His father-in-law—J.T.Spencer—could be narrow and overbearing, to be sure, but it had been the right thing to do, leaving her in New York.She was reasonably safe there, much more than she’d ever be in the West.Even so, her letters of late led him to believe she was trying to decide for herself what her future would be.He didn’t blame her, at all.Hell, he wouldn’t be surprised to hear any day now that she’d run off and married some artist or writer.
After dipping the cloth in the water, he washed his patient’s face.
Doc kicked himself again for not being closer to Sheila as she got older.He wished that, just once, he’d told her—in spite of having spent so much time apart—that he was still her father.She could always reach out to him if she needed help.
And if the Almighty gave him the chance, he would tell her what was in his heart.No speeches.No grand promises.Just the truth.That he loved her, that he had failed her in ways he could no longer deny, and that she was not alone in the world.
“Save them.Please.Save my girls.”Tears ran from the corners of the woman’s eyes and disappeared in her hairline.
Doc patted her tears and prayed to the Lord above that he’d see Sheila again.
Damn.Nothing like seeing the shadow of the Grim Reaper to bring out a man’s regrets.
ChapterTen
“You stay here, Bear.”Caleb patted the massive head of his yellow dog.The brown eyes in his black face were attentive and responsive.“I am relying on you to help Gabriel run the ranch.We don’t want nobody sneaking up on this young fella.”
The dog cocked his head, turned and looked at Gabe, and then trotted over and flopped down next to him.Caleb had had a number of dogs travel with him over the years, but this golden-furred creature was, without a doubt, the smartest.The animal understood every word spoken to him, and Caleb suspected he could find his way home from a hundred miles off.But he never tested him on it.It didn’t pay to give a dog too big a head.
Leaving Bear behind sat poorly with him.But leaving Gabriel here without the dog would sit worse.
The shadows were growing long, and he clapped on his broad-brimmed black hat as he strode to his horse.Beneath his dark oilskin duster, he wore a plain, brown woolen shirt, an elk-leather vest, and buckskin pants tucked into his boots.While he’d been waiting for Gabe to arrive, he’d packed up his trail gear.Rolled up with his bedding was a bearskin coat he’d made from a grizzly he shot while riding with Jacob Bell.It could get cold in the high mountains, even at this time of year.
Caleb wanted to be prepared for spending some time up there.That wild country beyond the Devil’s Claw had never been tamed, despite the few hardy gold seekers throwing up shacks there, digging their yellow treasure, and carrying it out.The land was rugged and vast.He’d hunted up there with Old Jake eight or ten years ago, but trails changed and disappeared.It was a place that challenged even a man who knew what he was doing.
Still, these gangs of road agents wouldn’t want to be so far out that they couldn’t get to the Denver road in a day or two of traveling.That would limit the area he’d need to search, but not by much.Even though Caleb had no doubt he could find them, there were dozens of deserted mining camps where they could be holed up.And they’d surely pick one where they could see anyone coming and defend themselves without a great deal of trouble.
He picked up his saddlebags and slung them over the gelding’s back.He’d taken the time to clean his Winchester and his pistols and run a stone over the long blade of his knife till it could shave the whiskers off a baby rattler.He made sure the leather thongs were fastened over the hammers of the Colts at his hips, and he double-checked his ammunition.He had enough to take down a whole company of desperados, if need be.
He hoped it wouldn’t come to that.Once, he might have looked at the preparation and felt nothing but readiness.Now he felt the pull of the ranch at his back and the old trail opening in front of him, and neither feeling sat easy.
He swung up onto the saddle.“Your father will be checking on you if I am not back in a few days.”
“We’ll be fine, Mr.Marlowe,” Gabriel called, standing tall and looking as serious as he could muster.“Don’t you worry.”
“I ain’t worried.”Caleb could see the young man was proud to be given the responsibility.“But don’t forget what I told you.If any unsavory types show up looking to put their hands on that cattle, you throw a rope around that dog’s neck and skedaddle into the pine forest.I don’t want nothing happening to either of you.”
“I won’t forget.”
“Even if someone drives off that whole herd, I can track them down when I get back.”
Cattle could be replaced.A good boy and a loyal dog could not.
And even if his cattle were long gone, Caleb thought as he rode off, he’d earn enough bringing in these outlaws to replace the herd with twice the number he lost.
Dusk was giving way to night by the time he reached the place where the road agents had hit the Wells Fargo stagecoach.
Caleb had no trouble finding it.Even in the waning light, chunks of splintered wood showed white on the ground.At the edge of the road, bark had been blasted off a couple of trees by errant shots.
Whoever was running the gang had a working brain and showed cunning in choosing this spot.The road here descended for at least a quarter mile until it reached this gulley, where it made a slight bend and then ran up the next hill.The way Caleb saw it, the driver would have had to slow way down to navigate the turn safely before starting up the slope.The outlaws simply waited around the bend where the pines and low brush provided good additional cover.
Those fellows riding on top never stood a chance.
He stood there a moment longer than necessary, letting the scene arrange itself in his mind.The shots.The frightened horses.Men realizing too late that the trap had already closed.
Caleb crouched in the near darkness and frowned at the piles of shit in the road.After the attack, the road agents had left a perfectly good team of horses for hours, by the looks of things.He didn’t particularly like that.It was one thing fighting other men, but leaving harnessed horses to the violence of wolves and other predators was another.It was fortunate that someone had come upon the coach and the dead men.
But a passenger inside the coach had been shot and taken, the judge said, possibly for ransom.Whoever it was, they needed a doctor to keep him alive.So they cleared out quickly, taking only the wounded passenger and the strongboxes.And then they escorted that miner into Elkhorn to fetch Doc Burnett.
