Helpless rage held Dwight in its thrall for several minutes. The dust cloud left by the fleeing wagon settled slowly on to the sage and bunchgrass. Half a dozen ideas fluttered through the marshal’s mind, each being discarded as quickly as it arose.
Val stepped up beside him. ‘Harvey’s gettin’ our horses. You want a posse gotten together?’
Dwight shook his head. ‘No. Well, yeah, but I don’t want ’em leavin’ yet. They’ll be watchin’ their back-trail. Just as soon as a posse puts up a dust cloud, they’ll kill Belinda.’
‘So what’s the plan?’
‘I’ve been standin’ here tryin’ to figure out where they’ll stop. They ain’t likely goin’ far with that wagon. Too slow. Too heavy. Too easy to follow. They’ll be stoppin’ to divide up the gold pretty soon. If we can figure out where they’re gonna do that, we might be able to slip up on ’em.’
‘Got any ideas?’
‘A couple. It looked like they turned off the road a little more than a mile south. Turned east, it looked like, from what dust they was stirrin’ up.’
‘Is there a place in that area that would serve their purpose well?’
‘A couple at least. The problem is, they’re both where a couple lookouts would see anyone comin’ from half a mile away.’
‘That could present a problem.’
‘We almost have to figure out how to get at ’em from the far side.’
‘And do it before they have opportunity to divide up the loot and split up.’
‘Ain’t no way we’re gonna do that. They’ll have that done afore we’re half way there.’
‘Are you adept at tracking?’
‘Yup.’
‘Two of our men are dead.’
‘Isaiah an’ Howard?’
‘Yes.’
‘How many o’ them?’
‘Four.’
‘That leaves eight, by my count.’
‘Four we know, and four we do not.’
‘I’ll know ’em all when I see ’em.’
Harvey arrived just then with their horses. Val’s saddle held two long-gun scabbards. Into one he slid his thirty-thirty. The other was shorter and wider. The Colt revolving shotgun slid into it as if it were made for it.
‘You want the rest of us to tail ya?’ Harvey asked.
‘Yeah. Mount as many men as you can in a hurry. Wait an hour. Ten to one they’ll split up. Try to have at least two men to follow each one. If you can, have at least one man that’s a decent tracker in each pair. Lindquist and I’ll try to catch up to ’em afore they get split up, but that ain’t likely.’
Hiram Birdwell arrived somewhat out of breath. ‘Marshal, it is imperative you overtake those brigands and recover my gold. My bank cannot afford to suffer such a loss. I have lost only one of my guards, but I have lost all that gold! And a good deal of money besides! It was all entrusted to me. Your duty demands that you recover it, Marshal!’
Instead of answering, Dwight swung into the saddle. He slid his forty-four-forty into its scabbard as he nudged his horse forward. At the edge of town he turned at right angles away from the road. A hundred yards from the road he descended into a shallow arroyo. He turned and followed the bottom of it in the general direction the robbers had fled.
He and Val rode at a swift trot, resisting the urge to run their horses. They knew instinctively they were embarking on a long chase, and stamina would be more important in the long run than speed.
‘That bunch will raise quite a dust when they manage to ride out of town,’ Val observed when a wide spot in the gully allowed them to ride abreast.
‘I’m countin’ on that,’ Dwight replied. ‘If they’re watchin’ the dust cloud comin’ from them, they’re less likely to be watchin’ the direction we’re comin’ from.’
‘How far are these places where you presume they will stop and divide their plunder?’
‘Not more’n about four miles. They’re likely already there, in fact.’
As they rode, Dwight watched for spots where the dry gulch’s rim was so low that he could almost see over it. At one such spot he stopped his horse, grasped the saddle horn, placed one knee behind the cantle, then placed the other foot in the saddle. He moved the other foot beside it, removed his hat, then stood, balancing on the saddle, peering over the rim of the gully.
The horse stood rock still, allowing him to remain balanced. ‘That’s odd,’ he muttered.
‘What?’ Val replied instantly.
‘Someone’s comin’ this way. On foot.’
‘On foot?’
‘Runnin’.’
He spread his feet apart, allowing him to drop into the saddle, and dismounted swiftly. Val did likewise, and the two climbed the side of the gully. Dwight again removed his hat, but Val decided not to remove his smaller bowler, which he always wore. Both men peered carefully over the gully’s rim.
‘It’s a kid,’ Dwight said.
‘I do believe it is the Humbolt lad,’ Val offered.
‘What’s he doin’ out here?’
‘You don’t suppose he followed them, do you?’
Dwight didn’t answer. He waited until the fleet-footed boy was nearly abreast of them, then called out to him softly. ‘Billy!’
The boy jerked his head toward the voice, tangled his foot in a clump of sage brush, and fell headlong in a tangle of arms and legs. He scrambled to his feet, eyes wide, head swiveling back and forth, seeking the source of the voice.
‘Over here,’ Dwight said.
‘Who’s there?’ the boy demanded.
‘Marshal Stern.’
The boy instantly turned and ran toward them. ‘Boy, Marshal! Am I ever glad to see you! Oh, hello, Mr Lindquist. You too.’
‘What’re you doin’ out here? What’re you runnin’ from?’ Dwight demanded.
‘Ain’t runnin’ from nothin’. Runnin’ after you. I done follered ’em.’
‘Followed who?’
‘Them guys what stole all the gold.’
‘You followed the wagon?’
‘Yeah. I stayed way off to the side, like you guys is doin’, so’s they wouldn’t see me. That wagon’s heavy, so they wasn’t goin’ very fast. ’Sides, they was sure you wasn’t gonna chase ’em, since they got your woman.’
‘Did you see where they went?’
‘Yeah. Well, kinda. That’s what I was hustlin’ back to town to tell ya. They turned off the road there at that big ol’ wide gully that goes east, just afore the road starts up the big hill.’
‘That makes sense,’ Dwight agreed. ‘They wouldn’t want to make the long pull up Hartwell Hill if they didn’t have to.’
‘The wagon wouldn’t be nearly as heavy as the stagecoach,’ Val observed. ‘It’s all the steel that armors the stage that makes it so heavy.’
‘Yeah, but that much gold’s plenty heavy all by itself,’ Dwight disagreed. ‘Besides, they only had a two-horse team, and they ain’t near as big as the ones pullin’ the stage.’
‘Morgans,’ Val said.
Dwight simply nodded, confirming that he, too, had made note of that fact. He spoke to the boy. ‘Billy, you go ahead to town. You don’t need to run, and you can stay on the road. You should meet the posse before you get to town. Tell them what you told us, and tell them we’re going to circle around to the east and try to catch up to the robbers before they split up, but we aren’t likely to. Tell them we’ll mark the trail of the ones we’re following, so they can split into pairs and follow the others.’
‘You’re gonna get ’em chased down afore they do somethin’ to Miss Holdridge, ain’t ya, Marshal?’
‘I’m sure gonna try,’ Dwight assured him.
Even as he said it, he knew his chances of success were pretty slim.