And damned if he didn’t admire the change.Danger had forced it.But her courage made it happen.
“How come the sheriff and them other fellas didn’t get you at the creek?”
“I was out of sight, attending to private business.That was when Dodger murdered him.I just hid until they all rode off.”
“That was a brave thing, hiding that way.And smart.”
She shivered.“Wolves and bears are far less frightening than Dodger and the rest.”
“Why follow them, then?”
“Wendell had said it was about ten miles to this camp.It was much farther to Elkhorn.I found they hadn’t taken his gun and knife, so I decided to try to find my way here.I thought perhaps my father could use my help.But once I got here, I wasn’t sure what to do next.And then you arrived.”
Caleb thought about what it meant, Horner being out here.There was always a chance that the sheriff was doing what he was paid to do—stopping these Wells Fargo robberies.And it was possible that he somehow got this Dodger fella to turn on his own gang and lead him out here.Horner would be within his rights to overlook the killing of outlaws like Wendell and the man on the hill here.But Caleb knew Horner, and nothing smelled right about any of this.And from the way the judge spoke, he didn’t trust the sheriff either.
Even so, he’d need to be sure what Horner was up to.And Caleb was glad Doc’s daughter had showed enough sense not to walk right into that camp.
He stole a glance at her profile.Sheila was wearing the look of a soldier ready to go into battle.She had more of her father in her than he he’d thought a few days ago.
She pointed to the only shack they looked to be using.Light was spilling out the open door, and smoke was coming from a stovepipe.“I think that’s where my father is being kept…and maybe the passenger who was injured in the stagecoach robbery.”
“How many were with Horner?”
“Three armed men and Dodger.”
He looked down into the camp.He hadn’t seen anyone go in or out of that shack since he got here.Caleb counted three men around the fire.They looked like Horner’s deputies.And if his eyes weren’t deceiving him, there was a lifeless body stretched out over by a water trough.
“I tripped over a dead man on the other side of these boulders.This is his hat.”She tapped the brim.
“Saw him.He ain’t gonna be needing it.”
Preacher mentioned five gang members plus the leader of the outfit.There were at least that many horses in the corral.
He looked around at the surrounding hills, wondering whether they might have posted another guard to watch for trouble.If there was, he was sure to be as dead as this one.
“Anyone left the camp since you got here?”
“One person rode out just before you scared the daylights out of me.I couldn’t see who it was, but he went that way.”
If Caleb had come a few minutes later, he would have run head-on into the fella.
He was willing to wager that the Wells Fargo gang was all dead, with the exception of the one Sheila saw leaving.And the chances were that man was Dodger, because if Horner was up to something—and Caleb’s instincts said he was—then the sheriff was not about to let any of the other gang members go free.
He thought for a moment and then decided.
“This is the plan,” he told her.“Whoever’s in that shack—and I’m guessing it’s Horner and the gang leader, at least—I want to get them out in the open.If I don’t, as soon as the bullets start flying, they could use your father as a hostage.”
She nodded.“So how are we going to do it?”
“There ain’t no we.You’ll stay here and hide.And whatever happens, don’t let nobody see you.If it all goes bad, my horse, Pirate, is down at the bottom of the hill that you come up.As soon as it’s light enough, you ride?—”
“No, Marlowe,” she said with an edge sharp enough to cut stone.“That’s my father down there.I intend to help.Now, you can give me a job to do, or I’ll have to think of how I can make myself useful.”
One stubborn woman, Caleb thought.Well, there wasn’t time for arguing with her.
As he looked into her determined face, it struck him that maybe she had a right to be.The woman had been through hell in one day.Kidnapping.Witnessing a murder.Tramping ten miles at least through unfamiliar wilderness.Smart enough to find this place and smart enough not to get caught by killers.
Surviving all of that took more than just luck.
