ON YOUR HORSES, BOYS
Part 27
Vin and Buck walked softly as they tried to get a look inside the front windows of the General Store. The blinds had been drawn but Vin could just make out the glow of a lantern somewhere near the back.
"Anything?" Buck whispered.
"There's a light but I can't see anyone movin' round. Can't hear nothin' either."
"Maybe they're all upstairs."
"Could be. The door's locked so we're gonna have ta force it. Be ready to shoot once it opens."
Buck straightened as Vin raised his foot near the door handle and kicked. The door didn't budge. He kicked again, harder, and the lock bolt tore through the wood encasing it. They were inside in seconds, guns at the ready, but were greeted by nothing more than lamplight and silence. They waited and listened.
"Well that's strange. If they were upstairs surely they'd've heard us break in. Maybe Chris was wrong about the Nichols bein' holed up here."
"I don't think so," Vin replied as he moved to the rear of the store. "Let's go upstairs and take a look around."
Vin led, Buck followed. It took less than a minute to climb the steps leading to the private rooms of the Hobson family and when they reached the upper floor there was still no sign the Nichols had ever been there.
"Like I said," Wilmington repeated, "Chris just made a mistake."
"I don't know, Buck, he was so sure about the old lady havin' Ezra's gun. I…"
Mmpphhff.
Vin turned his head. "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah."
Mmmmpppfff!
The two men moved down the hall and turned into a tiny alcove barely visible from where they had been standing. There they found a door. Buck slowly turned the knob and pushed his way inside. "Mrs. Hobson," he said when he spotted the woman bound and gagged in the middle of what appeared to be a small study. Books lined the walls on either side of her and she was tied to a chair that obviously belonged to the simple wooden desk at her back. No one else was in the room so he holstered his gun, hurried to her side and knelt down to free her hands and feet. "There now," he said as he pulled the gag away, "are you alright?'
"Yes, yes" she answered hoarsely, "I'm quite alright, thank you. I was beginning to think no one would find me."
Vin kept watch at the door. "Well I guess we know now Chris was right."
"Mrs. Hobson, did the Nichols do this to you?" asked Buck.
She rubbed her wrists. "Of course they did this to me! Those animals have been holding us prisoner here for days! Didn't you get the gun my husband sneaked to you?" She looked over Buck's shoulder. "Where is Joseph? Didn't you find him? He was with those men!"
Buck flinched. "Slow down, ma'am, and talk to us. We just found Ezra's Derringer late this afternoon."
"You haven't caught the Nichols yet, have you!" she shouted.
"No we haven't, so we need you to settle down and tell us what happened here."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. It's just I've been so scared. That old lady and her boys are crazy! The things they've done. The things they made my Joseph do."
Vin saw her shiver. "Your husband's the one who's been settin' the fires around town, ain't he?"
"Yes, Mr. Tanner, but he didn't want to. He cares about the people in this town; he wouldn't intentionally try to harm them."
"We believe you, ma'am," Buck interrupted, placing his hand on hers. "Vin's been sayin' all along the fires weren't set by the Nichols because there wasn't enough damage and no one was killed. Your husband made it look good and probably saved a lot of lives by settin' those fires himself."
Large tears filled her eyes. "But he didn't set that last fire, the one that killed Mr. Larabee."
Buck glanced at Vin and waited for him to nod his agreement before he spoke. "It's alright, Mrs. Hobson, Chris ain't dead."
"But Mrs. Nichols said she saw you carry his body away."
"We did, but he wasn't dead. We just wanted her and boys to think he was."
"He's alive?"
"Yes. We're hidin' him at the jail right now so Nathan can patch him up. He's hurt pretty bad, but he should be alright if we can get him to rest."
"Oh no," Madeline said.
"What is it?"
"Mr. Standish believes Mr. Larabee is dead."
"You saw Ezra?"
"A little while ago. A couple of Mrs. Nichols boys brought Mr. Standish in and presented him to her as a gift."
"A gift?" Vin moved into the room.
She tilted her head back to look at the tracker's worried face. "It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. They treated him so poorly. He'd been so abused and was in so much pain I don't think he understood half of what was going on around him." She paused to wipe her eyes. "The only thing he did seem to understand was that your friend had died; the old woman made sure he knew that fact."
"Aw hell," Buck groused. "If Ezra thinks Chris is dead he may try somethin' stupid."
"Honestly, Mr. Wilmington, I don't think he'll be able to try much. He was in a bad way when they took him out of here. You boys have to go now."
"Did they say where they were goin'?"
"They said something about the livery and getting their property back."
"They're after that blasted coach," Buck said. "We'd best get ourselves over there and stop 'em."
"Please hurry," Madeline added. "I heard them planning to do something terrible to Mr. Standish. They were talking about leaving him as a warning to anyone who tried to stop them."
"Damn it, I'm gonna kill every single one of those bastards with my bear hands." Buck cried before he realized he'd spoken. He suddenly looked at Madeline.
"No need to apologize to me," she said. "I feel exactly the same way."
He smiled then reached beneath his coat. "Do you know how to handle a gun, ma'am?"
"My father had no sons, Mr. Wilmington, but he had a daughter who was very eager to learn."
He handed over his belly gun and watched her take it, check it for ammunition and slip it into the pocket of her apron.
"Now go," she said, "and don't come back until you've rescued my husband and Mr. Standish."
Buck tipped his to her and followed Vin out of the room.
M7M7M7M7M7M7M7
Ezra felt hands gripping him painfully around his middle. He also felt motion as the person who owned the hands propelled him forward. Both the contact and the movement caused a churning in his stomach that threatened to strangle him as the burn scaled his throat. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't swallow, and most importantly he couldn't stop whoever it was who had him. His body was out of his control and what was left of his mind was fast following suit.
He wanted desperately to be still, to just lie down and rest, to drift away from the hurt in his limbs and the anguish of his mind. Truth be known, he was ready to give up. He couldn't remember the details of what had brought him to this point, but the pain in his heart was so overwhelming it didn't really matter. He simply wanted it all to end, so he blindly turned to the person at his side and begged exactly that. "P-please… stop… jus'…lemme…go."
The unfamiliar person carrying him replied as if out of breath. "You hang on, Mr. Standish. Don't you give in to them. Don't let them win."
"Can't."
"You have to. You're too good a man to die at their hands." The heavy panting continued as the forward motion slowed to a stop. "I'm hopin' your friends find us soon, so please try to be here when they come."
Then the gambler remembered a single detail and felt his chest tighten. "Chris 's dead…"
"But you're not. So please, try to hang on."
That's far enough! Ezra heard just before he was lowered forward over something rough and hard.
M7M7M7M7M7M7M7
Buck and Vin left the General Store as quietly as they'd entered and nearly jumped out of their skins when a figure ran towards them from the shadows.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, it's just me."
"Nathan? What the devil are you doin' here? You're supposed to be tendin' Chris," Buck asked.
"Chris is out cold. He never came around after you picked 'im up off the street so I did what I could and left Josiah and JD to watch him. I figured ya'll could use some help."
"That we can," Vin said. "We found Mrs. Hobson tied up upstairs. She said the Nichols are headin' towards the livery to get that buggy of theirs. Ezra's with 'em."
"Not for much longer he ain't," Nathan replied angrily. "Let's go."
TBC
A/N: Thanks to all who read and review! And a big hello to my friends at the new Yahoo Group: Gamblers and Gunfighters!