“We have five minutes, Robert. Less, perhaps.”
I ran. I chose a spruce near the bluff. Removing my jacket, I roved in search of downed limbs. The first branch I found had been on the ground so long it fell apart when I picked it up. The next branch was too thin. The third was too short. The fourth did not have leaves or offshoots. At last I found one that was suitable.
There were problems. How was I to replicate my head, for instance? Or my legs? Stripping off my jacket, I draped it around the leafy half of the branch. Then I jabbed the jagged end into the ground. It penetrated, but not deep enough for the limb to stay upright on its own. I jabbed and poked some more, but the ground was too hard. My only recourse was to lean the branch against the tree. I contrived to place it so that one shoulder, part of the front, and a sleeve were visible. I tucked the end of the sleeve into a pocket and stepped back.
At a quick glance, it would pass for someone standing behind the spruce.
“I see them, Robert!”
Blue Water Woman had flattened. She motioned for me to seek cover and then slid back out of sight.
Darting behind a pine a few feet away, I dropped onto my stomach. Every nerve tingled. I was scared, terribly scared, yet at the same time I was excited. Silly, I know. But that was how I felt.
Only then did it occur to me that I did not have a weapon. I glanced around and saw a rock about the size of a small melon. I hefted it. It was heavy, but I could throw it if I had to.
A faint drumming heralded their approach.
I sucked in a deep breath and pressed against the earth. My heart pounded and there was a roaring in my ears. Then the roaring faded, and I could hear the horses clearly. They were coming on fast.
The irony did not escape me. Here I was, a man of peaceful pursuits, about to engage in violence.
How do things like this happen? How can it be that we go through life minding our own business, wanting only to live as we please without hindrance, yet find ourselves at risk through no fault of our own? I am no pastor or philosopher, but it seems to me that our Maker has a cruel sense of humor.
These were the musings that ran through my mind as the hoofbeats swelled in volume, until all of a sudden the undergrowth crackled, and into the clear space below the bluff trotted Jess and Jordy Hook and their vicious friend, Cutter. They promptly drew rein.
Jordy Hook was not wearing a shirt. Bandages consisting of strips of buckskin had been crudely wrapped around the lower half of his chest. They were stained red with dry blood. He held a rifle, which he wagged excitedly. “They can’t be far! One of us should circle around in front of them so we catch them between us.”
“We stick together,” Jess Hook said. He was staring at the top of the bluff, as if he suspected something.
None of them noticed the branch with my jacket on it poking from behind the spruce.
I was in a quandary. Blue Water Woman had said I would know when the time was right to distract them. But I did not know whether to do it then or wait. If I waited too long, they would ride off. What was I to do?
“Let’s keep going,” Jordy Hook urged. “I want them, brother. I want to break their bones and cut them. I want them to suffer until they scream.”
“We should rest the horses,” Cutter suggested. “We have pushed them hard and they are tuckered out.”
“To hell with the horses!” Jordy fumed. “That squaw stabbed me! I won’t rest until I have paid her back in kind.”
“Cutter has a point,” Jess said. “We can spare five minutes.”
I gnawed on my lower lip in worry. Any second, they were bound to spot the jacket.
“I am not waiting!” Jordy bellowed. “I will stop when we catch them and not before.”
“It is stupid to ride your animal into the ground,” Cutter said.
Jordy flushed with resentment. “Since when did you give a damn about our animals or anything else?”
“Be careful,” Cutter said.
“Or what? You will turn on me? You don’t scare me, Harold. I’ve killed as many as you.”
I peeked out at them. Did he just say Cutter’s real name was
“You are acting like a ten-year-old,” Cutter said. “But then, that is nothing new. Your brother was always more mature.”
Jess Hook reined his horse between them. “Enough! This bickering ends now. We’re partners, damn it. We must work together and cover each other’s backs.”
“Tell that to your brother,” Cutter said.
Their rancor was a welcome development. I half hoped Jordy would shoot Cutter to spite him.
“When I said enough, I meant it!” Jess Hook snapped. “This squabbling is senseless.”
“All right, all right,” Cutter responded.
Jess glanced at Jordy who was so mad he was fit to fly out of his saddle at Cutter. “And what about you? Forgive and forget?”
“When hell freezes over. He called me stupid and a ten-year-old. You heard him.”
“You’ve been called worse.” Jess tiredly ran a sleeve across his brow. “We must keep our wits about us, brother. It is not deer we hunt.”
“A squaw and a puny yack,” Jordy said. “They don’t stand a chance.”
“Tell that to the knife she stuck in you.”
“You can go to hell, too,” Jordy said.
“Now you’re picking a fight with me?” Jess said. “The one person in this world who gives a damn about you?”
“I’m mad at him, not you.”
I was so intent on the two of them that I did not see Cutter gaze in the direction of the spruce. The first intimation I had that he had noticed the jacket was when he jerked his rifle up.
“Over there! Look!”
The next moment Cutter gigged his horse toward the spruce—and me.
Chapter Seventeen
I lay frozen in surprise.
Jess and Jordy raised their reins, Jordy bellowing, “Don’t you kill him! I want him to die slow!”
Cutter had snapped his rifle to his shoulder, but he did not shoot. His eyes narrowed and he exclaimed, “What the hell?”
Suddenly Blue Water Woman’s head and shoulders were silhouetted against the blue of the sky. She aimed the pistol at the closest to her, who happened to be Jordy. It spat smoke and lead, and at the crack of the shot, Jordy threw his arms into the air and slumped forward over his mount.
“Jordy!” Jess cried, reining around.
Cutter glanced back, and drew rein.
My body moved without my brain willing it to. I was on my feet, my arm cocked to throw the rock, before I quite knew what I was doing. I threw it with all my might, and much to my amazement, my throw was true.
The rock caught Cutter in the temple, and he reeled in the saddle and nearly fell.
Jess seized hold of the reins to his brother’s mount and galloped to the south. Another instant, and Cutter, still reeling, raced after them.
I whooped for joy and broke from cover. I felt much as David must have felt when he slew Goliath.
Blue Water Woman brought me down to earth. She came flying down the slope, shouting, “The rifle, Robert!”
Only then did I realize that Jordy had dropped his. I scooped it up and wheeled just as she reached me. Gladly giving it to her, I said happily, “We did it! We drove them off.”
“They will be back, and we must not be here when they do.” Blue Water Woman turned toward the valley floor so very far below, and once again we ran side by side.
“We have taught them not to take us lightly, at least,” I said proudly. “And now there is one less.”
“Perhaps,” Blue Water Woman said.
