By: M.L. Tankesly
Copyright 1999
NOTE TO READERS:
See part one for all disclaimers and assorted warnings. The writer takes no responsibility for the continuing butchering of history, but promises to try not to goof up the geography of Kansas......too much. To the Great Spirit of Spelling, if I offend thou, I offer my most humblest of apologies. The Great Spirit of Grammar, however, can bite me. {English is not my first language and I still think like a German when I'm writing, so please bear with me. I sometimes get ahead of myself and it shows up in my writing when I start putting nouns and verbs in strange places. *big grin*} With that said and if anyone is still with me.........off to the races.
Lou McCloud slowly climbed into Katie's saddle, at the Kid's insistence, trying not to pass out or throw up at the sudden change in altitude. She was well aware of the concerned eyes of her fellow Riders watching her every move, ready to assist her at a moment's notice, if she should lose her battle with either unconsciousness or nausea.
"You sure you're going to make it?" Teaspoon Hunter asked pulling up beside her voicing the question that everyone wanted to, unsure if allowing Lou to go tracing off through the countryside was such a good idea. 'Sometimes this boy can be too stubborn,' Teaspoon thought watching Lou right herself in the saddle and give him a weak smile. 'Stubborn mule, too gutsy to know any better,' Teaspoon added recalling that he once saw Lou make a run with a raging fever and a nagging cough that only recently left the boy.
"Yeah, I'll make it," Lou replied in a weak voice, before spurring Katie into motion. Shaking his head at the retreating form of the young Express Rider, Teaspoon could only hope that they could get to the bottom of Emma's disappearance and Lou's attack before the young man fell flat on his face.
"All right boys let's get a move on!" Hunter called out with one last thought of Lou McCloud and the boy's stubborn nature. 'Maybe his pa was part billy goat?'
The departure of the little rescue party, along with a few other volunteers, was observed by most of the town folks on the streets including a figure secluded on the second floor of the hotel. "So it begins." Peter Nicholaas said watching the last rider leave town to unknowingly meet their destiny.
"Not much you can do about that, Peter." The room's other occupant commented from his post beside the door. "It's going to happen with or without your approval."
"Do you ever get tried of your job, Drago? Watching them go about their daily lives unaware of us?" Peter asked turning to face the young man standing in the shadows by the door. As long as Peter Nicholaas had known Drago, the youth had always preferred to stand in the shadows, calling as little attention to himself as possible. 'Most be a cultural thing with his people,' Peter thought for the thousandth times. He knew that when Drago did step out of the shadows, he was considered by many women to be rather handsome with his dark features and piercing gray eyes that seemed to glow from within.
"Someone has to keep an eye on our young cousins. They do have this tendency to get into rather unfortunate trouble when left to their own devices. That and Pax did give me this assignment," came the reply.
"And you wouldn't want to get on Pax's bad side." Peter finished with a knowing smile. "So what do we do now?"
"We wait for the gates of hell to brake open and then we close them again." Drago replied soberly.
"I was afraid that was the plan."
A few hours later the group pulled to a stop where Lou had been jumped. Getting off his horse, Buck Cross crouched down beside the numerous tracks made in the dirt trail leading toward the Widow Todd's place. "I count seven of them, they lead the buckboard that way," Buck reported pointing down the trail.
"Something's funny about this, Teaspoon. They ain't even trying to hide the tracks." Hickok commented, having gotten off his horse to do his own inspection of the area.
Teaspoon only nodded at the news, most of his attention focused on Lou, who was slightly hunched over in the saddle, trying not to pass out. 'The boy looks bad,' he thought, but know without a doubt what Lou's reaction would be to any suggestion to going back to Sweetwater. 'No, its best to keep Lou with me, so I know where he's at and don't have to worry about what he's up to.'
"All right boys, we follow the tracks. Buck, you and Jennings scout ahead, I don't need any surprises. The rest of you stay loose, we may be riding into a trap." Cain spoke up a sense of unspeakable dread forming in his gut. 'This ain't good.'
A mile or so down the road Buck called the group to a stop. "The tracks split up here. Looks like three of them headed east, while the rest of them continued on."
"All right, Jennings take a handful with you and see if you can pick up those three that turned off. The rest come with me, we're going to follow the buckboard tracks." Cain ordered. "Looks like they're headed for the Widow's place."
Approaching the homestead slowly, the group carefully makes their way to the main house, watchful for any unpleasant surprises. "The buckboard's over by the barn." Cody whispered to the Kid, with a nod of his head. "Doesn't look like anyone's been here in a while."
"Listen up, stay sharp everyone. Cody, you and the Kid check out the barn. Buck and Hickok check out the bunk house and the field behind it. Teaspoon, you Gillian and O'Rourke keep watch out here. Lou you're with me, we're checking out the house." Cain ordered in a low voice, bring his horse to a stop outside of where the barn, bunk house and main house formed an inner court yard of sorts.
Giving Cain a brief nod, Lou slid off of Katie, the pounding in her head having eased a bit on the ride out allowing her to focus her thoughts a little more. At least, she wasn't seeing double anymore and everybody had stopped yelling at the top of their lungs. 'Can't sneak up on anyone with these clowns.'
Approaching the two story farmhouse, Sam and Lou both felt the hairs on the back of their necks stand up. "I'll go right and you go left. We'll take the top floor together, nice and slow." Cain said without moving his lips, suddenly wishing that he had brought one of the others with him. He had meant to keep Lou with him, his fatherly instincts kicking in toward the boy, so he'd know just where the youth was if all hell broke loose.
Entering the dimly lit house, the two immediately break off to conduct their search of the small somewhat unkempt house. 'Odd, doesn't look like anyone has really taken care of anything in a while,' Sam thought to his self noting the state of disarray the house was in. 'Emma would go crazy in this place.'
A few minutes later, Sam was standing in the parlor looking around, his hand on his gun. The two had just checked the upstairs and found nothing, literally. No furniture, no clothes, nothing. This whole thing was getting more and more confusing by the second. When they had came back down stairs, Lou thought he had heard something and went to check it out. Personally, Cain thought the boy had imagined it, the house was empty. Still the boy looked like he could use the "busy work", to get his mind off of Emma, so Sam let him check it out.
For her part, Lou McCloud felt like growling in frustration, she was positive she had heard something moving around downstairs while they had been on the second floor. Finding nothing, she headed back to the parlor where Sam was waiting. "Better get this over with and go help the others search the rest of the farm."
Sam Cain was still puzzling over what the two had found or didn't find, in their search when Lou walked back into the room. Glancing up to knowledge the young man, he was surprised to see a look of pure hatred come over the boy's face and than Lou was raising his gun, aiming for him?! Instinct took over as Cain automatically drew his own weapon. No thinking, just gut reaction, it had kept him alive several times in the past. As the gun cleared its holster and Sam took aim, two things happened at once. First Sam caught a reflection in the mirror, that has behind Lou on the wall, and second he heard a gun shot. However, both events where too late for him to change his reflexive action. He had already fired his gun when a blinding pain tore though his back sending him into unconsciousness.
Cain and Lou's guns were fired simultaneously, their shots sounding like one gun going off. Cain's bullet had caught Lou in the upper shoulder, tearing through the fleshy part and causing a bloody trail to start running down her arm. As for Lou's bullet, it had missed its intended target, burying itself into an old picture frame. She never got off another shot as her target took off out the back way, Lou not far behind. However, she lost the figure when he bailed out the back door. 'No matter, the others will catch him.' She thought going back to check on Sam.
Outside, Teaspoon Hunter and Liam O'Rourke had their own suspicions about the whole setup, something about the Widow's homestead was bothering the two men. Neither man had ever made it a habit of ignoring their own instincts, one just didn't do such things and expect to live very long in the west.
"This isna, right." O'Rourke commented, in a slight Irish blur moving over to Hunter's position. "No one has lived here in awhile. Widow or no, this isna a kept place."
"Just what I was thinking," Teaspoon replied, wondering what was taking Cain and Lou so long in the house. "Call in the boys, we......" Teaspoon was cut off by the sound of gun shots coming from the house.
Without further word, both men broke for the front door, determined to get to the bottom of this little mystery that seemed to had taken hold around Lou McCloud. Taking the two steps up to the house in one leap, Teaspoon cleared the tiny pouch in a split second, slamming through the front door with O'Rourke close behind. Guns drawn, they entered the dimmly lit house, eyes searching for the source of the gun shots. They find it in the parlor, just off the main hall, however, the sight that greets them is one they were never suspecting.
Lou had came back into the parlor and was kneeling over Sam Cain's body when Teaspoon and O'Rourke came crashing into the house. Unsure of who they are at first, she raises her gun, to defend the prone Cain, only to have her head explored in pain for the second time that day.
"What didya do that for??!!" O'Rourke demanded, holstering his weapon and dropping down to tend to two figures littering the floor.
"I....I..thought the boy was drawing on ya," Charlie Gillian stammered, trying to cover his mistake. 'The damn runt, almost killed the boss.'
"Aye, well dona be thinking anymore," O'Rourke growled back checking for a pulse on Lou. "The laddie is still with us, Cain too. But we'll be needing to get them both back ta town." He reported absently, his mind turning over the events of the past few moments. Something about what just happened, didn't make any sense to him. The foremost in his mind being Gillian's sudden appearance behind Lou, 'wasna he suppose to be keeping watch wit me an' Teaspoon?,' he wondering, remembering that the other man had disappeared right before the shots were heard.
Teaspoon also had questions, however, he didn't have anytime to wonder about them as the rest of their party showed up. Cody was the first to arrive in the room followed closely by the Kid and Hickok, who had the misfortune of slipping in a small trail of blood by the parlor's doorway. "Lou!" The Kid yelled his instincts getting the better of him.
"Easy lad, your friend is still with us." O'Rourke calmly replied, putting up a restraining arm toward the Kid. "We'll be needing the wagon, Ah think Ah saw one by the barn when we rode in. Go and get it, take Gillian wit ya." He ordered, taking charge of the situation. "Now laddie." He gently urged then it looked like the Kid was going to stay put in the room.
"Go on Kid, you too Charlie." Teaspoon ordered with a jerk of his head. Watching the two leave, he turned his attention back to O'Rourke, who was in the process of rolling Lou off of Cain's body with Cody's help.
"Hickok, find out where that blood goes to," Teaspoon said noting the blood stain that was growing on Lou's upper right arm.
"Strange, how the boyo can be shot in the arm and Cain in the back when its just the two of'em in here?" O'Rourke commented applying pressure to Sam's back wound. "It doesna look to bad, Ah dona think it got anything important." He added more to himself then anyone else. Liam O'Rourke was a man with a shady past, one part police officer, one part thief, he owed his alliances to very few people. It just happened that one of those people had taking an interest in Lou McCloud and the knockabout lad from Dublin had found himself in the American wild west trying to keep an eye on the young Express Rider. 'Who are you Lou McCloud? An' why have ya such powerful friends?' He silently asked himself for the hundredth time since arriving in Sweetwater several months ago.
Next:
The return to Sweetwater, where the Widow Todd shows up and things go even stranger for Lou. Stay tuned for accusations, robbery, and other problems.
