Cole spotted them first.
‘Seem to be just the two men,’ Cole said, giving Em a puzzled look.
Em shrugged his shoulders. ‘They were all together when I passed them half a day ago.’
There were most definitely only the two riders and they were still some distance off and were only just about recognizable as two mounted men. Cole guessed they were still quite a few miles away and riding at speed they would reach the mountain range well before sundown. He carefully scanned the full horizon, squinting his eyes against the glaze, but there was no sign of any other men.
‘Do you think they’ve split up?’ Em asked.
‘They must have,’ Cole said. ‘Though I don’t see to what purpose. There’s no way for a second party to approach without us seeing them. You sure you counted right?’
‘My counting was right,’ Em insisted. ‘There were ten men that left town and the same number earlier.’
‘You sure?’ Cole asked, remembering the only passage from Shakespeare that had stuck in his mind, “In the night, imagining some fear. How easy the bush is supposed a bear. He had Sergeant Brannan to thank for his limited cultural knowledge; the big Englishman had quoted the great bard almost daily during the time Cole had served with him in the War Between the States.
‘Damn right I’m sure,’ Em said, clearly annoyed. ‘I rode all this way to warn you off the posse. I’m not some dude who blows wind.’
‘No,’ Cole said. If the old man said the posse had been ten strong then that was good enough for him.
‘I’m sorry. But where are the others?’ He asked, presently.
‘That’s got me in a right shindy,’ Em said.
‘That makes two of us,’ Cole said. ‘They seem to know where they’re heading.’
Em realized that the fact that the men could make such good time may be his fault since his trail would be fresh enough to follow without any particular care. But they would have found Cole in any case, had followed his track thus far already. They seemed to have the tracking skills only possessed by a few breeds of man—mountain men, scouts, Indians. Still, Em thought, at least he had forewarned Cole.
That gave him a better chance.
Gave them both a better chance.
The two riders looked to be keeping a steady pace as the crossed the grasslands, pushing their horses to the extremes. They still had some distance to come and wouldn’t be able to keep it up, they’d have to slow their speed or risk losing their horses. And a man in this country without a horse would find the odds of survival heavily stacked against him.
It would be some time before the riders were close enough to catch a glimpse of them and Cole didn’t feel like waiting around for them.
‘Come on. Get everything together,’ Cole said and went to the cave entrance and kicked the dirt about a bit, scrapping his feet in the mud. He tore off a shred of his shirt and tossed it into the darkness.
‘You gone loco?’ Em watched him, scratching his head.
‘Let’s move out. ‘Cole said, without explaining his actions, and after taking another look at the approaching riders he went and got his bedroll and belongings.
‘First we climb up,’ Em complained. ‘And now you want to go back down. This got me feeling like a child’s yo-yo.’
‘Afraid so,’ Cole said.
He unhitched his horse and started to lead it down into the mountains,
Em following closely behind.
‘So what’s your intention?’ Em asked and cursed as he almost stumbled, forcing the roan to pull sharply on its reins. The old man soon regained control and slowly coaxed the horse forward.
‘We’ll try and avoid them,’ Cole said. ‘Get away and hope they go up into the mountains looking for us.’ He thought of the caves wondered what the chances were of the two men entering them in their search, hoping they would fall for the little signs he had left in the cave entrance to entice them. If they did and got lost then he and the old man could be long gone before they found their way out.
It was a long shot but if he, someone who had explored the caves many times previously could get lost, then he was sure these two men, whoever they were, would find themselves fumbling about in darkness for some considerable time.
‘I say we hide and shoot the bastards. We could pick them off before they even see us,’ Em said. ‘Wouldn’t need to go up and down these mountains like a pair of cougars neither.’
Cole grinned coldly but said nothing. The thought had occurred to him but that wasn’t his way of doing things. It would be safer and would permanently remove the obstacle from their path but a man had to live with himself.
They continued downwards, entering a flat tree lined area. At the moment they could still see the riders, they kept descending at more speed than was good for their horses, but as soon as they entered the trees they would lose sight of the riders for perhaps twenty minutes.
The track led down into a valley between two peaks and then when they emerged they would be in danger of being spotted by the riders. They had to get down and with the utmost care if they were to slip away without the riders noticing them.
‘Careful not to skyline yourself,’ Cole said. ‘Let’s get down into the valley and we’ll head east awhile and then come back on ourselves.’
‘Still rather fight them’ Em muttered.
‘Might come to that,’ Cole said and mounted the horse.
The trail had leveled out and gave less difficulty to the horses. It was here that they would make their best time and the more they gained before the men saw them, the better their chances of escaping without the need for a bloody showdown.
Cole thought of the possibility of the other eight men Em had spoken off cutting them off when they got out into the open, trapping them between the two parties. That would make them vulnerable, sitting ducks, but that was a chance they would have to take. Those other men were out there somewhere but he couldn’t think about that now and had to focus on the matter in hand.