CHAPTER
28

Utah held up his hand. Adam halted.

The kid was the perfect partner in this search. They were almost reading each other’s minds, communicating in utter silence.

They were on foot, leading their horses. It felt as if they were crawling along while fear for Deb ate a hole in Utah’s belly and drove him to hurry. But he fought down the urge. If he’d been hurrying, he’d have missed the turnoff and followed the false trail.

He turned from the obvious direction and followed well-hidden tracks. Well hidden, but not quite enough.

Picking out each step for as much as a hundred yards in the dark, twisting forest, finally he saw it. Utah smiled and held up a hand again. He tied his horse to a tree and stepped close enough to Adam so they could speak. Utah’s voice was quiet as a breath of wind.

“He quit hiding his tracks. Movin’ fast. Thinks he’s fooled us, lost us. I’m bettin’ he’s close to his camp. Leave the horse.”

A nod of agreement and Adam tied off his horse, then pulled his rifle from the scabbard on his saddle.

Utah moved slowly and quietly, gun in his holster, rifle strapped on his back. The search was over.

“She’s gone!” Raddo thrashed to his feet.

Deb heard every step as he charged out from the overhang. One man laughed; both were right behind him.

“Love chasin’ down a woman.” Meeks was the lowest of them all in Deb’s judgment. And that made him mighty low.

Deb breathed slowly through her mouth. They’d have to hear her heart beating if listening was how they found her.

“Split up!” Raddo’s shout sent the men running away. While he came directly toward her. Not trying, not for a second, to cover the noise. He was so confident he could find her, he wouldn’t even sneak.

As he drew near, she fought down the urge to break from her scant cover and run. She had watched Trace move through the woods with such assurance, and she realized that was exactly what Raddo wanted—to flush her out. That’s why he was so noisy. He couldn’t find her. She knew it. The place she’d chosen to secrete herself was so tiny, the merest bow in the heart of the tree roots.

If she could just stay still. She filled her mind with prayers for protection and courage, calm and wisdom. She couldn’t fight these men and win. And she couldn’t outrun them. Common sense kept her from considering either.

Raddo drew nearer. He wasn’t walking on the logs; instead he stomped along, hollering, jeering. The path he was on, as far as Deb could tell by listening, was going to take him right past the mouth of this little concave in the tree roots.

Closer—yelling things so vile if she didn’t show herself, that she was tempted to surrender in the hopes of avoiding his fiendish plans.

Closer—a step at a time. She could hear him muttering, trampling along with no more grace than a buffalo. Shouting her name. Shouting his threats.

Closer still. Now he was right in front of her. He stopped. She could have reached out and tugged on his pant leg. Except then she’d have to boil her fingers to get the awful feeling off her hand.

“Have you seen her?” He shouted loud enough to shake snow down out of the trees.

One of his men shouted back. He was too close for too long. He’d see her or hear her or just plain sense that she was close.

Finally, one step, then another, and he walked past. That was no reason to move, but she felt like she should. The other men were in hearing distance, though moving away from her. They’d gone three directions. Surely if she went the fourth . . .

Utah heard a shout far to his right. Too far away to make out the words. Then came a return shout, about the same distance to his left. He turned to Adam and pointed left. Adam nodded quickly, and Utah realized he could see. The pitch-black night had turned to deep gray.

Darkness covered so much. Utah had hoped to get very close in secret. Now they were running out of time.

Adam vanished into the woods one way while Utah started another, then heard a twig snap only feet from him. Utah froze. There wasn’t another sound. He drew his gun, braced himself, and held his breath.

Wolf had barked a few times and growled more. But now he’d gone silent, slowed down, and put his nose to the ground. Trace knew right where he was: a long way from home in a place that had nothing to do with a wagon train.

Maybe the outlaw gang was holding back. Maybe they’d done their scouting and judged when the train would come, and for now they were holed up. But they hadn’t counted on Wolf.

Trace found a heavy copse of trees, dismounted, and tied Black to them. Everything was on foot from now on. He slipped along, fast and silent as a ghost. He’d done plenty of it before.

Wolf waited, then went on, then waited again. No one in this fight had the advantages of a critter like Trace had. Black would’ve been good too, but the horse had no sense about stepping on twigs.

He moved on, his eyes alert in all directions. Keeping Wolf within sight.

Then he heard something, so little, the sound maybe of cloth rubbing on bark. Freezing, he looked around and saw nothing. But something, or someone, was definitely there.

This time she was doing it. She was running. It was time to get away from here.

Deb gathered herself to jump out of the jumble of roots and run the fourth way, the direction none of the men had gone.

And leave footprints with every step.

That stopped her cold.

Grimly afraid she should have gone, she yelled inside her head for being a coward. Yes, her hiding place was good, but she realized that the dark was turning to dawn. And her hiding place was only as good as the dark.

A gunshot fired in the woods. Someone shrieked, but Deb couldn’t tell who. Her guess was Meeks. Another gunshot, this one sounding different from the first, fired over and over. It came from right where she’d heard the cry of what sounded like pain. But Meeks was a foul man. If that had been him crying out, it could have been with animal savagery. Because he’d shot someone.

Briefly she hoped it was one of his own men. Out there in the dark, such a thing could happen.

Though God had guided her to this place of temporary safety, she was rather pessimistic that things would be solved so easily. She braced herself for Raddo to come storming back, right past her. He didn’t come.

Another shout. This one wasn’t Meeks. Was it Dalt? It sounded a distance from where the gunshots had sounded, but she couldn’t be sure in the dense woods.

Then she heard a step, very nearly silent. Raddo sneaking back. An overwhelming panic washed over her, and she couldn’t stay still. She tensed her muscles to leap up and run, when someone slapped a hand over her mouth and held her in his grip.

“Stay still.”

The panic gave way to tears.

Trace. Trace had found her. That was his footstep. Raddo hadn’t come back, or he’d headed directly to help his gang.

Seconds passed. Trace eased his hand from her mouth and then kissed her. She flung her arms around his neck and wept while she held him tight.

He’d come. She was so in love with him, and she’d tell him just as soon as she didn’t have to remain utterly silent.

“Deb, are you here?” Utah whispered.

The tears came faster. They’d all come to save her. And they’d done a fine job of it, too.

Trace ended the kiss and pressed her face against his chest. She felt surrounded and protected and supported in every way.

“I’ve got her, Utah,” Trace said quietly. “There’s a third man.”

“The boss of the gang is still around.” Deb still clung to her precious husband. “When I ran, they went in three directions. Raddo went past me.”

Utah came into view. “I’ll get after him.”

“What was the gunfire?” Trace asked.

“Adam ran into one of ’em. They both came up with a fire iron. There was no choice, and Adam won the fight. But he looked mighty sick.”

Deb thought Utah looked a little sick himself.

“I got one tied up, out cold. I didn’t have to shoot, but it was a near thing,” Utah continued. “He came up on me so quiet, and he didn’t know I was there until it was too late for him.”

Trace slipped off his coat and slung it around Deb’s shoulders before she could protest, and then with the heat of his body warming it, she couldn’t stand to give it back. Still, she tried.

“No, Trace. I was near the campfire with those men. You’ve been out in the cold all day and night.”

“I’ve got a cloak on my horse. I’ll put it on.”

“We’d better find Adam,” Utah said, “and pick up the man I caught. With one man still runnin’ loose, I don’t want Adam bushwhacked.”

They found Adam, who’d rounded up all three of the outlaws’ horses.

“Where’s the other one?” Adam asked as he threw the first outlaw over a saddle.

“He must’ve just kept going. Just abandoned his partners. He couldn’t have known how much trouble they were in.” Deb shook her head and realized the dawn was full upon them now. But the day was gray, and fat flakes began drifting down.

“That heavy snow we’ve been worried about, looks like it’s coming,” Trace said. “Unless we want an outlaw living with us all winter, we’d better head for home, drop Deb off, and get these men to Carson City.”

They set out. Found where Utah left his man tied up and loaded him up, too.

“That one they call Meeks.” Deb pointed to the dead man.

“I saw Meeks when I followed them on foot and had a run-in with that grizzly.”

“And Dalt is what I heard for the other—he’s the one who came to the cabin and kidnapped me, and he’s the one I saw at the massacre. The marshal in Ringo called him Dalton Callow.” Deb looked at the two men in disgust. “The other calls himself Raddo. He’s the boss, the one who abandoned his men.”

“His first reaction was to run like a yellow dog,” Adam said.

“Well, no surprise he’s a coward,” Trace added. “We’ve known that about all of ’em from the first. Now, let’s head back for the ranch. Gwen’ll be scared.”

“What about the wagon train, Trace?” Adam asked.

“He ain’t gonna attack it alone. They’re safe now. I’ll bet they push hard through that trail with this snow coming down. They’ll run through the night if they have to. These varmints would’ve had a hard time attacking twenty-five wagons with everyone wide awake. I’m going to get home, then haul these men to jail. Carson City is closer than Ringo. I’d like to give ’em to the marshal, but I need to turn them in and get back before the winter closes in around us. It’ll be a running trip.”

“I saw Raddo in Carson City,” Deb said. She walked close to Trace. “Remember I said that a man ran into me and was rude? That was him. So I can describe him now. When Dalt brought me to their hideout, I heard all their names and heard them threaten me and you, Trace. And they bragged about their monstrous plans for the wagon train. I can tell the sheriff all about it as a witness.”

“You’d better come along then. We’re leaving as soon as we get home. We’ll ride hard and hopefully get back late tonight.”

Trace went after Black and soon caught back up with them. Then they got to the horses Utah and Adam had left behind.

“How did you find me, Trace? Utah and Adam followed the tracks, but how did you get here?”

“Wolf led me right to this place. He was on a scent.”

“Wolf is here?” Deb hadn’t seen him.

Trace nodded. “Yep. He’ll turn up any minute.”