HAVING spent an extremely restful night on scratchy straw in a stuffy and hot hayloft, I was waiting near the saloon for the trial to begin. They wouldn't let women into the trial but I figured I just needed to wait until the fight and then no one would care if I walked in.
Listening from the outside, the trial proceeded much as I knew it would. Ben would see how the Sheriff betrays him once the subject of the bill of sale comes up. Then a small shouting match over that would start the fist fight. I waited.
The sound of raised voices and the screech of chairs being pushed back flagged my attention. I peeked through the swinging doors and saw fists flying. And there was Adam closest to me. Hurriedly I ran in and grabbed his arm. It was a good thing my grip was tight for the first thing he tried to do was fling me off. But when he saw it was me, he hesitated and that was all I needed. I pulled him forcefully to the door and out into the street.
"What are you doing?" he yelled, as I led him towards the horse that was conveniently tethered by the well.
"Masterminding your escape!" You need to run and get support from people you know. And then find Stan! Get the second saddlebag!"
Noises of consternation were starting to come out of the saloon. My way of getting Adam out had gained us more time as people hadn't yet realized he was gone. But even before I could warn him, he had grabbed me and with an urgent "You're coming with me" slung me up into the saddle.
I have never ridden a horse before. The sole acquaintance I have had with the equine species were restricted to plastic ones on carousels. Consequently I have never known such fear as I felt when I was sat upon a powerful animal who was given free rein to run. It looks good and even fun on TV, but in real life or hallucinatory dreams, it was not nearly as entertaining. In fact, if I didn't scream it was only because I was afraid of startling the horse.
"Let me off," I whispered.
Adam was close enough to hear me, actually he had his arms around me, holding the reins. My cheeks instantly reddened.
"I can't," he replied grimly. "I have to get away from this town as fast as possible and then I have to find out what you know."
I gulped and tried not to think about falling and pounding hooves.
It was remarkable that we got away from the town with no one hot on our heels. The town was probably still trying to figure out if we took a horse or not. But as soon as we weren't in fear of immediate pursuit, Adam took steps to evade trackers. And he didn't even need to do any horse tricks. He double tracked and brushed out hoof prints and took paths into the brush and rock instead of dirt paths. By the time he was done, I didn't even know which direction the town lay.
After Adam had settled in what seemed like a safe place that was a good distance from town, he turned his attention to me.
"Well," he said.
"Well, what?" I replied, quite cantankerously.
Adam gave an appraising look at me.
"How do you know us, know about the robbery, the sheriff, who are you and where is Little Joe?"
I heaved a sigh. Should I tell him the truth? Or would he leave me here in the wilderness for a crazy person? Well I knew he wouldn't just leave me, but I didn't want him to think I was crazy. I had no proof of anything I said except for my knowledge of his family and that couldn't prove time travel or faithful TV viewership to him. It'll just prove I was both crazy and a stalker. So all I could do was get his priorities straight.
"Adam," I began in my most conciliatory manner, "your brother and your father are locked up in jail, about to be hanged in the morning. Don't you think you should figure out how to stop that from happening before we play twenty questions?"
Adam opened and closed his mouth once. Then stared at me piercingly. Finally he said in a defeated manner, "What do you think we should do?"
"Well, Little J… umm, I mean we should gather the people around here who know you and will help you and get them to back you up in town. Then we can get that deputy because he's weak and he'll tell you where he buried the other saddlebag. Then right before they hang Ben and Hoss you can pop out and tell the townspeople how their Sheriff swindled the town."
"Right before they hang my family?" Adam said incredulously.
"Well for…" I was going to say maximum dramatic effect, but I thought that wouldn't go over well with him. "For the whole town to hear the truth," I ended.
Adam deliberated, looking at the ground. "Well you promise to tell me everything when this is over?" he finally asked.
I thought about my circumstances. After this was over would I get to go back to my time? Would Little Joe come back? If I told Adam any semblance of the truth wouldn't he just get the Sheriff? (An honest one.) I looked into his intense gaze, and found myself saying what I had not meant to say. "Yes." And I meant it. Oh well. If you can't trust the Cartwrights who can you trust?
