Chapter Twenty-One
Dugan caught himself before he fell out of the saddle. He hadn’t slept in days and was so tired his eyes had drifted shut as he rode back to Baker City late Wednesday morning.
With Tully leading the charge, they’d captured all of the Allen gang except the leader. Much to Dugan’s dismay, Hugh Allen had gotten away in the wee hours of the morning when they’d finally tracked him and the remaining members of his gang to an abandoned cabin several miles north of town.
Dugan was fairly certain at least one of his shots had hit the mark when he’d opened fire on Hugh, but the outlaw was as hard to hang onto as a greased pig. One minute Hugh had been running out the back of the cabin and the next he’d disappeared into the woods on horseback.
Tully and Dugan had trailed him for hours while the posse hauled the criminals back to town. After riding out Sunday morning and chasing the gang over hill and dale then back again, they’d arrested six gang members and fatally shot two during a violent exchange of gunfire Tuesday evening. The outlaws had left a trail of bodies in their wake, shooting anyone who got in their way.
The gang members were worse for wear, but the same could be said for several members of the posse. One of the deputies who occasionally filled in for Seth and Dugan had taken a bullet to his side Sunday afternoon. Dugan had worried he’d bleed out before they staunched the flow. Two men had helped the deputy to town to see the doctor then rejoined the posse on Monday.
This morning, Dugan was certain they’d finally arrest Hugh. Then he’d crawled out a window and escaped while he and Tully gave chase. They finally lost his tracks on a rocky slope about five miles from town.
They hadn’t slept, barely ate, and were weary beyond endurance after days in the saddle. That’s why, when it became clear they’d lost Hugh yet again, Tully decided they needed a few hours of rest.
They rode toward Baker City, catching up to the posse a half-mile from town. Lulled to sleep by the steady clip-clop of the horses’ hooves, Dugan awakened as he tilted left out of the saddle. He pulled himself upright and shook his head to clear the cobwebs from his mind.
Tully thumped him on the back then removed his watch from his pocket and looked at the time. “Go home, get an hour of sleep, eat a decent meal, and be back at my office by noon.” Tully tucked the watch into his vest pocket.
“Are you sure you don’t need help locking up the prisoners?” Dugan asked, glancing back at the ragtag men behind him.
“I’m sure. You didn’t exactly have a restful evening Saturday. I at least had a good night’s sleep before we had to leave,” Tully said. “Go on. I’ll see you at noon.”
Dugan peeled away from the group and rode to his house. Bleary eyed, he shucked off his filthy clothes. Although his bed and sleep beckoned, he took a bath in the spring that ran through the pasture. The water was icy cold and awakened him more than half a dozen cups of strong coffee might have done. When he was clean, he dressed and saddled Button, giving Barton a rest, then headed into town. He stopped by the mercantile long enough to purchase a few supplies, popped a piece of birch chewing gum in his mouth, and headed straight for Delilah’s house.
He’d meant to apologize to her Sunday, but didn’t get the chance. Before he and Tully headed back out, he needed to speak to her, to let her know why he’d behaved as though he’d been born on the backside of a barn without a speck of manners.
He swung off Button and left her by the front gate then rushed down the walk and up the porch steps. After knocking twice and not hearing any sound from inside the house, he made his way around to the side gate of the backyard. It stood ajar and dozens of footprints dotted the rapidly drying mud. Dugan recalled Delilah was planning to entertain Sammy and Nate Palmer’s classes today, which explained all the tiny footprints. But on top of those was the unmistakable print of a star pressed into the mud.
How had Hugh Allen beaten the posse to town and what was he doing at Delilah’s place? Had he arrived when the children were there? Had he taken hostages?
Dugan drew his pistol and moved cautiously into the yard, looking around to make sure no one waited to shoot him. Birds chirped in the trees and from their houses around the yard. The cheerful birdsong offered a good sign danger didn’t lurk in the yard.
Quietly creeping up the porch steps, he couldn’t help but grin at the child’s chair Delilah had purchased for Oliver. The raccoon loved curling up on it and sleeping in the afternoon sunshine. It seemed a shame to provide such a finely crafted piece of furniture for a wild animal, but it made Delilah happy and Dugan certainly wasn’t of a mind to argue with her.
He’d learned the woman made far more money than he did with the articles and sketches she submitted to newspapers and magazines back east. In fact, Delilah had no need for a man in her life because she could easily provide for herself. He just hoped she’d want to open her life and her heart to him. At least consider the possibility after he spent an hour or two begging for her forgiveness once this mess with Hugh Allen and his gang was behind them.
Dugan tapped on the back door and waited, but still no one answered. He opened the door and stepped inside the kitchen, finding an empty punch bowl and a tray with a handful of cookies on the counter. No sign of a struggle. No hint of where Delilah had gone. He grabbed a handful of cookies as he raced out the door.
Desperate to find Delilah, he wasn’t willing to squander a minute that could mean the difference between life and death. He ran outside and swung onto Button then followed Hugh’s tracks.
They led, to Dugan’s surprise, south of town. He couldn’t imagine why the outlaw was on foot, but it was apparent he was walking with someone. Not just anyone, either. Not a single doubt existed in Dugan’s mind that the man had abducted Delilah.
Overhead, storm clouds gathered. The air began to feel heavy and humid. All he needed was to be out in the sagebrush-covered hills without any place to take shelter when lightning struck.
For a moment, Dugan debated riding to the sheriff’s office and rounding up help. However, the time it would take was time he couldn’t afford to lose when it came to saving the woman he loved. With a deep and unwavering sense of urgency, he clucked to Button and hurried onward, riding along the river and keeping an eye open for Delilah.
He neared a bend in the river where an outcropping of craggy rock hid what waited on the other side. Quietly, he dismounted and edged around the rock until he could see a man beneath a tree, appearing to rest, while Delilah sat on a nearby rock.
She looked like a vision from an exquisite painting in an ivory-toned dress bedecked with purple roses while lace dripped from the sleeves. Her hair was still neatly pinned up, so he assumed Hugh hadn’t handled her roughly. At least not yet.
Dugan considered his options and decided to sneak up behind the outlaw. He mounted Button, urged her up an incline to the road and kept the horse to a sedate walk so he wouldn’t stir up any dust. A hundred yards past the tree, he left Button eating grass by the river bank, and made his way toward Delilah on silent feet.
He’d nearly reached the tree when he almost stepped on a rattlesnake. Startled, he sidestepped on a twig that snapped so loudly, it sounded like a blast of dynamite in the stillness of the afternoon.
The man beneath the tree shot to his feet and grabbed Delilah, pointing a gun to her head as he turned around and faced Dugan.
“Howdy, son,” Hugh Allen said with a contemptible sneer.
“I’m not your son. Reptiles like you hatch eggs, not humans, don’t they?” Dugan taunted, taking in the ashen pallor of Hugh’s skin and the way his hand shook as he held the gun. Mercy, what if he accidently set it off and killed Delilah? Dugan would die. He would surely die if anything happened to her.
“Let the girl go, Allen. It’s over.” Dugan took a step closer.
Hugh glared at him, tightening the hold he had on Delilah, making her wince. “It ain’t over until I say it is. Toss down yer weapons, deputy, and prepare to meet yer maker. I’m gonna kill the girl and let ya watch, then I’ll take care of ya. And when ya reach the other side, be sure ya give yer father my regards.”
Caught off guard by the man’s words, Dugan lowered his pistol. “My father. What’s he got to do with any of this?”
“Yer pa is the reason for all of this,” the man said, waving his gun in the air before returning it to Delilah’s temple.
Dugan could see the fear in her eyes, but he saw something else there, too. Love for him. Trust that he’d protect her. Hope they wouldn’t die.
He’d be a pink-eared polecat before he let her down.
“How do you know my pa?” Dugan asked, slowly edging closer. Something moved in the tree above Hugh. Dugan caught a glimpse of a raccoon making its way through the branches. It couldn’t be Oliver, could it? Keeping his face expressionless, Dugan continued moving forward.
“As a matter of fact, Deputy Durfey, yer pa and I used to be in the same gang.”
“What? My pa wouldn’t ever join a low-life scum-sucker like you.” Dugan frowned at the man. Something about him did seem alarmingly familiar, though.
Hugh scoffed. “Pretty words like that will just kill her faster, son.”
“So you claim you and my pa were in a gang together. That’s impossible. He and my mother left Texas the day they wed and came here to Baker City. He was only nineteen then.” Dugan tried not to look up in the tree as the raccoon drew ever closer to Hugh. He almost hoped the animal was rabid.
“I know when they left, Dugan, because yer pa lit a shuck out of town and left me to rot in jail.” Hugh waved his gun toward him. “Yer saying ya don’t have any idea who I am?”
“None,” Dugan said, trying to decide whether he should shoot Hugh or the raccoon first. If the animal startled the outlaw, there was a chance Hugh would shoot Delilah by accident.
“Let me lay it out plain and simple for ya, then. Yer pa was my little brother. My name’s Bill Durfey, my real name.”
Hugh grinned with satisfaction when Dugan sucked in a gasp and glared at him.
Suddenly, he could see why Hugh Allen looked familiar. The man’s eyes were the same color and shape as his father’s, as Dugan’s, and they shared the same stubborn jawline. “My pa never mentioned a brother. He never talked much about Texas. I remember he once said his life began the day he wed my mother.”
“Sentimental claptrap,” Hugh said, spitting on the ground. “If yer mother wasn’t already cold in the grave, I’d take great pleasure in putting her there. I had a gang back then, six of us, even if I had to force David to do it. Then he had to go and fall for Marie, a preacher’s daughter. She was a looker, but I never could see why he’d give up on us to marry her. The day before they wed, David went to the sheriff. In exchange for havin’ his name cleared, he told them where to find the gang and every crime we’d committed. We all went to prison, but I escaped a few years ago and changed my name. By the time I made it out here, I’d already learned yer pa and ma were both dead. Good thing, too, ’cause I woulda killed them and enjoyed every minute of makin’ them both suffer.”
Hugh looked at Delilah and stroked the hand holding the gun over the curve of her cheek. “Now I get to kill ya and yer girl. That’ll be nearly as good, but not quite as satisfying.”
Dugan started to raise his gun, but the raccoon took it upon himself to become Delilah’s champion. The beast launched out of the tree and landed on Hugh’s head, startling him so badly he dropped his gun.
Delilah snatched it up and scrambled away, watching in open-mouthed astonishment as the raccoon latched onto a spot of tender flesh just above Hugh’s collar bone and bit for all he was worth. Hugh’s screams rent the air only seconds before a lightning bolt flashed across the sky and thunder boomed overhead.
Dugan gave Delilah a worried glance as she rushed to him. Rather than take her in his arms as he longed to do, he pushed her behind him. Together, they watched the raccoon terrorize the outlaw.
“Should we do something?” Delilah asked, staring in shock as the furious animal clawed and snarled, sending pieces of cloth flying as Hugh dropped to his knees, still screeching in pain.
“Is that Oliver?” Dugan asked, never taking his eye off Hugh as the man curled into a ball, trying to protect his face from the raccoon.
“I thought perhaps it might be,” Delilah said, her tone slightly dazed.
Dugan glanced back at her. “Call to him and see if he comes to you.”
Delilah stepped beside Dugan and handed him the gun she still held. “Ollie, come here, sweetheart. Be a good boy and come over here.” She bent forward and held out her hands, as she would to a toddling child.
The raccoon ceased his attack and looked her way. Fangs remained bared, but he didn’t seem quite as furious.
“Come on, Oliver. Come over here with me and Dugan.” Delilah patted her hands on her thighs and smiled.
The raccoon gave himself a shake, snarled one more time at Hugh, then scurried over to Delilah. He chattered excitedly, as though he wanted to tell her all about his adventures as she picked him up and cuddled him.
When Oliver nestled up against her, Dugan could have sworn the little devil grinned at him. While Hugh was still writhing on the ground, Dugan slapped handcuffs on him then returned to Delilah’s side.
“This isn’t the time or place, but I love you Delilah Robbins. If anything had happened to you today, they’d have to dig two graves instead of one because I can’t live without you.” He slipped one hand around her waist and took Oliver with the other. Dugan tugged Delilah against him and crushed his mouth to hers, releasing all the pent up longing and love, anxiety and dreams that had plagued him since the day he’d first seen her sitting on the porch at the cottage in a rickety chair.
Her arms slid up his shoulders and around his neck, drawing nearer as he continued to kiss her with enough passion to set the desert ablaze from there to the Jordan Ranch. Lightning exploded across the darkening sky behind them and Dugan felt like every nerve ending in his body had been fired with energy.
He had no idea how long they might have continued, but Oliver interrupted them. The raccoon made a disgruntled noise and swatted at the chain across Dugan’s vest that kept the little bandit from stealing his watch.
Delilah pulled back and smiled at Oliver. “Now that you’ve learned how to serve as an attack animal, I think we should train you to not steal things, Ollie.” She pressed one more quick kiss to Dugan’s lips then took the raccoon.
Dugan reached down and hauled his uncle to his feet. Despite Hugh’s faltering steps, Dugan kept him moving forward. They’d just made it out to the road when Tully, Seth, and the posse hustled toward them.
“Well, I’ll be a hornswoggled galoot!” Tully grinned as he swung off his horse before it came to a full stop and swatted Dugan on the back. “I thought I told you to go home and rest. Instead you went and caught ol’ Hugh by yourself.”
“His real name is Bill Durfey, or so he claims.” Dugan tipped his head toward Delilah. “Actually, Oliver was the one who captured him.”
Incredulous, the sheriff’s gaze went from Delilah and the raccoon back to Dugan. “How about you tell me the whole story on the way to the jail?”
The outlaw pushed against the iron grip Dugan had on his arm. “Quit yer jawin’ and take me to the doctor. If that beast has rabies, I don’t want to die foamin’ at the mouth.”
“Oliver is not…” Delilah started to speak, but snapped her mouth shut when Dugan gave her a sly look then winked at her and Tully where his uncle couldn’t see. She gave him an almost imperceptible nod. “Oliver is not immune to rabies. It’s quite a concerning issue. With the way he attacked you, I can only assume he’s quite possibly contracted the disease.”
Hugh’s eyes widened, but then he glared at Delilah. “Why are ya holdin’ him, you daft girl?”
“He knows me. From what I’ve observed, the disease must be in the advanced stages before they turn on their caregivers.”
“It really doesn’t matter, Hugh, because I’ve half a mind to leave you staked to a tree and let the cougars and bears at you if the lightning doesn’t strike us all first.” Dugan moved closer to Delilah as another streak of light pierced the sky and thunder cracked overhead.
“Land o’Goshen, let’s ride like the dickens and get back to town before we’re all fried as black and crispy as my wife’s bacon,” Tully said, making Seth and Dugan grin.
Seth took charge of Hugh and tied him to the back of his horse.
Dugan swung onto Button then pulled Delilah up to sit across his lap. She gave him a reproving look, but snuggled right up to him with Oliver in her arms.
“This is highly improper, Deputy Durfey.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, grinning at her and planting a kiss on her upturned nose.
“I suppose the only thing to do is make an honest woman of me.”
Dugan tugged Button to a stop, heedless to the storm raging around them or the men laughing and whistling as he took her face in his hands and kissed her again. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying, Dilly?”
She grinned up at him. “You’ll figure it out by the time we get to town.”
“It won’t take me nearly that long, darlin’. I had a fancy dinner in your garden with moonlight and maybe some candles glowing in mind to ask this question, but will you marry me, Delilah Robbins. I love you so much and would do anything to prove it to you.”
“You don’t have to prove anything, Dugan. I know you love me, almost as much as I love you.” She wrapped the arm not holding the raccoon tightly around Dugan’s waist and gave him a squeeze. “I accept your proposal, although that dinner in the garden does sound lovely.”
“Give me a day or two to recover from all this falderol and I’ll make it happen.”
“I’m holding you to that,” she said, kissing his cheek, then resting her head against his chest as he hurried to catch up to the rest of the men.
As they rode back to Baker City, Delilah relayed everything Hugh had said up to the moment Dugan arrived on the scene. Dugan wrapped his duster around her and Oliver when it started to rain.
“Where did you bury Eugene Sutler?” Tully asked, grabbing Hugh by the hair and holding up his head as they continued to ride to town.
“Ya ain’t never gonna find that body.”
Hugh attempted to spit at Tully, but Seth reached back and pinched the spot on his neck Oliver had bitten, making the man howl with pain.
Tully offered the outlaw a menacing smile. “Let’s try again. Where did you bury Sutler?”
“I didn’t bury him. Just left him in an abandoned mine about three miles from ol’ Clive Fisher’s place.”
“Did Elmer Muldoon belong to your gang?” Dugan asked
Hugh jeered at him. “Can’t rightly recollect.”
Tully looked over at Delilah. “Think I could borrow your vicious pet for a few minutes, Miss Robbins?”
Hugh shot Tully a wary glance then sighed. “Fine, I’ll talk. Elmer was only a step smarter than dirt half the time. He was drunk one night after we robbed a place in Idaho and got hisself bit by a coon. By the time we got to Baker City, the dunce was clear outta his mind.”
“It was a nasty way to die, Hugh,” Seth said, shaking his head. “Too bad you’re gonna suffer the same fate. Do you think we should leave him in the same cell poor old Elmer was in when he passed on to glory?”
Hugh appeared panic-stricken as he looked from the sheriff to the deputy. “Ya wouldn’t dare do that, Deputy. Yer bound by the law to provide medical care for me.”
“Oh, we’ll make sure you receive everything you deserve, Hugh.” Tully laughed and released his hold on the man then rode ahead.
Dugan broke apart from the group when they reached town and took Delilah home. He helped her off Button then swung off the horse as the rain began falling harder. Together, they raced inside the gate to the yard and onto the back porch. Delilah set Oliver in his chair then turned and wrapped both arms around Dugan, hugging him tightly.
“Thank you for coming to my rescue.”
He grinned and held her close, breathing in her fragrance, basking in her love. “I’m not so sure Oliver didn’t have it all handled, but I’m glad I found you when I did.” He leaned back and gave her a long glance. “I’m sorry, Delilah. For acting like an idiot and causing a scene at the dance. I’m sorry I didn’t…”
She silenced him with a finger over his mouth. “I know, Dugan. I know. Go do what you need to do, get some rest, and then we’ll talk.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He kissed her again, gave Oliver a pat on the head, then ran out into the rain. He stopped at the gate and looked at her. “I love you, delightful, darling, daring Dilly of mine!”
She laughed and blew him a kiss. “I love you, too!”