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The sound of horse’s hooves and a voice shouting roused Sophie from her slumber. She sat up with a start. Her neck aching. The door was tried and then banged upon with a heavy hand.
Simon sat up with a start.
“Sophie! Open up it’s me!” came the familiar voice.
“Coming Pa!”
Crossing the room, she unbolted the door and opened it.
“We have to get a posse together,” he said bursting through the crack, “The Smithson Gang is rustling out there. I got a crack at one of them last night, pretty sure it was Green Bill. They won’t go very far without him. If I can get a posse, together...this could mean good things for us. There are over a hundred dollars a piece on their heads.”
“Who do you want me to get Pa?” piped up Simon.
He swung around to look at his son, then to the jail cell and back to Simon. “So you’re here too? Good, you know who to fetch the one we trust and bring your sister’s horse.”
“Yes, Pa,” he said with a nod of his head and was off clapping on his brown felt hat as he closed the door behind him.
After the sound of Simon’s running feet had disappeared down the wooden sidewalk Sheriff Brown swung around one last time.
“Who’s this?”
“Jesse Garrison sir,” said Jesse with a bow of his head. Sophie found her eyebrows raised; he didn’t seem like the kind of man to be reverent to anyone.
For a long moment, their eyes met.
“What did you arrest him for?” he said turning to Sophie.
“Disturbing the peace, he was in a row with Twist and his gang.”
“Not surprising, anything besides causing a disturbance?”
“No.”
“What has you up in these parts, Jesse?”
“Looking for a family treasure.”
“Not looking for trouble, are you?”
“No sir!” said Jesse smartly.
Her father made a face that said he was calculating things. “Release him. We’ve got more important things, and he seems harmless enough.”
Sophie felt flabbergasted, and her jaw dropped for a moment. But her father never noticed as he went to his drawer and pulled out a second gun, and loading his belt with fresh bullets.
Taking the keys, she thrust the key into the lock as Jesse stepped towards the door.
“I told you, you could have let me out last night.”
Sophie smiled at him tight-lipped.
“At least you got a free place to sleep.”
“Pity, I paid to stay a night at the boarding house then.”
Sophie felt a slight tinge of a blush creep in her cheeks. “Well if you kept better company, maybe you’d get to enjoy what you pay for,” she murmured and opened the door.
“I thought your company was pretty nice, for the price that is.”
Sophie wanted to kick him but looked away instead raising her head.
In a moment Jesse Garrison walked out of the Sheriff’s office and was gone. Her father was placing a double holster belt in her hand saying, “Strap that on, you’re going to need it.”
“Pa?”
“You’re coming with me. Now get ready.”
“Yes, father.”
Excitement pumped through her veins, this was the first time he had asked her to come along on such an outing, and against such cattle rustlers as the Smithson’s.
Her mind rattled on, there were five members in all. If each was at least worth one-hundred dollars, then...divided by the seven men would be nearly seventy-five dollars. But if she came along, they might include her in the cut, even if they gave her half the cut it would be close to ninety dollars for her father. What kind of marvelous thing would they do with ninety dollars?
Sophie wished she could beg questions of him, but he was too busy pulling out temporary badges from the bottom drawer, and Mr. Walker entered.
“Your son said the Smithson Gang was in taking cattle. I am in.”
Mr. Walker was followed shortly by five other men, a few supplies were gathered, horses saddled up, and almost before she could believe it; Sophie found herself part of a posse searching for the Smithson gang, riding in a group of men that all wore silver stars on their chest. The trail was hot from the McFadden Ranch, but by high noon, the trail had faded and so had Sophie’s energy. Mentally, she calculated that she had maybe two full hours of sleep under her belt, her heavy eyelids fought every waking moment as she searched for any sign of the Smithson Gang.
“Sophie,” her father’s voice startled her.
“Yes Pa?”
He eyed her, “Best go home, us men are going to stay out a while, most likely into the night. Go home and have Aunt Martha put you to bed. There’s nothing out here to harm you, we’ll be lucky if the Smithson’s are still around.”
“Yes, Pa,” she said obediently, her heart wincing, feeling that she had failed and disappointed him.
Turning her horse around, she followed the cold trail, riding homeward, biting back the wayward tears that would cloud her eyes. Exhaustion was stronger than any other feelings she was suffering, and her eyes were refusing to stay open.
A scream of terror caught in her throat awakening her thoroughly as she felt herself falling. The hard ground knocked the breath out of her, and she struggled to grasp for air.
Cruel laughter crowed above her head.
“Look what we found,” cackled a voice that made her want to shiver.
Sophie didn’t know what to be more scared of, the voices or the fact that she could not draw a single breath.
In a moment her breath came in a sharp gasp that hurt her lungs, she drew several quick breaths trying to catch up when a hand touched her shoulder rolling over to face him.
Fear drained Sophie of all her strength, she knew the face instantly from the poster hanging outside her father’s office, the words one-hundred-dollar reward wanted dead or alive, written below it.
Slippery Sam, a member of the Smithson cow smuggling ring.
Her hands went the gun at her waist, it was gone. Her guns were gone!
“Pa!” she screamed.
“He can’t save you now deputy darlin’ you’re all ours,” he said waving a piece of rope before her.
“No, no I am not,” she said pushing away from him and trying to scramble to her feet.
These men would think nothing of hanging her just to teach her father a lesson. Before she could gather her feet beneath her, a set of hands clenched her shoulders, pushing her back to the ground. She writhed, kicking and screaming for every breath in her body. The possibility of death had never seemed so intense or real before. If she wanted to live...to breathe. It felt as if the whole gang pinned her down, but her voice was free until someone stuffed a handkerchief in her mouth, she gagged. It tasted—unspeakable. In minutes bound and gagged, she was tied to her saddle and trapped in a pack of outlaws.
Sleep seemed trivial to what was happening now. Sophie wished she had never set eyes on Jesse Garrison, that he was indeed strung on the nearest tree outside of town. And that she—was on the trail with her Pa—or at least...or that she would at least of had a chance at saving herself from these savage outlaws, who were at this very moment making colorful and unwanted remarks to her innocent and now red tipped ears.
“Now it’s not all bad miss, think of all the fun you’ll have,” howled on man patting her on the back.
She recoiled from his touch, his whole body seemed filthy from the inside out.
“He-haw! Boys look at the pretty girl now! You don’t like that do you.”
Sophie looked away, beyond insulted. How she would have given up everything in the world at this moment to be standing in Aunt Martha’s kitchen being scolded. She’d give anything—anything...she’d never have the chance again. Sophie Brown, would be dead before sundown.