“Anyone gone up to Smith’s cabin?”Caleb asked.
“My men were out there yesterday.No sign of him or anyone else.”
Damn.Caleb had been telling Sheila Burnett that Doc was fine, but he was wrong.
“What did you say to the daughter this morning?”
“Nothing of what I’m telling you.She’s better off not knowing.”
“I agree.”Caleb nodded to the judge.“I’ll go after them.”
“I thought you would.”
Patterson reached inside his desk again and produced a WANTED flyer.“This is a state-issued notice.The governor is offering a reward of a thousand dollars for the arrest and delivery of the leader of these outlaws and a hundred dollars for any gang member.”
“Them folks over at Wells Fargo must be leaning pretty heavy on him.”
“I’m sure you’re correct.”Patterson handed over the flyer.“But holdups across the state have become bloodier of late, and the governor wants people to feel safe traveling in Colorado.As do I.”
Caleb looked at the proclamation.It contained no sketches of the road agents.No names or descriptions.
“How could any bounty hunter prove he had the right fellas?”
“Recovering stolen property would be proof enough.”
“Do they even know how many men are riding with this gang?”
The judge shook his head.“Not with any certainty.Could be four.Could be a dozen or more.Each time, some of them stay in the woods.During a recent robbery, one of them was wounded, but the outlaws still escaped into the hills with the strong boxes.They seem to be very careful about concealing their identities.”
“But it’s definitely the same fellas?”
“That seems to be the case.”
“And you think they’re holed up somewhere near Devil’s Claw?”
“That’s as far as my men have tracked them.Beyond that…” Patterson shrugged.“That’s why I need you.A real tracker.Someone who can follow the scent and run them to ground.”
That was rugged country up there beyond Devil’s Claw.Thick pine forests that suddenly ended at walls of rock that rose straight up a hundred feet or more.Ravines and gulches that had snow and ice ten months of the year and flooding rivers the other two.Trails that disappeared under ice or rock slides.
There were few better places to go if a man or a gang didn’t want to be found.
The kind of country Caleb understood as well as most men understood the streets of their own towns.
“And you want to get Doc back.”
“Absolutely.We need him in Elkhorn.”The judge motioned to the flyer in Caleb’s hand.“Bring Docandthe leader of those road agents, and I’ll give you thousand dollars of my own money as reward.And I have no preference how you bring that outlaw in.”
Serious money, Caleb thought.
“No preference.You mean dead or alive.”
“I have no desire to hamstring you, Marlowe.You might not have a chance to negotiate.Last night, with those six rustlers, I know it was killed or be killed.You did what you had to do.Now, I don’t know how many are up there, but you will undoubtedly find yourself outnumbered and outgunned.”
This wasn’t the first time.
And once, not so very long ago, Caleb would’ve ridden into a situation like that without a second thought.
“These are desperate men, and they are not just hiding themselves.They’re hiding all their ill-gotten gains.So I want you to know you have a free hand.And I’ll stand by that.”
