Chapter 36
The Plan

We didn’t have to wait long.

Sheriff Rafferty came riding up in a cloud of dust just about an hour after noon. “This is it, Drum!” he shouted, dismounting as his own dust overtook him, and running toward Pa with a letter in his hand.

Immediately everyone swarmed around. Mr. Jones was there now too, both to share the anxious waiting with his friend and to help if he could.

“A kid rode into town a few minutes ago and delivered this to me,” the sheriff said. “I didn’t know him. Told me he lived down by You Bet. Said a stranger gave him five bucks to ride to Miracle and give this letter to the sheriff. The kid said he said sure, the man gave him five dollars and the letter, then rode off. That’s all the kid knew.”

Pa took the letter and read it out loud.

Give this letter to Drum Hollister. It’s fer him.

Hollister, I hope fer yer kid’s sake you got the loot. Put it in a coupla saddlebags an ride out the trail to Deadman’s Flat over the Chalk Bluff Ridge. Go a quarter mile past Steephollow Creek. There’s a road off left with a sign—To Negro Jacks—stuck to a tree. Behind the tree’s a dead stump, half-hollered out. You throw the saddlebags in there! Don’t try findin’ us cuz we ain’t there. We ain’t nowhere near there, but we’ll get the loot an when we does we’ll let the girl go. If you ain’t got the cash, you sign over yer deed on yer claim to Buchanan J. Krebbs an’ put that in the saddlebags instead. Do what I says, Hollister! Remember the wolves!

“Well, let’s go!” said Pa. “Where’s the money, Simon?”

“Hold on just a minute, Drum! Let’s talk this out a spell. There’s still a chance we can figure out where these guys are. We don’t want to give them the money if we don’t have to.”

“I thought we had all this settled!” snapped Pa. “There ain’t no other way but to do as Krebbs says.”

“Well, I ain’t so sure,” said the sheriff. “I been thinking while I rode out here—if we could just figure out who’s in it with him—”

“Somebody’s in it with him for sure,” interrupted Uncle Nick. “Krebbs can’t read or write his own name! He’s the dumbest—”

“That’s right!” said Pa. “I plumb forgot. He couldn’t have written these two notes.”

“Barton!” said the sheriff. “He’s had schooling. I’ve run into him a couple of times. Saw him reading a newspaper once. He could have done it. And Hammond saw him the other day, probably watching the school from across the way by Markham’s place.”

“He must’ve seen Becky going off toward the woods,” I suggested.

“Barton’s from Dutch Flat,” Mr. Rafferty went on, hardly noticing my idea. “And I know ol’ Negro Jack. His place ain’t four miles from there!”

“I bet that polecat Hatch is in on it with ’em!” said Uncle Nick.

“Krebbs always had a way of smelling out the lowlifes around a place,” said Pa. “I don’t doubt but what you’re right, Nick. I’d wager plenty that Dutch Flat’s where they’re holed up.”

“Okay, now we can’t go riding in there with twenty men,” said Mr. Rafferty. “They’ll kill the girl.”

“They’ll be hiding her someplace safe,” said Uncle Nick.

“What’d he mean about wolves?” asked Mr. Jones, speaking for the first time.

“Oh, nothin’, Alkali,” said Pa. “It was just some threat they made in their first note.”

“What threat? What’d they say?”

“They said if we tried anything they’d high-tail it outta there and leave Becky where the wolves’d find her.”

“And they’s down by Dutch Flat, ya say?”

“That’s how we got it figured,” answered the sheriff.

“Well, there’s a pack o’ wolves that’s seen sometimes down jist south o’ there. Ya heard o’ ’em—on Frost Hill.”

“So if they were hiding her away someplace—” began Mr. Rafferty, but Uncle Nick’s voice cut him off.

“The cave!” he cried. “They’ve got her in ol’ Hatch’s cave! That’s it, I tell ya, Drum! When that ol’ cuss had me there, I could hear the wail of wolves and he kept tellin’ me he was gonna leave me there to get eaten by ’em.”

Everyone was quiet, thinking hard.

Sheriff Rafferty turned and walked away, slowly, looking first at the ground, then up at the sky. It only took him about two or three minutes.

Suddenly, he spun around and strode back to where the rest of us were standing.

“I think I’ve got it,” he said. “I think we just might be able to save Becky and keep our hands on the money. Now look here, Drum—just in case they’ve got somebody watching us, you’ll ride out like he says, alone, with the saddlebags and the money. But we’ll follow, about five or ten minutes behind you. You dump the bags, but we’ll keep half our men there. If any of them come to get it, we’ll ambush them. Meanwhile, the rest of us will circle back up across Chalk Bluff Ridge and down on the other side of Dutch Flat. Isn’t that where Frost Hill is, Jones?”

“Yep. Ya come down off the ridge, across Bear River.”

“And where’s the cave?”

“Right there, Squires Canyon.”

“Okay, we’ll split up, half guarding the money, half circling back behind the cave.”

“I’m riding to the cave,” said Pa. “She’s my girl.”

“Fine by me. But you’ll need help,” said the sheriff. “They’ll have a guard, but probably only one or two men. If you and two or three of the boys get the drop on them, you should get her fine. One of you ride back to Miracle with the girl, the others ride back up the ridge to where we’re waiting at Deadman’s Flat. Once the girl’s safe, we’ll send the money back to town, then all the rest of us’ll ride on to Dutch Flat and see if we can smoke out this fella Krebbs.”

“What if they come for the money and see you there before I’ve got Becky out?” asked Pa.

“They couldn’t get anyone to the cave before you got there. You’d have a lead on them. And they’ll never figure us to know where they’re hiding her.”

“That may be,” said Pa seriously. “But if anything goes sour, you give them the dough, you hear?”

“Fair enough,” said Sheriff Rafferty.

There was a pause. The men looked around at each other, anxiety and determination on all their faces, as if to say, “Let’s get this done!”

Finally the sheriff drew in a deep breath and said. “Well, if we’re agreed, I’ll ride into town. Several of the men have already volunteered to help. Nick, Drum, Alkali, you men round up whoever you can on this side of town—Shaw, Hammond, whoever might be willing, I’ll get the money from the safe in my office and be back here with the men in, say, an hour.”

Pa nodded.

Just as the sheriff was in the saddle and wheeling his horse back down the road, Pa glanced around.

“Where’s Zack?” he said.

“He rode off,” said Emily.

“Tarnation!” exclaimed Pa. “Which way? Did you see him, Emily?”

“Over the hill by the mine, I think, Pa.”

Just then the door opened and Katie walked out.

“Zack said to wait till you were through to tell you this,” she said. “He said to tell you he went to get Little Wolf, and not to worry about Becky.”