A/N: Hey, that last chapter was close to canon... And now, we continue with my twisty little imagination...

Chapter Ten: In Which There is a Desperate Ride

"LaBoeuf!" Water dribbled on my face and then splashed. "Come on! Mattie's got herself stuck. No time to be sleeping on the job."

"Mattie?" I whispered, my tongue stiff in my mouth. "Chelmsford?"

"He is dead and down the cliff, sir. Nice shooting."

"I did not shoot him."

"Then I guess she did herself. I should buy Sister a drink." He reached down to help me up and I did not deny him the privilege of so doing. I needed help and we needed to get to Mattie. "So she is in the pit and –"

I heard her scream. "Ahh!"

Rooster was at the mouth of that pit in an instant. I could not follow. I tried, but my balance was off and I became instantly dizzy so that I had to rest against the stacked rocks. I saw my horse appear over the ridge and wondered if the Marshal had loosed her or if she had managed that her own self.

"What is that?" Cogburn yelled into the pit.

"Snake! I am bit!"

My hazy brain sharpened at the words. And though I winced at the subsequent gunshots, expecting to hear Mattie scream again as the misfiring Marshal hit her instead of a snake, I drew near as well. The smoke cleared and I could see Cogburn struggling and slipping and stepping down to her, over layers of rock, roots of trees, and down to a shelf where Mattie lay, angled oddly and looking pale in the dark that surrounded her. My chest tightened and I strove to stand upright, knowing I had to do my best.

"Does Mr. LaBoeuf survive?" she asked. I was shocked, surprised and pleased that she had done thought to ask, what with her immediate danger.

"He does. Even a blow to the head cannot shut up a Texas Ranger for long." There was silence as I made my wobbly way to my horse. "Can you move?" the Marshal asked Miss Ross.

"My leg is pinned. It might – it might be broken."

"All right then. LaBoeuf!"

I knew what would be needed. Knowing I could in no way have strength enough to pull both man and girl from danger, I had to use the sturdy shoulders of my Appaloosa to do so for me. With my rope, I made a sort of pulley around the nearest tree trunk and had my mount stand by while I threw the end of the rope into the pit.

I saw the rope move and grow taut. "I have her," Cogburn said, his voice echoing in ripples out of the pit. "Up with us."

I led my horse gently forward so that Mattie would not be jerked and hurt further on our account. As soon as they were clear of the hole in the ground, I halted the mare and hurried to Mattie's side, to relieve the Marshal of his burden. "Miss Ross," I breathed, supporting her against my side.

She blinked into my face. "Mr. LaBoeuf. You are badly injured."

"We have to get her to help, LaBoeuf. She has been bitten and needs care immediately."

Nodding, I tried to whistle to my mount. She stepped past the Marshal to my side and helped to support Mattie. "I can carry her. We will go together."

Cogburn looked fit to chew iron. "I will take her and send help back to you. Do not wander off."

"We are not leaving him!" Mattie insisted, though in a weaker voice than I had ever heard her use before.

I picked up the hand that was cut and bleeding still from the quick treatment Cogburn had given to Mattie's snakebite. "Thank you."

"Fine! But she will ride with me, Ranger. You are barely fit to hold up your own head, much less carry a female."

The poison was clearly working in Mattie Ross's arm, so I did not argue. As soon as the Marshal was on his horse, I hefted Mattie up to him and helped her settle in. Then, I mounted my own horse and we began the most desperate ride of my life.

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Scarpering our way down the side of the mountain, I paid close heed to the Marshal's ability to bear his burden. Mattie seemed to managing all right, though that she put up no fight at all in being borne like a sack of flour was an indicator as to the gravity of her situation. She was feeling the bite. Badly.

The sun climbed in the sky as we rode to wherever it was Cogburn knew she would be treated.

"How far is it?" I called to him, as our horses rode harder than was wise. I worried for Little Blackie, upon which Cogburn was mounted. My mount, of course, was hardy, even after the trials of the day.

"Far."

"We should trade off, Cogburn. Miss Ross's horse, there, needs a bit of a rest."

"Yes."

The strain he was feeling showed in his taciturnity, and I was glad enough to have any reason at all to allow the horses a bit of a breath before we began another drag of hard riding. For ride we did. Holding Miss Ross against me, bearing most of her weight with my good arm, I directed the Appaloosa with my injured one. She followed Little Blackie as the light passed from the sky, leaving it dark and cloudless and cold at first.

The horses' breath came in white trails of steam, their bodies steaming likewise as the air cooled. In a rare lucid moment, Mattie turned her head and studied her horse. "Little Blackie," she murmured.

I ducked my head to hear her better. "What?"

"So tired. Needs a rest."

"No, Sister," Cogburn called. "You need a doctor."

And so it went, mile after mile, as the clouds moved over us at last and a light snow began to fall.

At long last, even my reliable Appaloosa began to find the ride too arduous for her. Little Blackie's flanks were heaving and we had to abandon the horses as Mattie was unwilling for us to run them quite into the ground.

Then, it became a matter of carrying the girl. She grew feverish, a sour sweat coming from her skin by turns with fresh renewals of the fever brought on by the bite. She began to rant against Chaney, Cogburn and even myself – berating me for the threat of a kiss or a spanking on our first meeting. It seemed months had passed since then, but in truth it had been perhaps a week. At most.

"We have to hurry," I panted at the Marshal.

"I know it."

We ran, then, as fast as we were able, trading off the ever-increasing burden of the young woman in our arms. Our steps started to stagger. My heart beat too hard, my sides burned and the various wounds I had suffered in this manhunt screamed out for rest and healing but we could not stop. They were minor in concern compared to the immediacy of a deadly snake bite.

"She's dying," Rooster Cogburn opined at last. "God help us all, she will not make it."

"She must," I gasped. He and I held her together, our steps only slightly faster than a slow jog as we kept moving. "Too stubborn to die, this one."

He tried to laugh, as did I. But my own breath was choked by tears as much as by exertion. I could not let her die.

Cogburn let out a grunt and fell to his knees. I joined him. A light shone not too far distant. "Fire. Gun," he rasped between heaving breaths.

My arm felt like lead, but I did as he instructed, managing to fire the last bullet in my revolver before collapsing next to Mattie Ross and Rooster Cogburn on a sage-choked expanse of dark ground.

The snow fell like a gentle benediction.