Turnback Creek (Widowmaker) (19 page)

T
hey were still faced with the prospect of the seven men working their way around the basin before the basin could drain, giving them the chance to recover the gold. If the gold coins drained away with the water, Locke would have to explain it to Molly. But Cooper was right about one thing. Locke would have preferred that the gold be lost so that Cooper wouldn’t get it. That would be small consolation to Molly and to the miners waiting to get paid.

“Okay,” Locke said after an hour of watching the basin. “I have another idea.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“We both get on the buckboard and get out of here,” he said. “We lead them away from here and then double back.”

“What if there’s nowhere on the trail to double back?”

“We’ll have to take that chance,” Locke said. “We can’t let them find us here with empty crates, waiting for the water to drain.”

Cooper cast a forlorn look at the water. “What if it drains and someone comes along and finds all that gold?” he complained.

“No one’s going to find it, Coop,” Locke said. “There’s nobody just riding around up here. Anyone up here is already looking for the gold.”

“What if there are other men?”

“Coop, we’ve got to do something. We can’t just sit here and wait for them.”

Cooper suddenly brightened. “Maybe we’ll find someplace along the way we can ambush them.”

“I’m not shooting anybody in the back, Coop,” Locke said. “Not even them.”

“I didn’t say anything about shootin’ anybody in the back, did I?” Cooper demanded. “We get the drop on them, we can take their weapons and their horses. Leave them on foot.”

“Let’s get moving, then,” Locke said. “We’ve got to get these two horses to work together.”

Locke moved to the buckboard and climbed into the seat. Cooper gave one more morose look to the water—filled basin, with the gold coins languishing at the bottom, then turned and followed.

The horses eventually came to some sort of mutual understanding, and they were able to get under way. Once they got away from the basin, the road widened and continued up, but then suddenly it peaked, and they were on their way down.

“Let’s not go too far down,” Cooper said. “We just have to come back up again.”

“Looks like plenty of places for an ambush now,” Locke said, studying the terrain.

They had their pick of rocks and clumps of trees and bushes on this side of the mountain.

“Should we leave the buckboard out in the open to bait them, do ya think?” Cooper asked.

“No,” Locke said. “They’ll think something’s up. Let’s find someplace we can hide it completely and then find some high ground from where we can get the drop on them.”

“Okay.”

They found a stand of trees that actually had a clearing inside it. They had to force the horses to push their way through while pulling the buckboard along with them.

“Now, if the horses will be quiet, we’ll be fine,” Locke said.

“That’s if they come this way.”

“They’ll come,” Locke said. “To have followed us this far, they have to have a pretty good tracker with them. They’ll come.”

“Then let’s find that high ground,” Cooper said. “You on one side, me on the other. We’ll get them in a cross-fire.”

“Coop,” Locke said warningly, “no firing unless they force our hand. I mean it.”

“But there’s seven of ’em!”

“If we get the drop on them, we’ll control them,” Locke said. “They’ve got to have a leader they’ll follow. Not like those storekeepers we killed. If we have to kill one, it can be the leader. I don’t want to kill seven more men unless it’s necessary.”

“What makes you think these ain’t just a bunch of storekeepers, too?” Cooper asked.

“Well, for one thing, I already said they must have a good tracker with them,” Locke said. “For the other, they shot pretty good back there. They almost took our heads off, remember?”

“All the more reason—”

“Coop,” Locke said, “if you start shooting and I don’t think it was necessary, I’m going to let you face them on your own. I won’t fire a goddamn shot!”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would,” Locke said, “and I’ll go back for the gold.”

Cooper frowned, trying to figure a way out of this argument, but he couldn’t. “You drive a hard bargain, John.”

“Are we agreed?”

“We’re agreed.”

“Then let’s find that high ground.”

“W
ait.” Hoke Benson held up his hand to stop the progress of himself and the six men with him. “ “What is it?” he asked Eddie Rome.

Rome didn’t answer right away, just cocked his head. He was either listening or thinking—maybe both. “Somethin’s wrong.”

“What?”

“I don’t know,” Rome said. “It just doesn’t feel right.”

They had reached the other side of the basin and paused to look down at the water.

“Not drainin’ fast,” Hoke said. “Good thing we went around.”

It wasn’t hard for Rome to track them from there. There was only one trail leading away from the basin. When the trail widened and the terrain began to offer more hiding places, Rome became cautious. Unfortunately, his caution had to be tempered with the impatience of the other men.

Eli Jordan leaned over and said to Bob Bailey, “They’re gonna keep gettin’ farther and farther away the more careful Rome gets.”

Hoke turned around and gave Eli a hard look.

“Eli, you and Bailey want to ride up ahead and check things out?” he asked.

“That’s okay, Hoke,” Eli said, shaking his head. “We’ll ride along with everybody else.”

“Eddie?”

Rome looked at Hoke. “Could be a trap.”

“Can we go around?” Hoke asked.

“I don’t know enough about these mountains to say.”

“Okay,” Hoke said. “We’ll go in single file from here, spread out. If a trap gets sprung, we won’t all be in it.”

“Two men are gonna set a trap for seven?” Roy Turpin said. “It don’t make sense.”

“It makes perfect sense,” Hoke said.

Rome turned and said, “You saw those two men handle five pretty easily out in the open. From cover, they could take most of us out before we know what’s happenin’.”

“I’m just sayin’—”

“You say too much, Roy,” Rome said. “Shut up.”

“Eli,” Hoke said, “you and Turpin take the lead, and we’ll string out behind you.”

“Hoke—”

“Do it!”

Eli looked at Bailey, who shrugged and looked away. Eli then looked at Turpin, and the two men rode ahead.

Locke noticed immediately that the seven men were riding toward them in single file, pretty well strung out. This would make it difficult to get the drop on all seven at one time.

Locke and Cooper had found rock formations they could climb to get to high ground, and they were able to see not only the approaching men but also each other. Locke tried gesturing to Cooper, attempting to wave him off. He wanted to let the seven men pass without incident. If that happened, they’d be able to double back to the basin.

If Cooper did not get his message and opened fire, they were going to be at a distinct disadvantage, despite having higher ground. Locke hoped that Cooper was still enough of an experienced lawman to realize this and let them pass.

Locke crouched down, now out of sight of the men and of Cooper. He waited tensely, not knowing what Cooper was going to do. Despite what he’d said, there was no way he’d leave his friend—or ex-friend—to face the seven men alone. If Cooper opened fire, there was definitely going to be a bloodbath.

One by one, the men passed Locke’s position. He could tell from their hunched shoulders that they were probably waiting for something to happen. Once the seventh man went past, Locke breathed a sigh of relief and started climbing down from his position.

Hoke rode up next to Rome and said, “No ambush.”

“Not there,” Rome said, “but it could still happen somewhere up ahead. I suggest we keep ridin’ this way, single file.”

“You heard the man,” Hoke snapped at the others. “Single file!”

Locke met up with Cooper by the buckboard. “You got my signal,” he said.

“You were waving frantically enough,” Cooper said. “Not that you needed to. I could see how stretched out they were. We were better off lettin’ them go by. Now we can double back and pick up the gold.”

“If the basin has drained.”

“There’s only one way to find out,” Cooper said.

“Let’s just hope they go a long way before they realize we doubled back,” Locke said.

“Jesus!” Cooper said.

The sun had come out and was shining so brightly that the piles of gold coins at the bottom of the water-filled basin were practically glowing. The water, having run off from the tops of the mountains, was crystal clear, and they could plainly see the gold gleaming beneath it.

“We can’t leave it there!” Cooper said. “Someone will see it.”

Locke didn’t bother arguing that nobody traveled this way by accident. He had argued that already. They did have to do something, though, because the water was not draining as quickly as they would have liked, and if the seven men did double back, they’d know in an instant it was there.

“We have to get it out.”

“Yeah, we do.”

“You agree with me?” Cooper asked, surprised.

“This time, yeah.”

“So, how do we do it?”

“The water level has gone down some. You can see where it used to be.” He looked at Cooper. “One of us has to go down there, load the gold into the crates, and then we can pull them out.”

“How? They’ll weigh a ton.”

“The horses,” Locke said. “The horses can pull the crates out.”

“Okay,” Cooper said. “So, the horses pull them out. Who goes in to get them?”

“Can you swim?” Locke asked.

“No.”

Locke shrugged. “That answers that question.”

T
he sun was burning hot on Locke’s bare shoulders. He had removed his shirt, his boots, and his socks. Now he took off his jeans and laid them aside. In the end, he also removed his long johns and decided to go into the water naked. If the sun went back behind the clouds his clothes would never dry, and he’d end up freezing.

Luckily, they had several lengths of rope in the buckboard.

“I’ll take two crates down with me,” he said. “They’re light when they’re empty. Once they’re full, I’ll come back out, and you start pulling. I’ll go back down with the other two crates, and we’ll do the same.”

“We can use both horses if we unhitch them,” Cooper suggested.

“If we unhitch them, we’ll have to take the time to hitch them up again. Just tie the ends of the rope to the buckboard. They’ll be able to pull two crates up at once.”

“I got another question.”

“What’s that?”

“Once we have all four crates filled and put back on the buckboard, where do we go?”

“Well, I know where I want to go,” Locke said.

“And I know where I want to go,” Cooper said.

“But there’s seven men that way, and they may be coming back at any time,” Locke said.

“Shit!”

“We’ll deal with that question once we have the gold back on the buckboard. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Locke was able to walk down to the water’s edge, dragging two crates with him. He walked out into the water until he was waist deep, then discovered how buoyant the empty crates were. He could not get two of them submerged at the same time. In fact, he couldn’t get one of them underwater. He walked back up to where Cooper was waiting by the buckboard. At this point, he was already numb from the cold.

“I need something heavy to weight each crate down. Once I get them submerged, I can substitute the coins for it.”

“How about your gun?”

“How about your gun?” Locke asked. Neither of them wanted to be defenseless before the other. “No, forget it. One gun won’t do it.”

“Won’t it sink when it’s filled with water?”

Locke stared at Cooper and felt stupid. He’d fought with the crates trying to get them underwater but had not held one down long enough for it to fill. “I’ll try that.”

He took both crates back to the water’s edge, waded out as far as he could, then held one down until it filled with water. It sank to the bottom like a stone. He waved to Cooper, filled the other, and watched it sink. Then he held his breath and submerged himself.

He had to drag the crates along the bottom until he got to the gold. By that time, he needed a breath, so he swam to the top, took another breath, and then went back down. It was only a matter of a few more feet, and he would simply have been able to wade to the gold, but they didn’t have time to wait for that much more water to drain.

While he was underwater, filling the crates with gold coins, he tried not to think about what he’d do if he came back to the surface and saw the seven men there. There was always the chance they’d come back. If they caught him in the water, he was as good as dead.

When he had one chest filled, he swam to the surface for the rope. He dove with it, tied it around one chest, then went back for the other and did the same. Once both chests were tied, he signaled Cooper to have the horses pull. While the horses dragged the chests from the water, he got the other two chests and started repeating the process.

Next time he came to the surface, he waved, and Cooper waved at him to come out. Locke waded out and climbed up to where Cooper was standing. When he got there, he could hear the horses breathing hard and knew something was wrong.

“What’s wrong?”

“They need a rest,” Cooper said. “The crates filled with gold and water were too heavy. Once they got them out, though, the water drained out, and it got easier. Still, pulling the buckboard and the crates has exhausted them—not to mention fighting each other.”

“We’ve already been here too long,” Locke said. It was midday now, and the sun was directly above them, about to begin its descent. It was getting colder, and Locke was having trouble feeling his feet and legs. He hoped he wouldn’t end up losing any toes. “If they come back, we’re dead.”

“If I push the horses,” Cooper said, “they won’t be any use to us once the buckboard is loaded.”

That was true.

“All right,” Locke said. “We’ll rest them, but we better keep watch for those men.”

“Agreed.”

“We’ve been had,” Rome said.

“What?”

“They doubled back on us.”

“How could they have?” Hoke asked.

“There have been a few places they could have hidden a buckboard,” Rome said. “Not many, but a few.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m seeing no sign at all,” Rome said. “They could not have passed by here without leavin’ some sign.”

“So we gotta go back up the mountain.”

“Yep.”

Hoke turned in his saddle and looked back at the other five men behind them. “We’re turnin’ around!”

They split the watch while the horses rested. After giving the animals as long as they dared, they tied another crate. They decided to bring the last two up one at a time and to help the horses by pulling on the rope themselves—at least, until the water drained from the crates.

By the time they got the crates up, the horses were breathing hard again, but not like before. They rested the animals while they loaded each crate onto the buckboard one at a time. By this time, they were both huffing and puffing as much as the horses.

“Did we lose any coins?” Cooper asked.

“I didn’t stop to count.”

“Well, did you get them all?”

“I think so.”

They looked down into the water. The sun was going down and was at the wrong angle. If there were any coins left at the bottom, they were not reflecting the light. They were left to guess.

“You could go back down and check.”

“If I missed any,” Locke said, “it was only one or two. I’m not going back down. I’m getting dressed, and we’re getting out of here.”

“Which way are we going?”

“Back,” Locke said. “We can’t go forward—we’ll run into them for sure. We’ve got to go back.”

“We can go to that clearing again.”

“We might run into them first, Coop,” Locke said. “We have to go back. We’ll work our way around this basin and head back.”

“To town?”

“To the mine.”

Cooper backed away from Locke, his hand hovering above his gun. Locke had pulled on his underwear, jeans, and boots, had donned his shirt but not buttoned it yet, but had not yet retrieved his gun belt from the seat of the buckboard.

“I ain’t givin’ up that gold, John,” Cooper said. “I just ain’t.”

Locke looked into Cooper’s eyes and then down at the single eye of the man’s gun. Both seemed to mean business. He was no longer sure about ex-Marshal Dale Cooper, and he had no idea whether or not the man would actually shoot him.

But he knew that the seven men who had just appeared a hundred yards away would.

“Coop—”

Cooper looked and saw the mounted men.

“We’ll finish this later,” he said. “Better get to your guns.”