Coming up the side of the mesa wasn’t easy on horseback. There were places on the cow track where their mounts had to go practically straight up. The last time he’d been up here, he’d been searching for a stray cow and her newborn calf in a rain storm. Petra’s boulder sat about a hundred feet below the edge of the mesa in a slide area. A cow or a calf could slip in the scree, become stranded, and be unable to climb back up to the top of the mesa and the grass it offered.
Today, he hoped they could get to the slide above the boulder before the two bastards with their dynamite. If they made it first, with a perfect view of the road below from the edge, they’d have a chance to stop them blasting Petra’s boulder.
Once up on top, Gabe and Van spurred their mounts to the west, staying away from the edge until they reached the slide. They both jumped from the saddle. “Keep low, Van,” Gabe said. “It’s been a while since I’ve shot anything. I hope to hell I remember what to do.”
Crouched low, Van kept pace as they made their way over to the edge of the canyon. “What the hell are we gonna do once we see the bastards? I’m not keen on killing a man,” Van said.
Once his feet hit the scree, Gabe got down on his belly and crawled to the edge. He dug his elbows in the gravel, and Van was right beside him doing the same.
Below them, two men stood beside their horses, rummaging through their saddlebags.
“We have to do something,” Gabe said, more or less to himself.
“Well, we better make up our minds, ’cause we don’t have a lot of time.”
“Yeah, I know. We could spook their horses?”
“I like it,” Van said. “But we better do it now, before they get the dynamite and charges out of those bags.”
“I’ll aim for the ground in front—you aim for the rear. If I miss, fire off the next round.”
“Right.”
They lobbed their volleys off at the same time. Dust and rock shot up in front of and behind the horses. The horses reared, bucked, and took off up the canyon road, the two men running after them shouting and cursing.
Gabe got to his feet and looked off toward the hot spring. Van shouted a victory whoop, waving his gun his overhead. “Look, Van, there, I think Dad and Rafe are coming up the road.”
“Should we try to get down off here to help them round up those two men?”
Gabe glanced up the canyon road. Both men stopped chasing their horses, apparently winded, now doubled over, arms braced on their knees, heads down.
“We’ll stay up here. I’d say Dad and Rafe can take it from here. I wonder what happened back at the house? How the hell did they manage to get away to come up here?”
“With two men gone, the odds evened up a bit, I guess,” Van said.
Gabe laughed and slapped his brother on the shoulder. “I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
Gabe waved to Buck and Buck waved back. He and Rafe spurred their mounts, taking off up the road to apprehend the would-be blasters. Buck threw a rope around one of the men, and Rafe jumped down off his horse and slugged the other one.
Van shouted out a war whoop.
“I guess that takes care of it,” Gabe said and waved his hat over his head. He stood a bit too close to the edge, and his foot slipped in the scree.
Van caught his arm. “I’m hungry.”
Gabe laughed and righted himself and then headed over to his horse. “I’d like to find out why those men wanted to blast Petra’s boulder. I’ve got a lot of questions. For one, I’d like to know what’s going on between Edditha and Cornell.”
Van laughed and mounted up. “So you’re jealous after all?”
“Not jealous,” Gabe said, swinging up into the saddle and taking up the reins. “I’m curious.”
“Like hell. Come on, Gabe you gotta be a little jealous.”
Kicking his heels into his mount’s ribcage and taking off at an easy trot, Gabe said, “Birdie’s got me all confused, that’s all. I admit it. I can’t wait to find out who the hell those men were. And what the hell they wanted. I really want to know whose idea it was to snatch Birdie and Jo and toss them into the mine.
Head tipped to the side, he shrugged. “And yeah, I want to know what Cornell’s up to with Edditha. He better not be playing some sort of game with her. I’ll have to forsake my vow never to resort to physical violence and knock some of his pretty teeth down his throat. Edditha’s not the kind of girl a fella can play fast and loose with.”
“Well, big brother,” Van said, drawing his mount alongside him. “As an observer, it appears to me you’ve got one set of rules for Cornell and another for yourself.”
Rotating sideways in the saddle, Gabe faced his brother and asked, “And what the hell do you mean?”
“I mean, you’ve been playing with Birdie-Alice, stringing her along for years. We’ve all watched you tease her and tickle her. I even saw you kissing her at her sixteenth birthday party. And then, the other day, you hugged her like a man hugs a…a…woman he wants. It was way more than a brotherly hug, and you know it. I’d say you’re the one playing fast and loose.”
Gabe opened his mouth to deny the accusation but then clamped his mouth shut. He growled, turned away from his brother’s taunting, all knowing expression, set his sights on the mountains in the distance and reviewed his past behavior toward Birdie-Alice.