"Rachel, we'll be back in a couple days." Buck and Cody were preparing to ride out. "Don't worry. I'm sure she's okay."

"I'm sure you're right, Buck. And I promise I won't worry too much." She smiled. "Or, I'll try not to anyway."

"Are you sure you can spare both of us?" Cody asked.

"Noah will be back this evening. There aren't any more runs scheduled until tomorrow afternoon. Kid and Jimmy should be back before then too, so one of them can take it."

"If you can keep Kid from going after Lou." Cody laughed.

"Ride safe boys."

"See you in a few days Rachel."

Logan stood out on the porch, his eyes scanning the landscape. Those express riders could show up any minute.

"Hey Logan." Giles came out to stand beside him. "What're you gonna do when those boys show up?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, they probably don't have any money for us to steal, and we've already got the horse; so what are we gonna do with them?"

"Well, they may not have anything we want, but if they find us we really can't let them get away. They'd have the law on us faster than we could blink."

"So what are we gonna do?"

"What's the matter Giles? Are you getting soft on us?"

"No...it's just that....well why do we have to kill them?"

"They're in our way. Do you want us to get caught?"

"No, but..."

"What else do you propose we do? Just leave them tied up so they can get free and come after us again? Maybe with a posse?

"No, I guess not. But killing them doesn't seem right. We always just stuck to robbing until now. We never killed anyone before."

"We never had to before. The Carter gang had a reputation that made people give us what we asked for without any trouble. But something tells me those express riders aren't gonna be like that. If they come around here, we'll have to kill them."

Cody and Buck rode into Cottonwood just as it was getting dark. "Where do we start looking?" Cody asked.

"Let's try the hotel. If she was in town overnight, she probably would have stayed there."

"If Lou just decided to take some time off, I'm gonna kill her." Cody complained.

"You know Lou better than that. She would never decide to just take some time off. Something's happened to her. I have a bad feeling."

"Well, Buck. I hope you're wrong. 'Cause if anything's happened to Lou, Kid will kill her."

"Yeah, then he'll kill us."

"So, let's go find her."

"How can I help you boys?" The desk clerk asked as they walked into the hotel lobby.

"We're looking for a friend of ours. A pony express rider. He might have stayed here a couple nights ago."

"Sorry, no express riders have been here lately."

"Well, he was supposed to meet his sister here. Did a Louise Macloud stay here?"

"Miss Macloud? Yes, she was here. Actually, she left yesterday without checking out. She owes me $3 for her room."

"Was she with anyone?"

"I don't recall..."

Buck took the money to pay for Lou's room out of his pocket. He silently handed it to the desk clerk.

"She ate dinner with two other girls the other night. I heard them talking about meeting for breakfast the next morning."

"Yesterday morning?"

"Yeah."

"Did she ever meet them?"

"I don't know. Probably. The maid found her things in her room yesterday afternoon, but we haven't seen her at all."

"Thanks. Come on Cody, let's go."

"Where are we going?"

"To the livery stable. To see if Lou took Lightning with her."

"I don't like it Jimmy! Going back to town will take too long!"

"Kid, its our only choice. If we try to atack them, Lou will probably get hurt, or worse. You head back to Cottonwood and get the Marshall to round up a posse. In the meantime, I'll keep watch and make sure nothing happens to Lou." Jimmy held up his hand to cut off Kid's protest. "You are not staying here Kid. You'd probably rush them and get yourself and Lou killed in the process. I'll keep and eye on things here."

"Jimmy..."

"Don't worry Kid," Jimmy said quietly. "I won't let anything happen to her."

Kid nodded as he headed toward his horse. Jimmy was right. The two of them were no match for the five gang members, especially since they had Lou. It just irritated him that Jimmy was right about his not staying. Any hint of a threat to Lou and he probably wouldn't be able to control himself. He just had to get to Cottonwood as fast as he could.

On to Chapter Seven