the Shadow Riders (1982) (3 page)

"We'd better go back inside. She'll be afraid we left her, too."

"Damn it, Mac! What's got into the man? Draggin' women-folks away to God knows what?"

"Dal? There's women-folks at our place, too. And it can't be more'n thirty-five, forty miles from here."

"I was thinkin' of that. No use to start now. We'd kill our horses before we made it. Let 'em rest, eat, an' we'll ride out in the mornin'."

Mac went back through the door and watched the girl, finally saying, "Susan? I think when we leave in the morning we'd better take you with us. Your papa may be some time in getting here, and we'll leave a note for him. We've got some folks down south of here, and you can stay with them."

She looked at them, round-eyed and serious. "Mama said I was to wait for papa."

Mac squatted down beside her. "Susan, the War is over, but it may take some time for all the soldiers to come home. We don't know where your papa was, and he might have to walk all the way from Pennsylvania or Virginia. You had better come and stay with us until he can come for you."

In a cyclone cellar near the house they found several slabs of bacon hanging, a half barrel of potatoes, and one of carrots and onions Some of the potatoes had begun to sprout. The milk was kept in a cool place, a small pit slabbed with rock. The milk was beginning to turn, but there was butter-milk and a little cheese.

"Your mother must have been a worker," Dal commented as Mac put food on the table.

"I helped. I can work, too."

"How old are you, Susan?"

"I am eight years old. I helped mama with everything. I can milk a cow, and I can churn butter, and I helped dig the vegetables."

She ate in silence for a few minutes and then asked, "Do you have little girls where you live?"

"Well, we have girls. We have sisters, and one of them wasn't much older than you when we left, but that was four years ago."

After they had eaten, Mac put a hand on her shoulder. "Susan, you go along to bed now, and don't you worry about those things that go bump in the night. We'll be here."

When she was gone they sat at the table drinking coffee, occasionally feeding the fire. "What about Ashford?" Mac asked.

"Tough man, good soldier, and he always seemed a good man, but war changes people. He recruited a lot of bad ones to keep his strength up, and toward the end he was letting them act like bandits just to keep them with him. To be honest about it, some of the officers were beginning to avoid him, and when Lee surrendered Ashford took it almost as a personal insult. The last I heard he was headed for Mexico."

It was bleak and cold when morning came and they saddled up, adding several slabs of bacon and some vegetables to their packs.

"We'll take one horse with us an' turn the others loose," Mac said. "There's plenty of grass, and there's a creek down yonder. They'll make out."

Susan came to the kitchen, dressed for travel. She had made a small bundle of her clothes, and she stood waiting, her sun-bonnet in her hand. For a moment she stood silent in the door to her room, watching them.

"Better have something to eat," Dal said. "It is a long ride."

"All right. I'm not very hungry." At the last, when Dal helped her into the saddle she said, "What if mama comes back?"

"We left a note," Mac said, "and people hereabouts are kindly toward the homes of others. Sometimes travellers sleep in them, but they always leave them clean and with fuel ready for the fire."

At the crest of a low hill Susan turned for one look back, but when they had ridden several miles and stopped atop another hill to give the horses a breather, she said, "You don't think papa is coming back, do you?"

Dal tried to speak, swallowed a couple of times, and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm afraid not, Susan. War is a hard time for all of us. There will be a lot who never get back."

"Is papa gone, then?"

"Yes, honey, I'm afraid he is. I knew Jim Atherton. He was a good man. We soldiered together."

"Mama woke up one night, crying. I think she knew. I think she felt he was gone. She did not say it, but she told me we might have to go away."

Dal glanced at Mac and they rode on, keeping Susan between them as they rode single file.

The country was wide open and empty, with scattered clumps of trees on hillsides or along the ridges. Every stream was lined with trees. It was almost noon when Mac Traven pulled up sharply. "Dal? Look here ..."

Dal rode up, and Mac indicated the trail he had just cut. It had been made by a large party of horsemen driving some cattle and with one wagon, heavily loaded.

"Dozen at least, maybe twenty or more. Shod horses, headin' right down our way. It could be them, Mac. We'd better hurry."

"Sundown at the earliest, and when we come up on the place we'd better ride careful."

"Is it the men who took mama?"

"Could be, Susan. If we run into trouble you drop off that horse and lie flat, d' you hear?"

Mac Traven scouted back along the trail, then returned. "We'll find a camp somewhere ahead. No use wastin' time studying the back trail."

"That trail's three, maybe four days old."

"It is. But if we can find a camp we can get a better idea of how many there are and who they have with them."

Dal glanced at the sky. "Looks like rain. That'll slow 'em up."

"But not much. They've been stealin' women, and somebody will know and will start hunting them."

Here and there they could pick out a distinctive horse-track, one that would help in the future. "Wonder they didn't loot the house and find Susan, here."

"Mama was away from the house, looking for our cow. They looked at the house, but they didn't come near."

"Didn't want to chance it," Dal suggested. "They had the woman, and there might be a man with a rifle at the house."

They stopped only briefly at mid-day to rest the horses and let them graze. Dal paced impatiently, swearing under his breath. Mac lay on his back, his hat over his eyes. "Take it easy, Dal. Save your strength. We'll need all we got when we come up to them."

"If we do. This here may be a long chase."

"Maybe. But pa was at home, and Jesse. You know Jesse. He was always good with a gun."

"If he was there. And if pa was there. They might have been out on the range lookin' after stock, and these people don't waste around. You saw that back there."

Through the long, still afternoon they followed the trail, approaching every patch of brush with care, riding slowly up each slope to see over it without being seen. "Headin' right for our place," Dal said once, "almost as if they knew it was there."

"Maybe one of them does," Mac said. "Somebody knows the country, looks like to me."

"Let's study on that," Dal suggested. "Maybe we can figure their next camp."

"Hell," Mac said, "we know where that'll be. We've got the best water in the country around. They will stop at our place."

A few spattering drops of rain fell, and Dal held back, helping Susan with her slicker. It was one that had belonged to her father and covered her like a tent. "Room for two of you in there," he said, smiling. "You holdin' up all right?"

"Yes, sir. I used to ride to town with mama, and that was thirty miles."

"Let's go then."

Mac had ridden on ahead, but now he had reined in and was waiting. "Look at this." He pointed at a fresh lot of tracks.

The tracks were of five riders in a bunch, driving several head of cattle.

"Foragers, rounding up everything they can," Dal said. "We'd best ride careful. We might come up on some of them."

"Ain't heard any shooting," Mac added.

The rain fell softly, but the trail ahead was broad and easy to follow. At each rise they walked their horses until they could peer over, then rode on.

"How far would you say?" Dal asked.

"Five, six miles."

"Let's swing off to the west and come up that draw behind the barn. Give us a little cover until we're right close."

They drew up when they reached the draw, listening. There was no sound but the rain.

"Susan," Dal said gently, "if you see your ma, don't you yell out. There'll be maybe twenty of them and only two of us. We may have to back off and wait until night-time."

"I used to go hunting with papa. I can be quiet."

"Good girl. Mac, it looks like we picked a winner when we tied up with Susan."

A trickle of water ran down the draw. The air was very still, the clouds low. Their horses' hoofs made almost no sound on the wet grass. Twice more they drew up to listen, but there was no sound.

Suddenly, Mac drew up, pointing.

A dead and butchered steer lay on the ground near some bushes. The best cuts of meat had been taken, the rest abandoned to the coyotes, which had already been at it.

"At least two days. Maybe three. I think they've come and gone."

"Careful, then, when we ride up. Pa always could shoot."

Over the edge of the draw they could see the roof and the chimney. There was no smoke. Nor was there any sound. Suddenly, Dal put spurs to his horse. "To Hell with it!" he said, and pistol in hand he charged up the bank of the draw and into the empty yard.

He pulled up sharply. The corral bars were down, and the door hung on its hinges, gaping wide. He swung down and ran into the house.

Mac faced the barn. That door was open also, but there was no sign of life. Rifle up, he walked his horse toward the corral, then drew up.

Old Shep lay there, bloody and dead, a bit of cloth still gripped in his teeth. It was a bloody cloth. Mac swore and turned away. Susan looked at him, wide-eyed and sad.

"He was your dog?"

"He was our dog. We all owned him, we all loved him. He'd been with us since I was a youngster, seems like."

Dal came out of the house. "They've been here. No sign of pa, ma, or Gretchen. Jesse was here. His bed's been slept in. They must have taken him, too."

Slowly, Mac dismounted and helped Susan to the ground. "No use killin' our horses. We've a long ride ahead of us. Let's fix some grub."

"You fix it," Dal said. "I'm going to scout around."

Mac Traven walked inside and looked around. He felt sick and empty. Ma, pa, ... Gretchen. Even Jesse. All gone. What kind of a man was this Ashford, if he was the one behind this?

The house looked smaller than he remembered, but there were still curtains in the windows and the rag rugs ma used to make. They had not taken those.

He got out a frying pan and sliced bacon into it. He looked around when Susan came in. "I'm sorry about your dog."

"He was a good dog, Susan. Never bothered anybody. He helped us a lot with the cattle. I never knew him to bite anybody, but I guess when those men grabbed my sister he tried to make a fight."

"What will you do?"

"Go after them, Susan. We will have to go after them."

Dal came in through the open door. "There's a light in the window over at the Wyatts'. When I topped the rise west of here I could just make it out."

"The way their house sets down in the hollow they might have missed it. If Aunt Maddy is over there that might be a good place for Susan to stay."

Susan looked at him, and tears came into her eyes. "You will leave me?"

"Have to, Susan. We've got to chase after those men, and when we catch up there will be shooting. It will be no place for a little girl.

"But you'll love Aunt Maddy. She's not really our aunt, but everybody calls her that. There's only one trouble with it."

Dal looked around from where he was pulling off his boots. "What's that? Aunt Maddy's a great old girl."

Mac looked very serious. "If we leave Susan there we won't know her when we get back. The way Aunt Maddy likes to cook she'll have Susan so fatted up we won't know her. She'd be round as a pumpkin!"

"I would not!"

"Maddy Wyatt sets a good table. She's never so happy as when she's feeding somebody. She likes to bake an' cook, and she's always putting up jars of fruit, vegetables, whatever."

"They're travellin' fast, Mac. Looks to me like they're just hittin' the high spots close to their line of travel. I'd say they're headed for Mexico, and I know that was in Ashford's thinkin'. Go there, build up their strength, and come back."

"He's crazy! The South has had enough of war. So has the North."

"Not according to him, Mac. He's a fanatic. He'll stop at nothing."

"Dal?" When his brother looked up he said, "Dal, what about Kate?"

Chapter
Four.

"I've been thinkin' about her. Maybe we should ride into town?"

Mac shook his head. "There's no time, Dal. We'll stop by Maddy's and see if she can take care of Susan. If all's well and she can, then we'll just have to leave word. We're three or four days behind now."

At daybreak they rolled out of their blankets and picked up what they needed. Dal fixed the door and they fastened it shut to keep the weather out.