The sun was just starting to peak over the horizon when Buck awoke to find the Miller boy missing. "Sam," he yelled out a number of times around the camp. "Where are ya, boy? This ain't no time for games."
Buck's yelling woke everyone, and Nathan sleepily asked, "Buck, what's goin' on?"
"The boy – he's missin'," Buck said loud enough for all to hear.
"This kid is turnin' out to be an awful lot of trouble," thought Vin, as he sat up and broke into a coughing fit. Although the fever was gone, his lungs were still trying to heal and clear out all the mess.
Nathan raised a questioning eyebrow to Vin to make sure he was ok, and then asked, "do you see any tracks, Buck?"
Buck continued to look around, and replied, "keep eyes and ears out boys, looks to me like somebody snuck in and took him."
Chris and Ezra stood up from their bedrolls on the other edge of the camp, when four men suddenly appeared from behind a cropping of rocks and pointed guns at them. "Well, hello again boys," one of men interjected. It was the same big, brute of a man who knocked Ezra out during the initial attack a few days earlier.
Larabee could not believe he left himself be captured twice in one week, "I really must be slipping," he thought to himself.
He turned slowly, and then out of the blue hit the large man who just spoke with a powerful uppercut to the jaw. The man fell into the next closest hired gun, and Ezra plowed head first into the stomach of a third man. Ezra and the man rolled over a small hill, grappling for control of the man's gun. This gave Buck, Nathan, and Vin time to get their guns drawn and ready, but they didn't have a clear shot. The fourth Storm man again trained his gun on Chris, and said, "put 'em down nice n' easy or I put a bullet in Larabee."
The second Storm hand went to help man #3, grabbed Ezra by the back of his shirt, and put his gun in the small of Standish's back. By this time, the other two hands got up and collected themselves and their weapons as well.
"Damnit," Larabee said out loud. This was really starting to piss him off. He gave a quick glance to Ezra, and Standish knew immediately what it meant: fight. Simultaneously, Ezra sent a leg backwards into the groin of the gentleman with the gun behind him and Larabee charged the man closest to him. Vin was able to get off a shot and take out one of the other men. The 4th man couldn't shoot Larabee or Standish without risking hitting one of his own men, so he ran over and cracked Chris on the side of the head with his gun. The blond crumpled bonelessly to the ground.
Buck took off running and leapt into the thug who hit Chris, while Ezra continued to pummel his man. Ezra wrestled the man's weapon away. "This is for stealing my clothes," and proceeded to shoot the cretin in the kneecap. Vin and Nathan jumped in the mix too. Nathan helped Ezra to his feet, and they got his attacker tied up. Buck brought the 4th man over and tied him up, while Vin worked on the remaining live thug, whose gun had been knocked free in his struggles with Chris. All Vin had to do was threaten to shoot, and he allowed himself to be tied up along with his two living partners.
Nathan and Buck carried the unconscious Chris over and laid him on his bedroll, with Nathan ranting the entire time about "dern man getting hit over the head twice in less than a week's time." Anger and frustration were often the way Nathan expressed his concerns for his fellow peacekeepers. Nathan stayed to check out Larabee, while Buck went to find out what the men did with the Miller boy.
"Don't worry, Nate. Ol' Chris has got a hard head," Buck said as he walked away, but in reality he was just as concerned about his friend as Nathan was.
The Miller boy had been tied up and gagged about a half mile from their campsite, but he was found quickly and brought back unharmed.
About an hour later, Larabee awoke with the worst headache he had ever had, and that was saying a lot for the whiskey-loving gunslinger. He was dizzy, and the pain and vertigo so bad that it made him nauseous. Fortunately, the men attacked before breakfast, so there wasn't much in his stomach to come up….not for a lack of trying on Larabee's part though. Everyone kept asking if he was ok and how he felt, but all he really wanted to do was crawl away from the camp and be allowed to suffer in peace.
By midday, Chris decided it was time to get moving despite the splitting headache. Lying here listening to everyone fret about him was not making him feel any better, and he knew all of them wanted to get back to Four Corners. JD and Josiah were bound to start searching for them if they didn't make it home by tomorrow.
Nathan was staunchly opposed. "Hell, Chris, you can't even walk three steps without falling down."
"I ain't plannin' on walkin' home, Nathan. I can sit on my horse just fine," argued Larabee. Truth be told, Chris wasn't sure he could sit on his horse, but he was damn sure gonna try.
The only good news from the recent attack was that Chris and Ezra were able to steal the boots off two of the captured Storm men, so they no longer traveled barefoot. Plus, they found Larabee and Standish's weapons stashed in the saddle bag of one of the gang member's horses; no sign of the missing hats, clothes, or boots though.
Just after lunch, the five regulators, the Miller boy, and the three men from Storm's gang were mounted up and headed towards Four Corners. They made a slight detour to drop the prisoners off at the closest jail and informed the sheriff about what had occurred. The sheriff took down the information, but Vin worried that the local law was in Storm's pocket and would let the men go as soon as they got out of sight.
Larabee stayed true to his word and kept his seat on Pony all day, although his coloring remained pale and slightly greenish. He would not touch any food, and only took a couple of sips of water to appease Nathan throughout the day. He knew they would make much better time if he didn't have to stop and vomit every 30 minutes.
They camped one more time that night with the knowledge that they could reach Four Corners by noon the next day. Chris was still feeling poorly but told his men that the headache was getting better. No one was fooled though, as Larabee simply dismounted from his horse, put his bedroll on the ground and lay down for the night.
Between Chris' sour mood and everyone's sore muscles from the fight and long ride, no one felt much like talking that evening. Ezra, for one, was almost salivating at the thought of being back in his feather bed tomorrow night. His ribs and jaw ached from this morning to go along with his sore shoulder and leg from the previous days. "I am not cut out for this sort of work," Ezra thought to himself.
Vin was annoyed that he continued to cough and was worried about Chris and the team. They had accomplished their goal and were about to get their men and the Miller boy back home safe, so why was everybody so down? He felt the same way, but he wasn't sure why.
Nathan was agitated that Chris wouldn't let him examine him and resolutely refused to even try a bite of food. Why did these men hire him on if they didn't really want his help? He offered to make a tea for Vin to help quiet his cough, and one for Ezra to alleviate some of the pain and stiffness – and both of them too refused any assistance. "Fine, "he said out loud to no one in particular. "Just suffer then; see if I care."
Buck heard Nathan and smiled to himself, but he too was already daydreaming about getting to spend the night with Blossom tomorrow. Because of that, he didn't feel like getting involved in any of the disputes tonight.