Chapter 13

Wright stormed over to the small cabin the Linklaters lived in. Only the two remaining Linklater children were there. The foreman still hadn't gotten their father in from the field. The lack of their parents didn't stop Wright any, nor did the tears and the cowering of the children.

"I want an answer right now," he said, loudly over the crying. "Where is your brother?"

The children were too frightened to answer.

Wright grabbed the oldest boy there. "Answer me!"

"We don't know! He's just gone!" the boy said. He resisted saying he knew his brother had gone out of the cabin during the night.

Wright shoved the boy up against the wall, hard. The boy cried even more, his hip hurting where it had hit the wall first, but he kept quiet about Jason.

Wright became even more irritated with the crying and the noise. "You kids are gonna stay right here until I decide whether to beat the living daylights out of you or not!"

Wright tore out of the cabin, leaving the children screaming now, terrified. The foreman was waiting just outside, and Wright immediately decked him. The rifle the foreman had been holding went flying away.

"If you'd been doing your job, that kid wouldn't have gotten away!" Wright screamed down at him.

The foreman looked up from the ground, staying still.

"I want you to get some men together and get them headed toward both Millertown and Stockton! I want that kid back before anybody can help him! And when Linklater gets here, I want him in the house straight off, you got that?!"

The foreman nodded.

Wright stalked away, back to the house, and the foreman slowly got up.

XXXXXXX

Stockton was still far enough away that Jarrod needed to stop, rest himself and Jason and his horse. He checked his watch as they sat on rocks and drank some water out of his canteen. He knew they were about an hour away from the ranch, and it was just past noon. If Jason had been missed, it would have been several hours ago. Wright still had an hour to catch up with the boy.

"When did you leave the Wright place, Jason?" Jarrod asked.

"I don't know," Jason said. "It wasn't all that long after it got really dark. I been running a long time."

Jarrod picked the boy up seven or eight miles from the Wright place. In the dark, the boy couldn't have been traveling very fast. An hour still to get home and to safety. Jarrod started thinking he'd better be ready for anybody who might be looking for the boy, while still acting confident enough to keep Jason from being frightened.

"It won't be long we'll be at my ranch," Jarrod said. "Once we get there, we'll get help together to go get your family and your friends."

Jason started to cry again. Jarrod put an arm around him.

"Don't be scared, Jason."

"I'm not," Jason said. "I'm just thinking about going home again, back to our real home, I mean."

"Done In?"

"Yeah."

Jarrod hesitated talking about the future, but he did say, "Your mother and father may decide to go elsewhere. How would you feel about that?"

"I just want to be away from Mr. Wright," Jason said and wiped his face. "As long as I'm with my family and away from Mr. Wright, I don't care where we are."

Jarrod gave him a pat on the back. "Let's go get to work on that."

They got up, mounted up and continued on toward Stockton.

XXXXXXX

Sheriff Linklater had been hauled into the house in front of Wright, who blasted questions at him that Linklater could not answer. "I don't know when he left," the sheriff kept saying. "He got out sometime during the night. He didn't make a sound. None of us know when it was he left."

"Where did he go?" Wright asked.

"I don't know. He never said a word."

"Did you say anything to him about the men who came here yesterday? Did your wife?"

"No, sir, nothing at all."

Wright grabbed the sheriff hard by the arm, tore him to the front door and threw him down into the yard. The foreman was there with two of the guards. They stood still, waiting for instructions.

Wright pulled Linklater to his feet and ripped his shirt open. "Lashes on this man!" he yelled. "Ten, on the back. I don't want them to show. Then we'll see if you keep quiet!"

XXXXX

Jarrod was happy to see the last hill they had to cross over before they reached the lane that turned off the Stockton road toward home. No one had bothered them, and now it looked like if they had to, they could make a run for it and get safely to the ranch property. Jarrod gave his horse a kick and took the hill a little quicker than he had been traveling, anxious to get to safety.

Especially when he heard the horses coming up behind them.

He had no idea if they were Wright's men or not, but he didn't plan to take any chances. The hill was steep enough that he had to slow a bit on the downslope, though. Whoever it was behind him was suddenly on top of him.

Jarrod turned his horse to block the newcomers and shield Jason at the same time. He looked hard at the three men on horseback who stopped to face him, trying to determine if he had seen them at Wright's ranch the day before. He couldn't tell.

"Good morning, gentlemen," Jarrod said. "Sorry to confront you like this, but I heard you coming up and couldn't tell if you were friend or foe."

The man who was going to do the talking looked at Jason, who was peeking around Jarrod's back. "Hello, Jason," he said. "Your parents are pretty upset you ran away. We'll just take this little rascal off your hands, Mr. Barkley."

Jarrod didn't remember them, but they obviously remembered him. He was outnumbered and unsure how to handle this, but he was not inclined to hand Jason over to these men. "I don't think so," Jarrod said, and he felt Jason's arms tighten around him.

"Don't go giving us trouble, Mr. Barkley," the man said. "We just want to take Jason back to his parents. You want to go home to them, don't you, Jason?"

Jason didn't say anything.

Jarrod suddenly lifted his gun from its holster. The three men tried to do the same but stopped when it was clear Jarrod had the upper hand.

"Jason is going with me," Jarrod said. "We'll get this all cleared up in a few hours."

"We have our orders, Barkley," the man said.

"I'll bet you do," Jarrod said.

One of the other men drew. Jarrod shot him fast but then he knew he had to make a run for it, because the other two were drawing and he could not hit them both. He turned and kicked his horse into a fast gallop, reaching back and pushing Jason as low as he could get him while holding him in the saddle, afraid the boy would be hit when the other two men started firing. Jarrod's hat went flying off when a bullet took it away. Jarrod ducked and kicked his horse even harder.

The two remaining Wright men came flying after him, but Jarrod had a good lead now. He could have fired back at them, but he was afraid Jason would get in the way. The boy was holding on for dear life, but one errant bump in the road could put him up and in the way, or completely off the horse.

Jarrod saw the sign for the Barkley Ranch not far away now. He tightened his arm around Jason, keeping him even lower. Almost there, almost there.

Under the sign and over the hill on the Barkley property, Jarrod kept moving as fast as he could, but it wasn't long before he was on the downside of the hill and took the chance of slowing and looking behind him. There was no one there. Jarrod turned his horse to face the hill, just in case. Jason sat up straighter when he turned, and he peeked around Jarrod. There was no one following him now.

Jarrod laughed. "You hung on there pretty well, Jason!"

"Are we safe now?" Jason asked.

"I think so," Jarrod said. "My house is right over the next rise."

Jarrod kicked his horse into moving, and he turned him to go the rest of the way home.