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"Did you see anything of Dan Dubs?" Cord asked.
"No, should I have?"
"We think he went after Charlie."
They rode on now, at a fast pace.
When they reached Maria's they hobbled the horses and went inside.
"Where is he?" Lilly cried when she saw Maria.
"He's sleeping. The poor boy was so tuckered he could barely eat two platefuls of food. I bandaged his ankle and he is fine now. But from what he said, he hurt it in a prairie dog hole, and something he said as he fell asleep, he hit someone with a rock and stole a horse."
"My word!" Lilly looked frantic. Her eyes widened and she searched Cord's face for answers.
Cord saw the expression on Lilly's face and he knew they had to talk to Charlie now. She wouldn't settle down until she knew the whole story. "Okay, let's find out for sure what happened, then let him rest."
She nodded.
They went into the bedroom, and Lilly woke him up. "Charlie, wake up honey."
Charlie barely opened his eyes and moved to bury his head in the pillows. "Charlie, wake up we need to talk to you, then you can sleep."
Charlie roused, and wiped his eyes. "Sorry Ma." He wiped his eyes and tried to wake up. He was so tired.
Lilly sat on one side of the bed, Cord on the other side of him, "Can you tell us what happened?"
Charlie raised up on the bed and looked sheepishly at them. He rubbed his eyes and looked at their anxious faces. "Well…I went fishing with Dan. We caught a lot of fish, just like he said we would. Then we took them to the house and cooked them. Jason said he had stopped off and asked you if I could stay the night. I thought it peculiar, but it was just for one night, so I agreed. We ate, and Dan and I played cards for a while. I tried to go to sleep pretty early, they all stayed up. But before I went to sleep I heard them talking about you," He looked at Cord. "Said you'd be coming for me. Said they'd ambush you when you got there. They were loading their guns and stuff."
"Go on," Lilly encouraged.
"Well, I waited until it got real quiet, then slipped out the back door. Butch and Jason had passed out in the front room. Dan had gone to bed and was sleeping. Anyway, I looked for the north star like you told me to." Charlie glanced at Cord.
Cord smiled.
"Then what happened?"
"Well I walked for a long while, but stepped in a prairie dog hole and hurt my ankle. It wasn't light enough to see them."
"What's this about stealing a horse?" Lilly asked with a frown, knowing he was leaving things out.
"Well yeah." Charlie looked down, as though ashamed of what he'd done. "I had to Ma. Dan followed me, and the only thing I could think of to get him with was a rock, so I found one and threw it and it hit him in the head. Then I stole his horse. But when I got real thirsty, I stopped to get water from a cactus like Cord told me about. That's when the horse ran off. Then Don Diego found me." He looked at both of them. "Am I in a lot of trouble?" His expression looked prepared for the worse.
"Under the circumstances I'd say you've more than paid for your troubles." Cord smiled. "Get some sleep, oh, wait, where were you when you hit Dan?"
"I don't know, at first I headed North, but when daylight came, I was lost, I think that's when I got off course. When we rode here it looked like we were coming from the northwest."
"Good, get some sleep, we'll talk later."
Lilly kissed him on the cheek. "We're glad you are alright. You rest and stay off that ankle. It's pretty swollen. We'll talk later though.
"Yes, Ma'am."
He smiled, laid his head back on the pillow and went to sleep.
Cord and Lilly went back to the kitchen.
"Did you talk to him?" Maria asked anxiously.
