Mountain Woman Snake River Blizzard (23 page)

The two women ran for the door and beat the bartender and Blair outside, but they were close behind.  The two customers were behind them, but glancing over their shoulders at the two marshals.

Man and Kate followed them to the barn and Curtis was hitching a horse to a buggy.  They all got in and Blair turned the horse toward Coeur d’Alene.  He had the horse in a fast trot.

“What do you think?” Man asked.

“The odds are they will do as ordered,” she said.  “
You
put the fear in them and after seeing the bodies on the floor, I expect they’ll heed the instructions.”

“Let’s ride after Bedford Nail,” Man said.

They rode to the barn and Man picked up the trail of a horse.  The tracks led away from the saloon and kept away from the road.  The tracks went away from town and seemed to stay parallel with the shoreline.

“He has a destination in mind,” Man said.

They rode by the fish market and then by a line of boats tied to a pier.  Kate pulled Red Bird to a stop and Man reined in Arabian.

“I think I see the chestnut tied in front of us.”  He pulled his binoculars and focused on the horse.  “It’s him.  He’s tied to a hitching rail in front of a warehouse.”

They pulled their rifles from the scabbards and rode forward.  As usual, Kate moved away from Man, but they rode parallel, each watching for movement.

Kate dismounted first as Man scanned the warehouse building for any movement.  It appeared empty of people as there were no horses stabled nearby.  But they couldn’t see the rear of the warehouse.  The two marshals moved forward to a doublewide door.  Man found a long limb that had fallen from a tree and used it to push the door open.  Nothing happened.

He gestured for Kate to go to the rear.  She turned and ran to the corner then stopped to peek around.  She waved and disappeared.  Man moved to where he could see inside.  The huge building was filled with wooden crates.  This was a warehouse for freight to be loaded or that had arrived on boats.  He saw no movement.

Man cautiously moved forward, stepped inside, and stood with his back against the wall.  He could see the opposite side of the warehouse and when the back door opened and Kate stepped inside, he began to move forward.

Kate saw him and started to walk toward him, her eyes constantly shifting from side to side, looking for movement.

When they met near the center of the warehouse, she whispered, “Now what?  Where did he go?”

He gestured to the left and she turned in that direction.  He went to the right, moving slowly, looking and listening.  Kate was doing the same.  She would go to a stack of crates and stop to listen and then peek around it, before moving on.

When they reached the wall, they made a circle around the outside wall, ever alert.  Kate stopped and then moved to where Man could see her.  She pointed with her rife and Man hurried to where she waited.

An office was in the corner of the building.  They moved toward it, but continued to look in every direction.  Man tried the door.  It was locked.  The outside wall made up two sides of the office, but on the inside wall, he saw a window.  He moved to look inside.  It was covered with a piece of burlap.  He pushed it to the side with the rifle barrel.  When there was no reaction from within, he stood up and looked for a split-second and dropped down.  He waited for a few seconds and looked again.  “Empty,” he said, “but there is an outside door and it’s open.”

They ran to the front door and stopped to look.  The chestnut was gone.  Man swore again under his breath.

They hurried to their horses and Man quickly picked up the tracks of the chestnut.  He was shod, had small hooves, and was easy to follow even when the tracks were mixed with that of draft horses.

The trail led farther around the lake and soon they were leaving houses behind.  “It’s time to start watching for an ambush,” Kate warned.  “You do the tracking and I’ll watch for any sign of Nail or his horse.”

Darkness soon began to settle in around them and it was getting harder for Man to stay on the trail.  He often had to dismount for a closer look at the tracks.  Finally, he turned toward Kate.  “If we go any farther, I’ll lose him.”

“We didn’t bring any of our things,” she said.

“Neither did Nail,” he said.  “But, he may know where he’s going and can ride at night.  He’ll have the moon for two or three hours.”

“What do we do?” she asked.

“We need to find a place to bed down and we have jerky and pemmican in our saddlebags,” he said.

“Or we can go back home and stock up on our supplies and bring the pack mules,” she said.  “We can be back here at first light and continue the chase until we run him to ground.  We can also stop and check in with the police and see if the people we sent in got there and find out what they said.”

Man shook his head.  “I believe you had your argument well thought out before speaking.”

“Of course.  I usually do,” she said with a generous smile.  “I find it works out better to know what I’m talking about before speaking.  Besides, this way I get to sleep in a warm house in a soft bed with my handsome husband rather than on the snow covered ground with no cover
except a saddle blanket.”

It was his turn to laugh and he turned Arabian back toward Coeur d’Alene.  Kate tore white strips of cloth she carried in her saddle for bandages and tied one to a tree limb.  “This will help us come back to this spot easier.  It’ll be too dark to see the tracks tomorrow morning.”

“Darn, you’re awfully smart for a just a deputy marshal,” he teased.

They found a police officer seated on a rock in front of the Pirates Cove.  He stood when he saw the two marshals approaching.

“We were wondering where you went,” he said when they were close enough to hear.

“Bedford Nail got away by crawling out a window,” Man said.  “We tracked him until darkness caused us to turn back.  We’ll be back on his trail at first light.”

“Did you have a buggy full of people show up at the station?” Kate asked.

“We sure did.  Four men and two women came in with every one of them trying to talk at the same time.  Chief Kincaid and Assistant Chief Dunlap got their statements.  As soon as he heard about the shooting, the chief sent six of us out here.  The bartender said bodies were laid out like cordwood.  He exaggerated a mite, but it must have been one hell of a dust-up according to the bullet holes.”

“What did they say about the killing of Elmer Knorr?” Kate asked.

“I don’t know,” the policeman said.  “As I said, as soon as the chief heard about the shooting he sent us out here at a high lope.  We called the Black Maria to haul the bodies into town and I was ordered to keep this place shut down tonight.”

“One other thing you might be interested in,” he said, “when we got here there were two men inside looting the place.  They had already found the cash box and took the wallets off the bodies.  They were busy loading bottles of whisky into their saddlebags and had two cases already outside.  I don’t know how they expected to carry them horseback, but they must have had a plan.  Maybe hide them and come back later.  We took them into custody.”

“Some crooks try to steal more than they can carry,” Man threw in.

“We need to get moving,” Kate said. “We’re going to report to Kincaid and send a wire to Chief Marshal Meek.”

“Tell Dunlap I’m here and have had to send about twenty customers packing.  This is a mighty popular place.”

Man stopped at the telegraph, sent a report to Meek, and picked up one waiting for him.

Kate waited while he opened it.  “Nothing new on whereabouts of Engledow and Valdez,” Man said.

They found the police station a busy place.  The four men and two women were still there.  Police Chief Kincaid saw the marshals and motioned them to follow him to his office.  He gestured at Dunlap to come along.

“You must have run into a
hornets’
nest at the Cove,” Kincaid said.

“It could have been worse,” Kate said.  “Three of them turned and ran before the shooting started.  However, Irish thought his shotgun was better.  He was wrong.”

“What did they say?” Man asked.

“We have signed statements for all six of them.  Bedford Nail ordered Irish to kill Elmer Knorr and dump his body in the lake.  He hit Elmer on the head with a paddle that was decoration in the Cove.  They had already worked him over for being delinquent on gambling debts.”

“According to one of the other men,” Dunlap said, “Nail said that you can’t get blood out of a turnip and to get rid of Knorr.  Elmer was tied to a chair and Irish started to shoot him with the shotgun, but Nail said it would make too much of a mess on the floor.  Irish picked up the paddle and brought it down on Knorr’s head.  They hauled the body out to a boat, tied a rock to him, and took him out and dumped the body.”

“Was Bedford Nail there?” Kincaid asked.

“Yes,” Man replied.  “During the fight, he slipped out a window and escaped.  We tracked him until it got too dark to see his tracks.  We intend to be back on his trail tomorrow morning.  We’re going home tonight and bring the pack mules tomorrow.  We won’t stop until we get him, or we’ll stay on his trail as long as we can.  It’s easy now with the snow cover.  He’s riding a chestnut with very small hooves.  So far, he’s been easy to follow.”

“The policeman you left at the Pirate’s Cove said he has had to run about twenty or so customers away,” Kate added.  “But it’s quite out there.  He told us about the two men robbing the place.”

“When we get Nail, this will end this case without further bloodshed, we hope,” Man said.

“It will and closing down the Cove will take a pain out of our, well, sides,” Chief Kinca
id said.  “We’re much obliged.”

Kate went into the house and Man took Arabian and Red Bird into the barn and fed them
oats and hay.  The two mules were standing at the fence waiting for supper
,
as well.  He brought the two packs to the house and left them on the enclosed porch.

Roy and Dan had finished enclosing the inside and it was warm and comfortable out of the wind.  He began sorting through the packs to see what was needed.  Kate saw him and came out to look.  “Check our bedding and see if it okay,” she said.  “I’ll get to replacing the food after we eat.  It’s on the table.”

Man was waiting for Kate when she came and blew out the lamp.  He caught a glimpse of her a second before it became dark.  A smile crossed his face as he quickly shoved his underwear down and off.  Kate rolled over on him and kis
sed his lips.  “Your beautiful d
eputy needs some loving, Mr. Marshal Manchester.”

He rolled her on her back and he heard a deep sigh of pleasure as their bodies met.

The sun was barely pe
eking over the mountain in the e
ast when Kate pointed at t
he last white strip of cloth on a
limb.  “This is where we turned back,” she said.

Man took the point and Kate rode off to the side leading the two pack mules.  Her eyes were continually
scanning each place an ambush could be launched.  They rode on until noon and stopped for something to eat.  Nail’s tracks were going higher and higher into the mountains.  It seemed with each mile, the temperature dropped and the snow was deeper.  A blind man could almost follow his trail.

As they ate between two huge boulders where the snow was no more than ankle deep, the animals ate the dry grass that protruded through t
he snow.  It wouldn’t have a lot of
food value, but it was
filler
for them.

Man gave each of them oats.  It had been a hard climb in the snow and uphill the entire way.

“He must have a destination,” Man
said, “but where?
  He has to know we can track him.”

“Could he be trying to stay in front of us and is
going to Spokane?” Kate asked.

“That’s a definite possibility,” Man said.  “I can’t see him having a hideout this far out.  I read him as
a townie, not an outdoorsman.  He was afraid to face us at the Pirates Cove and he’s running scared.  He thinks he can escape in Spokane.  I intend to move as fast as possible.  Watch for an ambush, but I don’t th
ink that’
s his intent or he would have tried it long before now.”

They pushed their horses faster and kept on the trail long after darkness trying to make up time.  When the moon
faded,
they made camp and ate a cold supper.  Nail might
have been
too
close, see
n
the fire,
and
become
braver in the darkness.

Always playing it safe, Man took the first watch and Kate relieved him during the night.  They were back on the trail before daylight and pushed hard throughout the day.

Before dark, they were on top of a hill
. 
Man pulled his binoculars and scanned the trail in front of him.  He saw a dark spot on the white snow.  He refocused the glasses and looked again.  “He’s a mile or so in front of us.”

He stepped down and handed her the binoculars.  She gazed at the image
and sighed.  “We caught up,
almost.”