The Prettiest Girl in the Land (The Traherns #3) (6 page)

That afternoon we pulled into a station, the driver tooting his
bugle the second time, and suddenly Travers barked, a deep-throated warning
that had the driver speeding up rather than slowing down. As we galloped by,
men spilled out of the station house and barn, shooting.

4

Things happened fast. They had expected us to stop, but with
Travers’ warning, we kept right on going and spoiled their plans. They had
their horses hidden out back, and soon were racing after us.

I saw Gage ride up next to the coach and jump aboard. He kept
those mules running all out, throwing those of us inside around like seeds in a
pod. He turned onto a knoll where he stopped them and jumped down. The stage
was all katty-wonkered and hard to climb out of, but we didn’t waste any
time.  Gage handed out the rifles as the other outrider dropped off his
horse and commenced firing. “Don’t shoot unless you can see something,” he
said.

“How’s the driver?” I asked, as Gage dropped down next to me.

“Killed or almost. Couldn’t tell.”

We both shot at the same time, at men who had decided to work
their way closer.   That wised them up, and they stopped moving down
there.

Gage had put us in a good defensive position, above the men who
sought to rob the stage. We were all hunkered down behind rocks, well
protected. They had only a ravine where they could creep up on us. And Gage and
I had just made that ditch very unpopular.

The stage mules were getting a rest, but we all needed water.
One of the passengers crawled back to the stage and took off the water bags. He
checked out the driver while he was there and gave him a drink and bandaged him
up. Then he crawled around above each of us and tossed the water bag down. We’d
get a good drink, then toss it back to him to take to the next. It was the
portly gent from England who said he couldn’t shoot, but he’d found what was
needed and was doing it.

Travers came over and plopped himself down next to me.

“Good dog, Travers,” I said. “You warned us just...”

His hackles raised, and with a low growl he looked over at an
adjoining ridge.

“They’re trying to sneak around and get above us,” Gage said,
loudly enough for the rest to hear. “Shoot anything that twitches near the
notch of that rock.”

Since I didn’t have to aim, I just pointed and shot when I saw a
blur go by. A yell made me think I’d hit something. A ricochet could do more
damage than a bullet, so I just squeezed off a few more rounds in that
direction. Gage pulled out and circled around, and soon I heard some pistol
shots, then saw his rifle extended and waving from that area.

“Don’t shoot him. That’s Gage up there.” I put one more shot
down the ravine when a knee got stuck out too far, and a scream told me I’d hit
it.

We sat and baked in the hot sun until it commenced to set. There
was no way they were going to sneak up on us with Travers watching.

It was a ragtag bunch of outlaws. They had probably figured the
stage passengers to be easy pickins, but people could use a gun in that country
and knew how to defend themselves. The outlaws must have hit the station just
as the workers were getting the mules ready for us to come in. It was a swing
station where there was a team change only.

It got dark, but not too dark and someone on the other side of
me shot and I heard a curse as the outlaw group pulled out.

A few minutes later, Gage called out and then came in.

“Let’s go back to the station and see if there’s anyone there
needing help,” he said. “Any of you able to drive the coach?”

“I can,” the much-traveled gent said. He climbed up onto the
seat, we brought the driver inside and all got in or on the top.

Then with Gage and Travers leading the way, we worked our way
back off that knoll, back down to the road and then to the station.

They hadn’t bothered to tie up the station man, just shot him
and left him for dead. His helper had fled to the rocks and had come back to
see to him. They had been so intent on chasing the stage that they hadn’t taken
the change of mules, so we did the changing and put the wounded station keeper
and the driver inside the coach to take them on to the fort, which was the next
stop.

Jack, the much-traveled man, drove. Five of the other men sat on
top of the stage with Travers, who by now had accepted all of them.

Gage and the other outrider changed horses at each team change,
for one horse couldn’t a-took that trip at that pace and lived. I wondered how
we would make it. We press hard and made the fort before nightfall.

The Fort consisted of a few buildings placed so they could be
easily defended. We ate there. Gage ran into one of his friends from the war,
and they proceeded to do some recollecting of those days.

Gage had evidently been an army courier, carrying messages
across the western frontier for the Confederates. I sat there resting, Travers
beside me, and listened to them talk.

“With the war over, I got an early discharge,” Gage said. “Went
down the Oregon Trail with Trey Trahern and his wife...”

“Major Trahern?”

“Yes.”

“Union, wasn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“I thought he might stay in the army.”

“Not Trey. Got him a woman and is now ranching.

“How ‘bout you?”

“I’m catching me a woman, then I’ll try my hand at ranching,
too.”

“You shouldn’t have any trouble getting yourself a wife. The
gals must fall all over you.”

“Not the one I want.”

“Hum,”
I thought.
“
So Gage has got himself a gal all picked out. I wonder if she’s
in California. He hasn’t mentioned her, but he wouldn’t unless I knew her.”

One of the portly men walked up to me—the one who could
shoot and was the more talkative. “Ma’am, I’d like to give your dog a big meaty
bone. I reckon we would’ve been caught flat-footed at that station if he hadn’t
warned the driver. I don’t figure he’ll take it from me, so I’ll give it to
you. There’s gold being found in California, and my bank has to have cash to
buy it from the miners. So they loaded up my suitcases and sent me west as a
passenger. Someone must have heard about it. I’m afraid I might have made us a
target, and I’m sorry you were caught in this.  Although I do think you
got at least two or three of them.”

“Nicked them good,” I agreed.

“Made them wish they had chosen another profession,” he added.

“I’ll give Travers some of my vittles. I don’t want him eating
just anything.” Now I could see no reason why the man would want to poison
Travers, but I’d been warned by Mr. Debras.

I took the bone he had wrapped in a paper and tossed it out for
the coyotes.

It bothered me, that he’d told me about the money. A secret
shared is no longer a secret, and I wondered if the reason someone had targeted
this coach to rob was because this man was too loose with his tongue.

After a supper of dried jerky and something they called soup, I
asked Gage if he’d accompany me outside while I let Travers run for a minute.
It wasn’t that I needed company, but I decided if someone else was going to try
to rob this coach, Gage at least should be prepared.

We stepped outside together and walked away from the buildings.

Gage took my hand. “It’s nice to get you alone, Ruth,” he said.

“Yes. We need to talk. You know the heavy-set man who does a lot
of talking? He told me he has suitcases full of money that he’s taking to a
bank in California, so they can buy some of the gold being found.”

He dropped my hand and turned to face me. “What?”

“He thinks that’s why we were hit today. I figured you needed to
know to be extra alert. And why would he tell me? That’s strange in itself.”

“How did it happen?”

“He wanted to give Travers a bone. I don’t want the dog to get
used to taking things from other people. Mr. Debras said some people might try
to poison him.”

“What did you do with the bone?”

“Threw it out into the brush for the coyotes. Oh, my.”

“Call him back.”

“Travers. Come!”

He came loping back and I felt thankful that it was not from the
direction I’d thrown the bone. I looked at that dog and he sort of grinned at
me. He was probably all right.

“I don’t know if he would have chewed on it or not,” I told
Gage. “He prefers to kill his own food. Anyway, that man was all apologetic.
Wanted to give the dog a bone and tell me why we were attacked.”

“Maybe he was just trying to impress you.”

“Well, he didn’t. That was a foolish thing for him to do. I
wonder how many other people he’s told?”

“One too many, if he’s telling the truth.  All they have to
do is stop us at a steep place where the mules have to slow down. We wouldn’t
be able to outrun them. The only reason we made it today was because Travers
let us know something was wrong. If the stage had stopped, we might all be
dead.”

“You saved us, by pulling the stage onto a knoll and getting us
all out before they had a chance to run us down.”

“True. But next time, they’ll try something different. In the
stage, you have no chance at all. You can shoot out, but those stage walls
aren’t made to keep out bullets. If the bullets start flying around, those of
you inside will be like ducks on a pond. We need to get you out of the stage
and onto a horse. You can ride, can’t you?”

“Yes. Not like you can, but I’d stay on. I rode Trey’s horse,
whenever he’d let me.”

The only times I’d seen Gage in the mountains was when he’d ride
to our house, all dandied up, to court Mary. She flirted with him, but we all
knew he was a wandering man with no staying around in him, so even she didn’t
take him seriously.

But I was taking him serious now. He had picked up a heap of
knowledge drifting around the country, and he knew how to handle himself in a
fight. So if he told me I was safer on a horse than in the stage, I took his
word.

“A horse means you can move, fast. And if there’s anyone out,
shooting riders, they’ll see you’re a woman and not shoot you. Hopefully. But
they can’t see you in the coach, so if they shoot into it, you can be as dead
as the gent next to you.”

“Should we wait here for the next coach?”

“I hadn’t thought about that. There might not be room for you to
ride in it, and then we’d have to wait longer. And who’s to say it won’t get
attacked?”

“What should I do, Gage?”

“Does that skirt of yours allow riding?”

“Yes. It’s my traveling skirt. It has a split in it so I can ride
if I need to.”

“Thought I’d noticed that. I’ll see if’n I can buy you a horse
for the rest of the trip. And a saddle. You can carry your rifle with you. That
was too awkward, having to give people the rifles when we were attacked. Slowed
down our response.

“Think about it,” he added. “If’n you were shooting for the
greatest effect, would you rather shoot at one person or a bunch all grouped
together?”

“Grouped,” I said. “Like we would be if we stayed inside the
coach.”

“It gives a false sense of security.”

“Is there anything else we could do? Suppose they hit us
tomorrow, before we get me a horse?”

“A distraction? I could rearrange the luggage, put some of that
gent’s money on the top. The driver could open one up and heave it off. Might
make the robbers stop to gather it.”

“At least open the cases and make sure he wasn’t just
blow-harding me.”

“Well, I signed on to help protect the passengers and the coach.
I’ll talk to the Wells Fargo men who are here at the station, including the
driver. I’ll do what they ask, if it’s reasonable. When a shipment of gold or
money goes through, there should be guards and no passengers. But I don’t think
they do it that way. The freight would probably cost more to ship.”

I turned to go back inside and Gage caught my hand.

“Thank you, Ruth,” he said, giving it a firm squeeze. “You may
have saved all our lives by speaking up.”

I caught his gaze in the lights from the windows. His eyes were
serious. Not the dancing, teasing look he used to give me. This was the look of
a mature man. A man who knew how to fight. A different Gage than I had ever
known.

He opened the door for me and I went inside, Travers with me. I
could leave our safety up to Gage. I knew he’d be able to handle it, if anyone
could. He’d been the one to bring the coach to a better defensive position
before the outlaws could get close. He was the one who got us out of the stage
and armed. He had given the orders that had saved our lives.

While we were waiting for the new driver to come through to
replace the one who’d been shot, Gage and one of the soldiers removed all the
wheels plus the extra wheel that was tied onto the coach, and soaked them to
make the wooden spokes swell and fit more firmly in the iron rims. I knew they
didn’t want a wheel flying off if we had to make a run for it. As soon as the
driver came, they replaced them and we got into the coach. Gage had the
heavyset man, who had proved how well he could shoot, move up and sit shotgun
beside the driver. And he handed each of us our rifles, loaded, and extra
ammunition.