“All right, I’m sorry I called you cute. Would beautiful be better?”
“It might, but how can you see me in the dark? I can’t see you.”
West chuckled again. “I remember what you look like. You are beautiful, you know.”
“Thank you, but don’t you think we should decide which way to go?”
West said, “That’s what I asked before we got into this odd conversation. Which way?”
“Right,” Julia said.
“Follow me. I’ll go slow so you can stay right behind me and see. I’ll hold the torch as high as the ceilings will allow.”
Julia gripped the back of West’s shirt and said, “Don’t worry. I’m right behind you.”
West smiled, enjoying the feel of Julia’s hand clinging to his shirt for safety. Anything that brought her closer to him was welcome.
The torch’s light formed a small semi-circle in front of West as they moved through the tunnel.
Julia said, “Do you think this leads to anywhere Kate might have hidden the chest? The further we go, the worse it smells.”
“I don’t know. I think something died in this tunnel, and I hope it wasn’t human.”
Julia shuddered.
West stopped abruptly and said, “The tunnel ends about two feet in front of us, and there’s a pile of eaten and partially eaten small animals causing the smell. We need to turn around and try the other tunnel.”
“I don’t think there’s enough room for you to get past me,” Julia said.
“Just turn around, and you can carry the torch. I’ll follow right behind you.”
Julia held the torch as high as she could and carefully watched her feet as she slowly walked back the way they’d come.
“Ouch,” West grumbled.
“What’s wrong,” Julia asked, stopping in her tracks. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I forgot about that low spot and didn’t see it before my head connected with it. I need to keep my head lower,” West answered as he drew closer to Julia and lowered his head to her shoulder.
Julia smiled at West’s closeness and slowly began walking again, enjoying feeling him near. She had to stop her emotions from taking over her common sense. She and West would go their separate ways when this assignment was over, and she would only see him if their paths crossed in Denver. If only she could get her heart to agree.
When they exited the tunnel into the larger room of the cave, West said, “We’ll try the left one, and I’ll carry the torch again. I value my head.”
Julia giggled, “I didn’t have any trouble seeing. You’re too tall. Did you eat everything in sight as a child the way you do now?”
“I don’t do that,” West emphatically answered.
“No, then who was it that finished part of my steak and half my apple pie at Smiley’s?” Julia asked.
“I didn’t want it to go to waste and thrown out to the hogs. That apple pie was good considering Smiley made it,” West defended.
“If you say so,” Julia said and winked again. “Lead the way.”
West raised the torch high, and they slowly entered the remaining tunnel.
“I do hope we find that chest,” Julia said.
“Let’s hope we don’t find Kate hiding around a corner with a gun,” West stated as he slowly advanced through the narrow tunnel.
“I don’t know how she could stay in here with the smells,” Julia wondered aloud.
West replied, “You’d be surprised what a criminal will tolerate in pursuit of what they want.”
“I suppose,” Julia said.
“West stopped suddenly, and Julia asked, “What’s that noise.”
“Shhh,” West said. “It’s a rattler, and I can’t see exactly where it is.”
West held the torch higher and whispered. “Stay quiet and don’t move.”
Julia obeyed. She’d never seen the snakes here in the west. They had Timber Rattlers back home, but she was fortunate to never have seen one of them either. The stories she heard about Diamondback Rattlesnakes made her shudder.
She felt more than saw West’s right arm move slowly to his side and pull the gun from its holster. The noise of the gun’s report in the narrow tunnel nearly deafened her, but she could make out West telling her it was all right. He got the rattler.
She nodded her head when West asked if she was all right. She really wasn’t, but she couldn’t tell him that. After all, she was a Pinkerton agent, and she couldn’t let an unseen snake affect her even if it did, but West couldn’t know that. She would keep it to herself.
“Good,” West said. “let’s keep moving. I think I might feel air moving. Maybe there’s another entrance up ahead somewhere.”
Julia grabbed West’s shirt again and assured him she was all right before they moved forward into the tunnel. Julia prayed hard that the rattler was not the mama to a nest of more snakes or had a group of friends waiting around the next turn.
Julia scolded herself for not feeling as brave as she thought she was. She was going to face whatever danger lay ahead and help West the best she could. Julia kept telling herself she was an agent and strong. At least she was when snakes weren’t involved.
Chapter 12
Even with the torch West was carrying, Julia had a difficult time seeing in the darkness of the cave. She tried her best to avoid the loose soil and rocks while watching for any indentations on the cave floor that might trip her, and the fear of another rattlesnake gripped her. When she felt a slight tremor move through her body, she stopped.
Alarmed, she looked at West and asked, “What was that?”
West’s answer came quickly and sharply, “Run.”
West grabbed Julia's hand and pulled her as fast as he could back toward the cave’s opening. Julia was nearly out of breath as she fell to her knees after tripping over an unseen obstacle. West pulled her to her feet and kept dragging her toward the cave’s entrance.
The rumbling and shaking grew stronger and louder as the light from the entrance came into view.
