C
HAPTER
T
HIRTY
After their supper, the three men left the saloon to go to the hotel where Duff had taken a room.
“I took one room because I don't plan for us to stay here tonight,” Duff explained. “The room is so we can have a place to meet and plan our operation.”
They were sitting in the room when Elmer arrived. He smiled at Smoke and Matt, and reached out to shake their hands. “I saw you two fellers when you came into the saloon, but I thought it might be best not to let on that I had an idea as to who either one of you was.”
“How was your spy mission?” Duff asked.
“Spy mission?” Elmer smiled. “Yeah, I guess you could call it a spy mission. Well, sir, if you was to ask me, and I reckon you just did, I'd say it was successful. Least wise, I gathered up a lot of information.”
“All right. We're listening.”
“I'm going to need me a pencil and some paper so's I can draw all this out for you,” Elmer said.
“Draw what out?” Smoke asked.
“Why, I'm goin' to draw out where at you can find the outlaws that took the medicine.”
Duff supplied the paper and Elmer began filling it with lines and shapes.
“Now, the hideout isâ”
“Hideout?” Smoke asked.
“Yeah, it's where outlaws has hid for ten, maybe fifteen years,” Elmer said. “Like I was sayin', the hideout itself is about twenty-five, maybe thirty miles, from here, an' you can find it by followin' the Laramie River due west, till you get to the fork. The North Fork runs into the canyon, but it passes under some rocks, so if someone was lookin' at if from the outside, why, they'd never know that it continued on under them rocks, then come up on the other side.”
As Elmer was explaining the setup, he was also illustrating it. “This here is the only way in. It's so narrow that people goin' in on horseback has to go single file. And this here oblickâ”
“This what?” Matt asked.
“Obelisk,” Duff said.
“Yeah, well, what it is, is a tall skinny rock. And Dingo keeps somebody on top of that rock all the time, to keep a lookout. So there ain't no one goin' to be able to get in there, without Dingo knowin' about it. And even if you could get in, why, they's places all over where they can stand and hold off an army.”
“How many are inside?” Duff asked.
“Accordin' to them boys I was talkin' to back in the saloon, they's at least ten inside, 'n maybe as many as twelve. And that ain't countin' the saloon gals.”
“The saloon gals?” Duff asked. “You mean there are women inside?”
“They was only two when I was there. Now there could be three or four.”
“Will they be part of the defense?” Smoke asked. “What I mean is, will they be armed and shooting at us?”
“I ain't goin' to say for sure that they won't be shootin' at us, but more 'n likely they won't be. Like I said, they ain't nothin' but saloon girls. They ain't really outlaws,” Elmer explained.
He continued with his map. “This here is the main buildin', an' more 'n likely, this is where at we're goin' to find the medicine. This here same buildin' is where Dingo stays all the time, an' it's where ever' one comes to eat. Also, when they're plannin' out somethin' they're goin' to be doin', this here buildin' is where they do it. You can't miss it, bein' as it's the biggest buildin' in the whole place. I'd say it's about thirty foot long 'n maybe ten foot wide. I can't swear to it 'cause it's been near five years since I was in the place, but near as I can remember, they's no more than two, maybe three more buildin's.”
“What are they made of?” Matt asked.
“Logs, chinked with mud.”
“Thank you, Elmer. In all my time in the military, I have never received a more thorough briefing.” Duff paused for a moment, then chuckled dryly. “Nor one that presented a greater challenge.”
“You said according to the ones you were talking to back in the saloon,” Smoke said. “Are they part of the entourage?”
“Are they what?”
“Are they part of the people who live inside the outlaw fort?”
“Nah, they don't live there. But some of 'em goes in 'n out to deliver whiskey and possibles 'n sech.”
“How do they get in?”
“They's a signal they give so's the feller that's on guard will let 'em pass.”
“Do you know the signal?”
“I know what it was when I was there. But they change it around.”
“Makes sense,” Smoke said.
“It don't matter none. I know how to get us in so as they won't see us.”
“How is that? I thought you said that a guard posted on the obelisk could see anyone trying to come in,” Duff said.
Elmer smiled. “If we come up on it while it's dark, stay on the east side of the fork, 'n cling real close to the rocks, even on the brightest moon, there will be so many shadows that you can get all the way up the rocks themselves without bein' seen. And once you're on top of the rocks, why, they'll block you from anyone aseein' you.”
“Elmer, I don't care what the others say about you,” Duff teased. “I think you're a good man.”
“Duff, seein' as we're goin' to be some outnumbered once the fightin' starts, I was wonderin' if you might like an idea I've got. It was somethin' me 'n some of the boys I fought with done back durin' the war.”
“What's that?” Duff asked.
“I stopped by the hardware store to get these,” Elmer said, taking a couple boxes of brass tacks from a sack. He emptied the tacks onto the bed, then emptied a box of .44 cartridges alongside.
“What you do is, you stick these here tacks into the end of the bullets. That'll make 'em so that when one of 'em hits flesh, they'll leave big holes, sometimes blow off an arm, or shatter a leg bone. That takes the fight out of ' em just real fast.”
Elmer demonstrated by pressing the brass tacks into the soft lead noses of the bullets. The heads of the tacks were about a third of an inch across and the nail part sunk into the lead better than half an inch.
“What this does is, the brass head will go on inside the body, while the lead flies apart in all directions. It also makes a near miss near 'bout as deadly, 'cause if one of the bullets hits a rock wall, why, it'll splinter out into lots of pieces that'll still do the damage.”
“Ordinarily, Elmer, I would disdain such a tactic,” Duff said. “But these black-hearted evil monsters are trying to ransom medicine that would cure my Meagan and dozens of other innocent people. So I say we do it.”
For the next several minutes, the four men worked at modifying the ammunition. These bullets, they decided, would be used in their rifles . . . all of them .44 caliber Winchesters. They didn't do anything to the bullets in their pistols.
After they finished, they decided to leave and travel through the night until they reached their objective. After all, they couldn't get lost. As Elmer had explained, all they had to do was follow the Laramie River.
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Once they reached the fork in the river, Elmer suggested that they stay there until just before dawn. “We got us damn near a full moon tonight. Best to wait until just before dawn. By then, the moon will be below the Laramie Mountains and won't be shinin' down so bright. We can use them shadows I was talkin' about to sneak in.”
When they bedded down, the sky was clear. Not only was there a nearly full moon, the night was filled with bright stars. They went to sleep quickly, aided by the fact that they were all tired from the long distances they had traveled during the day.
As they slept, a front moved in from the northwest, and their slumber was visited by an unusually heavy fall of snow. The snow came down softly, silently, from the night sky, so that it was quite a surprise when they awoke the next morning to find themselves nearly buried in snow.
“Damn!” Elmer said.
“What's wrong?” Matt asked.
“This snow! I can sneak us in . . . but come daylight there will be tracks on the ground that the lookout can see. He'll not only be able to see that we was here, why, he'll even see where it was that we went.”
“It can't be helped,” Duff said. “We've got to go in. We have to get that medicine to Rawhide Buttes.”
“You know, don't you, Duff, that when they see that we've come in, they'll get ready for us. They'll put ever'body in all these positions they done got ready for such a thing. Why, it'll be like the four of us tryin' to attack a fort.”
“Not four of us, just me,” Duff said. “I'll nae be askin' anyone else to go in with me.”
“Now that's a hell of a thing for you to say to me, Duff. I thought me 'n you was friends,” Elmer said. “Why would you say you don't want me with you?”
“I'm just saying thatâ”
“I know what you was just sayin',” Elmer said, interrupting Duff's response. “Smoke, what do you 'n Matt think about him sayin' he didn't want us to go in with him?”
Smoke chuckled. “Hell, Elmer, with that thick brogue of his, I don't listen to him half the time, anyway.”
Duff laughed. “All right, 'twould appear that 'tis a bunch of dunderheaded addle brains I've surrounded myself with. But then a fool attracts fools, I suppose. 'Tis welcome I'll be for the company.”
“Elmer, I've something important to ask you,” Matt said.
“Oh? And what would that be, sonny?”
“Come Christmas, do you think you could talk your friend Vi into giving me a free piece of pie?”
“Matt, I'll personally see to it that she gives you a whole pie. Any kind you want.”
“That would be apple,” Matt said.
“All right, men, let's go,” Duff said.
Saddling their horses, they followed Elmer through the darkness toward Sidewinder Gorge.
Rawhide Buttes
When Meagan opened her eyes, she again saw the woman with long red hair, flashing blue eyes, and a gleaming white gown. She knew it wasn't a mere illusion. She knew she was seeing Skye, and was fairly certain she knew why.
“Have you come for me?” Meagan asked. “Is it my time?”
“Nae, Meagan, I've not come to take you, but to warn you. The young lass Laura Hastings needs help quickly. She can't breathe, and no one is near.”
“Laura?”
“Aye. You'll find the doctor in the narthex, drinking coffee. You must hurry.”
“I'm not sure I can even walk,” Meagan said.
“You can walk.”
Meagan got up from the pew, amazed that the dizziness and the weakness seemed to have passed. She moved quickly through the center aisle, and saw Dr. Poindexter standing there, drinking coffee. “Doctor?”
Dr. Poindexter looked at her in surprise. “Miss Parker, what are you doing up? You need as much rest as you can get.”
“It's the young Hastings girl,” Meagan said. “You must go to her quickly! She's struggling for breath.”
Dr. Poindexter set the coffee cup down, and started into the nave. “Jenny! Mrs. Jensen! It's the Hastings girl! Hurry! We'll be doing a trach!”
Laura was on the right side of the church, lying in the second pew from the back, near the wall. Dr. Poindexter moved to her quickly, passing the other patients, who were asleep.
Jenny arrived then with scalpel and a hollow tube. Sally came behind her, carrying the mixture of acid and water.
“Is she still alive?” Jenny asked anxiously.
“Yes, but she is struggling.” Working quickly, Dr. Poindexter made a small cut in the throat, then inserted the hose. With the hose inserted, he blew gently into the tube, supplying much-needed air.
“You do this,” he said to Jenny, who began blowing softly into the tube.
While Jenny provided breath for Laura, Dr. Poindexter began scraping the mucus buildup from her throat. After about five minutes of work, Laura began breathing normally.
“George, she's breathing on her own,” Jenny said.
Dr. Poindexter nodded, then stood and looked down at her. “How in the world did she know?”
“How did who know what?”
“Miss Parker,” Dr. Poindexter said. “She is on the very front pew on the other side of the church, yet she is the one who came to tell me that Laura was struggling to breathe.”
“She came to tell you? That's impossible,” Sally said. “I was just with Meagan no more than half an hour ago. She didn't even have the strength to sit up.”
“Well, she's right back there. You can ask her yourâ” Dr. Poindexter paused in mid-sentence and looked back toward the narthex. “Where is she?”
Sally backed out of the pew and looked toward the front door of the church. She saw Megan lying on the floor.” “Doctor! Jenny! It's Meagan!” she said as she hurried toward the collapsed woman.
Because she was already in the center aisle, Sally was the first one to reach Meagan, and she knelt on the floor beside her. “Meagan! Meagan! Are you all right?”
Meagan opened her eyes and looked up into Sally's face. “Yes. Why are you asking me if I'm all right?”
Sally chuckled in relief. “Because you are lying on the floor.”
Meagan looked around. “What in the world am I doing here? How did I get here?”
By then Dr. Poindexter had arrived as well. “You came to tell me about the little Hastings girl.”
“Oh! What about her? Please don't tell me she has died.”
“She hasn't, thanks to you.”
“Thanks to me? What did I do?”
“Miss Parker, are you telling me you don't remember coming back here to tell me that Laura wasn't breathing?”
“No, I don't have any memory whatever of coming back here. Besides, how would I know that?”
“That's a very good question,” Dr. Poindexter replied. “How would you know that?”
“I'm confused,” Megan said.
“Yes, aren't we all? Mrs. Jensen, would you help my wife get Miss Parker back to her bed? Or at least, what is passing for a bed.”
“Yes,” Sally said.
With Sally on one side and Jenny on the other, the two women got Meagan back to her feet and started toward the front of the church.
“Meagan, you don't remember anything about coming back here to tell the doctor about the little girl?” Sally asked.
“The last thing I remember is you talking to me a while ago. I have no idea how I got here. I don't even remember getting up from the pew.”
In fact, Meagan did remember seeing Skye, and leaving the pew to take the warning. But she knew if she explained it, they would think that her illness had affected her brain.
She wasn't too sure that it hadn't.