She awoke in Festus' arms. He was sitting on the ground, holding her tightly, a worried look in his eyes. She blinked in confusion, wondering at the white dust covering his face, stuck in his whiskers, and drifting down from his hair. The only light came from a torch flickering on the wall behind them.
"Miss Kitty! Miss Kitty! Are ya awright? Do ya hurt anywhere?" His voice was thick with emotion and the all-pervasive dust.
"Festus? What happened? My head hurts some, but mostly I can't breathe 'cause you're holding me so tight!" She blinked again in the dust-filled air, and looked around with a growing dread at what had happened. "There was a cave-in. I remember the noise and the rocks falling. Are we trapped?" She struggled to sit up as her companion loosened his hold on her. "Are you all right, Festus?"
"Yessem, narry a thing wrong with me! Take more than a little cave-in to hurt a Haggen, Miss Kitty! Now don't ya worry none. I'll git us outta here directly!" he smiled in relief that she wasn't badly hurt, helped her up, and retrieved the torch from the wall. He forced himself not to grimace at the bruising pain in his left ribs when he turned too sharply.
Spying another wooden torch, the top wrapped in rags, on the floor, Festus picked it up and lit it from the flames of the one he was holding. "Here, Miss Kitty, the more light the better fer us ta find a way outta here."
They both held their torch up high and slowly turned, eyes anxiously searching the shadowy nooks and crannies of their dark enclosure. Both suddenly stopped turning, then walked closer to the wall to their left, silently staring.
"Thar's what I wanted ta show ya, Miss Kitty! GOLD! My cousins, Hog Leg and Pearly Day Haggen said they'd let me have a third share iffin' I could come up with the money." He reached out a hand and touched one of the glittering streaks of gold visible in the torch's light, turned around and grinned at his friend.
Kitty walked over and put her hand on the hill man's right arm as he held the torch with his left. "Festus," she said, then paused a moment, biting her bottom lip. "Festus, that is not real gold. It's pyrite—'fool's gold.' Not that YOU are a fool!" she quickly added, seeing the grin fall from his whiskery face. "Many people have been fooled by pyrite, Festus. If it were real gold, I'd be very willing to advance you the money."
"Durn that Hog Leg! He always were a sneaky varmit! Musta only had those two nuggets of real gold he showed me. And his brother, Pearly Day, ain't got a brain bigger than a grasshopper!" Kicking a nearby rock in disgust, he hopped in pain. "And here I done got ya inta this mess! Glancing into her kind blue eyes, he quickly added," But I'm sure gonna got ya outta here directly! Don't ya worry none, Miss Kitty!"
"I know you will, Festus. It isn't your fault." Shaking some of the dust out of her hair, her still aching head reminded her of the recent events.
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Earlier that day, Kitty had looked up from her morning newspaper at the familiar sound of jangly spurs approaching. Lowering her spectacles from her face, and allowing them to swing on their thin, gold chain around her neck, she greeted her friend with a welcoming smile
"Mornin', Miss Kitty! Ya look as purty as a sunflower!" He stood in front of her holding his hat and rotating it by the brim.
"Hello, Festus! Please sit down. What are you doing here so early in the day? I thought you were out all night entertaining those two cousins? Would you like some coffee?" A blue-and-white china pot sat on the table, and her own half-empty, matching cup was by her right hand.
Festus scraped back a chair and sat down, his hands nervously turning the clean ashtray on the table. "Thankee, Miss Kitty. No, I don't want no coffee right now. Er, Miss Kitty, kin I ask ya somethin'?"
"Of course you can. Do you need a few dollars 'till payday? Entertaining guests can get expensive." She reached over and put her right hand on his, stopping the nervous, turning motion.
"Wal, now that ya mention it…I sure could use some money…but…wal…more like a hundred dollars…" He glanced up, quickly down, then up again at her surprised expression. "But I sure kin repay ya quicker than ya kin say 'the rat run over the roof o' the house with a piece o' raw liver in his mouth'!"
Kitty swallowed and cleared her throat. "Well, uh, I can do that, Festus. I know you wouldn't ask unless it was important. I'll need to get it from my office." As she started to push her chair back, the Deputy took hold of her right wrist.
"No, don't give it ta me until I show ya what fer. Ya gotta come with me, Miss Kitty. It won't take long atall…mebbe an hour or so."
She looked over at his hopeful eyes, and smiled. "Well, all right, Festus. Let's go!" She picked up her lightweight pink and green shawl from the back of the chair next to her, and glanced over towards the bar as her friend took her elbow and started to hurry her towards the bat-wing doors. "Sam won't miss me for that long," she figured, but she still went over to the bar and wrote a quick little note. "Went with Festus. Back in about an hour," and left it under a clean whisky glass.
"Here ya go, Miss Kitty," Festus said as he guided her over to a horse and buggy out front. He helped her up, unclipped the anchor weight and put it on the buggy's floor, then climbed into the driver's seat and clucked his tongue at the horse. Seeing her bemused expression, he explained, "I done figured you'd agree, sos I borrowed this rig from Hank." Looking over at her again, he added with a grin, "He lost a little bet ta me the other night!"
The buggy rattled along on a grassy track after leaving the outskirts of town behind, heading always gradually upward towards a range of rocky hills in the distance. The bright Kansas sun beat down on them mercilessly, and Kitty put her shawl over the back of the seat.
"Whew! It sure is hotter than a jug o' red ants taday, ain't it?!" Festus asked, wiping the back of his right hand over his forehead. We oughter be there directly, soons we reach that rock up yonder," he said, pointing up at a tall red rock shaped like an anvil, forming the left side of a narrow passage at the crest of the hill they were climbing. "It's jest on the other side, down in the wash."
"WHAT is, Festus?" Kitty asked, not being one to like surprises ever since her trying days spent on the gambling riverboats back east. Seeing her companion just look at her and grin only exasperated her more.
When the buggy reached the crest in the rocky slot, Festus pulled on the reins and they came to a halt. Spread out below was a continuation of the rocky, narrow trail, leading down through a barren, boulder-strewn landscape.
"Thar it IS, Miss Kitty! Right THAR!" Festus proudly yelled, pointing his right index finger over to the right and down.
"I don't see anything but more rocks!" the hot and impatient woman declared, frowning at her friend.
"I'll show ya. Sit tight now!" he said, clucking his tongue at the dozing horse, and lightly flicking the reins against the glossy rump. The horse jerked the buggy forward and down the bumpy trail. Festus began happily humming as Kitty looked around at the rocky landscape, still confused when the buggy came to a halt.
"Come on, Miss Kitty! It's jest a little ways now!" Festus cajoled, reaching up to help her down from the buggy after he had jumped down and hurried around to her side. He removed his battered hat and tossed it onto the seat, and Kitty left her shawl behind, both wishing they had brought water along on this now hot-and-dusty day. With an exasperated sigh, the flushed young woman let the excited hill man tug her by the hand as he picked his way through the large boulders. Finally coming to a halt when the path seemingly ended in front of a snarl of bushes against a wall of rock, he dropped her hand, turned towards her and stood proudly grinning, hands on his gun belt. "Here we are!" Then grinning even wider, he stuck an arm into the bushes, tugged them aside, and revealed a hole about four feet tall leading into cool blackness.
To be continued….