Remy might be able to match them, but that wasn’t good enough. If it came down to a fight, he and his friends would probably die.
Some of the others would die, too, but more than likely one or two of them would survive. Those survivors would be very rich men.
The ones who didn’t make it would be dead, and that worry lurked in Wiley Potter’s eyes. Potter didn’t want to risk his own life to make somebody else rich.
That realization was confirmed a second later when Potter burst out, “Ah, the hell with it!”
“Wait a minute, Wiley,” Stratton protested. “What do you mean?”
“I mean I don’t feel like dyin’ over this,” Potter declared.
Casey looked stricken. “The Confederacy don’t need that gold,” he said with a whining note in his voice. “It oughta be ours!”
“A man can always get rich if he’s smart enough,” Potter responded. “But not if he’s dead!”
Luke didn’t relax and let his guard down. He didn’t trust Potter, not for a second. It could be some sort of trick. “You’ll go on to Copperhead Mountain with us?”
“I didn’t say that,” Potter replied. “Look, we’ve fought Yankees over and over again on the way down here. They’re probably lookin’ for us right now. Our luck’s bound to run out sooner or later. I’ve had enough of this war, Jensen. I’m riding away. The rest of you do whatever you damned well please.”
“In other words, you’re deserting,” Luke said in a hard voice.
Potter surprised him by laughing. “You think I care what you call it? You can’t betray a country that doesn’t exist, and you can’t desert from an army that’s probably surrendered by now. All I know is I’m done with it.”
“Me, too,” Stratton said.
“And me,” Richards added.
Casey still looked like he wanted to shoot somebody, but he gave a grudging nod. “Yeah, I’ll go along with the others. I reckon bein’ alive is the best thing.”
“So, Jensen,” Potter said. “Is it settled . . . or is it going to be a fight?”
Luke glanced at his companions. Remy shrugged a little. Edgar gave him a tiny nod. Dale just looked like he was in pain from that wounded shoulder.
“Go ahead and get out of here, if that’s what you want to do.” Luke didn’t bother trying to keep the scorn out of his voice.
“We’re taking the horses.”
“Go ahead. We’ve got the colonel’s horse. Remy can ride it. I’ll handle one wagon and Edgar the other.”
Potter smirked. “Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out. You’ll be a real hero when you get to Copperhead Mountain with that gold. That is, until the Yankees take it away from you and you see what a waste it all was.”
“I’ll know that I followed orders, anyway.”
“Yeah, that’ll buy you a lot.” Potter jerked his head at his allies. “Come on. I want to put some distance behind us before any more blue bellies can catch up to us.”
“Wiley, are you sure about this?” Stratton asked.
“I’m sure. We’ll have other big chances later on. Stick with me, boys, and we’ll all be rich sooner or later.”
The others still didn’t look happy about it, but they followed Potter’s lead and mounted up. Potter took a small bag of supplies from one of the wagons and held it up to Luke, raising his eyebrows. Luke nodded for him to take it.
The four men didn’t follow the path back toward the road. They struck out across country, soon vanishing in the thick woods.
“Deserters,” Edgar said in disgust. “Lousy deserters.”
“Maybe worse than that,” Remy said. “You don’t trust them, do you, Luke?”
“Not one bit. We’ll keep our eyes open in case they double back and make a try for the gold.”
“So now we have to worry about the Yankees
Luke shook his head. “Hardly ever.”
They buried Colonel Lancaster’s body in the woods and stayed hidden in the little clearing all night. Several times Luke heard a lot of hoofbeats in the distance and thought it was likely the Yankees were hunting for them. None of the searchers came close to the wagons, though. Luke wondered if that was because they really hadn’t gone very far from the site of the battle with the cavalrymen. The Yankees might have expected them to head on south as quickly as possible.
Nor was there any sign of Potter, Richards, Stratton, and Casey. Luke hoped the four men really had lit a shuck for the frontier. It would certainly make things easier.
By morning, Dale had developed a fever and lay stretched out under one of the wagons.
Luke looked at him, then at the others. “If we move him, we take a chance on him getting worse.”
“We could stay here another day,” Remy suggested. “Give the Yankees that much more time to get tired of lookin’ for us.”
That sounded like a pretty good idea to Luke. They continued lying low and took turns wiping Dale’s face with a wet cloth to keep him cool as he tossed and muttered. It was all they could do for him.
The fever broke the next night. Dale was still weak, but a lot more coherent the morning after that. As he sipped a little broth Edgar had made from the salt pork, he said, “We gotta get movin’ again. That gold needs to get to the new capital.”
Luke had his doubts whether that new capital even existed, but on the chance that it did, they had to continue their mission. He nodded. “We’ll hitch up the teams.”
Dale was able to sit up and ride on the seat of the lead wagon next to Luke. Edgar handled the other wagon while Remy rode ahead to scout their route. He came back to report that the trail was clear.
“Lots of tracks, though, and they’re pretty recent,” Remy said. “There are still plenty of Yankees in these parts. Might be better if we started travelin’ at night again.”
“That won’t be easy since we don’t know exactly how to get where we’re going,” Luke said. “We’ve got the colonel’s map, though. Maybe we can figure it out.”
Late that afternoon, they had to leave the road hurriedly to avoid a cavalry patrol. Luke and Edgar managed to pull the wagons behind a hill before the blue-clad troopers rode past, but it was close.
“You’re right,” Luke told Remy. “We’ll travel at night the rest of the way, starting tonight. We’ll stay here and let the horses rest for a few hours, then try to put a few more miles behind us.”
They made a cold supper from rations that had dwindled to almost nothing. For days, they had gotten by on about half the food they really needed. Luke’s belly felt empty all the time. The trek wouldn’t last much longer, he told himself, and then things would be better.
Remy did a little more scouting while it was still light and returned to tell the others, “There’s a river about a mile from here. It’s shallow, and there’s a good ford. We shouldn’t have any trouble gettin’ across.”
“And we can fill up our water barrels and canteens while we’re at it,” Edgar said.
That sounded like a good plan to Luke. When they had rested for a while and it was good and dark, they started the wagons rolling south again.
The moon hadn’t risen yet when they reached the river, but Luke saw stars reflected in its placid surface. Remy rode out in front of the wagons so the others could see how deep the water was. Luke figured it was only about a foot.
“The bottom’s good and solid,” Remy said. “The only problem is that the bank on the other side is a little steep. It’ll be a hard haul for the teams gettin’ all that weight up to the top. But I reckon they can do it.”
“All right, let’s go.” Luke slapped the reins against the backs of his team. The big draft horses leaned into their harness. Water splashed around the wheels as the wagon began fording the river.
Luke made the crossing without any problem and started up the grade on the far side as Edgar’s wagon rolled out of the water behind him. Remy sat his horse to one side.
Suddenly, what felt like a sledgehammer slammed into Luke, low down on his back. He cried out in agony as the impact drove him forward. Dropping the reins, he slumped over and almost pitched off the seat to land under the hooves of the team. At the last moment he twisted his body and fell to the side, landing with stunning force
