A couple hours later, Kid rode into Cottonwood and headed straight for the Marshal's office. He was shocked to hear familiar voices coming from inside.

"Marshal, we know she isn't here. Her horse is at the livery and her things are still at the hotel! All of them. She is missing."

"Now look here Mr. Cody. Just because you can't find the girl, Miss Macloud was it? Well just because you can't find her does not mean she is missing. Maybe she went off somewhere with those two friends the hotel clerk was telling you about. I don't know. But there's nothing I can do without some real evidence."

"I just told you that all her things are still here. Her horse is still here! You don't call that real evidence?!"

"No, I don't. And if you don't get out of my office right now, I'll lock you up for causing a disturbance!"

"Marshal," Kid could hear Buck's calm voice. "We're not trying to tell you how to do your job, but we know Miss Macloud very well, and she would never just go off with her friends and leave everything behind."

"I understand that boy, but like I said before, its not enough evidence to point towards her missing."

"How about this?" Kid walked in.

"Kid, what are you doing here?" Cody asked, glancing at Buck. Kid was really going to hurt them now.

"I came to talk to the Marshal. I know where Lou is, and she is in trouble!"

"Suppose you just sit down and tell me the whole story son."

Jimmy was getting worried. He had managed to find a hiding place closer to the cabin, and now he could hear everything the gang members were saying. It didn't sound good.

"Logan, we can't keep three hostages for very long. We only planned on having two, and only for a few days. Now we have three, and probably for at least a month. And what if the girl has friends that come after us?"

"Calm down Shawn! We're only keeping the girl, Louise, in case those pony express riders show up. If they aren't here by dawn, we'll get rid of her. If the aren't here by then, they probably aren't coming anyway. And if they do show up, we can handle them without needing a hostage. The girl just provides extra insurance."

"Kid, please hurry," Jimmy whispered to himself. Lou was in real danger, and at that moment Jimmy was relieved he had made Kid leave. It was all he could do to keep himself from charging at the two men. If Kid were the one who stayed, Jimmy would probably return with the Marshal and his posse, only to find Kid and Lou's bodies left behind by the gang. They would figure that one of the riders went to get the Marshal and flee to a new hideout after they killed Lou and the Kid....

Jimmy shook his head, trying to stop his morbid imaginations. He had to focus on formulating some kind of plan. Hopefully Kid would be back soon, and he had to have a plan. It looked like they wouldn't have much time.

"Louise, what are we going to do? I'm not just going to sit here and let them kill us." Lou smiled at Elizabeth's whispered message. Lizzy had always had more courage than most girls. Anna too, and they proved they still did once the shock of being held hostage had worn off. That was probably why the three girls were such good friends.

"Kid and Jimmy will be coming after the gang, I'm sure. Kid would never let anyone get away with stealing his horse. When they get here, just try to stay out of the gunfire as much as possible. There's not really anything else we can do."

"So you're sayin' the whole Carter gang is camped out in a cabin only two hours from here?"

Kid nodded grimly.

"And they are holding that lady friend of yours hostage?"

"Look Marshal, I would love to stay and repeat the story, but that's my girlfriend they've got. I'd appreciate it if you would round up a posse so we could go after them before its too late?"

"Of course, son. You boys wait here, and I'll be back in just a few minutes." He headed out the door.

"Kid, do you have a plan? I mean, we can't just charge in there with a posse if they have a hostage," Cody asked.

"I don't know, Cody. Me coming back here for the Marshal was Jimmy's idea. I would rather be back there watching out for Lou. But as soon as I saw they had her, my brain shut down. This is Jimmy's plan. I can't even think right now."

"Well, then we have to trust Jimmy to have a plan when we get there," Buck smiled at Kid. "And don't worry Kid, he will."

Jimmy had been sitting in the woods watching the cabin ever since he had returend to his original hiding place two hours ago. There was a lot of activity going on, and he desparately wished he could have remained closer to the cabin, where he could hear what was going on. But there was a bigger chance he would be caught there and that wouldn't help Lou at all. Besides, Kid had to know where to find him.

So for two hours he had been watching the activity of the gang; the whole time trying to formulate some kind of plan to get Lou and the other two hostages out of there.

The only thing he could come up with was to use the posse to distract the gang so he and Kid could sneak into their camp and rescue Lou and everyone else. The only problem was, anyway he could figure out for him and Kid to get down there without being seen required more than two people.

Buck and Kid could sneak around behing the cabin, and Cody could get range on anyone on the porch from that rock. I could sneak around from the other side....

It was no use. Buck and Cody were in Rock Creek. It was up to just him and Kid. It looked like they needed a miracle.

"Jimmy," Kid walked up to him. "The posse is waiting just behind that clump of trees. And look who showed up in Cottonwood, looking for Lou when she didn't come back from her run."

"Cody and Buck! Well, there's my miracle."

"What?" Cody asked.

"Nothing. Listen carefully, here's the plan."

Thirty minutes later, the posse waited at the edge of the woods for Cody's signal. Jimmy had managed to sneak around to the other side of the cabin. He was joined by Buck and Kid, who were awaiting their chance to get behind the cabin.

Suddenly, Cody fired a shot in the air. The posse showed themselves as three of the gang members appeared on the porch.

"Logan Carter!" The Marshal yelled. "You and your brothers are under arrest for bank robbery! Give up now! You are surrounded; there is no escape!"

"Well Marshal, you are wrong there!" Logan Carter appeared on the porch, Lou held in front of him. "You see, if any of you come any closer or try to apprehend me or my brothers, this pretty little lady is gonna die!"

It took all of Kid's self-control, along with the help of a restraining grip on his arms by Jimmy and Buck, to keep him from rushing the man who was holding a gun to Lou's head.

"It'll be okay Kid. The posse's not gonna do anything to put Lou in danger." Jimmy tried to reassure him.

"She already is in danger!" Kid exclaimed. "Or am I only imagining this?" he asked, almost desparately wishing it was so.

"I'm sorry Kid, you're right. Lou is in danger. But the posse won't put her in any more danger. If it gets too serious, or maybe I should say, too much worse," Buck quickly corrected himself when he saw the look on Kid's face, "they will back off. They aren't going to let her get killed Kid."

"You two better get ready to go," Jimmy said. "Be careful though, there's one more inside with the other two hostages. They probably have a gun on the back door."

Their attention was diverted from the cabin as the Marshal suddenly called to Logan again.

"I'm only telling you one more time, Carter! Surrender, or we'll be forced to fire!"

"You'd force me to kill this pretty little lady? Why Marshal, you aren't much of a gentleman, putting a lady in danger unnecessarily."

"The way I look at it Carter is we have to sacrifice the one to keep you boys from hurting any more people!"

Kid, Buck and Jimmy looked at each other in shock. "That dirty little..." Kid began to mumble.

"He's only out for his own glory. He doesn't even care who gets in the way!" Buck said increduously.

"We should have known," Kid moaned.

"Why would you have known, Kid? He's a lawman!" Jimmy asked.

"Well, he didn't even want to help us when Cody and I first told him Lou was missing," Buck explained. "But when Kid walked in and told him the Carter gang was nearby and had Lou, he stopped insisting he couldn't help and practically jumped at the opportunity to catch them."

"He's gonna try to bring them in whether Lou's in danger or not," Kid said, his voice icy. "I'm going to stop this right now!" He jumped up and ran toward the porch, and Jimmy and Buck could do nothing to stop him.

On to The Conclusion!