Tess's Trials Read online

  “Two of the groups went north, Boss,” Whitehorse reminded him.

  Snake Eyes looked at the men. “Who went north?” he demanded.

  After a moment, six of the men held up their hands.

  “Tell me what you found.” He held the .45 down by his side.

  The men glanced at the pistol. One of the men spoke up. “Boss,” he swallowed audibly before going on. “We didn’t find nothin’, neither. Went maybe ten, fifteen miles. Saw tracks, horse tracks. We figger Indians, ‘cause they wasn’t shod horses.”

  Another man spoke then. “We seen th’ Injuns, Boss. They was six, seven of ‘em. Looked like Cheyenne. But they’re far off from their usual huntin’ ground.”

  “Been raidin’ down in Mexico, I expect,” Whitehorse said.

  “Yeah, an’ they didn’t look any too happy, either,” the first man said.

  “How do you know when an Injun’s happy?” another one added.

  “When they got scalps or extry horses,” one of the older men said.

  “I don’t care about INDIANS!” Snake Eyes’ explosion shut them all up. “Did the Indians see you?”

  “No, Boss.” Two men answered at the same time.

  “Did they look like a raidin’ party?”

  “No, Boss.”

  Snake Eyes grew quiet again. The men waited.

  A few moments later, he said, “Do you want the women?”

  The men hesitated. What kind of question was this? Did Snake Eyes have something in mind? If it was, it would be something they didn’t like because he was so mad. They’d seen what he could do when he was mad.

  “Sure, Boss,” one of the younger men said.

  Snake Eyes grinned. “The only way you get ‘em is to bring me that woman!”

  The men looked from one to the other. No one said anything.

  A minute passed, then Snake Eyes walked away from them. Whitehorse hesitated, then caught up with him.

  “Boss?” he said tentatively.

  Snake Eyes glanced back over his shoulder at the breed. “Yeah?”

  “We been waitin’ here a long time. You sure that woman’s worth it?” For the breed to

  ask this placed him right on the razor’s edge of insubordination. A move that could get him forcibly retired.

  Snake Eyes stopped, but didn’t turn around. When he did, it was slow. “It’s what I want, Breed, so it’s worth it.”

  Whitehorse just nodded. He decided to take another chance. “Have you found out about another ranch we can raid? To get another woman? The one we’re searching for won’t come easy. She may kill herself.”

  For a moment Snake Eyes just stared at him. The breed thought for sure he’d made a mistake and now would pay for it.

  Then Snake Eyes’ shoulders slumped and he hung his head for a second. When he raised it back up, he said, “No, I haven’t found out about a ranch. My informant hasn’t contacted me, so we’ll have to wait.” He started to turn and walk away, but stopped and said, “I know this woman will be hard to bring back. But I want to at least see her body. I can’t let her beat me!”

  He did turn then and begin walking away. Over his shoulder, he said, “Tomorrow morning when you send the boys out again, tell them not to come back without the woman.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  The few hours Tess decided to rest turned into many hours. In her exhausted state, she slept not only through the rest of the afternoon once Snake Eyes’ riders had left, but also through the night. Shafts of sunlight and the trilling of birds woke her.

  For a long few seconds she didn’t know where she was. She struggled with the remains of the deep sleep for several minutes before she came fully awake.

  Then it hit her. It’s full daylight! Did I only sleep a few minutes, or all night?

  Raising up on one elbow, she saw the sun shining from the east, and that told her what she wanted to know. The entire night was gone. She lost one whole night of walking!

  Carefully, she surveyed the area around the seep, listening also. All she heard was the sound of the trees whispering to each other in the breeze. That, and the singing of the birds.

  The birds told her there was no one else around.

  “Only one thing to do,” she muttered to herself. “Get up and get going. I’ve got to make up the time I lost by sleeping all night.”

  Easing out of her hiding place, Tess brushed off her dress and finger combed her tangled hair. It was all she could do. The seep had filled up during the night, so she lay down beside it and drank as much as she could. She also ate one more piece of the jerky. There were two left.

  The day would be a hot one. Already she felt warm from sitting in the sun. A glance to the west showed clouds beginning to fill the sky. No thunderheads yet, but they would grow. It felt like that kind of day.

  She drank all she could once again and used some of the remaining water to wash her face and arms. That made her feel a little better. A deep breath that turned into a sigh, and she

  set off again, her face pointed north.

  One fortunate thing was in her favor. The area she trudged through that day was crossed by a number of small ravines and arroyos. Those that pointed north provided cover for her as she walked. Many of them were shallow, just deep enough for only her head and shoulders to show above the rim. And the grass that grew on the prairie grew high enough that most of the time she couldn’t be seen from any distance.

  Those times she had to climb out of the ravines, she took a good, long look around first. She knew movement of any kind would be seen quickly out in the open, so when she had to go from one ravine to another, she stayed low and moved slow.

  Thunderheads began growing in the west about mid-morning. Heat from the sun caused them to spring up like mushrooms in a wet forest. The tops of the nearest ones began flattening out quickly.

  Thunder rolled its way across the flat prairie as she came to the end of the ravine she walked through. After her usual careful examination of the area, Tess took a long look at the cloud building in the west.

  “That one’s going to catch me out in the open unless I can find someplace to shelter.” As she said these words, a forked flash of lightning streaked down from the cloud to the earth. The crash of thunder that followed was only a few seconds later. “Getting close, too. I’d better see what’s around before it gets here.”

  A mound of earth nearby provided her a slightly higher vantage point to scout the area. About a hundred yards to the north, another ravine looked to be bigger than the ones she’d

  been walking in. Maybe there’s a cave or something in the side of that one that would give me some cover and shelter from the rain .

  More thunder, sounding closer, pushed her to take a look. If nothing else, the ravine would give her a lower place to get away from the lightning coming with the storm. Hoping that anyone out looking would also be looking for shelter, she hurried to the rim of the ravine.

  Twice as deep, or more, as the other ravines and arroyos, this one ran north for as far as she could see. Once the storm passed, she would be able to walk along at a good pace. Or at least as good a pace as she could make.

  Possibly there would be pools of water in the ravine from the storm. These would provide her with drinking water along the way.

  Tess climbed down the sandy slope at the end of the ravine and walked along the bottom among the rocks, searching the upper rim on both sides for an overhang to get under and stay dry.

  In a quarter mile, her searching was rewarded. On the western rim, an overhang that looked deep enough to provide shelter. The ravine had grown steadily deeper, so that overhang was about thirty feet from the bottom of the ravine and about six feet down from the rim.

  “Perfect.”

  She climbed up the side of the ravine using rocks to pull herself up and pushing with her legs. Scattered drops presaged the coming of the storm. Large drops hit her shoulders, splattered into her eyes as they bounced off the side of the ravine.

 
; In a few minutes, she made the edge of the overhang. Pulling herself up, she scanned the interior. It looked clean. Clean and empty. But it would keep her dry.

  Tess scrambled the rest of the way up and rolled into the shelter just before the clouds opened up and drenched the prairie. The rain fell so hard she couldn’t see the other wall of the ravine.

  She scooted to the rear of the overhang. It was deep enough to keep her dry, just barely. If she stretched out her legs from where she sat with her back against the rock at the rear of the overhang, her feet would get wet.

  Tess stayed where she sat, keeping her legs curled under her and watched the rain. Throughout the afternoon the rain continued. From time to time, she held her cupped hands out for the rain to fill. She didn’t dare eat any more of the jerky; there were only two pieces left to last her until she could find something else to eat.

  The rain kept on. Before long, she heard the sound of rushing water. Cocking her head to listen better, she thought what she heard was the rain increasing. It wasn’t.

  She scooted closer to the edge, looked over and down while she held one hand over her eyes to keep the rain out. In the bottom of the ravine, water churned. “Oh, no!” she said aloud. “Flash flood.”

  As she watched, the water rose a foot.

  She’d heard stories of flash floods filling arroyos deeper than this one in only a short time. Tess turned her head to see the side of the ravine looking for a way to climb out.

  Solid, rain-slicked rock. No hand holds, nowhere to put her feet.

  Tess pulled back under the overhang. Well, I’m stuck. At least until this water goes down . She glanced out at the drenching rain. If it stops. Hope I don’t see an ark float by .

  Lightning, thunder, and rain continued all that afternoon. Tess dozed in between thunder grumbles. There wasn’t much else for her to do.

  During the times she wasn’t napping, she kept an eye on the level of the water rushing through the ravine below her. In the middle of the afternoon, she estimated the top of the water in the ravine to be about twelve feet below the lip of her perch.

  Plenty of room , she considered. No need to worry .

  But she did.

  The rain continued falling as it had since it started. Like water poured out of a bucket. And that was only what she could see in front of her. What was it like further west? If this rain fell there like it did here, she could be in trouble. That rain would lead to runoff. That runoff would channel right into this ravine.

  And fill it up more quickly.

  Well, nothing I can do about that. I may as well settle back and wait .

  Tess ate one more piece of the jerky, the first food she’d had since leaving the seep that morning. She now had one piece left.

  For several seconds, she stared at that one piece of jerky. How many days would it have to last? How many miles to home? She didn’t know, not for sure. A rough estimate would be five days, a week maybe.

  At least five days! With no more food than one piece of jerky! And no way to carry water. How could she possibly make it that far? She didn’t dare think too much about the distance and lack of food and water. That would demoralize her so much that she’d give up. She’d always had a strong will. Now she’d see just how strong.

  She crossed her arms over her knees, lowered her head to rest on her arms, and let the tears come. Her shoulders shook with her sobs.

  How long she sat there overwhelmed with the hopelessness of the trials that lay before her, she had no idea. When she lifted her head, she could tell it was later. Clouds still covered the sun, but the rain had stopped.

  Tess wiped leftover tears from her eyes and swiped at her cheeks to clear them of dried tears. She pushed strands of hair back behind her ears. With dry hiccups, she caught her breath.

  A few moments she sat there, staring out at the opposite side of the ravine, clear to her vision now that the rain no longer shielded it. As she looked, a single ray of sunshine broke through the clouds and lit up the area outside her shelter.

  A roar and clamor reached her ears. At first, she thought thunder still rolled through the ravine in front of her. But this sound was continuous. It wasn’t the roar of falling rain; the rain had stopped.

  She wiped her eyes once again and scooted to the edge of the overhang. When she looked over, the level of the water in the ravine had risen. Now it was only about eight feet below the bottom lip of the overhang.

  As she watched, the brown water tumbled and rushed along below her, carrying with it branches and limbs. Where the water raced over itself, boiling and crashing, white water flew up almost to her overhang. The body of what looked like a cow rushed by, rolled over and over by the force of the torrent.

  Tess watched for several minutes and saw the water level rise another foot in that time.

  She lifted her gaze from the water below to the sides of the ravine on either side of her

  overhang. Once again, she searched the sides for handholds she could use to climb up and out of the ravine. Still, nothing but smooth, wet rock.

  She was stuck. All she could do was wait and see if the water would continue to rise and eventually flood her out.

  Tess scooted back to the wall of her small chamber. Leaning back, she rested her head against the uneven rock and closed her eyes. There was little else she could do at the moment.

  Would it have been better to stay with Snake Eyes and his raiders instead of sitting in that cold rock overhang, waiting to be swept away and drowned by the roaring flood scouring the ravine? At least she would be warm and dry with enough food and water.

  Instead, here she sat, cold and wet. Wondering if she would get out of this ravine. And if she did, she only had one piece of jerky to last her however long it took to get back home. Plus, she had no way to carry water with her.

  For long minutes she sat there, back against the rock, eyes closed.

  Then, she realized, No. I could never stay with the raiders. I would have killed myself. Never would I have let myself get taken to Mexico . Another minute she sat, not thinking. Then, This way, I might even be able to save those other women . A briefer pause this time. That is, if I can get out of here and back to my ranch.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  That same day, two miles and a bit more from Tess, Rafe and Merita got caught in the same storm.

  He had watched the storm building from the morning. Saw how the thunderheads built in the heat from the sun, their tops flattening out and the bottoms growing black and heavy with rain that would soon release upon the prairie.

  But what bothered him more was the lightning that he saw from a distance, even as the clouds were building. If the storm rolled on toward them across the open prairie, it would gain strength and produce more lightning.

  Rafe had seen what lightning could do on the prairie. In the flat land, nothing stood out except whatever, or whoever, happened to be higher than the bare ground. That would mean Merita and him.

  Where they rode nothing stood more than three feet above the dirt. He began searching for someplace to ride out the storm.

  “What are you looking for?” Merita asked when he’d searched the area for the third time.

  “That cloud’s comin’ this way.” He pointed with his chin toward the towering column of black. “We need to find someplace to hole up ‘til it passes. That lightnin’ could be trouble.”

  “It is dangerous?” She sounded like she actually didn’t realize what lightning could do.

  “Let me explain it this way. You remember that bacon we fried for breakfast?” Merita

  nodded, and Rafe went on. “That’s what you and your horse would look like if you get hit by lightning.”

  She stared at him with wide eyes. After a minute, she said, “What do we need to do?”

  As he peered around them, he responded, “We need to find someplace that’s higher than us. A nice tall hill would do. If it had an overhang to protect us from the rain, that would be almost too much to ask for.”
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br />   Rafe stood in his stirrups to give himself the ability to see a little farther. He focused his gaze on something to the east of them.

  Settling back in his saddle, he turned to Merita. “There’s something over that way.” He pointed east. “I think it may be a hill we can get behind.”

  “All right,” she said. “Let’s go see.”

  It took them less than ten minutes to cover the mile to what turned out to be a fair-sized hill. Rafe led the way around the hill, his .45 loose in the holster, the thong off its hammer. He saw no tracks, no indication of anyone having been there. He relaxed a little.

  The hill probably was a projection of harder rock left over from an earlier geological period. Through the following years with their storms, winds, snows, and sun it had been worn down to a smooth hill covered with dirt and sand, grass and bushes growing on most of it.

  The other side of the hill from the storm looked like it had been sheared off sometime in the distant past. At the bottom of the hill on that side, boulders of various sizes littered the ground. One large shelf of rock lay at an angle against the cliff face. It looked like maybe one person could squeeze under it.

  From the thunder, Rafe could tell the storm was moving closer. The roar of the falling

  rain now sounded loud in his ears.

  “We need to get among the boulders as close to the side of the hill as we can. That will give us a little bit of shelter.” He dismounted and led his horse into the boulders up close to the hill. Once he got as close as he could, he picked up a large rock and laid it across the trailing reins to keep the horse close.

  Merita followed his example.

  They stood as close as they could to the side of the hill. There was no real shelter there other than the hill itself. That would keep some of the wind-blown rain off of them, but they would still get wet.

  But the lightning would not be a hazard.

  He said as much to her. “So, if we stay up tight against this hill, we’ll only get wet.” He untied a slicker from behind his saddle and slipped his arms into it.

  “Do we have to keep on standing?” she asked with a slight smile. She also put on a slicker.