipped up closer, quietly, until they were within earshot.
The two men were Hatch and Krebbs.
“I’ll be back this evening,” Krebbs was saying. “If they ain’t brung the loot yet, I’ll bring ya some grub.”
Hatch said something, but Zack didn’t hear what it was.
“That ain’t none o’ yer concern, ya old buzzard!” Krebbs said. “You jist do what I says, an’ you’ll get yer cut. You stay put right where you are, and if anybody ’ceptin’ me comes around here, you blow their heads off. Ya got me, Hatch?”
Again Hatch said something.
“I know there ain’t nobody gonna come. There ain’t no way they gonna find where we got the kid if they had a year. But I want somebody here anyway, an’ that’s what I’m payin’ you fer.”
With that, Krebbs turned and rode off up the far end of the canyon.
Nick and Little Wolf spied out the area a bit more. They figured the horses were best where they were, not far from where we’d tied them when we rescued Uncle Nick. Then they set about a plan to lure Grizzly Hatch away from the cave.
For Little Wolf, that wasn’t so difficult, though it took them twenty or thirty minutes to get into place—Zack behind a boulder above the cave, Little Wolf down in the canyon, about fifty feet in front of it. When Zack signaled that he was ready, Little Wolf began making sounds to get Hatch confused—throwing his voice, making animal sounds, then a call like a wolf.
But Hatch wasn’t as easy to fool as Buck Krebbs had been. His beady eyes spotted Little Wolf almost as soon as the first bird-call was out of his mouth.
The first sign that he’d been seen was the explosion of Hatch’s shotgun. If Little Wolf hadn’t been mostly behind a tree, it might have been worse. As it was, some pieces of buckshot found his leg and wrist.
“I see ya, ya redskin varmint!” cried Hatch. “Let that learn ya not to come around here!”
Little Wolf started down the canyon, then looked back. When he saw Hatch wasn’t going to follow him, he knew he had to try something else. He pulled an arrow out of his quiver and let one sail toward Hatch, thunking into a pine tree about five feet away, exactly where he’d aimed.
That made Hatch mad, which was just what Little Wolf wanted.
“Why, you no good animal!” screamed Hatch in a rage. “You won’t take a warning! We’ll see if a belly full o’ buckshot is more to your liking!”
He tore down the hill after Little Wolf.
Little Wolf started to run, and for the first time he felt the pain in his leg. He tripped and fell just as Hatch released the load from the second barrel. It flew over Little Wolf’s head, ripping a six-inch piece of bark off a Ponderosa pine.
If he hadn’t fallen just then, Little Wolf would have been dead.
He jumped to his feet and flew down the canyon limping, hearing Hatch cursing behind him and fumbling to reload his gun. Within seconds Hatch was after him once more.
In the meantime, Zack scrambled down the hillside, went inside the cave, and found Becky. She was dirty, hungry, and afraid, but her spirit wasn’t broken. Zack said her first words to him were, “Hi, Zack. I was just getting ready to escape.”
He signaled her to be quiet, untied the ropes around her hands and feet, then picked her up in his arms. Cautiously they left the cave. Zack looked all about, heard Hatch yelling a hundred yards away, then made a dash with Becky down the hill into the canyon, then up the other side just like I’d done with Uncle Nick. Halfway up the opposite side, he heard the sharp report from Hatch’s gun again. He jumped in terror, nearly throwing Becky to the ground, knowing the danger his friend was in. But he continued on up the hill, finally put Becky down, and hand in hand they ran the rest of the way to the horses, where they fell onto the ground in exhaustion.
Twice more Zack heard Hatch fire. Every time he wondered if he’d ever see Little Wolf again.
Then came a long silence lasting five minutes or more. From far down the canyon came another shot. Almost the same instant, there was a rustle in the brush behind him. Zack turned. There stood Little Wolf, his face pale, sweat and dirt on his forehead, but smiling broadly.
“I finally managed to get the old goat chasing his own tail,” he said out of breath, “but he was not so easy a prey. He is a man of cunning, despite his look of a crazy old fool.”
“You’re hurt!” said Zack.
“Yes, I am hurt, but not badly. He is not so bad a shot either,” Little Wolf added with a tired smile, “for a man on the run. But, little one,” he said, kneeling down beside Becky, “you are safe and well?”
“Yes, Little Wolf,” said Becky. “Thank you for saving me.”
“Your brother is the one with courage. He came to me and told me we must save you.”
“We have to get out of here,” said Zack. “Come on, Becky. You and Little Wolf have to get home.”
“Where are you going, Zack?” asked Becky.
“I gotta get to Pa.”
“Let me ride the Chalk Bluff Ridge,” said Little Wolf. “I know it like my own hand.”
“No,” insisted Zack. “You must get home and out of danger. Your father must tend your wounds. But first, take Becky to Mrs. Parrish in Miracle. She will know what to do. Might be nobody’s at our place. Then you go to your father.”
Little Wolf looked into Zack’s face, so much younger than his own. “I will do as you say,” he said. “I am too weary to argue, and perhaps you are right.”
Little Wolf mounted his pony, and Zack handed Becky up in front of him. “Be careful until you are past Gold Run,” warned Zack.
Little Wolf rode off. Then Zack mounted Blue Flame, worked his way north, past Blue Devil Diggings, back across the Bear, and up Chalk Bluff until he regained the trail on the ridge. Then he swung Blue Flame northeast and made for Deadman’s Flat.
Chapter 38
The Fight at Negro Jack’s
When Pa and Zack met on the trail, there wasn’t time for Zack to do much explaining. Pa’d have to wait to hear the whole story along with me and everyone else.
All Zack said was, “Becky’s safe! She’s on her way back to Miracle with
Little Wolf.”
The next moment, Pa, Zack, Hermon, Stansberry, Marcus Weber, and Pat Shaw were riding like the wind back to rejoin the sheriff and the rest of the men.
Even before they’d started down off the ridge toward Steephollow Creek, they could hear the gunfire.
They rode in from the north, the way they’d come from Miracle earlier. Pa could tell as they approached that Rafferty and Uncle Nick were pinned down. But they still had the entrance to Negro Jack’s covered, so Pa figured the money was still there. Otherwise Krebbs and his men wouldn’t be hanging around fighting.
Krebbs had a man watching after all, Pa discovered later, who had taken off for Dutch Flat the minute the sheriff and his men rode in. By the time Little Wolf had outsmarted Grizzly Hatch back at the cave, Buck Krebbs and his men were riding north out of Dutch Flat for a showdown.
Pa and the others came down slowly off the ridge, hoping to keep from being seen. When they got in a position to outflank Krebbs and his men and get a good bead on them, they opened fire.
The surprise of the attack must have helped because the rocks and trees they’d been hiding behind were no longer any good. Now they had to move to protect themselves from their exposed positions, and while they were scrambling back in retreat, the men with the sheriff were able to get higher up on the hill and gain a better vantage point.
The exchange of gunfire went on for ten or fifteen minutes, but neither side was any closer to being able to send someone in to snatch the saddlebags without being seen and getting shot.
I guess Zack was feeling heroic, because for the second time that day he slipped away without Pa’s seeing him.
Suddenly, the next thing Pa knew, there was Zack, behind a small boulder, not fifteen yards from the To Negro Jacks sign. Immediately Pa knew what he was trying to do. At almost the same instant, Pa saw Buck Krebbs about the same distance away from the stump on the other side, behind a thick fir, hidden from Zack’s sight.
“Zack, no!” yelled Pa, standing and shouting through his cupped hands.
But it was too late. A sharp crack from a Winchester exploded through the air. The slug ripped through the calf of Pa’s right leg and he fell to the ground. The same instant Zack made his dash for the stump. He laid his hand on the leather saddlebags, when an evil voice froze him in his tracks before he could make good his escape.
“Don’t do it, boy!” said the voice. “Let go o’ the bag.”
Zack looked up.
There was Buck Krebbs ten feet away, a sneer revealing black and yellow teeth. In his hand was a revolver aimed directly at Zack’s head.
For two or three seconds both stood dead still, staring each into the other’s eyes, weighing the odds, asking himself what the other might do.
Lying on his belly seventy-five feet above them, blood oozing from his leg into the grass and dirt, Pa had slowly pulled his pistol from its holster and was now drawing it into position. Wincing in pain, he grasped the gun in both hands and stretched out his arms in front of him, squinting as he gazed down the black steel gun barrel.
Suddenly, Zack clutched the saddlebags and darted toward the nearest tree.
The split second it took for Buck Krebbs to refocus his aim was too long. As his finger began to squeeze the trigger to liberate the bullet that would end Zack’s life, Pa’s .45 sounded from above.
The gleam went out of Buck Krebbs’ eye. He crumpled to the ground where he had stood, shot dead through the heart.
With the money gone and their leader dead, Barton and the rest scattered to the hills. It was over.
Sheriff Rafferty and Uncle Nick jumped out of their hiding places and ran down the hill, congratulating Zack, then tending to Pa’s wound. The slug hadn’t hit either a bone or an artery, but it was a nasty gash and the slug was still in his leg. They had to get him home and to the doctor’s without delay.
Chapter 39
That Night
That afternoon Doc had to come out to our place to tend two patients.
After leaving Becky with Mrs. Parrish in town, Little Wolf had ridden to our place instead of home, like Zack had said. He wanted to see if we were there, to tell us Becky was safe and where she was. But by the time he arrived, he was so weak and faint that he couldn’t go another step.
I ran toward him yelling, “Where’s Becky? What happened? Are Pa and Zack safe?”
Little Wolf told me later he didn’t hear a word I’d said. The moment I reached him he half-fainted and collapsed off the side of his pony into my arms. It was all I could do to keep from toppling over with his weight!
All he was able to whisper was, “Becky . . . safe . . . with Mrs. Parrish . . .”
Katie saw through the window and rushed out to help me. We carried him inside, found his wounds, and dressed them as best we could.
He must have been hit more than just that first time. It looked to me that he had a dozen little pieces of shot scattered in his leg and arm, and his clothes were covered with blood. It was no wonder he was faint!
When we got him laid down, I reminded Katie about the gun, told Emily to lock the door behind me, and said I was riding into town to get the doctor and see how Becky was.
I got back in about half an hour. Doc’s buggy was about fifteen minutes behind me, and by the time he had most of the shot out of Little Wolf’s leg and ointment and bandages on the wounds, Uncle Nick and the sheriff were riding in. So he started right in on Pa.
By evening Pa was on the mend too. Doc gave Pa two or three glasses of whiskey, and after it had taken effect and Pa was half-asleep, he dug the slug out of his leg. I could hardly stand it. I thought I would throw up a couple of times. There was more bleeding, and Pa yelled out. But when it was over, Doc said the wound was clean. He dressed it, and told Pa to stay off it for a couple of weeks.
“Stay off it, Doc?” Pa exclaimed, wide awake now after the painful surgery. “I can’t lay around for two weeks!”
“Then all I can say, Drum,” replied the Doc, “is keep your weight off it if you can. Use a cane or a crutch or something. The more you use it, the longer it’ll take to heal.”
Little Wolf wanted to go home, but he was even weaker than Pa. He had not only lost blood, the exertion from the long ride had worn him out and he remained pale all day. Doc said we should keep him at our place at least overnight.
“Keep him in bed, warm, and get as much of that soup down him as you can. I think I got all the shot out. He’ll be much stronger tomorrow.”
Zack rode over to his place to tell his pa what had happened.
Not long after the Doc left I suddenly remembered about the money.
“Pa,” I said, “what about the money and Mrs. Parrish?”
“You’re right, little girl,” said Pa, rolling over in the bed and facing me. “I plumb forgot.”
“I’m scared of that man Royce, Pa.”
“What’s he got to do with it?”
“Mrs. Parrish got the money from him, Pa.”
“From his bank. Outta her account, like anyone else. I went with her to get it.”
“Pa, I think there’s more to it than that.” It was the first chance I’d had to tell him about seeing her go to the bank with those papers, and the look on Royce’s face afterward.
Pa was already half out of his bed by the time I finished. “Why, that woman!” he said, “I hope she ain’t gone and done nothing foolish! Here, Corrie, help me with this leg!”
He was already struggling to stand.
“Pa, the doctor said you had to—”
“Never mind the Doc! I gotta get that money back to town.”
“Lay back down, Drum,” said Uncle Nick, who had wandered over to see what the commotion was all about. “I’ll take it to her.”
“No, this is something I gotta do myself. What’s gotta be said’s something nobody but me can say.”
“I’ll take in the money with a letter from you,” suggested Uncle Nick.
“Don’t you understand? That woman saved
our hides, and this place of ours too! You don’t thank somebody for that with a letter. Besides, she may have just—”
He stopped, fumbling to get his arm through his coat sleeve “Well, never mind that—we’ll just hope it’s not too late.”
He grabbed the single crutch the Doc had left him, grabbed his hat, and made for the door. “Somebody come and help me up the horse. Nick, where’s them saddlebags?”
Uncle Nick brought him the money and boosted him on top of Blue Flame, who was still saddled from Zack’s ride to Little Wolf’s father’s. Pain filled Pa’s face from his swollen leg, but there was no talking him out of what he knew he had to do.
“Can I go with you, Pa?” I asked.
Pa looked down at me, thought for a moment, then shrugged and said, “I don’t reckon there’d be anything wrong with that. Sure, come on.”
I flew into the barn and saddled Snowball as fast as I could. I didn’t want Pa to think of some reason for changing his mind.
It was well into evening when we rode into Miracle Springs, but the June sun still had another hour of life left. The town was quiet. A few people who saw Pa ran over to greet him with smiles and shouts and congratulations, but Pa just kept walking Blue Flame straight down the dirt street, hardly so much as acknowledging the well-wishers who came out to greet him. He had a determined look in his eye and he rode straight for Mrs. Parrish’s.
When we got there, he dismounted without any help, although when his legs hit the ground his face twitched from the pain. He slung the saddlebags over his shoulder, stuck the crutch under his armpit, then said to me, “Corrie, I know you like to be around all that’s goin’ on so you can write everything in that journal of yours. But this here’s somethin’ I gotta do alone. So you just wait here.”
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