Into the Unknown

“What’s the meaning of this?” I demanded while complying.

Cutter appeared, leading their horses. “Listen to him, will you?” he said to Jordy. “Dumb as a stump. The airs he puts on, you’d think he had a brain between his ears.”

“Now see here,” I said angrily.

Jordy and Cutter forded the stream. Their wet moccasins squished as they came up the bank. Their expressions were as cold as ice.

It did not bode well. But I refused to show fear. Instead, I faced Jess Hook and said, “No one has answered me. What is this about? What do you hope to prove?”

“Prove?” Jess said, and snorted. “Mister, you beat all. I will make everything clear, but first you and your friend will shuck your pistols and knives. Nice and slow if you know what’s good for you.”

I obeyed promptly. Blue Water Woman did so with reluctance, earning a bark of impatience from Jordy.

Only after she had laid down her weapons did Jess Hook lower his rifle to his waist, although he continued to point it at her. “Well now. That’s better. Suppose you get a fire going, Indian. Not a big one, mind, and don’t use green wood to make a lot of smoke for your friends in the valley to see. I am wise to tricks like that.”

Without saying a word, Blue Water Woman moved toward the trees. The instant she did, Cutter was at her side, his hand on one of his knives. He leered at her, but she ignored him.

“Don’t you touch her,” Jess Hook said.

Cutter glanced sharply at him. “Who are you to say yes or no? We’re partners, ain’t we?”

“We need her in one piece, or have you forgotten why we’ve gone to all this trouble?” was Jess Hook’s rejoinder.

Frowning, Cutter swore, then said, “I still think we should have grabbed the girl and not these two. Nate King is more likely to give in if it’s the fruit of his loins.”

“She hasn’t given us the chance, has she? Or would you rather wait around a month or two in the hope she waltzes into our arms?”

“I was only saying,” Cutter said. Then the forest closed around him and Blue Water Woman.

I looked at Jordy Hook, who snickered.

“You’ve stepped in it now, painter man. You should’ve stayed back East where the sheep don’t have to worry about wolves.”

Jess Hook stepped to the log Blue Water Woman had been sitting on and beckoned to me. “Get over here and plant yourself, mister. You and me need to have words.”

I did not like having rifles pointed at me, nor the implied threats of violence. “You can’t treat us like this,” I protested. “It isn’t right.”

“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” Jess snapped as I sat on the log.

“Have you no scruples?” I asked.

Jess glanced at Jordy and both brothers laughed. Then Jess placed a foot on the end of the log and leaned an elbow on his leg.

“Mister, I’ll let you in on a secret. All that stuff about right and wrong, scruples as you call them, is a bunch of hogwash. It is how those who have the money and make the laws keep the rest of us in line. But you know what?” Jess leaned toward me. “It’s just words. They don’t mean anything. There is no right or wrong. There are no scruples. We can do as we want, and the rest of the world be damned.”

“There are higher laws than man’s,” I said stiffly.

“Meaning the Bible?” Again the brothers swapped amused glances. “When I was little I believed in it. My folks sent me to Sunday school, and my pa read from it every evening when we set down to supper. I heard how God punishes those who do evil and rewards those who do right. But you know what?”

I rose to the bait. “What?”

“It just ain’t so. The first time I killed I man, I looked up at the sky expecting a thunderbolt to come down out of the blue and fry me to a cinder. But nothing happened. The same with the second time and the third. I’ve killed and robbed a heap of people, and the Almighty has never lifted a finger to stop me.”

“There is no God,” Jordy Hook declared. “No devil, neither. No heaven and no hell.”

“Fairy tales,” Jess said. “We’re born and we live a spell and we die. That’s it.”

Jordy nodded. “So we might as well help ourselves to whatever strikes our fancy along the way.”

Deeply troubled, I responded with, “You’re wrong, both of you. There is more to life than nothingness. Laws are not passed merely to control people, but so that everyone is treated fairly and with justice. As for the Bible, even if you deny it is divinely inspired, there is no denying the wisdom it contains.”

“And the Almighty?” Jess mocked me. “I suppose you think there is a God up there somewhere who gives a hoot about us?”

“I am a man of science, not religion,” I replied. “I do not claim to have all the answers. But when I see the beauty of a rose, or a butterfly’s wing, and think of life in all its many forms and guises and how everything relates one to the other, yes, I believe there is something out there that is greater than us, and above us and in us and in all things. Call it God. Call it whatever you like. But it is there.”

“It can’t be much of anything if it lets us kill and get away with it,” Jess Hook said.

“I told you I don’t have all the answers,” I said. “But this I do know: whether by God’s hand or man’s, you will be served your comeuppance for your foul deeds.”

The Hook brothers erupted into near hysterics. Jordy bent over and slapped his leg. I failed to appreciate the comedy and told them so.

“You are a caution, painter man,” Jordy said between guffaws. “We’ve met a lot of folks like you. Simpletons who reckon the world is like that rose you mentioned, when it’s really a patch of thorns.”

Jess Hook nodded. “Even if you’re right, God’s laws don’t matter. Man’s laws don’t matter. The only law that does is this.” He patted his rifle. “Take what we want, when we want.”

When you hear someone talk like that, you think they can’t be serious, that no one could be so evil, so despicable. But they were sincere, this pair of bloodthirsty brothers.

“What is it you want?” I asked as Blue Water Woman came out of the trees carrying firewood.

“I would like to know the same thing,” she said.

Cutter, who was a few feet behind her, growled, “Shut up and start the fire. We will say when you can talk.”

“Now, now,” Jess Hook said. “She has a right to know. After all, whether she lives or dies depends on how it works out.”

“What are you talking about?” I yearned to jump up and smash him in the face with my fist, but he and his brother wisely stood far enough back that I could not reach them before I was shot.

“We want their gold,” Jess said.

Blue Water Woman was hunkering to deposit the firewood. “That again,” she said. “You have gone to a lot of trouble for nothing. There is no gold and never was.”

Cutter drew his knife partway and took a menacing step toward her. “Don’t lie to us, squaw. We heard about the gold nugget your husband flashed at Bent’s Fort.”

“And where there’s one nugget there are more,” Jess Hook said. He practically glowed with greed. “We want to know where.”

“I speak with a straight tongue when I say there never was more than the one nugget my husband had.”

“You are lying to save your skin,” Jordy Hook said. “We’ve heard all the stories about the strike you and the Kings made.”

“If we had gold, don’t you think we would have used more of it than one nugget?” Blue Water Woman responded.

Without any hint of what he was about to do, Jordy shoved her so hard she fell onto her hands and knees. I started to rise to go to her when Jess Hook took a quick step and rammed the barrel of his rifle into my gut. The pain was terrible. I doubled over, my teeth grit, and could not help but groan.

“Stay right where you are, fancy pants.”

I managed to croak, “You will pay for this!” Then I sucked air into my lungs, struggling to compose myself.

“You better keep one thing in mind, mister. Because make no mistake. My brother or me or Cutter will kill you