Lundy took a step closer.
Standing higher up on the bank, he seemed to tower over the girls. He lifted the rock over his head. His black eyes gleamed.
“Tell me where you found the gold,” he growled. “Right now.”
Ruby Mae glanced at her friends. Both stood frozen in place. Bessie looked as if she were about to cry. Clara’s eyes were darting here and there, searching for a way to escape. But Ruby Mae knew there was nowhere to run.
“I said, tell me where you found the gold, Ruby Mae!” Lundy shouted.
Ruby Mae could feel her heart thudding in her chest. She’d known Lundy Taylor her whole life. She’d listened to him sass Miz Christy. She’d watched him beat up boys half his size. She’d even seen him throw a rock at little Mountie O’Teale.
Lundy had done those things out of pure spite. There was no telling what he’d do for a chance to get rich.
“Ain’t no more gold to be found, Lundy,” Ruby Mae said. She barely recognized her own squeaking voice. “We done found it all.”
“Liar!”
Lundy lurched down the bank toward Ruby Mae. She stumbled and fell in the shallow water at the edge of the creek.
“You tell me or I’ll knock your head clean in two!” Lundy cried. He waved the big rock in front of Ruby Mae’s face. “I’ll do it, too!
You know I will!”
“Stop it, Lundy!” Clara said. “Ruby Mae’s tellin’ the truth. We found the gold in this here creek, only there ain’t no more to be had. We looked and looked ourselves already.”
Lundy lowered the rock, taking in this new information. “Right here, in Dead Man’s Creek?”
“Up there, just a few feet,” Ruby Mae said, slowly getting to her feet.
“How do you know there ain’t no more gold?”
“W—we don’t,” Ruby Mae stammered. “Not for sure and certain.”
Lundy dipped in a bare foot at the creek’s edge and stirred up the rocks on the bottom. Then he bent down and scooped some into his palm, still clutching the big rock in his other hand.
“Don’t believe you,” he pronounced at last. “These is just creek rocks. Nothin’ special about ’em.” He scowled at Ruby Mae. “You’re a-tryin’ to put one over on me.”
“No we ain’t,” Bessie said in a quavery voice. “It was just one of them things, Lundy. We was just plumb lucky, is all.”
Lundy stood. Angrily, he slapped the rock in his palm. “How come you all get to be plumb lucky, and I get nothin’? That seem fair to you?”
“That’s how luck is,” Ruby Mae said with a helpless shrug. “It don’t make a whit of sense.”
She looked over her shoulder, trying to plot an escape. They could try running for it, but Lundy would be faster. He was bound to catch one of them. Ruby Mae was one of the fastest runners in school—faster even than a lot of the boys. She’d probably be able to get away. But she couldn’t risk leaving her friends behind. If she had to stay and fight, she would. Three to one, they might just have a chance. If only they were closer to the mission, they could try calling for help. But out here, no one would hear them.
Lundy moved close to Ruby Mae, so close she could smell the tobacco on his breath. “Tell me this, Princess Ruby Mae. What makes you so all-fired special you should get all that gold?” Again he raised the rock high. Its sharp edges glinted in the sun.
“I . . . I have an idea,” Clara said suddenly. “S’posin’ we give you some of the gold, sort of like a reward. For not hittin’ us and all.”
“Clara!” Ruby Mae moaned, but secretly she was relieved. After all, she wasn’t going to enjoy the gold much if her head was split in two.
“A reward?” Lundy repeated. He stroked his stubbled chin.
Clara nodded. “Like for instance, s’posin’ we give you a nugget of gold if’n you let us go?”
“Or even two?” Bessie added hopefully.
“Let’s not get carried away,” Ruby Mae muttered.
“That’s an idea, all right,” Lundy said, sounding reasonable at last.
“For starters,” Ruby Mae said, “how about you just toss that silly ol’ rock aside?”
Lundy thought for a minute. His face darkened. “I got me a better idea. How about you three princesses just tell me where the gold’s hid and give it all to me? Or else I’ll bash your royal heads in!”
Lundy grabbed a lock of Ruby Mae’s hair and yanked her closer. She let out a scream of protest. Bessie began to sob.
With the rock inches from Ruby Mae’s temple, Lundy smiled a dangerous smile.
“Well?” he said. “I’m gettin’ tired of your games. Just tell me where the gold is. I’d hate to have to get blood all over that pretty hair of yours.”
“Run, Bessie! Run, Clara!” Ruby Mae screamed. “Get help!”
“Ain’t nowhere they can run in time to save your sorry head,” Lundy said. “Now, tell me how I can get me that gold . . .”
“Let her go, Lundy!” A booming voice filled the air. “Now!”
Lundy released Ruby Mae’s hair and spun around.
To her amazement, there on the bank stood Doctor MacNeill and Miz Christy.
In two strides, the doctor reached Lundy. Lundy tried to resist, but he was no match. The doctor pinned Lundy’s arm behind his back. The rock fell to the ground.
“Lemme go!” Lundy moaned. “My arm! You’re a-hurtin’ my arm!”
“Hurts, you say?” the doctor inquired.
“Burns like fire!”
“I want you to remember this feeling, Lundy,” the doctor said. “Because if I ever catch you near these girls again, it’s going to hurt a whole lot worse. You get my meaning?”
Lundy nodded.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t quite catch your answer.”
“Yes!” Lundy squawked. “Yes!”
Slowly the doctor released him. Lundy rubbed his arm. “Docs ain’t s’posed to go around hurtin’ people,” he muttered.
Doctor MacNeill shrugged. “I went to a very unorthodox medical school.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lundy demanded. “You know I don’t know no fancy words.”
“It means,” Christy said sharply, “that you’d better watch yourself from now on, Lundy.”
Ruby Mae blinked in disbelief. She’d never heard Miz Christy sound so riled, not even that time Lundy had hit Mountie O’Teale.
“But they said I could have a re-ward,” Lundy murmured, pointing at the girls.
“Well, they were mistaken,” said Christy. “They don’t have the gold in their possession.”
“Who does?”
“It’s safely locked away.”
Lundy’s eyes narrowed. “I bet you got it, Teacher-gal.”
Doctor MacNeill took a step toward Lundy, who backed up instantly. “Apparently, I didn’t make myself clear,” the doctor said with quiet rage.
Lundy spit on the ground, glaring at Ruby Mae. “You won’t be princesses much longer,” he said. Then he turned and vanished into the trees.
Christy rushed to Ruby Mae’s side and pulled her close. “Are you all right?”
“Fine and dandy,” Ruby Mae reported. “Sure am glad you two happened along, though.”
“We were looking for violets,” Christy said. Her blue eyes were shimmering with tears. “We almost headed in the other direction, toward Stony Peak. When I think what might have happened if we hadn’t been here . . .”
“We’d have figured somethin’ out, Miz Christy,” Ruby Mae said reassuringly.
Bessie sniffled loudly. “I ain’t so sure about that, Ruby Mae.”
“What’s that?” Christy asked, pointing to the white handkerchief Ruby Mae was still clutching.
“This?” Ruby Mae stuffed the handkerchief in her pocket. “Nothin’. Just some ol’ scrap of fabric we found by the bank.”
Christy sighed. “I still can’t get over how lucky it is we were in the right place at the right time.”
“Well, it’s over now,” Ruby Mae said lightly. “The doc sure scared the daylights outa Lundy. He won’t be botherin’ us again. His bark’s worse than his bite, anyhow.”
Doctor MacNeill was gazing off in the direction Lundy had run. “Don’t be too sure about Lundy Taylor, Ruby Mae. Gold can do strange things to people.”
Ruby Mae started to argue, but the look on the doctor’s face made her fall silent. She’d never seen that look before, not on the doc. Doc MacNeill wasn’t afraid of anything.
And yet, right now, if she didn’t know better, she’d have sworn he looked awfully worried. Maybe even scared.