Offering a silent prayer of thanks for the miner leaving it behind, Will grabbed the pick. He swung it through the stack of burning beams to clear a path. Above, more timbers burned, clinging precariously to the beams that held them up. He had only minutes, maybe less, to get these people out of here.
“Come on!” Will set the pick down and held out his hand. “We’ve got to get out of here, now!”
A scantily dressed woman took hold of him, and he pulled her toward the mercifully clear space that would soon be engulfed in flames.
“Head to the window, there!” Will pointed to an open window where it looked as if the marshal was helping people exit.
Will ushered four more women toward the escape, then noticed a man lying in a crumpled heap beside the bar. Hopefully, he wasn’t dead. Will checked the burning timbers. Helping the man was a risk, but he had to believe he still had a chance.
Holding the buffalo robe high above his head, Will made his way toward the bar. As he got closer, he realized that he’d risked his life for Ben.
The man he wanted to kill. Could have killed. Should have killed.
For an instant, it occurred to Will to just leave Ben there, but as the man moaned, Will realized that he had to have been led to find Ben for a purpose. All along, thoughts of vengeance had consumed him, combined with Pastor Lassiter’s words cautioning him that it was a dangerous path to follow.
Could Will let a man die when he’d been clearly led to save him?
Will knelt beside Ben. “Are you hurt?”
Ben coughed. “Got to get to my safe.”
The man was knocking on death’s door, and he was worried about the contents of his safe?
“The ceiling is about to cave in and kill us both. We’ve got to get out of here. Can you stand?”
Ben struggled to get up but quickly fell to his knees. Will put his arm around him and helped Ben stand just as the ceiling collapsed across the path Will was going to take to get them both to safety. Will looked around for an alternative exit. The back door was only a few yards away, but the path was blocked by several burning timbers. Still, if they were quick, they could dodge the timbers and get to the exit.
“Come on!”
Will tugged at the other man, looking around to be sure there weren’t any others in the building. He couldn’t see beyond the wall of fire blocking them in. Please, Lord, he prayed, get everyone out safely.
They arrived at the back door, which was blocked by a burning beam. Ben slumped to the floor as Will looked around for a tool he could use to move the beam safely. Thick smoke clogged his lungs, and Will coughed, pulling the coat more tightly around his mouth and nose. He knew enough about fires to know that if he didn’t get fresh air soon, he wouldn’t be much use to anyone, especially himself.
He spied a rifle lying haphazardly on the floor, probably abandoned by one of Ben’s men in the melee. Hoping the heat wouldn’t ignite any of the powder within, Will grabbed the rifle and used it to poke at the burning beam. The beam practically crumbled underneath the effort.
The fire was hot, too hot to have been caused by two kerosene lamps.
Will glanced up to see more flames rushing toward them. He gave another good swipe at the burning beam, then kicked at the door to open it. Air, fresh, blessed air greeted him. He tugged at Ben. “Come on!”
Will pulled Ben out of the building just as the fiery mass came crashing down. They’d both have a few singed hairs, but at least they were alive.
As Will gulped in the fresh air, he had to wonder why God would put him in a position to save the very man he’d sworn to kill. The man who deserved to die and not be allowed to victimize another human being.
“Don’t think this changes things, Lawson,” Ben gasped. The man could barely breathe, barely talk, and he was still fighting their old battle. “I own the law in all these mining towns. You should’ve let me die, because tomorrow, you’ll be facing a noose. Especially when folks realize you’re responsible for the fire. You’re only a hero if you didn’t start the thing.”
Yup, he should’ve left Ben to die.
“You and I both know that the fire couldn’t have been started by those lamps.”
Ben coughed. “New powder to use in the mines. A spark from one of the lamps must’ve hit the crate holding it.”
He grinned, the flames behind him giving him an eerie, more wicked glow. “But everyone will know you did it. And those girls...they’ll be so desperate for me to keep their names out of it that they’ll do whatever I ask.”
Another cough wracked Ben’s body. “At least I got the contents of one of my safes. Now I really need to marry one of them.”
It took everything Will had in him not to shove the other man back into the burning building.
“Will!”
Will turned to see Jasper running toward him.
“Thank God you got out of there all right. When I saw that ceiling fall in, I was sure you were done for.”
The other man clasped him in a bear hug. “You all right? The doctor’s around front, treating some of the people who were badly burned.”
“I’m fine.” Will patted his friend on the back, then stepped away. “Did everyone get out?”
“As far as we know. We were fortunate. The marshal said that your quick thinking saved a lot of lives.”
“In a fire you caused,”
