By Aimee
Anna and Elizabeth began to cry as Tommy and Shawn pulled Lou to her feet and dragged her outside. "Why are you doing this?" Elizabeth asked hysterically.
Lou struggled as they forced her outside, but she couldn't fight against the two men. As they pulled her onto the porch, she suddenly stopped. "Katy!" she gasped.
The two men followed her eyes toward Kid's horse who was tied up outside the barn. "Nice horse ain't it?" Shawn said. "Logan took it from some poor sap at the bank in St. Jo. Probably belonged to one of them Pony Express riders. We think they're followin' us," he said to Michael and Giles, who, along with Logan had come outside to see what was taking them so long. "We covered up our tracks pretty good, so they should have a really hard time catching us."
"Do you know them?" Logan asked Lou. When she didn't answer he said, "You do, don't you?"
"She knew the horse's name." Tommy said. "She knows them."
"In that case, another hostage probably will come in handy. With them two boys on our trail, having someone they know will work to our advantage." Logan said. "Take her back inside."
"I hope we're gettin' close. We can't keep goin' much longer."
"I'm gonna follow them until I get Katy back," Kid said. "You can do whatever you want Jimmy."
"Kid, you know I'll help you as long as it takes. But look at what we're up against. We're almost out of supplies, we've been ridin' for days, and there's only two of us against five of them."
"There was only three of them," Kid said.
"No Kid. There was only three of them at the bank in St. Jo. There's five in the gang. At least. My guess is the ones we're following are gonna meet up with the rest fo the gang. And it looks like they're headed toward Cottonwood."
"That makes sense." Kid nodded. "All the holdups have been in an area with just a couple days ride of Cottonwood. They're probably hidin' out somewhere near there."
"Well, we're only a couple hours from Cottonwood now. We'd better take it slower and more careful. We don't want to..." Jimmy stopped talking as they came to the edge of the woods. In the clearing was a small cabin. Outside were several horses, including Katy. "Well it looks as if we found them," he said as they dismounted and concealed their horses in the woods.
The boys stayed low as they surveyed their surroundings. "What are we gonna do?" Jimmy asked, letting Kid make the plan. It was his horse after all.
"I don't know yet. Judging by the number of horses, there's at least five of them, maybe more."
The boys gasped as they saw two men drag a woman onto the porch.
"Lou!" Kid exclaimed. "What's she doin' here?"
"Now what are we gonna do? What's happening?" Both boys faces turned pale as they realized what was going on.
"They're gonna kill her." Jimmy glanced at Kid. His eyes were cold, steely blue. "Kid don't do anything foolish."
"I can't just stand here and let them kill her Jimmy. I have to do something." Kid was about to rush the men when they abruptly brought Lou back inside the cabin.
"It looks like they changed their minds," Jimmy said.
"We have to do something fast. We have no idea they're gonna do to her." Kid's eyes were now filled with worry.
"I've got a plan," Jimmy said. "Here's what we'll do."