CHAPTER 23
Chet had been afraid that Matthew would say something like that again. He had hoped that the recent mishaps would have subdued Matthew, but Chet hadn’t expected such a vehement response. And in spite of Matthew’s shortcomings, Chet had to give him credit for tenacity. Chet also knew that it was true that Matthew would be willing to pay whatever the price and take whatever the risk to rescue his wife. This caused pity to rise up in Chet’s mind and overpower his frustration for this man whom Chet knew did not have the capacity to do what was needed to accomplish the task.
Reluctantly he agreed, but not without warning him, “Okay, but do exactly as I say.” Realizing he had said this before, Chet shrugged his shoulders at himself and said, “Ah, what’s the use. Just try not to kill me. I’m on your side.”
Matthew gave Chet a smile, “I won’t even take my gun out until you’re dead.”
“That’s a small comfort,” replied Chet. “Lets get a move on.”
The two men took to the trail in eager anticipation. They rounded the first of the two hills that separated them and then came to a stop so Chet could point things out to Matthew.
“I seen ‘em sitting right there on that hill.” He was pointing to the right side of the next rolling hillside.
“The way I see things shaping up,” continued Chet, “He ain’t got ‘nough horse to be runnin’ no more, and that cur Jack knows it, and he knows that we know it cause we done caught up to him again.
“The best thing to do for him is to take to ground, and see if he can get himself all set up for an ambush on us. Leastwise, that’d be what I’d be thinkin’.”
“So if we go straight on after them,” asked Matthew, “we're bound to get shot up?”
“Yup. And that Jack is not known for missin’ his targets. He is quick on the draw, and deadly in the pointin’.”
“What do you suggest?”
Chet gave this a considering thought. “He don’t know if you can shoot. Fact is, he don’t even know if there is still two of us cause he only saw me back yonder, but he’ll be plannin’ on two of us. We can ride up over that hill and see if he’s got himself a good ‘nough hidin’ spot. But I can give the best of assurances that by the time we find that out, one of us will be fallin’ out of the saddle, and the other about to do the same. Then he’ll be havin’ three good horses.
“I’m of the mind that we don’t play into his hand like a couple of greenhorns at a poker table. We are goin’ around and gettin’ ahind him, or leastwise on his flank. That’ll give us a better chance and the advantage of him not knowin’ which way we is comin’.”
So they moved off, sloping their horses to the left. Instead of just coming over the hill on the left side, Chet skirted this hill and went over three hills, keeping themselves in the trough between hills. Stopping their horses Chet and Matthew dismounted their horses.
Speaking softly Chet gave Matthew some more instruction. “Keep your head down, stay right behind me till I say otherwise, and don’t make no sound.”
They moved out on foot following the trough between hills, now approaching from nearly the exact opposite way they had been earlier
Chet was once again moving with the same fluid movements that Matthew had observed before. Matthew kept to his position behind Chet and kept his head low as instructed and concentrated with intensity on keeping his footfall as silent as his leader’s.
They moved slowly and cautiously until they reached the place that Chet had calculated should be about the area that they should find their quarry. He motioned with hand signals for Matthew to hold his position.
Chet moved out very low and very slow, heading toward a bush in which to get cover for his search. He laid himself flat on the ground, his eyes cutting over the terrain searching for his man. He remained as still as a fawn and waited for any sign, any movement, anything that would give his man away.
Matthew had lost sight of Chet and was tempted after ten long minutes to go a little ways and see if he could see what was going on. But the memory of a snapping branch kept his feet glued to their exact spot. He didn’t lift either foot to find a better, more comfortable position. He was concentrating on just breathing as quietly as he could when he saw, but didn’t hear, Chet returning.
Chet put his mouth to Matthew’s ear and explained quickly that Jack wasn’t there. They needed to circle around the next hill and see what they could see. Just as quietly they made their move, taking the long way around, keeping low.
Following the same process Chet left Matthew to wait when they had gained a new position. Slowly Chet made his slow and tedious progress to an appropriate spot. Lying once again on his belly he crept to his bush of choice. When he got there he looked down into a little hollow within the hills. It was like a small amphitheater with the slopes of three hills enclosing it. The side he would have come into this hollow was lower than the rest of the hollow and it slowly slopped and widened up and away from there.
Off to the left he caught a movement with his eye. With out moving his head, he turned his eyes in the proper direction. He saw the swoosh of the horse’s tail. Its head hung low, and the animal had the appearance of a horse that was completely spent. It would have been just out of the sight if he had been coming from the other direction.
Slowly and methodically Chet started to dissect the land before him with his eyes, trying to find his man. It was Alice that he saw, or at least her blue dress. She was hunkered down behind some rocks and hidden behind bushes. He could also see that if he were to be coming from the other direction, he would probably have been able to spot her from that approach also. She wasn’t completely hidden. She was a decoy.
Chet didn’t move a muscle as his eyes continued their probing, examining every bush and shrub. He investigated rocks and grass. His examination was thorough and still he didn’t see his man.
Having been searching for about ten minutes, he decided that he could risk a repositioning. Slowly like a breath of air he worked his way backwards from his position until the little hollow was complete out of his sight, and made his way back to Matthew.
“I done seen your Alice,” he breathed into Matthew’s ear. “That cur has got her set up as a decoy, hopin’ we’ll make a move or somethin’ for her, and then all fancy like, he’ll just pick us off.”
“You saw him too?”
“Not a hair. That’s why I come back. I got to get around to where his horse is hid and take a look from that side. I ain’t goin’ to see nothin’ from this here side.
“You stay put. It won’t be long now.” And Chet scrambled off around their side of the hill.
Matthew’s heart was a combination of thrilled and terrified, knowing that his wife was just over the hill within an easy two minute walk, and a half second bullet. He longed to move, to just peek over the edge of the hill, to see her even if just for a second. So intense was the longing that he could almost feel his feet demanding to go. With sheer determination he beat his body and mind into submission, but his body trembled in protest just to emphasis that it was not happy with this decision.
It took Chet nearly fifteen minutes to work his way to within sight of the horse. He didn’t want to startle the horse causing it to whistle and give warning of his location, though he thought that the poor creature was beyond caring, so he kept higher upon the hill and worked his way towards a position to see down into the hollow. There was a small cluster of rocks he was aiming for. From there he would be in a better position for his search.
He had just got into position, having taken great care to remain undetected. He slowly raised his head to peer between two rocks that made a v between them. Suddenly the rock to his right exploded into fragments of flying bits of stone. Chet flinched and reflexively pulled his head down to safety, but his right eye had picked up a fleck of stone. His eye burned at the foreign object and he was temporarily blinded as another bullet pitched up the ground near his foot.
He found himself rolled up in a near ball position trying to keep all of his body parts from being hit. A volley of three more shots rained in around him, hitting the ground and the rock. Chet had no idea where the shots were coming from yet, and squinting though his one good eye, he could see that he didn’t have the ability to retreat without getting into the line of fire. To make a move it would require that he got up off his belly, which meant getting his feet underneath himself, which would in turn make himself too tall for cover for this set of rocks, which would make himself a perfect target.
He had been keeping track of how many shots were fired, but, in this short pause, he also knew that his enemy could refresh his gun’s chambers, and he also realized that he didn’t know how many guns the other man had. He was stuck.
There was one more certainty that played through his mind- if he stayed where he was, he was destined to be killed. The other man just had to move positions and Chet would become a clear target, and he was sure that that would be Jack’s next move.
He rubbed a hand at his watering right eye trying to work the stone out, but to no avail. He also looked around with his good eye to see if there was anyplace he could get to that would be better and safer. As he was looking, another shot was fired, pitching up the dirt just to his right. The direction of the flying dirt told him at least which way the gunfire was coming from. It had to be very near the location that he himself had been the first time he looked into this hollow.
He also spied to his right, about thirty feet away, there was a tumble of stones that would offer better cover. From there he would be able to at least return fire with his feet under him. Also, in front of the rocks was a stand of bushes that grew taller than the rocks. Those would help to break up his own outline. The only problem now was actually getting to the rocks.
The time was now. He had to move if he was to survive. He threw his gun hand up over the rocks and blindly triggered two shots in the general direction that bullets had been coming from. In the same instant, he also put his feet beneath himself to make his move down the hillside. Once on his feet and on the run he fired two more shots wildly. Then he saw the flash of gunfire. Bullets screamed their way past him hitting the ground just beyond him. Chet, now knowing the location of his assailant, redirected his last two shots. Neither bullet hit home, but he saw that the first one had pitched up some of dirt in front of his man, and he heard the second bite into a rock.
He was nearly to the rocks when his foot hit some hillside debris, pitching him into the air. At the same time he felt a searing pain biting into his body.
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