Above the Bridge (21 page)

Read Above the Bridge Online

Authors: Deborah Garner

Tags: #Fiction, #General, #FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General

The noise level increased as the saloon filled and escalated even more as the customers filled themselves with spirits.  Conversation became looser and, while many paid little attention to what others were saying, Paige listened more carefully, especially to the words being exchanged next to her.  The efforts paid off, as phrases began to drift over to her.

“It’s not going to be easy in this rain,” Cyrus was heard saying.

“Well, a little water ain’t gonna hurt you,” the woman laughed nonchalantly. “You can do this for me, can’t ya, Cyrus, sweetie?  For us?”  Her voice sounded as sweet and sticky as honey as it floated across Paige’s back and reached her ears.  Had she been able to look behind her, she was sure she would have seen the woman stroke Cyrus’s cheek as she oozed these words at him.  Even without seeing it, his reaction to Ruby’s lavish flattery was clear.  He would do anything she asked.

Cyrus called to the bartender for another round of drinks for himself and the lady.  As the conversation evolved, it was clear a plan was being formed.  “Yes, tonight…as soon as it’s dark enough…quite a distance…hide it well…saddle up…he won’t be able to find it, don’t worry” were portions of the conversation that Paige was able to make out.

She lingered, but was unable to pick up any more information as the din of the bar activity continued to rise.  Knowing she needed to act quickly, Paige slipped out the door and hurried back to the livery stable, where she found Chester tending the horses, as she knew she would.  She looked around for any sign of Jeremiah, but it was clear that Chester was the only one there.

“Chester, I need your help,” Paige said, slightly out of breath from her brisk walk from the saloon.

“No problem,” Chester replied.  “You just tell me what you need.  Your wish is my command, as they say.”  He made a noise that sounded like a sigh and laugh mixed together, a sign of resignation.  His encounters with Paige were just destined to be a little out of the ordinary.

“This is going to sound odd,” Paige warned him, as he brushed down a sturdy, golden work horse.  “But I’m going to need to follow someone tonight, and I don’t think a wagon is going to work.  I was planning to follow on foot, but I overheard the words ‘saddle up’ so I have a feeling it may be too far to walk.”

“Do you have any idea where you’re going to end up?”  Chester asked.

“No,” Paige said hesitantly.

“So you don’t know how far it is?”  Chester continued, giving Paige a puzzled look.

“No,” Paige said with a sigh.

“And the people we’re following said something about saddling up?”  Chester asked, to make sure he had the facts straight, what few there were.

“Yes, I’m sure I heard that,” Paige answered.

Chester thought over this information and then summed it up on his own.

“So we need to follow someone or some people somewhere, possibly nearby, possibly not, and you believe this person or these people will be traveling by horse?”

“Yes, that’s about all I know,” Paige answered meekly.

Chester shook his head, half humored and half amazed that he was about to agree to such a crazy scheme, but he knew he was going to say yes before she even explained.  There wasn’t much to go on, but at least he could try to help.

“OK,” Chester said.  “We’ll saddle up two horses.  I’ll take my usual horse, Fire, and you take Cinnamon, who’s always good about behaving with strangers.  Whoever we’re following will probably take a lantern.  In order for our horses to not be heard, we’ll need to follow the light, rather than following their horses directly.  And we can’t stay close to them or they’ll catch on that they’re being followed.  We can’t take a lantern ourselves without being seen.  It’ll be tricky, but we’ll try.”

“That sounds like it could work,” Paige agreed, thinking this over.  Suddenly the fleeting thought hit her that it had been years since she had been on a horse.  She figured it might be wise to warn Chester.

“I haven’t been on a horse for a long time, Chester, but I’ll do my best,” she said as casually as possible, hoping it wouldn’t cause him to back off from the whole plan.

At this comment, Chester gave her a puzzled look.  “Excuse me for asking, ma’am, but if you ain’t been on a horse for a long time, how do you get around to places you need to go?”

“Well, I…”  Paige said hesitantly, “That would be a little hard to explain.”  She saw the bewildered look in Chester’s face and decided it would be best to move on quickly.

“I don’t think we have much time,” Paige said anxiously, looking out the barn door and seeing that it was almost dark.  Chester nodded, quickly bringing Fire and Cinnamon around to the center of the barn and saddling them up.  Mounting his horse with ease, he motioned for Paige to do the same.

Paige stared at the horse, the saddle and the stirrup.  Memories of riding when she was younger came vaguely back to her, but she was reminded now that not only had it been a long time, but it had been a good twenty years.  The last time she’d been riding was at a summer camp she’d attended as a teen.  Inserting her foot into the stirrup, she tried to push up and swing her leg over Cinnamon, who was patiently eyeing her from a slightly turned head.  Failing the first time, she placed her free foot back down on the ground and gave it a second try.  This time she succeeded, though it took her a minute to get adjusted into the saddle.  She could almost swear that both Chester and Cinnamon were silently laughing, but she shook this off, being close to laughing herself.

Riding quietly out the back door of the livery stable, Chester helped guide Paige to a shed not far from Tuttle’s, which was close enough to watch customers departing, yet hidden enough to keep out of sight.  Their timing was lucky, as it wasn’t long before Cyrus emerged from the saloon.  He was followed by the woman who had been leaning next to him at the bar.  He wrapped a possessive arm around her, which she shook off after a moment, pointing toward the mountains.

“Ma’am,” Chester said a touch of nervousness in his voice.  “Is that who you’re figurin’ to follow, Cyrus Thompson?  ‘Cuz he ain’t no one to mess with.  That man’s as mean as a snake”

Paige took little heed in Chester’s hesitation.  At this point, she was determined to follow this through, regardless of the risk.

“We’ll just have to be careful,” she said firmly.  Chester sighed, but Paige knew he would go along with the plan at this point, however crazy it might be.

They watched while Cyrus untied a horse from a post in front of the saloon.  He jumped on quickly, snapped his reins and set off toward the east.  Keeping a safe distance, Paige and Chester followed carefully.  Not far from the center of town, Cyrus paused and dismounted his horse, disappearing for a few minutes inside an abandoned shack.  When he emerged he held a bulky sack and a dim lantern.  He stuffed the sack in a saddlebag and then climbed back on his horse, holding the lantern in his right hand.  From there, he continued to the east.

Darkness had almost fallen completely and the moon was covered by clouds.  While this made it less likely that they would be seen, it also made it more difficult to ride.  Without the lantern Cyrus was carrying up ahead, it would have been impossible.  As it was, it wasn’t going to be easy.  But, cautiously, Chester led the way.  Paige followed along, stopping whenever Chester paused and moving ahead slowly when he resumed.

When Cyrus reached the edge of town, he veered to the left and picked up a narrow trail alongside the mountains to the east.  The glow of the lantern grew faint as the distance between them stretched out.  But Chester held back, not willing to take any chances.  It would be better to lose Cyrus than to fall into a confrontation with him, as much as it would have disappointed Paige.

Paige followed along, trying to keep a good sense of direction.  It would be crucial for her to be able to remember the entire route later on.  She knew she would need to find it again on her own before getting her hands on the skeleton key the next time.  And yet again, after she did.

The dark of night masked most of the surroundings, but every now and then a shadowy mass appeared with enough of a silhouette to be identified - a grouping of trees, a heavy wooden fence or small sheds for storing grains.  Paige made note of every one of these, tucking the information away for future use.

Eventually their path began to climb, gradually growing steeper.  The flat surface of the trail became increasingly rocky.  Chester slowed down, becoming more cautious with the horses.  They continued in this manner until Chester finally stopped altogether.

“I know this section of the mountain, ma’am.  Been up here many a time,” he whispered to Paige with a concerned sound in his voice.  “It’s gonna get mighty steep and too rough for the horses to handle.  Our only chance now is to tie them up somewhere and try to go the rest of the way on foot.”

“But we’ll lose him, won’t we?”  Paige whispered back.

If Paige could have seen in the dark, she would have noticed that Chester was shaking his head.  “I don’t think so.  It’s pretty unlikely that he can do this next part on his horse, either.  I think we’ll find he’s set aside his horse to wait for him, too.  We’ll still have an equal footing.”

Paige climbed down and handed the reins over to Chester, who took the two horses off to the side, tying them securely to a tree.  Continuing on foot, Paige could now feel that the ground had grown extremely rough and uneven.  Small rocks dug into her feet and the incline of the terrain became more and more severe as they pushed forward.  She was tempted a few times to give up and turn around, as the light from the lantern Cyrus carried could barely be seen.  But, quite sure that this was her only chance of getting Jake the information he needed, she continued on.  Just as Chester had suspected, they soon passed Cyrus’s horse.

As the grade of the slope increased, it became necessary to use their hands to balance against boulders and trees.  Occasionally a small rock would become dislodged and tumble to the ground, causing both Paige and Chester to freeze in place, hoping Cyrus would not suspect he was being followed.  Yet, it was not uncommon to hear rocks falling and twigs snapping while out hiking, due to the abundance of wildlife activity.  A few minor sounds would go unnoticed.

For the better part of two hours, they continued to climb, until Paige felt a weariness in her legs that was so intense she wondered if she could go on.  It was just about this time that the dim light of the lantern ahead stopped moving forward.  Paige leaned against a sturdy tree, looking around at the surrounding landscape.  She could see the shadowy outlines of two other trees just a few yards away.  Behind her a boulder stood approximately as high as her shoulder.  Other than that, only darkness stretched out in every direction.

“Chester,” Paige whispered, unable to see through the depth of night.

The answer came from a few feet away.  “Right here, ma’am,” Chester replied.

“Where are we?”  Paige whispered again.

Chester was quiet for a moment, analyzing the distance they’d covered.  “We must be close to the top,” he said. “For one thing, look how much higher Cyrus’s lantern appears, even though it’s not that far away.  And it’s mighty steep here too, so I think we’re probably near the end of the trail.”  Chester was quiet once again, considering all this before continuing.  “If I’m right about this, and I think I am, there’s nothing but sheer rock up ahead.  He’d have to stop about now.”

Paige and Chester lingered in the dark, standing motionless between the trees and boulder.  It wasn’t long before the sharp sound of metal against rock came down from the direction of the lantern, tentative at first but growing progressively louder as time went on.  The strong, repetitive motions echoed through the night with regular precision.  As the activity continued, Paige knew the alternating sounds of scraping and falling rocks were what she had hoped to hear.

In time, the sounds ceased.  Paige wasn’t sure how long they had been waiting quietly in the same spot, but finally it became clear that the lantern was beginning to move again.  Chester grabbed Paige’s elbow and pulled gently, indicated that they needed to start back.

Quickly they retraced their steps.  From above, they could hear sounds of small rocks falling and branches breaking, which helped hide similar sounds they made themselves.  Heading downhill was difficult in its own way, as gravity and loose rocks taunted them with potential falls.   They made good time, gaining some distance in front the lantern’s light, which continued to follow behind them.

They passed Cyrus’s horse as quietly as possible, though it still let out a small whinnying sound, something that could have been made as a reaction to any small animal passing by.  Reaching their own horses, they untied them quickly and pulled them back onto the trail, riding in hushed darkness until they emerged in the flatland near town.  Ducking out of sight behind a small shed, they waited for Cyrus to pass by.  Once he was far enough ahead that they could ride without fear of being heard, they mounted the horses again and rode around the back side of the sleeping town, finally reaching the barn.

“I can’t thank you enough,” Paige said to Chester once they had the horses put away in their stalls.  Chester just shook his head and threw an amused glance in her direction.

“It’s no problem, ma’am,” he said, a trace of laughter in his voice.  “I don’t mind.  Life sure ain’t boring when you’re around.  A little excitement is welcome anytime in this old barn.”

“Where’re you stayin’, by the way?”  Chester asked.  “I don’t want to leave you out here alone in the dark.”

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