Strongheart (26 page)

What Harlance did not know about was Annabelle's little ruse. Although her wrists had been bound to the saddle horn, she would bring one leg at a time up as he led her, and would still tear strips off her petticoat to drop along their trail. When he tied her to the tree, she figured she could wait until he was asleep, and by again lifting her leg up she could tear many off with the bark of the tree. The challenge then would be to hide them to drop off the horse the next day. She also figured she would be able to tear a number of pieces off her petticoat when he allowed her to go behind bushes when nature called. She would then hide the strips in one hand and drop them one at a time along the trail.

The next day, he gave her hardtack and coffee and nothing else. She was glad she tore strips, because instead of leading her back to the stagecoach road, he started that way then turned north on a flat rock outcropping, heading back toward the river. At the trail along the river, he headed west, and within a quarter mile he entered the big rocky Arkansas River canyon, which ran for miles.

Harlance had been to the headwaters of the Arkansas and actually stepped across them near Oro City, which was a gold town located at 10,123 feet elevation that in a few short years, after silver discoveries in the lead deposits there, it would be replaced by Leadville, which would continue to grow and become the highest incorporated city in North America and to have the highest airport on the continent, too. For now, it was attracting many miners and would for several decades to come.

Through the river canyon where they now rode, the river often roared on their right, but during this time of year it was at its lowest, so those spots were less frequent. During June, after the beginning of the snowmelt in the Sangre de Cristo range and the Collegiate range, the Arkansas through that canyon would host the nastiest, most dangerous rapids in North America. Fortunately, Annabelle was able to drop her cloth strips at several critical spots, so Joshua or anybody else following should be able to find them easily.

She knew that he would come, and she knew that he would save her. On the other hand, she knew this Harlance McMahon was ruthless and had to be insane. Women were just not kidnapped or molested very often in the West. Back east, yes, where there were plenty of women, but not on what was called “the frontier.”

In that very regard, she feared much for Strongheart: Her kidnapper was clever, but he was also mentally unstable, and she had no idea what type of trap he was planning. She made her mind up then that if he was luring Joshua into a trap and Joshua was approaching and would certainly be bushwhacked, she would cry out and warn him. She decided firmly this would be her action, even if it was obvious it would cost her her life.

Strongheart was soaking in the mineral hot springs when the blacksmith came in. He walked up to him, introduced himself, and told Joshua he was sent by the two women working at the café. They said that Annabelle was supposed to be there for breakfast, but never showed up. He had gone in to eat, and they asked him to go check at her house. He told Joshua about the pair of gloves and said that he had left them there for him to see for himself. Joshua climbed out of the springs and dried off, asking the blacksmith to find the sheriff immediately and warn him.

When the blacksmith explained the specific positioning of the gloves, Joshua said immediately, “Harlance McMahon! Tell the sheriff it was Harlance, and I am going after him. I will leave the sheriff an obvious trail to follow.”

He ran to his room to throw on clothes, pack some food, and get on the trail.

In less than a half hour, Strongheart was at Annabelle's house checking inside and inspecting the gloves. He left them for the sheriff to see. He then followed the tracks to the barn and now had in his mind the whole scenario of what had happened. At the tree in the front yard he found where the bark had been scraped off by a horse's reins making a little ring around the trunk, and numerous tracks where the horse had pranced when tied there, and droppings from the animal as well. He found where Harlance had hidden by the porch and the broken off and stripped branch he'd used to tap on the window.

Joshua inspected the inside of the house to see if it had been burglarized and to check for other clues. There had been a pot of coffee on the stove, which had boiled away, leaving a dark brown layer of crud within. He returned to the stable and saw where Annabelle's horse had been saddled and where Harlance had tied his own horse.

Strongheart was ready to move on their trail as fast as he could, but first he took a pair of underwear he had gotten from her laundry basket and had Gabriel smell it. The big horse snorted. Tossing the undies into the stable, he mounted up and headed after a date with destiny.

The tracks headed northwest toward the hogbacks, and entering there, he found the first strip of white cloth. Gabriel climbed the long ridgeline easily and seemed to be eager to be on this new adventure.

The warrior had had the horse sniff her used pantaloons on a hunch. He knew that the territorial prison used blood-hounds to track prisoners when they escaped. Joshua knew how many times he had been riding and Gabriel would smell a deer, bear, human, or anything else out of the ordinary and warn him with a whinny or shiver. Joshua need simply to watch the big ears on the horse, and they would turn toward whatever would end up coming into view later. There were other times Gabe would spot an animal and his eyes would clearly be focused on it, and Joshua could feel his body tighten up until the horse identified the animal.

He had thought about it before. A horse's nostrils were much, much larger than any dogs, his eyes were much larger, and his ears much larger, plus a horse's ears could turn in any direction to capture a sound, unlike a dog's ears. A horse could not howl like a dog to alert his master, but he could whinny, nicker, blow, or shiver to let the man know something or someone was coming. Joshua knew that he was not the only one: Many Indians and frontiers-men watched their horse's ears to spot enemies or animals before a man would actually see them.

Joshua figured maybe from inhaling her scent the big horse would instinctively be able to tell he was searching for Annabelle. Maybe he could pick up the smell and bail Joshua out if he lost the trail. Once on the stagecoach road, he alternated between a fast trot and a canter, climbing several miles and a thousand feet higher up, to the top of Eight Mile Hill, which was a plateau of maybe six square miles that gave view to mountains on every side except the eastern and, on Joshua's left a few miles away, to the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Arkansas. Far off in the distance, he could see the snowcaps of the Sangre de Cristo range. This was the first he had seen them in months, and they certainly had much more snow on them now. They were more than thirty miles away but clearly visible.

Harlance looked above him on both sides. This canyon was almost all rocks and steep cliffs. It was noted for its many herds of bighorn sheep, as well as mule deer and the highest concentration of mountain lions in the United States. It also contained a good share of grizzlies and black bear, which was an actual species, not just a color description. In fact, seldom were black bear in Colorado actually black. Most ranged in color from cinnamon to blond to brown. The grizzlies were many shades, as well, but invariably had silver-tipped hairs on their prominent shoulder hump. They also had a dish face, as opposed to the much smaller black bears, and very, very long claws.

Additionally, there were several herds of pure white Rocky Mountain goats with small black horns. The river was teeming with brown trout, rainbows, and cutthroat. At several points as he and Annabelle rode along they saw large birds of prey riding along the tall steep canyon walls searching for food. These included golden eagles, bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, and buzzards.

Harlance had a plan. They would ride for several miles, to Five Points, a spot halfway to Texas Creek along the river, and they would then turn south and go up Five Points Gulch, one of the most rugged gulches in the area. It was frequently used by knowledgeable outlaws, as there was even one spot, called the “Narrows,” where the rocky walls of the gulch came so close together that you had to dismount and tie your stirrups up over the top of the saddle and lead your horse.

The gulch climbed more than two thousand feet for the next six miles and oddly enough ended at the southern base of Lookout Mountain, where Harlance's brother Jeeter McMahon had kept his horse picketed when Joshua shot it out with him at his hideout.

Thanks to the pieces of cloth along the way, which he had now identified as strips of petticoat, Joshua made very good time tracking the outlaw and Annabelle. Before noon, he was at their night location, and he got off of Gabe and crawled around on his hands and knees looking for clues. By this time, the sheriff and his posse were on the early part of the trail.

Strongheart remembered all the days he had been taken out by uncles and older cousins in his father's village and taught how to track, how to look for and work out sign.

He was very glad that he'd decided to check thoroughly on his hands and knees. He found where Annabelle had been tied to a tree and slept. He was also very happy to see by the sign that she had not been accosted. On a hunch, he carefully turned over leaves and branches close to the tree where she slept. He uncovered where she had used her toes to write in the ground and then used her feet together to pick up leaves and branches and drop them over the scratchings.

“Good girl,” Strongheart said aloud.

In one spot she wrote simply “HM,” meaning of course Harlance McMahon. She also wrote “bush U.” Then in a third spot she had traced a Valentine-type heart.

On hands and knees, Strongheart followed all of her tracks, and he found where she had gone behind bushes to relieve her bladder and bowels. In the ground next to that place, she had written with her hand, “I M waiting. Luv U. Careful!”

Strongheart smiled and got on his feet. He was so proud that this woman he loved had had the presence of mind to leave him messages and that she had trusted he would find them. She was even smart enough, he noticed, to drop her strips of petticoat on bushes and limbs where they would not get covered by snow if an early spring or late winter storm came in.

He saw where Harlance had made a flimsy attempt to make it look like they were heading back to the stagecoach road, but he only used his horse. When Joshua saw that the two horses together had turned north and headed toward the river, he knew Harlance was actually going along the river, west toward Cotopaxi. Joshua would need to watch only for where Harlance turned off, and he assumed that Annabelle would clearly mark that spot with one or two strips from her petticoat. Gabriel had already crunched about fifteen miles under his hooves since the day started, but most horses could easily handle twenty miles in a day, and in an emergency, a horse in good shape could handle as much as one hundred miles in a twenty-four-hour period without getting seriously hurt.

Joshua had had reasonably easy road travel most of the time so far, and he hoped that continued. There was no road along the river, but there was a wide, well-worn trail. He put Gabriel at a slow-comfortable mile-eating trot along the Arkansas. He made sure he stopped several times and went to the river's edge to let Gabe drink if he wanted. Gabe drank once and refused water the second time, but he tried to grab in his mouth as many weeds along the river's edge as he could.

As Joshua was entering the narrow canyon, Harlance had Annabelle, hands-bound, walking in front, while he led both horses, one behind the other, through the Narrows. Their stirrups were tied up over the tops of their saddles. Their passage through the Narrows was fairly short-lived or it would have become a bit claustrophobic. In fact, Annabelle's horse did balk, and it took an additional hour almost to get the gelding through. All horses are claustrophobic, no matter how good the horse, but normally if the horse is following another horse, he will not balk. This horse, however, had not read any of the books on horse behavior. Instead of pulling him, Harlance actually untied his lead line, which was tied to his own horse's tail. What the outlaw did not know was that Annabelle's horse had been kicked under the jaw by another horse a few years earlier when the same thing had been done, tying the horse's lead to another horse's tail. He might have followed Gabriel, because they had become pasture mates, and he'd learned Gabe was not a kicker. Being a herd animal, a horse does not want to be left alone, so once Harlance had removed the threat of the tied lead line, Annabelle's horse readily followed the owlhoot's mount through the Narrows.

The delay, though, helped Strongheart, as his big horse was chewing up the miles, and though he was protecting his horse, he had no desire to stop for food or anything. He rode along the winding river, and on the other side, the high ridgeline leaned away from the river, as if looking down its marble nose at the serpentine, living waterway. However, the ledges went almost straight up on Joshua's immediate left. Across the river a point came out and a large herd of bighorns were bedded down on the grassy park there. At the same place, suddenly the ledges dropped away from the trail a little on the left and Joshua could see the convergence of three narrow, rocky gulches. This was Five Points. And “God bless her” was in his thoughts as he saw a big white strip of cloth hanging on a branch along the trail. He saw the tracks end in the river trail, then saw sweeping arches in the dirt heading into Five Points Gulch, where Harlance had foolishly tried to use a branch to wipe out their tracks. That left a better trail than hoofprints.

Strongheart went up into the rocks and immediately saw another strip of cloth sitting on a rock next to the trail letting him know this was the direction they'd headed. He left his horse standing there so he could rest, and he walked back to the main trail along the river. He grabbed three large rocks and placed them in a stack on the left side of the trail, then two more rocks toward Five Points Gulch, so the sheriff and posse would be able to follow. He walked back to his horse and mounted up, having never ridden this route before. He would have to move more slowly now, as this narrow canyon would provide many ideal ambush spots. They moved forward, and the big horse, having smelled Annabelle at Harlance's camp, instinctively knew that they were after this woman, and her scent was in the air now. It had been several hours, but such was the horse's amazing olfactory memory. The thrill of the chase made Gabriel's adrenaline flow, and even though the trail went uphill slowly, he did not want to walk. Strongheart let him have his head. They went up through the high, narrow canyon at a slow trot, seeing many animals, mule deer, bighorn sheep, elk, three coyotes, and a few Rocky Mountain goats on a high peak. These were not the snowcapped peaks of the Sangre de Cristos, but a more intimate and imposing herd of vicious-looking rocky ridges, covered with few trees and many ledges. Riding through the narrow canyon, and looking up and all around, waiting for several fast rounds from McMahon's Henry repeater carbine, Joshua, if he had a vivid imagination, could have easily pictured this silent granite and sandstone herd swooping down on him from the heights.