Adam walked in the small restaurant. Hoss sat in the corner eating a stack of flapjacks, at his elbow, an empty plate sat smeared with biscuit and gravy residue.
"What kept you?" Hoss said between chews.
"I went by the depot. C'mon—we might be able to catch up with them in a day if we hurry."
"Coffee you wanted is there," Hoss said, nodding to a full coffee cup across from him. "It's probably cold."
Adam picked up the cup, looked inside and then drank it off. He slammed it back down on the table. "Let's go."
"But I ain't finished yet," Hoss said, cutting off another bite-full of pancakes with the side of his fork. "What'd they say at the depot?" He quickly ate and cut himself another piece of the pancakes.
"Doesn't look as if they took the train—at least not from here. The station master couldn't remember them and, well, I also checked the livery just in case Lawson's buggy had been left there. We have to hurry; here we are almost in California and they've been heading in the opposite direction. C'mon."
"Sure," Hoss said standing but bending to take another forkful of pancakes. "Pay, wouldja?"
With a sigh of disgust, Adam tossed a few dollars on the table and walked out while Hoss, holding his hat, drained the tall glass of milk and then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He glanced lovingly at the abandoned, half-eaten stack of flapjacks imbued with the decadent concoction of melted butter mingled with maple syrup—an amber ambrosia. He shook his head, sighed as if parting with a lost love, and slapped his hat on his head and walked out to join Adam who sat impatiently on his horse, waiting.
~ 0 ~
The brothers covered the miles quickly, riding through the night. There was no use in tracking as there had been no place to start in Carson City so they rode in the direction that the detectives would have if they were escorting Madeline to Baltimore and intended at some point to board the train.
The sun would be up in another hour and Hoss' horse was beginning to rebel; it was unlike his rider to push him to such extremes. "My horse is 'bout worn out," Hoss said. "Let's stop for coffee and a little breakfast." He could hear the noise of a brook nearby.
Adam reluctantly agreed but insisted on just removing the saddle bags and loosening the cinches when Hoss took the horses to the stream. "And remember," Adam called after him, "Get the water for the coffee upstream from where the horse's drink. And wash your hands."
Adam gathered wood and by the time Hoss returned with the filled coffee pot, a fire was going and Adam had placed a shallow fry pan filled with strips of thick bacon on the flames, raised by a few gathered stones. The meat popped and spattered grease and Hoss watched his hand while he placed the coffee pot on the heat. Adam spooned in a few pre-ground coffee beans and replaced the lid. Then he sat on his haunches while he turned the slices of the streaky meat with a knife's point.
Hoss pulled a loaf of sour dough bread from his saddle bag that Hop Sing has packed. He unwrapped the oiled paper. "Smell that bread. You know what, Adam? Hop Sing done told me he's had the same starter now for nigh onto 20 years."
"What are you talking about?" Adam rubbed the back of one hand on his trouser leg. A splat of hot grease had popped and burned him.
"That sour dough starter stuff. You know, that crock of that stuff Hop Sing keeps feedin' all the time, leastways, that what he calls it. Says it's alive. He uses some of it each time he makes this bread. Says that Mrs. Shaughnessy gave him a crock of it when we first moved here and that he's using the son of the son of the son of it ever since."
"Oh, that stuff. Tear me off a hunk of the bread. You did wash your hands, didn't you?"
"Oh, hell, yes. I done washed behind my ears too. Wanna check?"
"Just give me the bread." Adam took the piece that Hoss handed him and spilt it open and then filled it with half the greasy slices. He handed it to Hoss and then took the second hunk of bread and did the same thing. Then they sat back and quietly ate their diner and when the coffee was hot, they enjoyed it as well. Hoss tore another piece of bread off the loaf and soaked up the rest of the bacon grease.
"Now's all I need is a short nap and I'll be right as rain," Hoss said.
"No time for that," Adam said as he started gathering up items and poured the remainder of the coffee on the fire.
"Look, Adam, they're gonna have to stop too, 'specially with a woman along. I'm sure she has some things to take care of—you know, woman things. And she'd have to sleep. Why I bet they're just wakin' up now."
Adam just glanced at Hoss but said nothing about "them." "Get the horses. We need to start off. I figure that they might catch the train at Elko. We might be able to beat them there since it seems they're still traveling in that buggy."
"Adam, there's some rough territory between here and Elko."
"I know. That means they'll be going the long way around. Now get the horses."
~ 0 ~
"Looks like the axle done broke here," Hoss said as Adam walked around the buggy that was awkwardly dropped to one side. A wagon wheel lay nearby. "Snapped off at the hub. Most rusted through."
"Yeah," Adam said, standing looking at the double "L's" painted on the side. "That Lawson—he doesn't maintain his buggies any more than he does anything else he owns."
"Yeah. They took the horse with 'em. Look here." Hoss pointed to some tracks. "Two men's prints and here's a woman's, Madeline's, I s'pose, and here's where she gets on the horse. At least they let 'er ride and didn't drag 'er along like some captured squaw."
"Let's find them," Adam said. He had noticed that none of Madeline's belongings were left behind; she had taken a valise, he knew that from his father. For some reason, the fact that she still had her things, perhaps still had her leather purse of money, comforted him. She might be able, if she had the chance, to hire someone in Elko to help her when they passed through.
In looking for Adam's horse which had pulled away from the limb to which it had been loosely tethered searching for lusher grass, Hoss had come across the buggy. Adam's horse grazed only a few yards away. So gathering the horses, Hoss headed back to camp and before Adam could snidely complain about how long it had taken him to fetch the horses, Hoss told him about the buggy.
The tracks were obvious and the progress the trio had made was slow. Then they saw the valise.
Adam examined it. It had been tossed aside, the clothing scattered. If the money had been inside, it was obvious it had been found and then the other contents as well as the case itself, abandoned.
"Looks like a scuffle here," Hoss said. "And I'm just speculatin' but this area here, looks like someone—and I'm guessing Madeline—was on the ground like she fell. And look here." Hoss pointed. "That horse got upset, real upset. Looks like it tried to move away but was held. So there must've been loud noise, lots of movement. And look…a woman's heel dug into the ground."
Adam said nothing, just looked to the spot Hoss indicated. It looked to him as if something had happened as well, as if there had been a tussle of some sort. His first thought was that Madeline had been assaulted but if that had been the case, it would have been at a camp at night and there was nothing to indicate they had stayed there. No, he decided, it was for the money. That would be about the only thing Madeline, in his opinion, would risk her life to save. The rest of the world could go to hell as long as she had her money and was comfortable and safe. It was a small touch of irony, Adam considered, that now she had nothing—no money and no safety. Madeline would be fortunate to reach Baltimore alive.
"Let's see where these tracks lead." Adam mounted up and he and Hoss followed the subtle signs that indicated the trio's path. They led to a shack that stood alone in a small clearing.
"Looks like a line shack," Hoss said. "Too well tended to be otherwise. See. That roof's been patched."
"We must be on private property—someone's ranch."
"Yeah but that's where they are. There ain't no horse but there's smoke—not much of it but still it's smoke. I'd say they made a fire earlier and now are gettin' ready to leave—or they left already."
"Let's find out." Adam dismounted. "Hoss, circle around and see if there's a back door and if there are any tracks leading away. I'll come in from the side and see if I can see if anyone's in there."
Hoss dismounted as well and they tied off their horses away from view of anyone in the house.
"Adam, I got one question."
"What?" Adam was impatient. If the detectives and Madeline weren't inside then they had only wasted more time in finding her.
'What if they are legitimate detectives? What if the whole things just a mix-up, you know, crossed wires? Ain't we goin' against the law then? And iffen you shoot and kill one of 'em, ain't you then a criminal for killin' a lawman?"
"I've thought of that. I've considered the whole scenario but I'll have to see what's going on first and talk to Madeline. Find out what they've said to her."
"You think you'll be able to?"
"If they're legitimate, I don't know why they'd refuse. They'd let me ask her a few simple questions."
Well, she could lie," Hoss offered.
"I've thought of that too. But I'll just have to hope she won't. Or if she does, that I can tell." But Adam was filled with doubt. He had considered it and Madeline seemed to be a smooth liar. He doubted he would be able to tell with her; he wouldn't have the objectivity.