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"Teaspoon, don't you think we should stop here before we go much farther"? Cody asked as they hit the outskirts of Rock Creek after their late night journey. It was almost three in the morning when they rode by Kid and Lou's house.
"Cody, we need to get as far as we can before we stop. We're gunna ride at least a coupla hours more. These men are ahead of us, and I want to get as close to em' as we can. They're going to have to make a stop sometime tonight too." Teaspoon replied.
"Show me where they took off from and we can follow their tracks," Buck offered.
"Yeah, I would but we had such a bad wind storm yesterday that I think it's wiped any trace of them away." Kid replied sullenly. Getting off his horse, he placed his hands on his hips and looked around thoughtfully, almost as if he hoped for an immediate magical answer to how they might hunt down those men.
"There's more than one way to track." Buck said softly.
"Kid, we need to water our horses. Do you have a trough around"? Jimmy asked.
"Yeah, follow me."
Dismounting, Kid led the riders over to the side of the barn where the water was.
"Kid where are the tracks that you found"? Buck asked.
"Right over on this side, I'll show you." Kid motioned in the direction as he handed Jimmy Katy's reins and started off to the opposite side of the house.
It was much to their advantage that theire was a full moon. The ground was clearly visible and Kid was glad that Buck seemed so confident in his abilities to trail the kidnappers.
They walked in silence until Kid looked down at the ground. "The tracks were right around in this area and they headed off to the south."
"This will be easy. The wind did shift some of the marks, but it's nothing I can't follow," Buck said, kneeling down.
Kid let out a deep breath of relief, "Thanks Buck, I owe you."
"Are you kidding? You helped me many times. Besides, this isn't a favor, it's is a matter of saving someone in my family that I care about."
Smiling at his Kiowa friend, Kid began walking back towards the others with Buck. Even in these bad circumstances it felt good to be back with his family again. It had been too long since their last meeting, and Kid couldn't imagine going through this hard time with anyone else. He knew he could depend on his friends.
As Kid and Buck approached the others they came in on a conversation between Jimmy and Teaspoon.
"You know Teaspoon our horses need a rest, actually WE need a rest. I think we should stop here for a while and sleep. We'll only be two hours later," Jimmy stated.
"Yeah son, I guess you're right. Kid could certainly use the rest, so could his horse."
Kid stepped forward immediately objecting. "I'm not going to be sleeping anyway, and I can take Lou's horse. Teaspoon, that's two hours we could spend getting closer to her." Kid paused and looked down at the ground. He knew his friend was right. He wouldn't be much good to Lou or any of them in his present condition. Besides, they needed rest too. "OK, there's plenty of room upstairs. We can put the horses in the barn and our hired help will be here first thing in the morning to feed them before we leave."
They all admired Kid's ability to make the right decision, even though goodness knows that wasn't easy. All of them nodded silently and gathered their few belongings off of the saddles. Each of them felt for Kid and the struggle he was facing, and they all wished that with a stroke of their hand they could make all of the worry, troubles, and fears of the situation vanish.
"I can't wait to see this place in the morning, but it looks like you two have done a wonderful job of fixing this house up." Jimmy said, wanting to break the torturous silence that loomed all around them.
"Thanks, we have certainly put a lot into it. We're hoping that by next spring we can bring in some horses and start breeding and selling," Kid responded, glad that the topic of conversation had been light.
Inside the house, Kid directed them to the food, and after they had each gotten a little something, he showed his friends to the rooms.
"Boy, you've got yourself a lot of space here," Cody said admiringly. "Kinda reminds me of a general's house I stayed at during the war."
"We're happy with it, although there's more space than we need. We just figured it might come in handy someday," Kid replied.
"Somehow I don't picture you with kids, Kid." Cody chuckled at his own little tease. "But then I never thought I'd live to see Teaspoon take two baths in a month."
Everyone was so focused on Cody that they didn't notice the saddened look that crossed Kid's face as he stared at the floor. Why did Cody have to remind me of kids? Jimmy was the only one to finally notice his expression, but decided that he had better wait to ask him what was wrong until later that morning when they had gotten some rest.
Teaspoon stood erect, "Now jest what's that supposed to mean"?
Everyone smiled and they split into two separate rooms. Saying short goodnights they went straight to bed to get what would probably be about two hours sleep.
Kid did exactly as he expected and just rolled on his back looking up at the ceiling. Jimmy, who was now asleep beside him, had obviously had no trouble getting into his own "dream" world. He slept restlessly just like Kid had remembered he did in the bunkhouse. Sometimes Jimmy would groan for a couple of hours before settling down into a more peaceful sleep.
As Kid tried to force himself to get some rest he kept continuously thinking about how horrible it must be for Lou right now. She was probably cold, scared, and unsure of what was going on. Lou, I'm coming for you. Stick with it, this will all be over soon. When you get back, we're going to have the best time together, and I'm never going to let you be taken away like this again. I almost lost you last year, and it won't happen now. Kid smiled to himself at the memory of her excitement that he was going to take her out. Before he knew it, he was fast asleep with the vision of Lou's smile reflecting his own. She was back with him, and once again he felt like the luckiest man on earth.
For Lou, this had probably been the longest night of her life. She had tossed for hours with her hands and feet tied together and absolutely no support for her head. The rocks beneath her kept stabbing her in the side. Lou remembered what it was like to sleep outside when she was riding for the Express, but for some reason tonight it felt that she had never been so uncomfortable in her life. Finally surrendering to the conditions, she settled for being flat on her back where she could look at the stars and gaze at the full moon. Kid would have taken me out for a walk on a beautiful night like this. He always did say that the prettiest patterns of nature were found in the stars. Oh, Kid....I don't know why this is happening, I just want to be back with you. Louise looked at the men around her. Jed was still sitting erect keeping watch and picking his teeth, while his brothers snored in a restless sleep. Turning back to the stars, Lou began to think of any possible way that she could break away from these men, or at least leave some sign for Kid to follow.
What I really want to know is where we're headed. These men obviously had this planned out very carefully, and with that crack about the 'law side.' They must've meant that they're working with someone, but who? Lou decided that it was time she found out what this was about. As she figured it prying wasn't going to get her into anymore trouble then she was already in.
Kid was so tired and deep in sleep that he didn't hear Jimmy get up to go downstairs in the early morning. Jimmy found Teaspoon sitting at the table staring into an empty cup in front of him. "Did you not sleep well Teaspoon"? Jimmy asked.
"Nah, never do when something like this is up," he responded not looking up.
Jimmy slowly walked over and sat at the table opposite his old friend, "You're really worried about this aren't you"?
Teaspoon paused a moment before answering. His gazed was still fixed on the cup which rested between his hands. "To be truthful, yes. I don't want to say much about it now."
With that Jimmy knew that he would not get any further with Teaspoon. When he had his mind set to not talk about something, he just wasn't going to do it. Besides, Jimmy wasn't sure he wanted to hear what was on his friend's mind anyway....it didn't seem like it would be very promising.
Standing up Jimmy started to walk back towards the stairs. "I'll go wake the others, I think it's time we got going."
"Yep, I reckon so." Teaspoon nodded in acknowledgment and started out to saddle the horses.
The sun was still rising above the horizon when the boys mounted their horses for their quest to rescue Lou. Kid had gathered plenty of food, and they all had their own water supply. Jimmy had wanted so much to ask Kid what it was that had troubled him in Cody's statement earlier that morning, but still he hadn't felt that it was the right time. I guess I'll just ask him next time we stop, Jimmy thought. He's got so much on his mind it might not be anything. Still, he wouldn't be at ease until he found out for sure.
"I think we're ready." Teaspoon said to his companions. Then with lightning speed the five of them took off, unsure of what the next few days would bring.
"Get up woman, it's time to be movin'." Henry said as he gave Lou a swift shove with his foot. She rolled onto her side and groaned at the stiffness in her neck. Pushing herself up with her shoulder she sat up straight and eyed the man who was standing over her with a frustrated glare.
"Where are we headed"? She asked rubbing her sore shoulder with her tied hands.
"That ain't important. Just get yourself up, we're behind schedule and we gotta make up for some lost time."
Lou began looking around her surroundings for some place that she could leave a mark of where she had been. She knew Kid would be after her, and she was going to do everything that she could to help him find her.
