This chapter contains some description of violence, not in the very detail, but please be warned if you don't like to read something like that.

Thank you very much again, especially all those readers, that have taken the trouble to leave a comment. I really do appreciate your hints and any encouragement of course as well. Thanks!

Something was wrong, awfully wrong! Adam was hurt but she was not able to reach him in the fire! Before she was able to wonder why it was so cold despite the fire, she got her senses back. All she could feel was pain - in the head and at her arms and legs. She tried to move to ease the pain somehow, but apparently her feet were bond and so were her arms behind her back.

Silently moaning she opened her eyes a bit to see where she was, but her moaning had attracted some attendance and to her downright horror an only too well known face bended over her and a voice, that had been determing her nightmares for years said maliciously:

"Well well well, if that isn't my beloved cousin! I have no words to express my utmost delight to see you again my dear!" and in a sharp and short tune he continued:

"Pick her up!"

The next moment she was yanked up, but as her feet were bound, she could not stand on them and fell down again.

"Take off the ankle rope you idiot" he yelled at Herb, who did so and put Charlie again on her feet. This time she managed to remain upright although her knees were shaking. She looked around trying to find out where she was. It was an old barn with a coach in it. Her husband - Charlie decided in that moment not to call him with that word, not even her thoughts - stood before the coach and examined her from head to toe. One of his helpers stood behind her, the other one, with a wound in his face, was not to be seen.

"Well well" Edwin started again: "the years seem to have done you good, you are not half as ugly as you were when I had to take you. Maybe I should have kept you?"

He cackled without any humor. It was extremely unwise for sure, but Charlie could not help to reply:

"What a pity that I cannot return this, you are even more disgusting than when I run away from you, if this was possible at all!"

He jumped over with a velocity, nobody had expected him to be able to, and slapped Charlie in the face that fiercely that she fell to the ground. In her mouth she felt the metallic taste of her blood.

"Pick her up again!"

he yelled towards Herb, who followed the instruction at once. Edwin slowly walked around her.

"Didn't you learn it during all the years I took care for you? I can do with you whatever I want, whenever I want, wherever I want. I own you!"

"You can kidnap me, beat me, rape me, kill me, but you've never owned me and you never will, you are just a miserable bully who needs …..."

Charlie could not finish her sentence, as she got a slap on the other cheek now and fell down again. Although now her nose was bleeding, she managed somehow to get on her knees without help and then on her feet. She was sure that her life would end here and now, in that miserable barn and without seeing Adam ever again. Adam! The thought of him made her nearly sob, to suppress that she had to take the offensive again:

"Can't we get over with all this? Come on, put an end to it, kill me, I am that sick of your presence as you are of mine."

To her surprise he shook his head and answered rather reasonably:

"No, that would be too early, I cannot kill you yet. Unfortunately you are still of importance. But there is someone, who is of no importance of all, here that little friend of yours."

and he opened the door to the coach where Patricia Calston was lying on the floor and sobbing silently, at the feet of Jeff, who had a malicious grin at his face.

"Oh my God no, what have you filthy swine done to her?" Charlie shouted.

Jeff pushed Patricia out of the coach to the floor. Charlie ran over and tried to take care for her.

"Take that ropes of my hands, this girl needs help!"

"I don't think she needs anything else in this world my dear!"

and Edwin yanked Patricia up. She did not look a bit like the sophisticated, refined young lady she had always tried to be, now she was a terribly frightened little girl, full of tears, blood and snot. She looked frantically at Charlie and pleaded:

"Help, please help me, please..."

and she started sobbing again. Her sight was heartbreaking and Charlie tried once more:

"Please, be reasonable, let me help her, otherwise she will probably shout the house down!"

"No my dear, I don't think so."

Having said this Edwin threw Charlie away from Patricia and gave Jeff a wink with his chin. Jeff jumped out of the coach as well and drew Charlie away from Patricia where he hold her firmly.

"Look my darling, look here" she heard Edwin say while he was slowly putting the leather belt, he was always playing with, around the girls neck.

"No!" Charlie started screaming "don't! That girl hates me, she will surely not tell a single word to anyone, nooooooo!"

But Edwin over screamed her in a kind of cruel, insane mockery: "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeees!"

while he was choking the life out of his victim. Even Herb and Jeff froze by watching the scene, which seemed to come right out of an abyss of madness. Charlie was only able to sob as well and had to watch, how the now lifeless body of Patricia Calston fell to the ground.

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Most of Virginia Cities' inhabitants had rushed to the livery stable in the center of Virginia City, men and women, to save the horses and to blow out the fire. The horses and carriages which had been standing inside the stable were already set free. Now the stable itself had to be saved because the whole town would be in danger in case the fire would be spread to one of the surrounding houses. The water of all nearby horse troughs was used and from all nearby houses bucket brigades supplied water to the site of the fire.

"This is strange" Adam heard a man say.

"What do you mean Abe, what is strange?"

he was asked by one of the other helpers. Abe Durham, a retired Army scout shook his head:

"It's the pocket of embers I am wondering about."

"What's about it?"

"Well I have seen a lot of bushfires in my time but there had always been just one pocket of embers. This fire now started in two corners of the stable, can you see over there, the rear wall is burned down evenly from both sides! That means that there had been two of them. Now, whenever there had been more than one, it was due to my experience always because of arson, but why should someone want to burn down our stable?"

"Who would be that bloody stupid to set our stable on fire? It has probably been a lightening stroke!"

"Two impacts in the same house? Never in a million years!"

"No, there have been no thunderbolts yet at all!"

"But it can't take much longer, look the sky is already nearly black, we are lucky, there will be some rain shortly."

Adam had listened to the talks about the reasons for the fire on the brink of his mind, but suddenly he froze in the middle of a movement with which he wanted to pass a bucket of water to Joe.

"Hey, watch out Adam!"

The person behind him nearly dashed him with the content of the next bucket. Adam starred at Joe:

"It's a trap!"

"What?"

Now he shouted: "Joe it's a trap, the fire has been set!"

Joe understood at once. The bucket he held slipped out of his hands and he run away from the site of the fire towards the house of the Martins, closely followed by Adam. In quick succession the brothers arrived at the Doctors house and found to their horror the door standing open. Adam seemed unable to move, but Joe stormed into the house shouting

"Charlie!" "Charlie?"

He searched every room in a kind of feverish activity, but the more doors he opened in vain, the less he expected to find her.

When Joe came down the stairs Adam stood in the parlor completely stunned, as if he had been nailed to the floor. He only moved a bit when Hoss and their father entered and asked:

"What is it, people told us you two would have run away as if you had been chased by the devil!"

"No, the devil had been here before, he has Charlotte!" Adam answered gloomily.

"He?"

Adam shouted the answer: "That guy! The one I've sworn to protect her from!"

"What, but how could that happen?" Hoss was stunned.

"How it could happen?" Adams self-control was completely gone.

"Because I left her alone, because I was that imbecile to leave her alone, that's how it could happen; why didn't I just kill her myself?" he shouted in desperation and slammed his fists against the wall.

Ben tried to calm the situation: "Adam, son, we all are shocked and terrified, but just now there is no use at all for blaming oneself. You know as good as we do that she explicitly sent you to go to the stable. Come on! Let us pull ourselves together and rather think how we can get her back. Charlie needs us just now more than ever before; we have no time to waste for self-accusations. It is your logic and reasoning self we need, Adam! Help Charlie by thinking ahead, what shall we do now?"

Adam took some deep breathes and nodded. "You're right, we need to think careful and reasonable and maybe this can save me for the moment from pushing over the edge completely."

His voice sounded nearly normal again and so was his posture, but Ben saw in his eyes, that the desperation was only suppressed a bit, in any case it was good to keep his mind busy.

"O.k., let me think - what do we know? The two men at the hotel - I think we can take for granted that they are a kind of valets that guy had hired. Do you agree?"

All men nodded.

"As the valets have been seen in town already a couple of days ago we can assume they have a kind of shelter. Probably it's no boarding house or hotel, considering how disreputable they had been described, but rather something non-official like an old empty house. The fire has been set most probably as a distraction to kidnap Charlotte, therefore I think we can assume that they have taken her into the other direction from here, opposite to the fire at the stable. Do you agree?"

Again they nodded.

"So what empty buildings are there between here and let's say a five mile radius around the city boundaries?"

"Let us not waste any time with guessing!" Joe interfered, "We'll split up. The stable is in West from here on the way to Carson, which means that they have most probably not gone there! So Hoss and me will search from here every building in Southern direction in the streets towards Silver Springs and Pa and Adam do the same in the Northern direction from here, in the streets towards Reno. We look into every house or cabin or stable, that could be the shelter of those guys!"

They went off as agreed. Soon however Adam and Ben realized that there were not much empty houses or cabins, so the possibilities to find Charlie somewhere nearby diminished.

"Do you think here will be anything else?" Ben asked his son.

"I am sure they went in this direction, everything connected with this guy is somewhere at the East coast, the probability he is heading there is much higher than for every other direction."

"You are surely right, but here is nothing left, where they could have been hiding, shouldn't we go back and talk to Roy what to do next?"

"I can't Pa, I can't go back and just talk. I'm freaking out if I don't go on looking for her!"

When Ben looked at Adam, he was terrified how his eldest - usually the epitome of sanity and control - had changed: His face had lost all color, which was underlined quite unfavorably by his usual dark whiskers. His eyes however were burning and seemed to be the only signs of life in the otherwise ghostlike, pale face that could have belonged to a dead man.

"I see what you mean", Ben conceded, "so go ahead son! I will however go back to town and see what Hoss and Little Joe have found and what Roy is going to do about it. Where are you going to go to from here?"

"I'm not sure, just along the road, looking where ever there is a possible place. A mile back there was something looking like an old path; maybe I'll find something there."

"Yes, that could be the old path to the Cedar Hill estate. It can't have been used a lot since the new road to Virginia City had been built, but after three or four miles there are the remains of the first Cedar Hill farm, before the Harringtons rebuilt it at a higher place after the heavy snow and the flood in the winter of 55/56. I think the old barn is still standing. The place is quite hidden, I'm not sure whether strangers would find it, but it is worth a try."

Adam nodded eagerly, bid good bye and went to the place his father had described.

Hoss and Joe had searched their part of the town also in vain and had gone to the Sheriffs' office, where Roy Coffee was compiling a search party. When Ben entered the office, hopeful gazes welcomed him, but he had to shake his head in regret:

"No, nothing. Adam is convinced however that they moved east. He is searching now the barn at the old Harringtons place. We should go there too, to catch him up and to see what to do next."

The men in the office agreed. Hoss approached his father and asked him in a low voice:

"How is Adam doing?"

Ben Cartwright sighed before he answered slowly:

"Right now he is occupied, but I do not dare thinking about…. well, at any rate we must take very good care for him!"

"We must find Miss Charlie Pa, that's what we must do!"

Hoss replied in an unusual grimly tune. Ben could not other but agree wholeheartedly, however…

The posse had already made the better part of their way to the place where Ben assumed Adam to be, when they heard three shots. Joe screamed exited:

"That must be Adam, let's hurry up!" and pushed his horse to run even faster.

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The barn, his father had described was not easy to find. Adam lost track of the old path a few times, as it had been overgrown by bushes and weeds during the last years. However the path must have been used recently as a lot of the weeds had been pressed down. Adams heart beat faster in expectation and after a while the roof of a rather big barn became visible. Adam dismounted and let his horse behind. Carefully he made his way towards the big old building. As it was too dangerous just to wander in, he tiptoed along the rear side of the barn, peeking inside through one of the gaps between the weather worn wooden planks. Despite the poor light – it had considerably darkened during the last hours – he could determine that the barn was empty. He already felt the usual disappointment, when another hope to find a trace of Charlotte was gone, when something caught his eye:

In the furthest corner of the barn there was laying someone, at least it looked like a person. His heart made a lump and he was hardly able to breathe. If it was Charlotte, he had found her, but what- or whoever lay there did not move…..

He found the entrance of the barn and carefully approached the figure on the floor, which had a piece of fabric over the head and clearly wore a skirt.

"Charlotte?"

No reaction.

"It's me!"

He knelt down beside the motionless figure to pull away the fabric. The very same moment he touched the cloth he realized in horror, that it was from the dress Charlotte had worn this morning and that the person below it was too cold to be alive. A moment later a pair of dead eyes in a mask of pure fear and terror, that once had been the face of Patricia Calston, stared at him. The growing exertion of the last hours unloaded in a shout – partly out of fright because of the dead girl and partly in a guilty relief that the body was actually not Charlottes.

It took him a while to get his senses back, but he when was able to think again, he felt a lot better. Apparently the guy and his 'valets' had their hideout here, in this barn. , so any following step had to start here. Hoss – the best reader of tracks he knew – had to come here and to see this, hopefully he was able to see something in here that could shed some more light on the situation. He went out and fired three shot into the air.

Some endless minutes later he heard the rataplan of hooves and Joe, followed by his family, Roy Coffee and quite a number of other men from Virginia City arrived.

"Have you found something Adam?"

"Unfortunately yes" and he pointed to the dead girl.

"Apparently she had been strangled, there are marks on the neck and she is already cold, so it must have happened already a while ago."

"Do you think this is connected to Doctor Mathews' disappearance?"

"She did not just disappear Roy, she had been kidnapped by that insane, criminal husband of hers!" Adam flared.

"Easy, son, easy, personally I am convinced that you are plumb right, but being the Sheriff I have to stick to just that, what can be proved. However, I think two crimes independent from each other, connected to young women at the same day in our little town are rather improbable, so that we will act from the assumption that the murder of Miss Calston and the disappearance of Doctor Mathews are connected. As Doctor Mathews would most probably not have been able to strangle Miss Calston I think the same offenders are responsible for both events. Let us see what we can take from the traces in and around the barn! Hoss and Abe, will you please see what you can get from the traces?"

Hoss and Abe Durham dismounted and checked the barn as well it's surrounding. Adam went to Roy's side.

"I am sorry for snapping at you Roy, it is just… I am…."

"It's alright son, I understand!"

When Adam looked at the man, who called him mostly 'son' he realized how upset his old friend was. He was not alone with his fear for Charlotte; his family, his friends were here to support him. He had told Charlotte so often that her fight would be easier, now that she was no longer alone – today he had to believe in this kind of consolation as well.

Feeling stronger than before, he mounted his horse again. Meanwhile the thunderstorm that had been approaching during the day was there, the first flashes were to be seen and in the distance they heard thunder. Hoss and Abe returned from the barn:

"There are traces of a rather big buggy or a coach with two horses. It seems as if they went Northeast towards Reno."

"Shall we look for them along the road?"

"Yes, the vehicle is rather big, they had obviously some difficulties to get through this path. They will surely try the road to come forward."

"Then let's get ahead before the rain will have washed away all the traces!"

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Charlie had lost the track about time. After Edwin had killed that poor stupid Calston girl, the men had thrown her into the coach and they went off, with the valets on the coachmen's seat and Edwin with her inside. He was sitting on the opposite bench and smiling maliciously at her. She kept her eyes closed and tried to think of something else than of her aching cheek where his punch was still burning. She carefully touched her nose, to see whether there was anything broken, when she heard that odious voice again:

"You should be smarter than contradicting me, don't blame me for giving you the punishment you deserve!"

Her mind told her that she should keep her mouth shut. However to her own surprise she had an overwhelming gut feeling to pay him back for all the years she had spent frightened, which was ways stronger than her actual fear, so she replied:

"And you should be smarter than to beat me in the face! Did you unlearn that, was there no substitute punching bag available?"

He rose as far as this was possible in the heavily shaking coach and said slowly:

"If you prefer so my dear…",

fetched the belt from his pocket again and let it smack down over Charlies body a couple of times. Of course it hurt, it hurt a lot, but in a rather queer way the pain was comforting. At least she was able to feel something, other than that poor murdered girl. It would however not take long until they would kill her too, the question was not if but when they'd kill her or rather why she was still alive at all.

Charlie needed to distract herself from thinking about that. Oh, if she could read something! The last time she was going by coach it was 'Wuthering Heights' - oh no! She had come to Virginia City reading that book. That was day she had met ….. no, she must not think of Adam, or she would start crying. Now she would never know how it would feel to be loved by him, she would just become one of his losses. But he was strong and had his wonderful family; he would be able to overcome his sorrows.

Despite all her intentions the tears were now flowing and Charlie had a new task - Edwin must not see that she was crying! Outside there had started a heavy thunderstorm, she hoped that the sounds of it would drown out her silent sobbings, but he had obviously noticed it:

"Stop blubbering or I'll give you a real reason to blubber!"

She felt her sorrow changing again into fury, which let her tears dry up at once. Edwin seemed to be in a mood for talking, he continued, whereby he seemed to pick every single word with relish to hurt her:

"That girl we left behind, she was very talkative at first you know, you apparently stole away her suitor! Tss, tss, tss, what a nasty thing to do and above all in vein, now that you are back at my side."

Charlie fought to overcome both her fear and her disgust and managed to look straight at him and blurted out: "What are you up to? Why am I still alive and not killed like that poor girl, which we 'left behind' how you put it in your phony lying whitewashing?"

While speaking Charlie began to take a fancy in unburdening her heart, all the unanswered questions she had buried for so long or had come up only lately after her confession, sprang up:

"What do you still need me for, what did you ever need me for? What ever was the time at college for? Was it for money? Why didn't you claim the house in Philadelphia for yourself? What did my Grandfather promise you, when you took me? You hate me just like I hate you, why couldn't we have separated like civilized people?"

To her surprise Edwin had gone pale during her questions and now hissed at her through his teeth:

"How do you dare asking me that you spoiled brat, who got everything she wanted from that Frederica bitch! It was part of the deal, I had to take you, otherwise..."

He seemed to realize that he gave away quite something with that and stopped in the middle of the sentence. Charlie just wanted to give him a reply regarding the insult of Aunt Freddie, when the coach suddenly slowed down and came to a stop. Edwin therewith had a new aim for his rage, he shouted:

"What is that again, what have you nitwits done this time?"

and he tore up the door of the coach. Herb had dismounted from the drivers' seat. He was soaking wet from the heavy rain and explained:

"The road ahead is impassable from the rain."

"So take another one!"

"There is no other one around here, besides this it's already dark and we do not know the area. We have to look for a place to spend the night at. We need to wait until tomorrow morning to go on."

"Oh yes of course, there is surely a cozy little hotel around you'd find acceptable?"

"A few miles ago there was a signpost for an old way station, we should go there."

Edwin seemed to have digested his anger, he nodded and they made their way back to the little house with a barn, that had been until five years ago the "Silver Creek" way station. After leading the horses and the coach into the barn Herb and Jeff went inside to dry themselves off. Edwin opened the coaches' door and ordered Charlie:

"Come out!"

When she had climbed out and was standing in front of him, he gave her a long glance of appraisal, that made her shake up to the core, but she managed somehow to stand his gaze, which seemed to make him uncomfortable:

"Don't you dare to look at me that way!"

"What do you mean, like someone who's not afraid of you? I bet this is something you cannot stand!"

Fast like a flash he lunged out and again the belt sloshed down on Charlie, this time meeting her shoulder and upper arm. The impact was that strong that she fell down.

"You are really lucky that I don't finish you off right here and now, but I must admit you have become quite a temptation, I'll see, what we will make of that!"

Then he roped her feet and her arms again and left the barn. As soon as the door had closed behind him, Charlie looked for something she could cut the ropes with by groping about for it throughout the dark barn, which she was able to do because her hands this time hand been bound in front of her.

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The search party from Virginia City had followed the tracks of the coach on the road to Reno as long as they could. After the rain had begun however, the traces were washed away and the men started to discuss whether they should go on or not.

"Hey Roy, there isn't anything left to been seen on the street and it's nearly dark."

"Yes, we surely won't find anything anymore today!"

There was some truth in it, which not even Adam could deny.

"There is an abandoned way station not far from here" Abe Durham mentioned, "we could spend the night there and see what we will find tomorrow."

"That's a good idea Abe, show us the way!" Roy asked the old scout.

Adam remained sitting on his horse and looking into the direction where he assumed the kidnappers to have escaped to. Hoss came to his side and said softly:

"Come with us Adam, you won't find anything tonight in the dark. It is no help for Charlie at all, whether you will break your neck on the swamped road. Have a good nights sleep, and tomorrow morning we'll go on. Besides this I suppose the coach has to be shed somewhere as well and the old way station is probably the only shelter around here, maybe we are that lucky to find them there."

That thought seemed to invigorating Adam. "You are right, yes, it's a little chance, but it is one! We should tell the other to approach it carefully."

"I think Abe is aware of that. Come on, let us keep pace with the others!"

Adam nodded and went on riding with the posse.

A little less than an hour later the rain had stopped and left behind a bunch of impassable roads around. Abe Durham who rode ahead the posse stopped and raised an arm.

"What is it Abe?"

"Look Roy there, behind the bushes on the left, can you see the light there?"

"Actually Abe my eyes are not what they used to be, to be honest I can see nothing behind there."

"I can see it Abe!" Joe was riding closely behind the two men.

"That's my boy! This is where the old way station should be! Obviously there are people, having probably hidden from the rain. How can we find out whether it is the party we are looking for?"

"Let us approach the station slowly and not on horseback, they would hear otherwise that there is a search party looking after them. One of us has to go to the door and find out who's actually in there."

"I'll go looking!" Adam came forward.

"I don't suppose we can talk you out of this, son?"

"No Roy, you can't, I will go there!"

"Let him do it, Roy" Ben interjected, "we will not be able to stop him!"

The Sherriff looked thoughtful at Adam.

"We will cover you from behind from the bushes over there and from the behind the barn on the left. Be careful however!"

After the men had taken their positions, Adam very slowly approached the yard of the old way station. His heart was pounding that madly that he nearly suspected they might hear the sound of it inside. He had dismounted his horse and carefully went towards the little cabin. He left the horse behind a bit and tried to peek into one of the windows. A short glance told him that in the room behind the windows were standing two men, listening to a third man. No Charlie was to be seen. His view went over to the barn, maybe she was in there. Carefully he approached the run down building and slowly opened the door fearing that a squeaking of the door hinges might give him away. Although it was nearly dark outside because of the heavy clouds, the darkness inside the barn was even deeper, so that at first he was unable to recognize anything. Then he heard a sharp gasp and drew his gun.

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As soon as Edwin had left the barn, Charlie crawled around looking for something, she could cut her ropes with. After a while, that seemed like an eternity to her, she impinged her knee painfully on something solid, which could have been the remains of the metal fitting of an old cartwheel. It was not really sharply edged, but the best available tool and she started rubbing the cords around her wrists at it fiercely, grateful to have an occupation. The idea was to free herself before Edwin or one of his valets would come back, to take one of the horses and to escape far enough to find help somewhere, surely someone from Virginia City was looking for her. Again and again she dragged on the ropes to see whether they could already be broken, but she had to realize again and again that the rope was still too strong. Although these attempts were quite painful, the material seemed to loosen a bit, which gave her new energy to intensify the rubbing at that solid, metal instrument. Suddenly a sound from the door startled her, apparently Edwin was coming back. Charlie had found her tool just behind the door of the barn, so she would be shielded by that door for some moments more. Should she throw her tool on the intruder? As her hands were still bound she decided against that option and tried to hide it instead under some straw. Shaking Charlie watched how very slowly more and more of the figure behind the door became visible, why did Edwin or his valets move that cautiously? When she became aware who actually came in, she sharply gasped out of surprise.

"Adam?"

Charlie was hardly able to believe her eyes, but it was him undoubtedly? Adam swirled around and thought in the first moment his stressed and overstrung mind had trapped him.

"Oh my God, Charlotte!"

He flew over to her, while putting back the gun into his holster. He knelt down at Charlies side and embraced her with a ferocity that caused her a sharp pain somewhere at her hips, but who cared? He had found her, he was there, he was really there! With a hoarse voice, that hardly sounded like himself, Adam whispered:

"Charlotte, darling, you're alive!"

Blurred pieces of thoughts rushed through Charlies mind, there was so much to take care for, first of all they needed to run! They must not stay here and Adam had to stop talking and she needed to tell him about Edwin... Still trying to sort things out, she heard the unmistakable sound of a clapping belt approaching, Edwin was coming back! He would beat Adam to death for sure and then she would surely not longer be able to stand the pain of his beatings... pain...what was that thought about pain? What had been there at her hip? Suddenly her eyes where caught by Adams gun belt, that had bounced against her, when he had jumped over to her.

Charlotte looked up and saw Edwin approaching from behind Adams back, swinging his belt. She should warn Adam and cry or...

Edwin came nearer and oddly enough she felt no fear at all, because in her hands, that were still bound, she was holding Adams gun and pointed at Edwin with it. As she had it imagined so often in her wildest dreams, she now pulled the trigger and pulled it and pulled it and pulled it ...

Six times the gun exploded and after that Edwin Mathews lay on his back with a slightly surprised expression at his face and six red bullet wholes in his torso.