Chapter Seven

Kade couldn’t move. He rested flat on his stomach, head to one side, dirt packed around his body. It felt like half a mountain was heaped on his backside. At least he could breathe—barely. The hood of his woolen capote had flopped forward over his face, keeping all but a sprinkling of the dirt from entering his mouth and nose.

What in hellfire had happened?

His right hand grasped what felt like a rotting hide, and the ferocious smell surrounding him did not encourage him to take a deep breath—even if he could. He moved his left leg—a large stone bit into his anklebone. Other than that, it felt undamaged. He did the same on the right. Searing pain followed. He couldn’t remember ever feelin’ a hurt that bad. Then he flexed his shoulders. Here was agony equal or greater.

The pain came in waves, crashing through his body from top to bottom. As he forced his muscles to relax, the weight of the earth and the confines of the space began to take its toll. His pulse raced, and he gritted his teeth, terrified at not being able to move.

Anger momentarily blotted out the overwhelming fear. Is this how things worked? He’d finally scraped together a little money, thought this might be the best season of his life, and now it could be his last. And then there was Blind Deer, a woman who piqued his interest, one he wanted to know better, get closer to. In kaleidoscope fashion, one dreadful picture after another rampaged through Kade’s mind—plunging him into a full blown panic. What if he made it through only to live forever a stoved-in crippled?

The muffled sound of Tucket’s voice and Maggie’s barking penetrated the dark tomb, bolstering his spirits and snapping his thoughts back to the present. They would get him out. His breathing slowed, and to ease his soul he grasped at the most comforting notion he could think of—Blind Deer, so beautiful among the meadow of flowers. And what about the kiss they’d shared, innocent yet charged with hope as well as the desire for more.

Usually thoughts of Blind Deer sent his body and mind into a tailspin, encouraging him to do and say things he’d never even considered before. Now the vision quieted his fears, and he smiled, not minding the taste of dirt in his mouth.

The sound of earth and rock tumbling downward gave little warning before more weight crushed in on him—the helpless sensation rushed back full force.

An odd roaring noise filled his head, and a tingling started in his hands and feet, creeping upward along his limbs. He felt weightless as if floating in water. Is this how the beaver felt when they drowned in his traps? A great sorrow welled up in him. He’d never looked at things from their point of view. Never dwelled upon what happened between setting the trap and stretching the hide.

The blackness thickened, covering him with an almost sympathetic embrace. His lungs screamed for air, his body screamed for freedom, his brain simply screamed.

****

Watching as Tucket gingerly approached the dark abyss, Blind Deer inched her horse and the string of animals as close as she dared.

Unafraid when it came to helping his friend, Tucket went right to the edge, risking himself in an attempt to see how bad-off Kade might be. When he stared down into the rift and swore an oath strong enough to uncurl buffalo hair, her worst fears were realized.

Maggie barked and whined and paced along the jagged lip of the hole. Cut off from her master, coyote/dog seemed confused as well as frightened.

The horses and mules, less jumpy now, gave Blind Deer incentive to dismount and tie them securely to a section of nearby trees. Then ignoring Tucket’s order to stay put, she edged toward the rift.

Still hovering on the edge, Tucket motioned her back with one hand. “Hold on there, missy. Don’t come any closer.”

“How bad is it? Does he live?”

“I can’t tell. He’s too deep to reach from up top. He’s under a layer of dirt and rubble. We better get down there fast. You willin’ to help?”

“Yes, of course.” Again disobeying his words, she crept forward on hands and knees and knelt at his side.

Apparently distracted by his worry over Kade, Tucker did not challenge her defiance in disobeying him. “I knew you’d come through for us, little gal. I might could jump right on down there. But even with the mule a helpin’ it be tricky doin’s for you to haul Kade or me back up. So, it looks like you’re gonna be the one goin’ over the side.”

As he spoke Tucket eased backward and into an upright position. She scrambled to do the same. Without another word, he set off to get what they might need for the rescue attempt.

Her chest tightened at the thought of going into the dark cleft, but she didn’t have time to dwell on the horror as Tucket quickly returned with a few lengths of rope and Hattie, his favorite mule.

“Young Kade will be all right. He’s a tough one.” Holding her by one arm, he guided Blind Deer to the opposite side of the caved in hole.

“If we go over the edge t’other side by Kade, we could send more of the wall down atop him. We’ll go down here offin’ this rocky ridge part. It appears more stable and I don’t think they dug back this far.

“Who are they?” She waited for an answer as Tucket expertly bound the pieces of rope together.

“They be the lazy bastards who made that hole without properly shoring it up. I think Kade’s in a cache, a place to store hides and supplies underground. By the smell of it, somebody tunneled in from the inside of an old painter’s den. Unmarked and poorly made, them caches become snares just awaitin’ for an unlucky man or animal to happen by.”

A cougar den… She glanced around. Did the big cat watch them from afar? Hopefully, it wouldn’t approach with coyote/dog around.

“Well, gal, the rope’s ready. Are you?” Tucket touched her shoulder as he spoke.

With visions of a hungry panther fresh in her mind she jumped, and then stared into the small black pit. The crater seemed to laugh at her like a greedy mouth waiting to gobble her up. She didn’t know if she could do this. Then she decided it couldn’t be worse than her time spent in the root cellar at the missionary school. After a while, she’d made friends with the dark, or at least they had called a respectful truce. And what about McCauley? He could be dying as she stood by trying to dredge up enough courage to help him. He was the one trapped, not her—at least not anymore.

Taking one end of the rope from Tucket’s hand, she slipped it around her waist allowing him to tie the complex knots he was so good at. He secured the other end of the hemp to the saddle of his mule.

“The rope is strong?” Falling into the hole sounded even worse than being lowered down slowly.

“It’s from my seafaring days and has served me well.”

“And the knot is tight.”

“Tighter than the bark on a tree. It’ll hold, Blind Deer. I ain’t gonna let anything happen to you.”

Believing a white man’s word did not come easily. But Sir Reginald hadn’t played her false, and for some reason she trusted Tucket too. Gingerly sitting, she dangled her feet over the edge and gripped the rope with white-knuckled hands. Eyes closed, she nodded she was ready.

Tucket eased her forward, the ledge disappeared from beneath Blind Deer, and she dangled alongside the wall.

“I know it’s frightful, but you’re doin’ fine.” Although positioned right above her head, Tucket’s encouraging words sounded far away. “It would be a might helpful, however, if you were to open your eyes. Then you could see to brace yourself along the wall with your feet. Less chance then of scrapin’ up against rocks and tree roots.” As he spoke, Tucket maneuvered the mule closer. The rope jerked hard and quick, dropping her about a foot.

Eyes wide, she shifted to avoid a sharp stone. She needed to get this over with. “Hurry, Tucket. He has already been down here much too long.” As if waiting for her reassurance he lowered away. Carefully directing her feet, she landed on a small patch of solid ground off to one side. One of Kade’s moccasins showed through the dirt, giving her hope he was not buried too deeply.

“Kade, Kade. Can you hear me?” She had never spoken his given name out loud, always just in her heart. She should have, because now only cold silence was the reply.

“Blind Deer.” Tucket and the dog peered down at her. Their image didn’t test the boundaries of her good vision, but the spot of blue behind them seemed a world away. “Shovel coming down.” He dropped the tool. It stuck in the ground handle-up.

She reached for it then hesitated. What if utilizing the sharp-edged tool she accidently added to his injuries. Covered with dirt, it was impossible to know in what position his body lay. Abandoning the idea, she knelt and dug with her bare hands.

As she tore at the earth, millet bugs and worms squirmed between her fingers. When she reached one of Kade’s shoulders, renewed hope had her working faster to free his face. His body felt so cold. Was it the chill of the surrounding earth, or were the hands of death already upon him?

Keep going. Dig faster—dig harder.

His body was mostly uncovered. Why didn’t he move? Pushing aside the hood of the capote, she felt for a breath of air—nothing. She tugged at his shoulder, partially turning him from his stomach to his side. She pressed her mouth to his, willing her life into him. No response. She pushed at him several times as if to wake him up. She kissed him again, harder, longer, mentally calling him back from the blackness. This time he gasped and a weak current of air escape his mouth.

“Tucket, he lives—but barely.”

Smoothing Kade’s hair back from his face, she felt a large swelling on the side of his head. That would explain his lack of response—he wandered in the nether-lands. They must get him topside and return to the cabin. She clawed and ripped at the remaining rocks, roots, and dirt, refusing to surrender this man to the last of the earth holding him prisoner.

As she dug deeper, dirt turned to mud. Her hands, covered in cuts and scrapes, soon ached and stung. Did the moisture coating them come from the water or her blood?

When she touched Kade’s right leg, he cried out, but the shock of the pain did not drag him back to the conscious world. Perhaps all for the best.

“Kade, my brave warrior, can you hear me? I am sorry to hurt you, but I must secure this rope around you.”

But how? She tried lifting just his shoulders and upper torso. His scream rent the air, and a spasm tore through his body.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” His injury must be worse than she’d suspected.

She sat back on her heels. He was too heavy for her to lift, and no amount of weeping or wishing would change that truth. “You do not need good eyes to see with your brain. Consider all possibilities.” The words of Standing Wolf, her grandfather, called to her. He had taught her strength did not always win the battle. But courage, stealth, and cleverness could overcome great adversity, even her bad vision. Thoughts of his wisdom were cut short as the wall released a torrent of dirt and stones.

Instinctively she leaned over Kade, shielding his head and face, the debris pouring down upon her back. When the small landslide finished, she shook off the dirt and grabbing her braid, Blind Deer used the end to carefully brush the dirt from his closed eyes and mouth.

She must get Kade out of here in all haste. Picking at the knots, she untied the safety rope from around her waist. “Tucket? I need one stout stick, and two of the fattest beaver hides you have. Do you hear me?”

“I hear ya, gal. How long a stick are ya needin’?”

“One almost as long as your leg. And hurry, Tucket, he is very weak and cold.”

While she waited, Blind Deer dug a tunnel beneath Kade at waist level. Then she threaded the lifeline of hemp through from side to side. Just as she finished, the hides tumbled down from above.

“Stay put now,” Tucket instructed. “The stick be a comin’ next, and I don’t want to go skewerin’ ya or Kade in the process of gettin’ it down there.”

Close to where she crouched, a straight branch, about the size of her wrist and the proper length, speared the earth like a perfectly thrown war lance.

After checking again to make sure Kade was still breathing, she folded the hides and laid them along his ribs, one on each side of his body. Hopefully they would cushion him when Tucket hauled him up. Grabbing the tail of rope, she pulled through an extra length, and using the knife from her tack belt, she cut off the hemp, dividing the piece into two equal lengths. The remainder of the rope could now be tied off around the hides at his middle.

She straightened the injured limb, relieved when no sound of bone crunching or grating met her ears. Then with the extra rope, she secured the branch along Kade’s leg, careful to avoid the cut on his thigh. As she worked, he remained still as death. Had he slipped farther into the realm beyond her reach?

“Tucket?” She tugged on the rope to signal him. “All is ready but pray go gently. He is battered as a sapling after a great storm.”

“Stand by.” Tucket’s image disappeared. “Come on, old girl,” he crooned to his mule. “Nice and slow. Step on back now.”

The rope went taut, dragging Kade’s limp body from the earth. It tore at her heart as he bumped and scraped along. Clambering to her feet, she tried to help guide him up the wall until he was out of reach. After he disappeared over the edge to safety, she breathed a sigh of relief.

No longer moving, her feet went numb inside the stiff wet moccasins, and her hands did not fare much better. She too needed to return to the light. Hurry Tucket, hurry. What was taking so long?

Painful memories escaped the corner of her mind relegated to nightmares, and cold as a winter’s wind, they swooped down upon her. Old Lady Dalrymple’s face flashed before her, and memories of dread and helplessness swirled around Blind Deer like water—water that felt on the rise. The woman’s cruel laugh seemed to echo off the mud walls as the Reverend humiliated and chastised her, promising eternal damnation.

“Do you hear me?”

Did God now summon her from His Kingdom in heaven? In the dark and the damp, lost to her imaginings, it seemed all too real.

“Blind Deer? Ahoy I say, do ya hear me? Grab hold, and I’ll hoist ya up.”

Coming to her senses, she glanced around, and with hands marked with blood, she freed Kade’s rifle from the dirt, and retrieved the rope hanging within arm’s reach. Bless Tucket—he’d already looped and knotted it for her. She slipped the ring of hemp over her head and up under her arms. At her signal, he hauled away.

Rising up from the tomb-like realm, she wondered how many times a person could be reborn? At the top, she flopped over like a river otter, gulping in the clean air, basking in the sun.

Tucket dragged her off to one side. The edge of dirt upon which she’d lain collapsed with a rumble, and a large portion of earth and rock spewed into the opening, blotting out the space she had previously occupied. They had both gotten out just in time. She shuddered at what could have happened and crawled over to Kade.