Ride the River (1983) s-5 Read online

  "If she could, and if she is still alive."

  It was not something he liked to consider. Dorian found himself suddenly worried, thinking of a young girl in the hands of Tim Oats. Or of Horst.

  Yet what sign could she leave?

  They reached the end of the street without seeing anything. Suddenly Archie pointed. "There's been a rig standing there! Look at the hoof prints. Must've stood here for an hour or more."

  A buxom woman of perhaps fifty was sweeping the walk. Dorian walked his horse over to her.

  "Ma'am?" He removed his hat. "Have you seen a rig? A horse and buggy, perhaps? I mean during the night? Or toward morning?"

  "A rig, is it? Aye, that I did." She pointed. "I sleep by the window there, and his stomping and the creakin' of the buggy kept me awake the night long.

  "Short of daybreak, though, two people came running up the street and got in, and off they went."

  "Twopeople? You're sure there weren't three?"

  "There was another one, a young lady like, but she came after, just as they were pulling away around the corner. She stopped, angry she was. She stamped her foot and said something ... most emphatic it was."

  "What then? Where did she go?"

  "Yonder." She pointed toward a barn with a still-lighted lantern over the door. "She went yonder. It's a livery stable.

  "Only a minute or two it was, and she was out of the stable and riding off after them. I don't know what was happening, but she was most upset, I can tell you that."

  "Thank you, ma'am."

  They sat their horses. "She's gone after them, then. We'd better catch them."

  "Mister? You ask Pokey Joe at the livery. He can tell you about it. You tell him Martha Reardon sent you." She paused. "Is that girl going to get in trouble?"

  "I'm afraid so, ma'am. I'm afraid so."

  Chapter 8

  Gathering my skirts in one hand, I taken off up the street, but when I rounded the corner they were getting into a rig. This whole thing had been planned, and that team and buggy were just a-settin' there waitin' for them. As I rounded the corner, they got in and it taken off up the street.

  Running after it would do no kind of good. A moment I stood there, my heart beating heavy. There went the money we so desperately needed - a mule to help with the farming, a new rifle for Regal, and some fixin's I'd had in mind for myself. All of it was gone because I'd gotten sleepy and didn't think to be suspicious of that little ol' lady.

  She had gotten aboard to steal my carpetbag. That man in the houndstooth coat had seen the color of my bag when I got off the stage, so he knew what was needed to make a substitution. Had it been ladylike, I'd have done some cussin'. Then I glimpsed that lantern and the livery sign.

  Luckily I'd put some of that gold in my pockets for the necessaries, so when I ran in there and asked for a horse, I slapped a gold piece in that man's hand before he had a chance to argue. Before he could say yes or no, I had me a horse out there and was slipping a bridle on him. That man caught fire and threw a saddle on him and cinched up. Saying I'd return the horse, I taken off after that carriage.

  Chambersburg was a small city and they hadn't far to go to a country lane. I glimpsed them turn into it and followed on. Right then I was wishful for my rifle-gun, for with it I could have stopped that buggy before it got from sight. As it was, all I had was my pick and a short-barreled pistol which I carried along with a comb and perfume in my reticule, a sort of bag on long strings that hung from the wrist, usually. Womenfolks wore flimsy, gauzy clothes, all the fashion in the cities, that would not support a pocket, so the reticules were needful. The material of my traveling dress was of sturdier material, but the reticule was the fashion.

  They were headed west and had a good lead on me, but I feared to ride too fast because they might turn off and I'd miss the turnoff in the dark. Moreover, they'd leave tracks for me to see when light came, and judging by the pale lemon color in the east, that would not be long.

  There was no sort of plan in my rattled-up brain. I'd simply taken off after them. Surely he would have looked back and seen he was followed. It was likely he'd not be wishful to put up with that for long, so I'd best beware of a trap.

  Murder, Finian Chantry had said. Murder was what Felix Horst had done, and would be prepared to do again, and so would this man up ahead.

  The road taken led through the piny woods, or woods of some kind. It was too dark to make out. The trees crowded close to the sides and there were rail fences here and there. Suddenly, after we'd gone four or five miles, the trees fell away, leaving fenced pastures and fields on both sides, and far ahead, a light.

  It was growing gray, but I could make out a cluster of buildings where the light was, and the buggy I was chasing pulled up and stopped.

  I touched a spur to my horse and lit out on a dead run, hoping to catch up for a showdown, but the rig started off again and I saw somebody standing there, trying the door of the stage stop, trying to get in. When it did not open, she taken a quick look toward me and scuttled around the house, me after her.

  She was coming up to the other corner when I reached out and grabbed. I caught me a handful of bonnet and gray hair that came loose in my hand, and the next thing I knew, that woman had turned on me, grabbed my wrist, and pulled me loose from my horse!

  We went into the dust, me on top. She grabbed a handful of hair, and I'd never been that much of a lady. I slugged her in the nose with my fist, and when she tried to tear loose, her nose bleeding, I hit her again. And then I got up and looked at what I'd hit.

  It was no little ol' lady at all, but a young, feisty woman with her makeup all scratched away and her hair pulled down around her ears. Her reticule had torn, and gold coins were spilled on the ground, two of them along with some other change. I taken up the coins. "Is this what they paid you to rob a poor girl? You ought to be ashamed!"

  It was fresh new gold and I was sure it was mine. I put it in my reticule and caught up the reins of my horse.

  "You taken all the money!" she protested. "I haven't enough for stage fare to town!"

  "You have," I said. "There's some change, and it's enough. Anyway, the walk would do you good, give you a chance to contemplate on the error of sinful ways."

  I fetched the horse closer and stepped into the saddle. "Where is he going?"

  "None of your business!"

  "Now, ma'am" - I spoke gentle, as Regal would have done - "you just tell me where he's goin' before I ride this horse right over you!"

  She started to scramble up, and I bumped her with the horse, knocking her sprawling. She rolled over into a sitting position, her legs spread, hands behind her, bracing herself.

  "You got one minute," I said. "Then I ride this horse right over you!"

  She glared at me, then began to whimper. "He promised me forty dollars!" she protested. "That's a lot of money!"

  "This here is a lot of horse," I said. "Where's he goin'?"

  "I don't owe him nothin'," she said. "He's headed for a place in the Dickey Mountains. Used to be a hideout for Davy Lewis!"

  Even in the mountains of Tennessee we'd heard of Davy Lewis, the Pennsylvania outlaw. He had been a counterfeiter at first, making false coin and passing it around, but after he escaped from jail, he'd become a highwayman of sorts.

  Davy was said to be a sort of Robin Hood bandit who took from the rich to give to the poor. If he was like most of those Robin Hood bandits I'd heard tell of, the poor he gave to was himself or over the bar in the nearest tavern.

  Now I could see the buggy track clear and plain. I got down from my horse and walked him a mite, studying the tracks of the horses pullin' that buggy. Horse tracks are like a body's signature, easy to recognize once you've seen 'em. I wanted to get these clear in my mind, and what was just as helpful, to know the length of their stride, so I could tell about where to look for tracks.

  It was no doubt that Horst was mixed up in this, and the man up ahead was hand-in-glove with him.

  The D
oune pistol I carried held but one charge, and I'd powder and shot for but five more charges, but if I was close enough to shoot at all, I was not going to need more than one per man, and I was hopeful of doing no shooting at all.

  One thing was on my mind. They had taken my money and I meant to have it back. Right then I wished it was Regal or my brother Ethan or anybody else but me. The trouble was, there was nobody else to do it, and if I called on the law, it would be too late. Unless I found some law close to where they were going, wherever that was!

  There were farms along the way, mostly with rail fences and the houses built of logs, making me homesick for my hills. I rode swiftly now, watching the trail, picking up a hoofprint here or there that was clear and strong.

  Where were they going? How far? Why did I think "they"? But of course, there was a driver-he who had waited with the rig? Felix Horst, perhaps? I did not know. I only knew that I could not return to home without the money we so desperately needed.

  It was not that we were hungry, for the mountains provided game, herbs and nuts in season, sometimes fruit, and our planting provided vegetables and some grain. But there was so much else. My mother was growing old and I wished that she not have to work so hard. There were small comforts we needed. New bedding, new clothing, some of the small things to brighten our lives. We needed books, we needed something on which to build dreams. The money would change all that. Our decrepit old mule could be turned to pasture, our worn plowshare be replaced with another. It was little enough we wanted, but most of all I wished my mother to sit for a while in the sunset of her life, just to sit and live the sounds of our hills, the light and shadows upon them.

  Until now I had just raced after them, but now I began to think. What would I do? What could I do? There would be two men, and if one of them was Horst, he was a known murderer. Obviously they were leading me into the lonely hills ... What then?

  My other pistol was in the carpetbag they had. It was fully charged and ready, and its barrel was full-length, not sawed off as this one was. Or had they already taken it from the bag?

  I had one shot to fire; then I must reload.

  Long practice with hunting had given me speed and skill, but no one could reload fast enough when facing a man with a gun. So I must somehow meet them separately. I dared not chance a meeting with both at once.

  "Echo," I told myself, "you got to be a good Injun. You got to be sly. You got to be careful. So hold back, stay on the trail, an' wait your chance."

  Nobody knew where I was. To Finian Chantry I was on my way home. To Regal an' Ma I was either in Philadelphia or on my way home. Before either of them guessed anything was wrong, it would be all over.

  Time and again I'd had to Injun up on wild game. I'd become like a ghost in the woods. It was that or go hungry. Now I would need all I'd learned. I thought back to stalking deer, getting so close I just could not miss. I'd never stalked a man before. It would be like cornering a catamount or a mean bear ... only worse. The game I was stalking was used to being stalked, and it was smart.

  My mouth felt dry and my heart was beating heavily. Was this what fear was? No, not yet. They were still ahead of me, but I'd have to ride wary. My feelin' was they would try nothing until they got away from cabins and places where folks might be. Then I'd have to ride slow.

  "Regal! Regal!" I whispered to myself. "Tell me what to do! I got to do it, Regal, but I'm scared. I never figured I'd be scared, but I am. There's two of them, Regal!"

  Twice I stopped at streams to drink. I was almighty hungry but I did not want to lose them, and it was coming onto dusk. I couldn't follow them after dark, so I'd best find someplace to hole up, maybe to get some grub.

  The fields on either side were unplowed and looked abandoned, yet ahead of me I caught a glimpse of smoke - from somebody cooking supper, no doubt. I slowed my horse to a walk. This was careful time, this was the time they might lay out for me, waiting for a shot.

  Twice, in small groves of trees, I drew up and studied the trail ahead, one hand in my reticule, holding that Doune pistol. The Dounes were special guns, made in the last century by Scotsmen, and mine was among the last the Dounes ever made. They were the pistols the Scottish Highlanders loved, and many a clansman had been done to death by a bullet from a Doune pistol. John Murdoch had made the pistol I had, made it nigh onto fifty years before. Regal had cut four inches off the barrel for me to carry easy. The other one was my favorite, but a girl couldn't carry a pistol like that unless in mountain country.

  Ahead of me the road curved. There were just two ruts for wagon wheels, with grass growing in between them. Some of the rails had fallen from the fences; everything looked abandoned or at least run-down. Drawing up again, I studied the layout ahead of me. Shadows were crowding from under the trees, and the trees themselves were losing themselves in the darkness. The twin ruts of the trail lay white before me, and there was a faint smell of wood smoke somewhere ahead.

  My horse had his ears pricked. He smelled smoke, too, and knew it for a sign of folks. Maybe he could smell fresh hay or the barn. He seemed eager enough to go, but I held back, uneasy.

  A trap - that was what I had to fear. Slowly I let my horse walk forward, my pistol ready, watching every clump of brush, every tree, alert for any sound of a horse or of a buggy wheel on gravel or whatever. I heard nothing.

  Somewhere an owl hooted. My horse walked steadily forward. I was foolish to be apprehensive. Chances were they were miles away, and they were unlikely, I told myself, to try anything in the vicinity of a farm. Still, a body couldn't be too careful.

  I was tired. I had been riding in the stage the night long and riding horseback all the day, and I'd had nothing to eat since around midday yesterday. I could still make out the buggy tracks, going straight on.

  Now I could see lights in the cabin windows. I heard a door slam as somebody went in or out. Maybe I could get something to eat or even find a place to spend the night. I wouldn't be able to track the buggy tonight. Anyway, I could ask.

  Another moment I glanced on up the road, but I could not see anything. It was too dark. Turning my horse into the gate, I rode up to the hitching post, and getting stiffly down, tied my horse, glancing back at the gate. They had forgotten to close it. Farm folks were careful about gates unless they were expecting somebody. Neighbors, maybe, or one of the family still out.

  At the door, I rapped. For a moment, nothing happened. I could smell bacon frying and my stomach growled, a most ungenteel sound, but Iwas hungry.

  I knocked again, and I heard feet approaching. The door opened, light fell across my face, sudden after the darkness. "Come in!" It was a man's voice. "Come right in! You're just in time for supper!"

  Stepping in, I reached to close the door behind me, but it was already closing.

  There was a candle on the table, a fire in the fireplace, and there was bacon in the frying pan, and a smell of coffee.

  "Come right in and set! You're just in time to have supper!"

  The door closed behind me, a bar fell in place. There were two men, and one of them was the untidy young man from Mr. White's office; the other was the man in the houndstooth coat.

  Chapter 9

  For a moment I just stood there. The younger man was at the fire with a fork in his hand. The man in the houndstooth coat had moved between me and the door. There was no way I was going to get past him and get that bar moved and the door opened before they stopped me.

  "Thank you," I said. "Travelin' makes a body mighty hungry. The smell of that bacon stopped me."

  Me bein' casual like that kind of stopped them in their tracks. They didn't know what to make of me and I hoped to keep it thataway. I was trying to let them think I didn't know who they were or that they didn't belong here. I could see now this had been an abandoned house. I should have guessed it from the weed-grown fields and the fences with rails down.

  "Mind if I set down? It's been a long day." Keepin' my face bland as I could, I reached out a hand. "My name is
Sackett, Echo Sackett. I'm bound for Tennessee. Should be meetin' my Uncle Regal in Pittsburgh. He's comin' on to meet me."

  I was lyin in my teeth, but I was wishful they would think I was expected somewhere and if I didn't show up folks would be makin' inquiries.

  "Finian Chantry, he's an old friend of my grandpa, he sent word to Regal to meet me. Didn't like me travelin' alone."

  I kept on runnin' off at the mouth, afraid trouble would start when I stopped. Also, I was hopeful of worrying them some. If they thought there'd be folks lookin' for me or tryin' to find what had become of me, they might hesitate to do whatever they'd had in mind.

  "Regal, he's one of the greatest trackers and Injun fighters in Tennessee. He wanted to come with me, but couldn't get away in time. Be good to see him again."

  I drew a breath, but before anybody could speak, I said, "My stars! That bacon sure does smell good!"

  "Give her some bacon and bread." The broad-shouldered man took off his hard gray hat and put it on a stand nearby. He had a thick neck and one crinkly ear, and somebody, sometime, had broken his nose.

  "Thank you, sir." I sat down and primly smoothed my dress. "I didn't catch your name, sir?"

  "Timothy Oats," he said grudgingly, "an' that there is Elmer."

  "We met." Elmer put a plate of food before me, his eyes leering. "We met before."

  "Oh? Oh, yes! You're that nice young man from Mr. White's office! Somehow I thought you were a city man. I didn't expect to find you away out in the country like this."

  "Gimme some of that coffee," Oats said.

  Did they know I was chasing them? Had they seen me run around the corner after them? I had to chance it.

  "I left the stage in Ghambersburg," I said. "It was too rough. The ride, I mean. I left my things on the stage, but I hired a horse. It's easier riding, and I thought I'd stop and see some friends."

  "Friends? You said you was from Tennessee," Elmer protested.