Zach smothered a yawn and ignored twinges of pain in his legs. Soon the sun would be up. With luck he would get a clear shot at Geist. Geist was their leader. Shoot him, and the rest might panic.
Barring that, Zach was counting on Indians to show up, as they customarily did. If the first to arrive were Crows, he would enlist their help. If they were from another tribe, he would ask them to get word to the Crows. Either way, once reinforcements got there, the whites were as good as worm food.
Zach saw movement inside. He took aim with the Hawken, but the window was too dark for him to make out targets. He raised his head from the rifle. He could be patient when he had to. He could be very patient.
A blazing arch peeked above the world.
Zach looked down and patted Blaze. When he looked up again, the front door was open. Instantly, he put his cheek to the Hawken.
“King! You hear me?” Geist shouted.
Zach didn’t respond.
“King, damn it!”
Zach still didn’t reply.
“Fine. Maybe this will loosen your tongue.”
Suddenly Chases Rabbits was in the doorway, his wrists bound. He was pushed and stumbled, but someone jerked on him from behind. He regained his balance and stood still.
Geist’s face appeared above Chases Rabbits’s shoulder.
Zach fixed a swift bead. His thumb on the Hawken’s hammer, he went to pull it back.
Geist was glancing every which way, trying to spot him. “Take a good look, King!”
Chases Rabbits turned sideways. Geist had a hand to the back of his neck. In his other hand, Geist held a cocked pistol to Chases Rabbits’s head.
Zach uncurled his thumb.
“This is how it’s going to go!” Geist hollered. “We’re leaving, and we’re taking your friends with us! We’ll have guns to their heads, and if you shoot, if you so much as throw a damn rock at us, we’ll blow their brains out!”
Zach frowned. Geist was clever; by getting out of there as early as possible, the whites would have a good lead should Zach and any Crows come after them.
“It’s up to you, King! I’ll kill every one of these red scum if you give me the slightest excuse! Don’t think I won’t.”
Zach didn’t harbor any doubts there. He yearned to squeeze off a shot, but he had to crouch and do nothing as, one by one, Petrie, Dryfus, and Gratt came out with guns to the heads of Raven On The Ground, Lavender, and Flute Girl.
Berber was last, his arms laden with rifles and supplies. They took turns boosting their captives onto horses and then climbed on their own mounts.
Geist was beaming. Not once had he lowered his pistol from Chases Rabbits. He looked toward the hill and then around the hollow and shouted, “I know you can see me. So pay attention. We’re taking your friends. I’ll let them go as soon as I’m sure it’s safe. Tell the Crows so they don’t try anything.”
Zach had never wanted to shoot someone so much.
Geist tugged on the reins of the horse Chases Rabbits was on, and the whole bunch rode off into the rising sun. “Damn it,” Zach said, and stood. He had two choices. He could wait there for Crows to come, or he could follow them and attempt a rescue. Since Zach wasn’t about to trust Geist’s promise to release his captive friends, he hurried to his dun and mounted.
Zach was passing the mercantile when he remembered an item in a glass display that would be of considerable help. Drawing rein, he alighted and ran inside. A lamp still burned on the counter. He had to go behind the case to open it. As he was taking the item out, he heard a thump and then a peculiar sort of scraping from somewhere in the back.
Zach moved to the hall. At first the wriggling form on the floor blended into the shadows. Hurrying down, he squatted. “You.”
Toad’s ankles and wrists were bound, and he had a gag in his mouth. He made sounds of distress through the gag.
Zach removed it and threw it aside. “I thought you were one of them.”
“I’m not an animal, thank you very much.” Toad waggled his arms. “Untie me, if you would be so kind.”
“You heard everything?” Zach said as he pried at a knot.
“Are you kidding? Geist gloated to me all night about how he was going to outwit you.”
“I’m surprised they let you live.”
“I have you to thank.”
“What did I do?”
“They were worried that if you heard a shot, you’d start killing the horses.”
“They could have slit your throat.”
Toad said, “You almost sound disappointed they didn’t.”
“You brought them here.”
“It was either that or be killed, and I’m enormously fond of breathing.”
Zach loosened the last of the knots. Enough light had filtered down the hall to reveal that Toad’s face was a bruised and bloody mess. “Geist do that?”
“He delights in the suffering of others. Make no mistake. He is unspeakably vicious. Your friends are as good as dead once they are of no further use to him.”
“I know.”
“What will you do?”
“What else?” Zach King said. “I’m going to kill every last one of those sons of bitches.”
Chapter Twenty-four
Chases Rabbits was in despair. He was a warrior. It was his duty to protect the women of his tribe. Yet here he was, bound and helpless, at the mercy of his enemies, unable to be of any help to the three women whose lives were in peril.
Geist rode hard and fast. Again and again he looked back.
After they had put a considerable distance between them and the mercantile, he slowed his horse to a walk and remarked, “I thought for sure he’d try to stop us.”
“Stalking Coyote good friend,” Chases Rabbits said. “Him not do anything get us hurt.”
“Is that his redskin name?” Geist said. “Let me tell you something, boy. I hope to God he comes after us. I truly and sincerely do. I have you and the women and four extra rifles, besides.”
“Zach have Zach.”
“That makes no kind of sense,” Geist said.
The sun was at its zenith when they finally stopped alongside a stream.
Chases Rabbits waited to be told whether he should slide off or not. The answer came in the form of Dryfus, who gripped him by the shirt and flung him roughly to the ground. His arm and ribs flared with pain, and he grunted.
“Did that hurt?” Dryfus mockingly asked, and kicked him in the ribs.
“Enough,” Geist said. “We need him in one piece when King catches up.”
“I’d as soon gut all four of the vermin,” Dryfus said, but he lowered his foot.
Chases Rabbits’s shame was compounded when the women were dumped next to him. It was almost more than he could bear to sit up and look into their haggard faces. “I am sorry for all you have endured.”
“It is not your fault,” Raven On The Ground said.
Flute Girl and Lavender appeared to disagree, but they said nothing.
“We are still alive,” Raven On The Ground said. “So long as we breathe, there is hope.”
Chases Rabbits’ love for her filled his whole chest. She had an indomitable spirit, this woman he adored. “We must be ready when Zach King comes. We must do what we can to help him.”
“Why should the half-breed risk his life for us?” Flute Girl asked. “He isn’t Apsaalooke.”
