“Let her go unharmed, or you won’t see the dawn.”
“Those are empty words, Stedman. As long as I have Eliza, you can’t do a damned thing.” But Croley hurried back through his lines more rapidly than his men thought a confident man would have done.
Eliza’s mind was consumed by fear and confusion as they traveled back up the canyon more quickly than they came. Didn’t Cord love her enough to try to save her? She knew Croley wasn’t going to let her go just because Cord told him to, and her interference had not only jeopardized her life and the success of the ambush, but would force Cord to risk his life in an attempt to save her, if he did attempt to save her. He didn’t sound like he was too upset she was a pawn in Croley’s grasp. She would have been begging and pleading if their positions had been reversed; she had already risked her life for him once. Surely he would do as much for her.
But she didn’t know what he could do. Croley’s men had plenty of cover, while Cord and the others would have to come down the open trail. Well, it was her own fault she was in this mess, so she had no one to blame but herself. It was beginning to look like she had no one else to depend on, so she’d better think of something quick.
“How did you let her get past you?” Cord thundered at a cowhand whose neck he threatened to break with one wrench of his powerful hands.
“You told me not to worry about the plain until the trap was down at both ends,” the unfortunate boy managed to gasp. “You said there wouldn’t be anybody trying to get up the rim until they knew there was no other way out.”
Cord didn’t slacken his grip.
“She was already out of the buggy when I got there. I was just in time to see her go over the edge.” He didn’t dare tell his infuriated employer the girl seemed to have gone willingly.
“I ought to skin you alive,” Cord swore, releasing him at last. “Find J.D. and tell him I want him at once.” The boy staggered to his feet and disappeared. Cord had hardly taken more than a few turns before a boy, barely older than the first, came hurrying up to him.
“Do you know the crack in the river wall, the one right above the falls?” The boy nodded. “Do you think you could get down it and cross upriver from where the canyon wall has eroded?”
“Sure,” the boy answered with easy confidence.
“Then crawl on your hands and knees until you’re opposite where Croley’s hiding?”
“The river’s nearly up to its banks. That would mean I’d barely have my head out of water.”
“Maybe not that much.”
“And it’s icy cold.”
“If you can’t do it, I’ll send someone else.”
“I can do it,” the boy promised, caught between wanting to and not wanting to. “I just ain’t looking forward to it.”
“Can you talk two more into going with you?”
“Chrissakes! You don’t like asking easy things of a man, do you?”
“Men don’t expect to be asked easy things.”
The boy swallowed hard. “Give me a hour.”
“I’ll give you thirty minutes. Maybe less.”
The young man looked dumfounded, but said nothing.
“I’m going down the opposite side to bring Miss Smallwood out. I’ll have to go a little slowly because I don’t want to start a rock slide, but when I give you the signal or you hear any unexpected activity, be ready to stand up and fire point-blank.”
“But we’ll be naked in their fire. There’s not even a pebble out there to cover our asses.”
“Then make sure you don’t miss. The others will be closing in from both ends. Once I have Miss Smallwood safe, the bastards will be covered on all four sides.”
“Okay, thirty minutes, but I want a double bonus for this.”
“But I don’t know what he plans to do. I haven’t even seen him.” Eliza’s face was bruised, and blood trickled from her mouth. Croley had been interrogating her for several minutes and was enraged at her refusal to divulge Cord’s plans.
When he had returned from his confrontation with Cord, Croley had thrown Eliza behind a rock, ordered Les to watch her, and stomped off to see about positioning his men. At first Eliza had thought she might be safe, that he would be so busy defending himself he would forget about her altogether, but it wasn’t long before she discovered how wrong she was. Croley was determined to break her no matter what it took.
“Leave her alone, Croley,” Ira said. “Can’t you see she doesn’t know anything?” Ira had been shocked out of his habitual inability to think of anything except his hatred for Cord by Croley’s cold-blooded murder of one of his own men. The brutal beating of his niece, along with the utter collapse of their plans, had thoroughly shaken his confidence, and the little world he had built for himself had begun to break apart. Dazed, he tried to get between Croley and Eliza, but Croley shoved him out of the way.
“You stupid jackass,” Croley growled contemptuously. “You’re so dazzled by your clothes and money you can’t see what a pitiful little pissant you are.”
Ira couldn’t have been more staggered if Croley’s words had been a fist.
“I’ve put up with your strutting about like a bantam rooster, making a goddamned fool of yourself, because of your hatred for Stedman. Nobody believed a word you said, but it kept the pressure on him. I don’t need you anymore, so don’t push me.”
It wrung Eliza’s heart to see her uncle’s pride wither and die under Croley’s cruel words, but to her surprise, Ira didn’t cower before his tormentor.
“Let my niece go, and neither of us will ever bother you again,” said Ira.
Croley threw back his head and laughed, but it was a cruel, mocking laughter. “Look at the little peacock trying to crow at last. You waited too long, old man. I’m going to get the information I want if I have to beat your niece’s beautiful face to a pulp.”
Instinctively, Eliza’s hand flew to her cheeks.
“But I won’t do it just yet,” Croley said, pulling her closer to him. “I’ll save that for later. I’d rather try a different kind of persuasion.” His free hand snaked out and roughly covered Eliza’s bosom. “I’d like to sample what you’re so determined to save for Stedman. Doesn’t seem to me like he values it very highly.” He squeezed her breast painfully. “I just might value it a lot,” he said trying to kiss her.
Eliza nearly panicked when Croley first touched her, and she twisted away, avoiding his lips, but his hand squeezed her breast so brutally she was unable to check a grunt of pain.
“Just a small exchange” he purred. “Not much to ask in exchange for your life.”
“Take your hands off my niece” Ira said, trying once more to force his way in between Croley and Eliza, his own convoluted moral code so outraged by this conduct he finally saw Croley for the cold-blooded killer he was. This time Croley released Eliza long enough to send Ira sprawling from a savage right to the jaw. Eliza tried to run, but Croley was on her almost immediately, pulling at her clothes, trying to get his hands in her bodice. Eliza fought with all her strength, but she was no match for him.
Take your hands off her, or I’ll shoot,” Ira shouted, a small pistol held shakily in his hands. Croley halted only briefly. Before either of them could move, he whirled Eliza between him and her uncle. Then as Ira danced around trying to keep Eliza out of the line of fire, Croley calmly pulled his gun and shot him; Ira fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. With a terrified scream, Eliza broke free and raced to him.
He lay on his side, blood oozing from a wound in his chest. A sudden burst of gunfire, intense and much nearer, deflected Croley’s attention, and he ran off in its direction.
“I’m sorry, Eliza,” Ira said with difficulty. “I never realized what kind of man he was*
“Don’t think about that now. Can you stand up? We’ve got to get up the slope while he’s occupied. It’s our only chance.” She searched for and found the pistol with its single unspent bullet and tucked it in her pocket. It was the only weapon they had.
“I don’t know if I can move”
“You’ve got to. Here, lean on me.” Ira put his arm about Eliza’s neck, and got to his knees. “Now bring one foot up,” Eliza coaxed.
“I can’t.”
“You must. Croley will kill us.” With a superhuman effort Ira got to his feet, and straining every muscle, Eliza helped him reach the cover of the first of the large boulders. If they could just get far enough up the cliff before Croley came back, they might escape. The first steep climb taxed Ira’s strength, but Eliza wouldn’t let him give up.
“I can’t make it. Try to get out yourself. After what I’ve done, I don’t deserve to escape. How could I have been so blind?”
“Hush. Save your strength.”
“I let the money go to my head,” he said, beginning to climb again. “I told myself it was my success. I refused to admit it was all due to you.”
“Keep climbing. We’ve got to get higher,” Eliza urged, lifting the thin man by her own strength when his failed.
“I’ve got to rest for just a minute,” he panted. “I shouldn’t have hated Cord,” he said when he finally got his breath. “But I had to have somebody to blame for all my failures. I couldn’t accept them myself.”
“We can’t stop. We’re still not high enough.” Eliza forced the nearly exhausted man to keep going. The path was much steeper now, and she barely had the strength to keep her uncle on his feet.
“He was the kind of man I wanted to be and never was,” Ira continued. “But he wanted the only thing I had left, and I couldn’t let him have you.”
“You never really wanted me,” Eliza said between gasps. “You never loved me.” They were both almost too exhausted to move, but getting away from Croley was their only chance.
“I never forgave you for still being alive when Sarah and Grant died. At times I think I was’ so angry I almost hated you, but I never did.”
“But I can be hurt too,” Eliza said, her aroused anger giving her the strength to continue to climb. “I can be lonely and I can cry, but I can also love and laugh.”
“I was too bitter to see that, or even want to. It took Cord to see it in you, and I hated him all the more for it.” He stopped, gasping for breath as he slid to the ground.
“We can’t stop now. We’re almost out of reach.”
“You go on without me. I can’t go any farther.”
“Yes, you can,” Eliza said fiercely, tears streaming down her face. “I waited ten years to have you offer me just one scrap of affection, and now that I have it I’m not going to let Croley Blaine take it away. We’re going to get out of here if I have to carry you on my back.”
“Ira! Eliza!” It was Croley screaming down below.
“Stay down,” Eliza whispered urgently.
“If you don’t come down, I’ll come after you.”
“Go on, get out if you can,” Ira urged. “I’ll see if I can hold him off.” He took her hands in his and kissed them. “I’ve been a great fool. It took that beast down there to make me see what I should have seen ten years ago, but it’s too late now. Don’t make the cost of my stupidity any greater than it already is.”
Eliza could hardly see for the tears. “You can straighten this out after we get out of here,” she said, forcing him to his feet.
“I can’t,” he said pitifully.
“You must,” Eliza commanded harshly.
Croley spotted them when they moved out into the open, but they were beyond the range of his gun and his bullets expended themselves harmlessly on the rocks.
“I’ll kill you when I get my hands on you,” Croley shouted, and began to climb up after them.
“I can’t go any farther,” Ira said kneeling in the dust. “You’ve got to go for help. Listen to me,” he insisted when Eliza started to refuse once more.
“It’s you he wants, and it’s you he’ll hurt. Get out and bring help. That man of yours can’t be far away. He’ll know what to do. He always has.”
Still Eliza hesitated. They were little more than half the way up the canyon wall.
“You know it’s the only way.”
“Hide,” Eliza said. “He’ll never catch me once I get to the top. I brought a buggy.” She gave her uncle a quick kiss and began climbing as fast as she could; Below Croley climbed rapidly up after her, bellowing his fury as he went. Eliza climbed frantically, but she was exhausted from carrying Ira, and the last of the climb was so steep, she was barely able to make any progress and Croley gained on her. She looked back often to gauge his progress, to see if she could gain the rim before he reached her, but he was gaining much too fast. He would catch her.
The pistol! It was still in her pocket. She pulled it out and stared at it stupidly. She had never fired any kind of gun, but she had only one bullet and it was her only chance. She leaned against a rock and steadied her shaking hand against its surface. There was no time to remember that it was another human being she was trying to kill, no time to force down the bile rising in her throat. There was only time for one shot, and she had to make it count. Carefully, she took aim and squeezed the trigger. The shock of the recoil caused the pistol to fly from her hands, but it didn’t matter; the bullet had missed Croley and he was climbing with redoubled fury.
“Run, Eliza” her uncle’s voice called out. “I’ll stop him.” With the last of his strength, Ira raised a rock above his head and threw it at Croley. It fell uselessly short.
“Nobody’s going to stop me,” Croley spat, and shot Ira again. This time Ira did not move. Eliza screamed, caught between her desire to go back to her uncle and the realization she must still try to escape, knowing Croley was bound to catch her either way. She was only twenty feet from the rim of the canyon, but Croley was less than that distance away from her and climbing twice as fast. Eliza’s strength was gone; she was trapped.
In that instant a huge body came catapulting over the rim of the canyon, leaping down the side with the agility of a mountain goat, his enormous strength providing the only inspiration Eliza needed.
“Cord!” It was at once a cry of relief, exultation, and warning. He stopped only long enough to see her bruised and bloodied face before descending on Croley in a whirlwind of fury. Blaine saw death staring him in the face and his anger turned to fear; the repeated click of his gun told him he had used his last bullet on Ira. The old man had saved both Eliza and Cord.
Cord’s hurtling body hit Croley with the force of a charging steer, knocked him to the ground, and drove every ounce of breath from his body. Cord’s hands closed around Croley’s throat as they rolled over and over sending rocks catapulting down the cliff into the pass. They came to a jarring halt, lodged behind a rock a short distance above Ira, yet Cord’s hands still encircled Croley’s throat; Croley’s face turned black and his body thrashed about in its death agony, but the remorseless grip did not lessen, and the last thing Croley Blaine saw was the face of the one man he had never been able to defeat.
The body went limp, and Cord stood up, the mask of murderous rage relaxed at last. He returned quickly to Eliza, but she sped past him to where Ira lay. She knelt beside the inert body and gently smoothed the hair from his brow; miraculously his eyes opened once more.
“Croley?” he asked as she cradled his head in her arms.
“He’s dead,” she told him.
“And Cord?”
“He’s right here. He’s all right.”
Ira closed his eyes. “Then I haven’t been a failure at everything,” he whispered, and breathed his last.
Wracking sobs shook Eliza’s exhausted body. None of his selfishness and cruelty mattered now. He was the man she had lived with for ten years, the person who had protected her and provided for her as she grew to womanhood, and his death was a grievous loss.
Cord came up behind her, but he made no attempt to comfort her. She was grieving for years he had taken no part in, and she must do it alone.
Somehow Eliza sensed his presence, and her weeping abated.
“He looks peaceful now,” she said without looking up, “like he’s glad to be free of this world.” She dabbed uncaringly at her eyes with her torn sleeve. “I guess that’s what he wanted all along. All his anger was just unhappiness at being separated from Aunt Sarah and Grant.”
Mechanically she straightened his tie. “He saved our lives, you know, me down there and you up here.” His fancy coat was bunched under him, and she tugged at it until it was free, then took great care to make sure it was straight. “He said he was sorry for what he did to both of us. He tried to help me get away, even though he knew Croley would kill him.” She raised her eyes to Cord, and her lips started to tremble uncontrollably. “I guess maybe he loved me after all.”
“Just about every rustler we were looking for is here,” Franklin observed as the column of bound men paraded past.
“They were easy to catch after Mr. Stedman started that rock slide,” Sheriff Hooker said. “Those boys by the river had them in their sights when they came running out from behind the boulders. Simple as rounding up milk cows after that. And no more than a few flesh wounds to show for it.”
Franklin gestured to Eliza and Joe Hooker fell silent. It was impossible for any of the men to enjoy their triumph in the face of Eliza’s grief. He’d never seen anyone look so pitiful as she did when she stumbled down that hill, following behind Cord as he carried her uncle’s lifeless body in his arms. They could fetch Croley’s body later. It would be indecent to force her to carry her uncle’s murderer in the same wagon. Poor girl. With someone she loved on both sides of the conflict, she was bound to get hurt, but he couldn’t see any call for Croley to beat her like that. And her not the kind to hurt a fly.
He sighed. Oh, well, she was about to be married. She’d get over it. It was often violent in. Wyoming, and people learned to recover from their losses quickly. She would too.
Chapter 39
Eliza continued to be listless. Her uncle bad been buried a week earlier and nearly all traces of her brutal beating were healed, but there seemed to be a wound inside her that would not respond to any kind of treatment. The whole town had turned out for the funeral, and she had had as many visitors as Ella and Lucy would allow, but she’d continued to be uninterested in anything.
Wicked Wyoming Nights Page 39