"So you figure the guys got an early start outta Walker's Ridge?" At least, that's what Chris assumed JD was asking him. It was hard to decipher exactly what was being said around the huge mouthful of food he was trying to work his way through. You'd have thought with Buck out of town, the kid would have slowed on his habit of devouring breakfast before his 'big brother' could steal half of it off his plate. Guess he'd been too well conditioned.
"Ezra's with them, so early is a relative term. Vin would have tried to get them going so as they could get back here before sunset, but I ain't holding my breath on that."
Josiah chuckled as he pulled up a seat to join them, setting his plateful of steak and eggs down. "No doubt it would be a challenge to rouse Ezra after a late night at the tables. And have to encourage Buck to leave the comfort of whatever companionship he found in order to get on their way would be a comparable trial."
"Better not have been any tables or companionship on this trip. They were there on a job, and that was full time."
It wasn't common for the men to hire themselves out to other communities for protection, but when Sheriff Taylor from Walker's Ridge telegraphed that he was going to be stuck out of town because of a family crisis they made an exception. The man had been of help to them in the past with a couple of prisoner transfers, so it seemed like a fair request. And when Chris discovered that a federal shipment cash and gold was going to be stored in the bank and that there would be only a novice deputy left to watch the town, he agreed to send three men to act as security for the couple of days the temptation was there.
"With the sheriff back, you'd think the boys would be itching to get back home." Josiah smiled as JD nodded agreement while shovelling more eggs into his mouth. The boy was going to choke if he didn't slow down.
Chris knew that while he would have been anxious to be on the road, these three wouldn't feel the same sense of restlessness. "Taylor isn't actually due in until later today, but once the money moves on, there is no real point in them sticking around. And," he glanced over to the clock on the wall, "the army escort should have taken over the responsibility and be on their way by now."
"Well, even with an early start, the boys won't be back till late. Doubt they plan to rush any." Josiah relaxed back into his seat, sawing away at his steak. "Nathan's scheduled to patrol this morning but will be sticking fairly close to town I think. I'm gonna be at the church if you need me for most of the day."
"Still working on the roof?" It struck Chris that structure was a never-ending project. Seemed fitting somehow that a church was taking an eternity to build.
"Just have to see how the spirit moves me."
JD was sopping up what was left of the eggs from his plate. "I'll be at the jail Chris. Got another mess of wanted posters in with the last mail and I was gonna see if anyone new or interesting is in the bundle. The last time…" he faded off when he realized he had lost Chris's attention. He turned to see what the distraction was, and saw the telegraph operator coming toward them, holding out a telegraph. The look indicated it wasn't good news.
"For you Mr. Larabee. From the deputy at Walker's Ridge." He scurried away, not wanting to be close to the reaction.
Chris looked at the paper, his face clouding over. "Shit. Just once, could they not stay out of trouble?" He looked at his colleagues quickly, then read the message aloud. "Two of your men need medical help. Badly injured. Come quick."
Josiah was on his feet before the reading was done. "I'll get Nathan before he heads out. Then get us saddled up."
"Someone has to stay here Josiah." They both looked to JD, who was frozen in place, clearly terrified by the odds. Two of the three needed medical. That meant there was a good chance Buck was hurt. Or worse.
Nodding reluctantly, Josiah relinquished his position. "Fine, you three go, but send word soon as you get there." He hurried out to update Nathan.
"No guarantee Buck was hurt JD." Chris wasn't at his best when it came to comforting people.
"You think I feel any better about it being Vin or Ezra? And why is the deputy sending this instead of whoever ain't hurt?"
"You can't assume it's because anyone is dead JD. We can't assume anything. Go get Milagro ready. I'll be right behind you."
Chris made his way to the telegraph office, sending notice back to the deputy, as well as letting Judge Travis know there was trouble. He would have Josiah talk to a few of the townsmen about lending a hand with keeping an eye on things until they could get back. By the time he made it over to the livery, Nathan and JD were both mounted up, and Pony was ready for him.
He looked over to Josiah. "Send you word as soon as we get there. You get some help around here. Don't exhaust yourself. We'll get back soon as we can."
"No idea from the message who was hurt, or how bad?" Nathan had to ask, even though he knew the answer. Chris just shook his head quickly.
"We'll find out when we get there."
As they started out, JD paused and looked back. "Since you're gonna be spending some time working on the church, you mind saying a few prayers while you're there?"
"Already working on it JD. Already working on it."
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They pushed the horses as hard as they dared. It was a long day, but fortunately at least the weather was on their side enough to make travel tolerable. There wasn't much conversation along the way, with each man distracted by thoughts of what was waiting at the end of the ride.
Nathan kept a couple of bags ready to be able to offer whatever medical assistance might be needed he could at a moment's notice. Not only did the telegram not say who was hurt, but also left out little details like how, so he brought both. He would have bet money this was going to turn out to be a gunshot, since it was more than one man down. The severity was unknown. Anything from flesh wound to – well, to a hell of a lot worse. His mind kept running over the processes he might have to perform, trying to get himself ready for any eventuality.
It was a battle for JD to keep himself from running Milagro full out to get to Walker's Ridge. Knowing logically it made no sense to exhaust the horse was a totally different matter to being able to resist the impulse. Bad enough that two of his friends were hurt – but the not knowing was the worst part. He couldn't help feel a bit of guilt over hoping Buck wasn't one of them. It wasn't that he wanted anything bad to happen to Vin or Ezra. That would be awful. But it was going to be worse if it was Buck. He knew it wasn't right to feel that way – to favour one over the others, but he couldn't help himself. They were all friends, good friends. The best he'd ever had. But Buck was more. He was the brother he'd never had, and the idea he was hurt, or gone, was more that he thought he could handle. The sooner he knew what was happening, the sooner he might be able to breathe normally again.
Scenarios of what might have gone wrong raced through Chris's mind. Everything from a foiled robbery attempt to a skirmish over a poker game that got out of hand seemed to be reasonable options. Or the men could have tried to break up a fight or got caught in some kind of accident for that matter. Each option was as likely as the previous one. The problem was that the more he thought on them, the worse the outcomes became. And there was the nagging question JD had asked when they got word on this. Why had the deputy sent word? If two men were hurt, the third should have been notifying Chris. More scenarios. Could be that the third man was hunting down someone. Or was hurt as well, not critical, but too bad to send the message. Was dead. He tried not to think too much on the last one.
The jailhouse was easy to spot when they go to town. There weren't a whole lot of buildings there to have to choose from. As towns went, it was hardly a bustling metropolis. The crossroads location and proximity to the new rail line meant it was likely to grow, but that spurt hadn't really taken off yet. Chris was dismounting when the sheriff came out.
"You made good time Larabee. Follow me."
"What happened Sheriff?"
"Don't rightly know yet. I just got back into town myself about 20 minutes ago. Don't have the details, other than it was an attempt on the gold and cash last night. Four robbers – all dead. And you've got two men hurt. One with a shot to his arm and a graze to the head. Johnson – my deputy – tells me he woke up a while ago, and other than a hellacious headache seems to be ok. Other fella's worse off. Leg wound and gut shot. He's holding on, but only just."
JD couldn't contain himself. "Who's who? Who was shot?"
"The one who woke up is Tanner. Don't know which the other is. Haven't had a chance to see them for myself."
"The third?" Chris asked tentatively. Best answer, he was sitting with the wounded. Worst…
"Drinking himself into oblivion from what I was told. Johnson says he's blaming himself."
JD fought down the swell of panic. To him, that meant only one thing. Buck was shot bad, and Ezra had screwed up in some way to let it happen. The only thing keeping him from running ahead was the fact he still didn't know where they were headed.
The same anger was welling up in Chris. How the hell had Ezra let this happen? If he was blaming himself, that means he wasn't there last night, or wasn't focused on it. Which meant only one thing as far as Larabee was concerned, and he was going to wring the gamblers scrawny neck over it. Standish had gotten himself into a poker game when he was supposed to be standing guard.
"We'll deal with that later. First things first." Chris followed the sheriff into the boarding house.
"We set them up in here. Mrs. Chamberlain has been watching over them. She's a decent enough care giver, but they need doctoring." He led them to a back room.
Vin was in the first bed. He was pale, and definitely had seen better days, but didn't look like he was in danger of leaving them anytime soon. He turned his head at the sound, and grinned weakly at them. "Nice of you guys to come see us."
Chris smiled back, relieved to hear his friend's voice sounding pretty good under the circumstances. He took a couple more steps in and found himself slack-jawed when the second patient came into view.
Pain was evident on his ghostly pale face, even though he appeared to be unconscious. He was drenched in sweat, despite Mrs. Chamberlain's best efforts to keep him cool and wipe his face down. Several red-stained towels sat in a pail next to the bed, evidence of how much blood had been lost, and the fact he was still bleeding. The man looked to be a death's door, with one foot over the threshold.
"Ezra?"
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tbc
