CHAPTER 12
Back at the jail, Flint found Buck still seated at his desk, apparently never having moved since Flint left to go to supper. With the one cell empty, Flint supposed there was really nothing for Buck to do but wait.
“You think I oughta go back there and take those two canvas curtains down, so anybody lookin’ in can see there’s nobody in the cell?” Flint wondered.
“You know, that probably wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Buck said. “I’ll help you.” He got up from his chair and they went out to the cell room. “Brrr,” he shivered. “It’s startin’ to get a little chilly at night. Nolan better hurry up and get that wall finished.” He nodded toward the stove sitting outside the two cells. “Won’t do much good to build a fire in that with that wall out.” In the winter, it was the heat for the whole cell room.
With Buck at one end and Flint at the other, they took down the canvas that divided the one cell into two. When they met in the middle, they folded the canvas.
Starting on the other canvas, Buck said, “We’ll take it down for now, so anybody lookin’ in can see it’s empty. If Nolan doesn’t shake a leg, I reckon we’ll have to put it back up for Ralph. Now you can tell me how many times that witch tried to escape on the way to Tyler.”
“Only once.” Flint went on to tell him about the episode with the rope and the tree. “I don’t know,” he said in conclusion. “I think it just kinda took the starch out of her. I know she didn’t pee all the way to Tyler, and neither did I.”
“If we’re lucky, we won’t have any trouble with Trask and his sons when they find out Ada’s gone from here,” Buck speculated.
“I’ve still got a couple of my blankets here, so I’ll make a bed back there by the office door. They’d have a hard time seein’ me that far back. If they take a notion they wanna cause some damage after they see the cell is empty, I might be able to change their minds. I reckon you can just go to bed in your room.”
“No,” Buck answered at once. “You’ll be out here in the cell room. I’ll sleep in the office, in case they come right at the front door. When you’re ready, I’ll turn the lamp out in the office. I figure they ain’t likely to come if there’s a light on.”
“That sounds as good a plan as any,” Flint said. “You in the front and me in the back.”
* * *
“Whaddaya think, Pa?” Vike Trask asked. “You figure they don’t think we’re comin’ back, since we didn’t show up last night?”
“I don’t know what they think,” Trask answered, “but we’re goin’ back. I promised my little girl I’d take care of her. I’m just tryin’ to figure out how to get her outta there. It ain’t like it was when she put that dynamite in the window and blew the wall out. That wall was wood and Jed and his partner was in that cell. The cell Ada’s in now is iron bars all around. Even if we could get enough dynamite to tear that wall out, it would most likely kill Ada.”
“What if we could fix it so Ada can get herself out?” Kyle wondered.
When his father asked him what he was talking about, he explained. “If they ain’t got the wall boarded up yet, one of us could crawl through them studs, slip up to the cell and pass a gun to Ada through the bars. She could moan and groan and make out like she was sick or dyin’, and get the sheriff or that deputy, whoever’s guardin’ her, to come in the cell to see what’s wrong with her. Bang, she puts a hole in his head, and we’ll be out back of the jail with the horses.”
Trask and Vike looked at each other, impressed.
“How’d you ever think of a good plan like that?” Vike asked. He looked at his pa again. “Whaddaya think, Pa?”
“Sounds like a good idea to me. I can’t think of no better way to get her outta there.”
“You think Ada will be able to shoot whichever one it is that comes in the cell?” Kyle asked.
“Hell, yes,” Vike declared immediately. “She weren’t squirrelly about blowin’ up the whole damn jail.”
“All right, then,” Trask decided. “It won’t be tonight, though. “Tomorrow, we’ve gotta pack up everythin’ we need and move that herd of horses down to Nacogdoches. That’s liable to take all day. And we’ve gotta move everything outta here ’cause there’s liable to be a posse here the day after we break Ada out. We can’t get caught here. As soon as we get the horses to that camp, we’ll go from there, straight to Tinhorn and break Ada outta that jail tomorrow night.”
“Are we gonna give up our place here?” Kyle asked. “This house, the barn, the pasture? That ain’t much more ’n a shack down in Nacogdoches. What if somebody else has found that shack and took it over?”
“Then I reckon it’ll just be their bad luck. Just like that old man and his wife who used to live here. It’s the strong that survive on this earth, and it’s the weak they survive on.” Trask gave his son a solemn look. “I think that’s wrote in the Bible somewhere. Besides, it’s the only way we’re gonna save your sister from hangin’, or whatever they plan on doin’ with her. We’ll see, maybe after they can’t find us for a while, things will die down and they’ll give up lookin’ for us. Might be we could come back here to this place.
“If that don’t work out, we’ll just find us a better place—way the hell away from Tinhorn. As long as we keep the family together, that’s the important thing. We’ll get everythin’ packed up and ready to go today, so we can get an early start in the mornin’.”
“It’s gonna take all day, just to drive them horses down there,” Vike complained. “And that’s if we keep ’em movin’ as fast as we can. We can’t go no faster than the horses we’re ridin’ and the packhorses we’ll be leadin’. I don’t see how we’re gonna be able to get there, then turn around and ride back up to Tinhorn, and it still be dark. Hell, Pa, we’d be lucky to get back to Tinhorn by dinnertime the next day.”
Trask listened to his son’s argument and had to admit he made sense. “I reckon maybe you’re right,” he said after thinking over the plan he had proposed. “I s’pose I’m just too anxious to get your sister outta that jail to think straight.”
“Why don’t we just go ahead and break her outta that jail tonight?” Kyle asked. “Leave the herd of horses here. After we get her out, we could just go on down to Nacogdoches instead of comin’ back here. When they come lookin’ for her, they’ll come here. When they don’t find us, they’ll just have to decide where to look next—most likely up toward Tyler. They ain’t likely to wanna mess with that little herd of horses. In a couple of days, we can come get the horses.”
Trask and Vike exchanged glances again.
“I swear, Kyle,” Vike commented, “you keep comin’ up with these ideas. I never figured you to be the brains of this outfit. I reckon it’s fair, though, since I’m the handsome one.” He turned back to look at his father again. “Whaddaya think, Pa? You wanna go get Ada tonight, and take a chance on losin’ them horses?”
“Kyle might be right,” Trask said. “That the sheriff and that deputy might come lookin’ for us here. And they ain’t gonna wanna fool with no herd of horses. Even if they got up a posse, it’d likely be shopkeepers and such, and none of ’em would know the first thing about movin’ a herd of horses.”
He waved his fist in the air and proclaimed, “Boys, we’re goin’ after your sister tonight!”
The rest of the day was spent packing up everything they thought they would need at the camp in Nacogdoches. They ate one last supper of bacon, coffee, and biscuits that Trask made before packing up the flour. Then they saddled the horses and the mule Ada preferred.
“It matches her personality,” Vike always commented.
Well past the hour of darkness they rode out of the barnyard, leading the packhorses and Ada’s mule. A little over two hours brought the faint lights of Tinhorn into view. Not willing to risk meeting anyone leaving the saloon at that late hour, they headed toward the river that ran parallel to the main street at a distance of over one hundred yards.
They halted the horses close to the same spot Ada had left the horses for Jed and Ralph before blowing out the jail wall. Once the horses were taken care of, the three Trask men moved to the edge of the trees to look at the jail.
“Well, there ain’t no lamps on.” Vike stated the obvious. “The place is dark as hell.”
“They didn’t get no sidin’ boards nailed on yet,” Kyle noted. “Won’t be no trouble squeezin’ through them studs.” He looked back at his father. “I expect you’d best watch the horses, Pa. Me or Vike can crawl in through the studs easier ’n you.”
“Me and Kyle will both go,” Vike said. “You got the gun we’re gonna give Ada?”
His father handed the gun to him. “Now, don’t forget to tell her what she’s supposed to do. Tell her not to shoot him before he unlocks the cell.”
“She knows that, Pa,” Vike responded. “She ain’t dumb.”
“You tell her,” Trask snapped. “Her bein’ a woman, she might get too excited and won’t be able to wait till the time’s right.”
“You ain’t talkin’ about Ada,” Kyle said.
“You just be careful,” Trask scolded. “Tell her where we’ll be when she runs out the back of the jail.”
Impatient, Vike said, “Come on, Kyle. Let’s go.” He jumped up and took off.
With Kyle right behind him, they crossed the one hundred yards of high grass and weeds that separated the river from the buildings, trying to be as stealthy as possible.
“What the—” Vike gasped when they reached the back of the cell room, for there were no curtains. They could see very little in the darkness of the cell room, but it appeared the cell was empty. “You reckon she moved back with the other prisoner?”
“If she did, we better not tell Pa about it,” Kyle answered. “I’m crawlin’ in to find her. You stay here in case somebody comes around the side of that buildin’.” He turned sideways and easily slipped through the studs. Inside, he moved quickly to the cell wall, whispering, “Ada, Ada.” Able to see a little better, he turned and whispered loud enough for Vike to hear him, “There ain’t nobody in here.”
“Nobody but you and me.” The voice came from a dark corner just beyond the door to the office. “And we’ve got room for a couple more.”
Kyle’s reaction was instant. With a gun already in hand, he fired two rapid shots toward the corner where the voice had come from. Flint, also with his gun in hand, returned fire, one shot that struck Kyle in the chest. As soon as he pulled the trigger, Flint rolled out of the corner, knowing a shot would come from the other brother, aimed at his muzzle flash.
It came in less than a second. Lying on the floor, Flint fired at the figure outside the stud wall, catching him in the side as he turned to retreat. Vike staggered when the shot struck him but managed to stay on his feet. Not sure how badly he was hurt, he was determined not to fall, so he forced himself to run.
Immediately alarmed when he’d heard the gunshots, Trask had untied the horses. He saw Vike running drunkenly for his life, and climbed up on his horse and led Vike’s horse to meet him. “Kyle?” he shouted as Vike forced himself up into his saddle.
“Kyle’s dead!” Vike cried. “Run for it!”
Flint stopped to make sure Kyle was no longer a threat and decided he was dead. He jumped down from the cell room floor just as Buck came running around the corner of the building. “Buck! It’s me!” he shouted.
The sheriff looked a little wobbly and he was holding his six-gun ready to shoot.
“At the river!” Flint shouted as he saw muzzle flashes when Trask fired back.
At that distance, and using his pistol, Trask’s shots were wild.
Running ahead of Buck, Flint reached the river in time to see the man and his son cross over to the other side, leading packhorses behind them.
When Buck caught up to him, Flint said, “They left a mule and one packhorse behind. I reckon they didn’t have time to get ’em all. The mule’s got a saddle on him. That musta been for Ada. Probably the same one she hitched up to the wagon.”
“I couldn’t see but two of ’em,” Buck said.
“The other one’s layin’ back there in the jail, dead,” Flint told him. “He got all the way back to the cell and when I let him know I was there he took a couple shots at me. I didn’t have much choice. I shot him. The other one threw a shot at me, but he missed. I got one in him, but it didn’t stop him. He ran all the way over here.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t get here soon enough to help out,” Buck said. “Tell you the truth, I got a little sleepy, settin’ in the office. I didn’t hear anything goin’ on until the shootin’ started.”
“They weren’t makin’ any noise, so I don’t see how you coulda heard ’em,” Flint assured him. “That one fellow that got all the way back to the cell didn’t make any noise at all till he was right on me almost. One thing for sure, though, they know Ada ain’t in the jail anymore.”
“Yep, that’s what we were after,” Buck said. “’Course, now we’ve gotta worry about whether Trask and his son are gonna be bound to settle with us for killin’ one of ’em. I hope they’re smart enough to know that, if they set foot in this town, they’ll be arrested for this little shindig they put on tonight. It was an obvious attempt at another jailbreak.” He shook his head as if perplexed. “Whaddaya suppose they were tryin’ to do? Slip Ada a gun?”
“That’s what I figure.”
“Well, might as well leave the body where it is, and we’ll get Walt Doolin to pick it up in the mornin’. That is, if you don’t mind sleepin’ with it for the rest of the night.”
“No problem. As long as he doesn’t start snorin’. Then, I might be inside with you.” Flint walked back to the edge of the river where the mule and the packhorse had wandered. “I’ll take these two back to the jail and tie ’em to the stud wall till mornin’. When Lon opens up, I’ll take ’em on over to the stable.”
He waited for a while to let them drink some water, then he led them back to the jail where Buck was looking at Kyle’s body with the help of a lantern. “I’ll bet he never knew what hit him. You got him dead center in his chest.”
“I think that’s the younger son, ain’t it?” Flint took the packs off the horse and the saddle off the mule. “You see Ada again, you be sure and tell her I didn’t make you stand here wearin’ this saddle all night,” he said to the mule under his breath. He started thinking about Liam Trask, and whether or not Tinhorn might see him again. Helluva blow on a father, he thought, lose your daughter and one of your sons the way he did. Just all of a sudden, and he might lose the other son, depending on how serious that wound in his side is. Something like that could drive a man crazy.
“You know, Buck, all this excitement has got me wide awake. I don’t think I’ll go back to bed tonight. It can’t be too much longer before mornin’, anyway.”
“Not me,” Buck declared. “I was sleepin’ pretty good when this party started. If you’re really gonna stay up, why don’t you sit in the office? I’ll go to my room and get a couple more hours’ sleep.”
“That’d be a lot better than sittin’ back there against the wall,” Flint said. “I’ll take you up on that. Then, if you feel like an early one, we can go to Clara’s in the mornin’ for a big breakfast.”
Buck said that appealed to him, so he retired to his quarters for the balance of the night, while Flint got one of his blankets from the cell room, just in case he got sleepy before dawn. He lit the lamp in the office and turned the wick down low, locked the front door, then made himself comfortable in Buck’s big desk chair.
While he sat there, he began to think about the dramatic changes his ordinary life had taken in the short time he had agreed to be a deputy sheriff. It seemed like a lot longer than it had actually been. He hadn’t even been back to see the family. I wonder if this is what I want to do with my life? What the hell, I never was much of a farmer. This’ll do till I find something I like better.
After a while of random thinking, some important, some trivial, he decided, “This is a comfortable chair.” He propped his feet up on the desk and leaned back. “No wonder ol’ Buck got sleepy.”
He glanced down then and noticed the cabinet door on the desk sitting ajar, so he reached down to close it, but it didn’t close. It was hitting something. He opened the door wide and discovered an almost empty whiskey bottle. “I reckon you were sleepy.” He thought of Buck seeming to wobble when he showed up around the back corner of the building and wished there was some way he could help him. But that was a personal battle a man had to face by himself.
* * *
One of the two men who had been in Flint’s thoughts was trying to decide if a posse, or at the least, the sheriff and his deputy might be on his tail. Sick inside over the death of his youngest son, he was now concerned with giving some attention to Vike’s wound. On top of that, his daughter was gone, who knew where? Finally, when it appeared that Vike was barely staying in the saddle, Trask had to stop. He pulled the horses over when he reached a stream that emptied into the river some thirty feet from the path, helped Vike off his horse, then tied all the horses on a rope he stretched between two trees. He took a blanket out of one of the packs and spread it for Vike to lie on while he took a look at the wound in his side.
After examining the bullet hole in Vike’s side, he got a rag from the packs and soaked it in the stream, so he could clean some of the blood away. Noticing blood forming on the blanket under Vike, he rolled him over onto his side and discovered another hole.
Encouraged by what he saw, Trask told Vike, “You was lucky, son. That bullet went clear through and come out the other side. I ain’t gonna have to dig no bullet outta ya. You’re gonna be all right. You’ll just have to give it a little time to heal. We get to Nacogdoches, there’s a woman that does some doctorin’. We’ll go see her, and she’ll take care of it. I’ll slap a bandage around your belly to keep you from losin’ any more blood and you’ll be fine.”
After he bandaged the wound, and there was still no sign of pursuit, he decided no one had come after them. “You rest a little and then we’ll ride the rest of the way to Nacogdoches. We’ll have to stop and rest these horses about halfway, so we ain’t likely to get there before tomorrow afternoon. You think you can make it?”
“I reckon I’ll have to,” Vike groaned.