CHAPTER 19
Hearing of the sighting brought Matthew’s heart right up into his throat. With impatient anticipation he looked in the direction that Chet had indicated and strained to see his wife and her captors. But nothing came into focus for him. “Where do you see them?”
“Off there to the right.” Chet extended his arm and pointed to a set of tiny specs that looked as though they could be ants.
“They is a good way off,” said Chet, “lots of land atween us and ‘em,” said Chet.
Matthew gazed at the distant objects and thought he could perceive Alice’s blue dress, but he wasn’t sure from this distance.
“Finally we have them,” chimed in Matthew, “I thought we would never catch up to them.”
“We ain’t caught up to ‘em as of yet, Son,” tempered Chet. “Like I said, lots of land atween us. Not a lot of cover for sneakin’ up.” Chet wheeled his horse around and bid Matthew to do the same.
Matthew stayed his horse and protested against Chet’s request. “But they’re getting away! We need to catch up to them.” He desperately wanted to race his horse off after his wife.
“They ain’t seen us yet, and I ain’t wantin’ ‘em to. So get your ruffled feathers down and move off the knoll of that hill before they catch sight of you.”
“But they are…”
“Shut up and get over here!” interrupted Chet. “We ain’t leavin'! We’re goin’ to give this an intelligent thought before we rush off after ‘em and get shot in the head!” Anger burned in his eyes as he admonished Matthew.
Chet’s rebuke checked Matthew’s rising frustration, and he knew Chet’s idea to be better than what he had been about to do. Matthew felt like kicking himself for not learning from yesterday’s lesson. The wound in his head should have told him doing the same thing was bound to garner the same results.
He spurred his horse into movement and left the high ground to join Chet. The two of them were now just far enough back on the hill for just their heads to sit high enough to still see their quarry.
“Now that we are usin’ our brains a bit more ‘an our emotions,” said Chet, “maybe a good plan can be set up. I know that you are all tied up inside with worry, but you got to listen to me and do as I say.”
Matthew simply sighed and nodded his head in reply.
Chet searched the entire scene before them. Beyond the two riders he could see that the ground dropped away into a series of ravines that he knew eventually lead to a river. He estimated that they would be dropping out of sight within ten minutes or so.
He thought it was fortunate for them to have caught up to them before they got to the ravines for now they knew just how far behind the renegades they were.
“Now listen. They ain’t seen us,” and with a sideway glance at Matthew he added, “no thanks bein’ owed to you.”
“Okay, okay,” was all Matthew could say in defense.
“Like I said, they ain’t seen us, but they’ll be lookin’ ahind ‘em as soon as they reach that first ravine yonder in front of ‘em, so we want to be out of sight till they slip on out of sight.”
Matthew was feeling anxious at the idea of losing them again, but, as if reading his mind, Chet continued, “Don’t worry, we ain’t goin’ to lose ‘em. Once they is out of sight we’ll head out after ‘em. Our horses are somewhat fresh, leastwise, fresher ‘an their nags. So we ought to be able to catch ourselves rather quickly to that first ravine. Then we want to stay ahind ‘em, but out of sight. They got to stop at the river and give their horses a rest and a drink. If we play our cards right and all, we might just catch ‘em up at the river before they knows it.”
Matthew saw the wisdom of Chet’s plan. He understood that the element of surprise would prove to be less dangerous and more effective, and knowing that Chet would want to take the rogues without the assistance of Matthew’s gun, then surprise became even more crucial.
“Okay. That sounds like a good idea, Chet.”
“Look it there,” said Chet, “they stopped and is lookin’ around to check on their tail.”
Matthew had seen them stop also and instinctively lowered his head a little.
“They ain’t goin’ to be seein’ us,” said Chet noticing from the corner of his eye Matthew’s ducking movement, “we can just see ‘em. They ain’t goin’ to be seein’ our little heads from that far away.”
They watched as the distant riders turned their horses and descended into the ravine. Chet let a short moment pass before kicking his horse into movement. “Lets get a move on.”
They rode their horses fast down the low hillside that leveled off into the long sloping plain. Though they were chewing up the ground as they crossed the plain, Matthew carried the sensation that time had begun to drag. He impatiently wanted to get to his wife, and though he was closer than he had been since teaming up with Chet, there still seemed to be a great chasm lying between he and Alice. He desperately just wanted the whole thing to be over, to hold his wife, to smell the soft fragrance of her hair, to kiss her, to look into her eyes.
Her eyes… An image of Alice danced through his mind. She was standing facing him as they held hands. Her hair was pulled up and a white veil hung over her face. Their pastor was standing to their side as he read their vows to them. Tears were playing in her green eyes before moistening her checks. Her smile was as radiant as the rising sun. He remembered how her veil was nudged into gentle movements as her breath touched it in rhythm with the rise and fall of her chest.
All the while their eyes were intimately holding the gaze of the each other. For a moment they were so enrapturing for Matthew that he felt as though they had been spirited away to world all their own. Their friends and family, the pastor, the harpist were gone. It was just the two of them holding hands and exulting in the love of one another’s gaze.
He had been so caught up with the beauty of her that when their pastor asked him to repeat his vows, Matthew had missed his cue and had to be called back to the present.
Her eyes had always captivated him- nothing in this world was more beautiful to him.
Coming out of his reminiscence, Matthew realized that they had come to their destination across the plain, and were on the edge of the ravine. It didn’t cut deeply and turn into great gulfs but rather cut back and forth from a millennia of rain draining from the plains towards the river bottom. There was about seventy-five feet in elevation drop between their position and the bottom, but the ravine slopped slowly and cut serpentinely on its descent.
They had approached the rim carefully before looking into it with an eye of caution, not wanting to attract attention. Cottonwoods were growing thick in the bottom where the land leveled out and approached the riverbank, hiding the water from their view. No one was in sight as their eyes searched the landscape.
In a hushed voice of a hunter Chet said, “They got to be in ‘em trees somewhere.”
Chet dropped from his horse, and motioned Matthew to do the same. The horses were breathing heavily from the exertion of their run. Softly he spoke to Matthew, “We got to change horses here. It’ll give these horses a rest, and I want to be back on my horse for this final rush.”
It didn’t take the two men long to change horse and remount in readiness for their descent into the river-bottom land. Wordlessly Chet spurred his horse into motion, and the two men slipped into the ravine.
The ravine had been a natural point of access for the animals of the plains to descend to the water. Antelope and deer tracks were in abundance, but overtop of them were the heavy hoof tracks of the two recreants’ horses. Having told Matthew to try to follow Chet’s led, Chet expertly picked his way down the ravine trying to give the horses the easiest and quietest path he could. He tried to avoid loose stones where rocks could be knocked loose, or hooves would clack against.
Coming out of the ravine they saw that the trail of their quarry turned to the left, leading into the cottonwoods. Chet swung out of his saddle while signaling Matthew to stay put. He stepped into the woods a short way cautiously looking and listening. Before going too far for Matthew to see, Chet turned on his heels and returned to Matthew motioning for him to dismount.
Speaking just above a whisper, Chet said, “I can’t hear or see ‘em at present, but there is a good chance that they are near abouts. We got to go real quiet like through these woods and see if we can’t find ‘em down near the water.
“That means that we got to tie the horses up back this way. Can’t take any chances of them walkin’ too loud, or nickerin’. But I want you to stay right ahind me- walk soft, and don’t say a thing- not even a whisper. We got to surprise ‘em if they is by the water.”
Matthew readily nodded in agreement. Chet took his two horses, with Matthew following suit, and tied them to the trunk of a sapling. He was about to head into the trees when Chet suddenly turned to Matthew with a glance at Matthew’s holstered gun. But before Chet could say anything Matthew whispered, “I know, I know… Keep my gun holstered until you’re dead.”
“Right.”
The two moved into the line of trees following the tracks left by the horses. The tracks weaved through the trees in as direct a path as the woods allowed.
A breeze rustled through the trees making the leaves in the treetops to flutter between the silver underside and green top. Dappled sunlight filtered down through the trees and danced on the leaf and twig littered ground.
Chet cautiously placed each step, avoiding sticks and trying to slip his boot below the leaves before putting his full weight on the ground. Matthew made it a point to try to do the same, and was surprised to find that he could move nearly as quietly as his example a few feet in front of him, though Chet did give Matthew a few stern looks. Nonetheless, Matthew grew in confidence with each passing step.
They came to the edge of the trees, water now in sight, but still no sign of their men. Chet signaled Matthew to hold his position for a moment, and then he cautiously steeped out from the trees looking to his left in the direction that the horse tracks had taken. About three hundred yards up the river Chet saw the men and Alice. The men were looking at one of the horses while Alice sat in the sand a few feet away.
Ducking back into the trees Chet made his way back to Matthew. “They’re up yonder a spell right by the river,” explained Chet in his soft whisper. “I saw your Alice sittin’ on the ground. Looks like she may have her hands all tied up, but can’t tell for sure.
“They didn’t stop right here so that if anyone was following, they’d more ‘an likely come out of the trees down here. That way those cur wolves could get a chance to take cover or run before it was too late.”
Chet looked around for a moment before continuing. “We got to go back in the trees and sneak up on them… No, on second thought, we ought to back and move them horses so that we are closer to ‘em. That way if we got to get to ‘em, we can do it all the quicker. We’ll move ‘em on up behind the trees, and then make our move.”
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