Victoria slept on and off but not well. She was roused early from one of her bouts of sleep by the leader yawning and willing himself off his mat. Victoria couldn't see outside, but it was clear that it was barely daylight from the amount of light from the opening around the corner of the mine. The leader straightened out his hat, dusted himself off and stretched. He took note of the other two men sleeping soundly and walked over to Victoria.

"I'm going to go place the marker," he told her calmly. "Would you like some water before I go?"

"Thank you," Victoria nodded.

He gave her the water and then lingered a moment to be sure she was finished. Then he roused the third and youngest member of the group. "Hey kid," he shook his arm gently.

"Yeah," the kid roused immediately. "I'm going out to place the marker. Keep an eye on things here and stoke that fire a bit so we can make some breakfast when I get back."

"Right," the kid sat up straight and nodded to the second man. "What about S-" he stopped suddenly and looked at Victoria and back to the leader. "Sleeping Beauty," he finished the question looking as though he had made a clever joke.

"Good catch," the leader nodded in approval. "Be careful he don't hear you slip like that. Leave him be. I'm sure he'll be up directly."

"Right," the boy nodded. And went to the fire.

The leader walked around the corner and Victoria listened as his foot falls got further and further away. But he was walking, which meant he wasn't going to put the marker too far from where they were. She supposed they would start standing look out soon. Look out over the marker and make sure that whichever of her boys delivered the money did so on his own. They were cleverer than she had given them credit for. They had a good plan to watch the marker and they weren't letting her know their names. Maybe, just maybe they really did plan to let her go when this was over.

The leader walked about five hundred yards and found a good sturdy birch tree at the edge of one of the springs. He tied a knot around Victoria ring with one end of the scarf and tied the other end to a narrow limb. He made sure the knots were tight and then he nodded in approval of his work. He made his way back to the abandoned mine and walked inside. Not even a hundred yards from the spring, Nick watched the whole scene unfold. He had caught sight of the man right after he left the mine and had watched him tie the scarf to the tree. He couldn't see what he had knotted in the other end of the scarf, but he had to let Jarrod know. He waited until he watched the man go back into the mine and then he quietly slipped away from the mine back to Jarrod's position.