Still August 17…
“Hello, the camp!” Elijah Prudence called out as he drew near the fire he had spotted earlier. He stopped and waited to be invited in. In to the camp of Trent Tolliver and his men.
After shooting Kelly Kramer, the Tolliver men had disappeared into the mountains for a month, fearing a posse was chasing them. After shooting Vernon Hatter, they spent two more weeks hiding out. But, Trent, anxious to get on with his revenge, took his men back towards River Bend when they were camped in the mountains nor far from town.
When they heard Lijah calling to them, there was a quick conversation at the campsite. “Reckon who that is, Trent,” Terrell Tolliver said.
“I haven’t the foggiest,” his older brother replied, looking to where the voice came from. He saw only one man and a mule. “He looks harmless enough.” So he called out, “Come on in and set a spell.”
The old prospector was delighted at the invitation, but when he arrived at the camp, he saw six tough-looking men. But Lijah had lived in the mountains a long time and was a pretty tough old boot himself. He was concerned, but he wasn’t going to show it. He dropped Emily’s reins about 10 yards outside the camp and limped on in.
“Thankee, fellers. I smelled your coffee and vittles and wondered if’n you’d share a cup with me. I got some deer meat myself, so I don’t need none of your fixin’s. But I ain’t had me a good cup of coffee…well, I had some a couple days ago, but that was my first in…I don’t know how long.”
“Help yourself, old timer,” Trent said, motioning to the pot. “And we’ve got plenty of food. My brother’s a pretty good cook. I don’t think he’ll kill you.”
“That’s right neighborly of you,” Lijah responded, though Trent’s eyes didn’t look too neighborly. But they didn’t appear threatening, either. He’s just a hard man… Lijah sat down close to the fire and took a whiff of the bacon Terrell was cooking. “Gettin’ kinda chilly, ain’t it.”
“Yeah, a bit,” Trent responded, taking a sip of coffee. “Get some more bacon in that pan, Terrell.”
“I will,” Terrell responded, a bit irritably. The batch he was cooking was about done, so he started dishing it out to the men gathered round. Each of them looked at Lijah, and none of them smiled.
Terrell handed Lijah a plate and the old man thanked him. “Mm-mm, sure is good,” Lijah said. “Can’t tell you how grateful I am.”
“Think nothing of it,” Trent said, but everything he did say sounded monotone, with no sincerity behind it. The other four men hadn’t said a word.
Once Terrell had finished all the cooking, the group ate in silence for a few minutes. Then Lijah said, “You boys campin’ out?”
He saw Trent throw the other men a rather severe glance and replied, “No, we’re just passing through. We’ve got a ranch south of here aways and we’re headed over to Idaho to look for some new stock. The stuff down in Wyoming isn’t worth having this year.”
“Is that a fact?” Lijah responded. “I don’t know much about cattle and such. I been livin’ up in these mountains for longer than most of you boys been alive, I reckon.”
“What do you do up there?” Duck Soupe asked him.
Lijah shrugged. “Mostly live off the land. I don’t like people too much—present company excepted,” he added with a grin, “and it’s peaceful and quiet. I do a little bit of prospectin’, but I don’t find much. I don’t look real hard, to be honest with you. Too much trouble.” Another grin. “And there’s plenty to eat and drink.”
“You got any gold on that mule of yours?” Duck responded.
Lijah figured he might as well not lie; they could find out if they wanted to and he couldn’t stop them. “Maybe $50 in dust, prolly no more’n that. I come down and go to River Bend ever’ couple years or so, buy me some more shells, maybe some coffee and some clothes, if I need ‘em. If you boys is figurin’ on robbin’ me, you ain’t gonna get much.”
“Naw, we’re aren’t going to rob you, old man,” Trent said. “You go on down to River Bend and have you a good time. In fact…” He pulled a double eagle out of his vest pocket pitched it to Lijah. He said, “Have a bottle or two and maybe a woman on us. A fellow that’s been away from civilization as long as you deserves to live it up a little.”
Lijah’s eyes were wide as he stared at the $20 gold piece. “Why, thankee, mister. But I don’t want nor need no charity, I can take care of myself.” He started to toss the money back, but Trent held up his hand.
“No, you keep it. You may never make it down from these mountains again.”
Lijah chuckled and pocketed the money. “You got that right. Mind if I ask ye’re name? So I know who to thank proper like.”
“I’m Trent,” the oldest Tolliver said, “and that’s Terrell, Ed, Hank, Ricky, and Duck.” He pointed to each man in turn.
Lijah nodded at all of them and got some indifferent nods in return. “My name’s Elijah, or Lijah, for short. You boys is the most humanity I’ve seen in at least two years. I hadn’t seen nobody for three-four months till a couple days ago.” He shook his head, as if in wonderment. “Strangest thing. I run acrost a woman up the mountain aways, campin’ out all by herself. Pretty as a picture. Just sittin’ against a tree, fishin’. She cooked us up a mess of trout, some tater soup, and, I’m sorry, feller, but as good as your coffee is, hers was better.”
Nobody was terribly interested, but Trent replied, “Yeah, that’s strange. A woman camping alone.”
“Yeah, but I got the feelin’ she could take of herself. She had eyes on her that would chill an iceberg, and when I asked her if’n she’d be ok if I left her alone, she pulled a knife outta thin air and split a tree at 50 feet. Never seen nobody move like that, man or woman.”
Lijah now had the undivided attention of all six outlaws. Hank Frobisher, not surprisingly, opened his dumb mouth first. “Boss, that sounds like—“
Trent’s eyes blazed at him. “Yeah, she sounds like a wildcat all right. Did she give you her name, by any chance?”
Lijah had noticed the distinct change in the men’s demeanor towards him, from total apathy to complete absorption. “Well, I don’t rightly remember…” he said, scratching his head.
Trent pulled out another double eagle and showed it to Lijah. “Would this help you remember?”
Lijah looked greedily at the money. He wasn’t money hungry, by any means, but he didn’t mind having more of the stuff, especially if it came this easily. “To be truthful, I really don’t remember. Ellie something…”
“Allie Summer?”
Lijah eyes sprang open. “Yeah. That was it. You boys know her?”
Trent tossed him the coin. “She’s my sister,” he explained. “She ran off with some of our money, but I didn’t know she’d come up here. Lucky for us you found her. Where did you see her?”
Lijah was suspicious, but he wasn’t of a mind to argue; these fellows looked dangerous. “Up near the Divide. You know where that is?”
Trent did, but shook his head. Lijah gave him directions. He was also lying. If Trent and his men went where the prospector told them to go, they wouldn’t get within 30 miles of Allie.
“Much obliged,” Trent said. “Is that where you hang out?”
And then Lijah made a mistake. “Naw, I live up at the mouth of the Muskie”—which was a good 30 miles from the Divide. It was also only a day or so from where he had seen Allie. Trent knew where the Muskie was and knew that was where he would find the Ranger. Or at least, she’d be closer to that than she would be to the Divide, unless she’d traveled a lot the past two days. But Trent would take his men to Muskie Creek and see if he could track the woman he was sworn to kill. His jaw clinched just at the thought of what she had done—kill his brother.
There wasn’t any more conversation at the camp that is relevant to this story, so we’ll just get Lijah on his way and move on. The old prospector said, a few minutes later, “Well, I do appreciate your hospitality and such, but I’m used to campin’ alone. I reckon you men are, too, so I’m goin’ to mosey on another mile or two before I stop.” There wasn’t any daylight left, but Lijah could find his way. He didn’t want to stay the night anywhere near these men.
And they didn’t especially want him around. “All right,” Trent replied. “Nice to have you stop by. You were a big help, telling me where we might find my sister. We’ll probably detour up that way when we come back from Idaho—that is, if we don’t have any cattle with us. Allie’s a feisty woman, she needs to be tamed a bit.”
Lijah had a feeling he knew the kind of “taming” Trent had in mind, but he hoped that he had steered them far away from her. “Well, don’t get within throwin’ distance of her knife, is all I can tell you. Not if’n she’s mad at you.”
“We’ll be all right. She won’t hurt us.”
Lijah took his leave, and after he was out of hearing distance, Duck said, “Boss, you want me to go lift that gold off that prospector?”
“Nah, leave him alone. He was probably telling the truth about how much he had. What he told us about Allie Summer is worth letting him live.”
Hank was his usual obtuse self. “Boss, we ain’t really goin’ to Ideeho, are we? Not with that woman up there.”
Trent half-chuckled at Hank’s stupidity. “No, Hank, we’re not going to Idaho. We’re heading straight for Muskie Creek where that prospector saw Summer.”
“I thought he said he seen her near the Divide.”
“He was lying.”
“I see,” Hank said, though he really didn’t. He had no idea how Trent had figured out Elijah Prudence hadn’t told them the truth.
Trent Tolliver’s eyes were hard, but also looking at something in the distance—something akin to revenge. “We’ll find her, and all the knives in the world won’t save Allie Summer….”
Still August 17…
After the initial shock and alarm at seeing the wolves in such precision alignment outside the cave, Allie wasn’t overly concerned about it. Oh, she’d keep an eye on them, but she had a rifle, and if they started inching too close, she’d put a couple of bullets over their heads. And if they got too close, she’d put a couple of bullets inside a few of them until they got the hint that she wanted them to leave her alone. But she also didn’t want to kill any of the wolves if she didn’t have to. They were just doing what wolves do—trying to find something to eat—and as long as they didn’t attempt to make her their next meal, she wouldn’t harm them.
“All of nature is in balance,” Winter Wolf told her one time as they were walking through the woods. “The mighty prey upon the weak, and the weak prey upon those even weaker than themselves. But even the mighty must die. It is the way of the earth. All living must return to the dust. Only man disturbs this balance. Summer Rain, do not be among those who upset the harmony that nature has set in order.” Winter Wolf had wanted to name his daughter Summer Rain, and he usually called her that. But her mother had given her the name Allie, after an ancestor. The girl eventually called herself Allie Summer, out of respect and love for both her parents.
Her father had taught her much about the ways of the forest and those who dwelt therein. She would defend herself, but she would not be an aggressor.
Those wolves would rather have Ranger, anyway, but if they got me in the bargain, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind… Allie had no intention of letting them have Ranger—or her.
So, still in great pain due to her fall, she built a fire, keeping a wary eye on the wolves. She couldn’t help but wondering why they were there in the first place; at this time of year, game and food should be plentiful. But the wolf pack lay down outside the cave, as if they intended to spend the night. Allie wished they would leave. She was tired, hungry, and hurting, and, after having some supper, she wanted to sleep; she knew she needed it. But she wasn’t about to sleep with those wolves sitting outside the cavern entrance. She’d run them off, if necessary.
But, as it turned out, she didn’t have to. About midway through her meal, they all got up and trotted off. They want Ranger, but they don’t want to go through me to get to him…smart animals…She hoped she had seen the last of them.
After finishing her supper, all Allie wanted to do was sleep. She was exhausted and sore. And cold. Cold enough to shiver. So she took a few minutes to build up the fire and put the knotted log on it. She watched it for a few minutes to make sure the knot was going to burn. It was, so she spread her blanket on the cave floor, lay on her back, and was asleep inside 15 seconds.
And when she opened her eyes several hours later, she was staring into the snarling face of a wolf.
August 18…
It was Ranger who had awoken her. Allie was a light sleeper—always had been, but it proved essential as a law officer. When the horse whinnied and snorted, Allie immediately woke up. The wolf’s face was probably no more than a foot above hers. A low growl emitted from his throat. Allie made a slight move of her right wrist and the knife she always kept there slid into her hand. She also had a knife on her left hip and that, too, she quickly grasped. Her rifle was at her side, but not immediately accessible.
She and the wolf stared at each other for several seconds. Allie’s ice cold eyes bore deeply into the animal’s, and the beast stopped snarling and growling. They simply looked at each other, as if in mutual respect. The wolf could sense no fear in the creature below it and the eyes were somewhat…disturbing. And then, the woman spoke.
“Go on, doggie, get out of here. I don’t want to have to hurt you.” Allie’s voice wasn’t hard or cruel, just matter-of-fact. The wolf was puzzled, and cocked its head, as the canine species is wont to do when confused and asking a question. But anything it didn’t understand was a cause of concern. And probably best avoided. So slowly, the wolf backed away. As he did, Allie steadily, but without undue haste or causing the wolf any alarm, raised up from the bed. It was incredibly painful for her, but she gritted her teeth and refused to cry out; if the wolf knew she was wounded, he might become aggressive. The lady Ranger watched as el lobo retreated to the company of his companions, the seven other wolves who were sitting outside the cavern entrance. They moved into the clearing, about 15 yards from the cave and plopped down on their haunches….watching the strange, fearless beast who stared back at them through the eyes of a fiend.
Yet, while the wolves perceived no fear in the woman, they also understood, in the way only animals can know, that she would not hurt them, either—unless cornered. The horse was scared and an easy prey…if only that other creature wasn’t in the cave…
The day was brightening and Allie knew it was just past dawn. There was still a large amount of huge, puffy clouds in the sky, but she could see some blue and knew there would be no more rain. She was still hurting; if anything, sorer than she had been the day before. But the soreness was general now, through almost all of her body, and not concentrated solely in her right side. That area was still the most painful, but not as intense as it had been the previous night.
But she wasn’t going anywhere, either. Not for few days.
“Where do you think she is, boss?” Hank asked Trent Tolliver as the six outlaws rode further into the mountain wilderness.
“I don’t know, exactly, Hank, and the rain last night will probably make it even harder to find her.” Trent stopped his horse and the others did likewise. He looked up at the massive crags in front of him…”Why is she even out here in the first place? Chasing an outlaw? But that old man had said she was fishing…”
“Maybe she’s just on vacation,” Terrell offered.
“That’s possible, I suppose,” his brother replied. “But that doesn’t make her any less dangerous.” He paused. “Nor is it going to make her any less dead when we kill her.” He gigged his horse. “Come on, boys, the Muskie’s this way, and we’ll do some fishing, too. But not for those things swimming in the water.” Then, thoughtfully, he mused out loud. “I wonder what we could use for bait to catch a Ranger…”
Still August 18…
The knotted log Allie had put on the fire hadn’t burned as well as she had hoped, so she had to work the fire some to get it going again. When it was burning brightly, crackling and sending sparks heavenward, she was satisfied. She was going to have to get some water, and she was going to have to get something for Ranger to eat. Neither of those things appeared to be an easy task with a wolf pack parked outside her door.
But after about an hour, they got tired of waiting and trotted off. Allie—painfully—took Ranger down to a nearby stream, where he drank and cropped on some nearby grass. She filled her canteen, and, rifle in hand, kept a wary eye out for predators. At one point, on a nearby knoll, perhaps 40 yards away, a lone wolf appeared, staring down at Allie and Ranger. Allie chambered a shell in the rifle and stared back at the wolf. After a few moments, it sauntered off. Allie decided not to push her luck any farther. She led Ranger back to the cavern and picketed him about 30 yards in.
“I’ll get you some more grass later, boy,” she said, and stroked his nose. He seemed to understand and nodded his head.
Allie was curious about the cave she was in. It did an “S” curve to her right and she went to the bend in the “S” and looked. It was dark and she could see nothing. If she felt up to it, she might explore later. But then, she decided she probably wouldn’t. She couldn’t leave Ranger alone, not with the threat of the wolves outside.
Unfortunately, necessity would upset her plans…
August 18-21…
“How in the world are we ever going to find her up here, Trent?” Terrell asked his brother. “This place is huge. We could search for years and never see her.”
They had been moving towards Muskie Creek and were now there, barely half a mile from where Allie had lunched with Elijah Prudence. The Tolliver gang didn’t know that, of course, they just knew they were on the Muskie.
“We’ll find her,” Trent replied to his brother. They were following the creek north, looking for sign. “She’s up here somewhere, and we’re close. I can feel it. Besides we need to hide from the law for a few weeks anyway. They are going to be looking for us for killing that Atkins woman.”
Just like Gus Ferrara had wondered, Terrell was becoming more and more convinced about his brother’s sanity. Not that Trent was necessarily acting strangely. He was just acting…strange….Trent was obsessed with killing Kelly Atkins, Allie Summer, and Rob Conners. And while Terrell certainly wanted to revenge his brothers’ deaths as well, Trent had nothing else on his mind. Terrell feared that Trent would have the gang hunting for months in these mountains, long after the Ranger had gone. The oldest Tolliver wasn’t the man his younger brother had seen over the years. This calmness, this singleness of purpose, this utter determination to see this thing through…not that any of that was bad. It just wasn’t the Trent Tolliver that Terrell had known all his life. The younger brother could also tell, by the way Ricky Sata and Duck Soupe glanced at him occasionally, that they had questions, too. Ed Monger hardly ever said anything or showed any emotion at all. Hank Frobisher would blindly follow Trent over a cliff. The whole matter bothered Terrell, but he wasn’t anywhere near a confrontation yet. After all, with Trent leading them, they had found and killed Kelly Atkins, and they had also learned of the general whereabouts of Allie Summer. Crazy people sometimes have insights that normal folks don’t… At least, that’s what Terrell kept telling himself.
Trent stopped to water his horse, and everybody else followed suit. The elder brother sat on his roan, looking around the hills. “She’s up here, Terrell. I can just feel it,” he repeated. “And we’ll find her. And we’ll bury her. Nobody gets away with killing a Tolliver. Nobody.”
Terrell glanced at Ricky Sata and Duck Soupe. They were both looking at him. Terrell gave them a very slight shake of his head.
Trent hadn’t steered them wrong yet.
The next day, August 22….
Allie rested the next three days and the soreness in her body gradually receded. But it wasn’t gone yet by any means. She did what chores she had to do—feed and water Ranger, get some firewood, cook meals—but other than that, she slept or read a book she had brought. The idea of searching the cave appealed to her, but the wolves made periodic reappearances, so she wasn’t going to leave Ranger to their mercy. She didn’t really feel like doing a lot of walking anyway.
She woke up the third morning to a terrible racket outside. She heard snarling, yapping, roaring and growling, and bawling. Allie grabbed her rifle and went to the cave entrance. To her right, at the edge of the clearing, was a black bear with two small cubs. The momma was standing on two feet, preparing to fend off the wolf pack which was circling, getting into position. The wolves were smart animals. There were eight of them. Four of them were arranging themselves on one side of the bear, and the other four on the opposite side. Allie could see their plan of attack instantly. The one group would keep the momma busy while the other four rushed in a grabbed a cub. If necessary, they wolves could simply launch an all-out attack on the bears; the momma might get a couple of them, but they would overwhelm her. But none of the wolves was going to sacrifice his life—not if a good meal could be procured without doing so. And a cub or two made a feast. Whether the momma was willing to die in the defense of her babies was the unknown. But she probably would. And she’d probably take a wolf or two with her. But the remaining wolves would gorge themselves on bear meat.
However, none of that was going to happen.
As noted earlier, Allie held a live-and-let-live attitude towards nature and its offspring. She wouldn’t kill anything unnecessarily. But she wasn’t about to let those wolves have those cubs. The whole thing would be a slaughter and one that Allie couldn’t tolerate. She had become a little irked at the wolves anyway, so she was going to throw in her lot on the side of the bears.
Yet, she’d give the wolves a chance. Allie aimed her rifle and started firing. Her initial shots zipped past the wolves, maybe nicking an ear or stinging a nose. She hoped that would scare the pack off. But it didn’t. If anything it only heightened their bloodlust. The pitiful bear cubs were huddled at their mother’s feet, blubbering for their lives. Because of Allie’s shots—a new source of danger—the wolves decided to make a rush.
The Ranger had no choice now.
Six quick shots laid six wolves on the ground. One got to the momma bear who, with a good, hard swipe sent it flying 15 feet in the air and 15 yards away. It landed with a yelp and took off. The eighth wolf, watching its companions drop at the sound of the loud, explosive noise, had already beaten a retreat into the forest. Allie knew that her first shot had killed the pack leader—that had been intentional—and thus, leaderless, the living wolves were on their own. Two of them survived to fight another day. Allie knew she’d never see them again. And, at the moment, she had no idea just how accurate that thought was.
The cubs were still bawling, but more out of fright than anything else. The mother knew the danger was passed—at least from the wolves. She looked at Allie and immediately sensed no peril there. Allie wondered if this was the same black bear that had spooked Ranger a few days ago, and figured it probably wasn’t. She didn’t remember seeing any cubs. Regardless, the bear sniffed a couple of times in Allie’s direction, then turned and lumbered off into the woods, her cubs shambling along behind her.
Allie felt she had done a good deed for the day. And then realized just how sore she still was…
“There she is, boys,” Trent Tolliver said, upon hearing the rifle shots. “Can’t be more than a mile or two away.”
“Can you tell which way the shots came from, boss? Sound kinda bounces around these hills.” That from Hank Frobisher. Terrell was wondering the same thing. And also how Trent knew it was Allie Summer. There could be a lot of hunters in these mountains. But he couldn’t admit the feeling of rising excitement in him. If this was Allie Summer, and if Trent could find her…As noted, Terrell wanted Allie Summer dead, too. He missed his brothers…and if he got that Ranger in his gun sights, he didn’t intend to miss her…
“The shots came from that direction,” Trent said, pointing. “Now we’ve got her.”
And he was correct on both points.
Allie had no intention of staying at that cave and clearing with those dead wolves lying around. She wasn’t sure what kind of carrion would come for a meal—perhaps even another wolf pack—but she’d leave them to their feast and get on with her vacation. She was still tender, but she felt she could ride. She’d been gone from work for over six weeks now, and she wasn’t going to rush straight back, but she’d mosey in that direction, stop and do some more fishing, and arrive in Port Station, the Ranger HQ, when she arrived. Maybe McConnell will have sent somebody else after Bonner Carry by then, she thought wryly.
She wanted some breakfast first, however, and she still had some jerky, beans, rice, and dried fruit left from the store of what she had brought. She opted for rice and dried fruit, so she started boiling the rice while munching on some dried applies. It was just about the time she finished eating that they arrived.
“Allie Summer! This is Trent Tolliver. You killed my brother and now you’re going to die!” He fired a rifle shot into the cave and it ricocheted around, getting a little too close to Allie for comfort. The Ranger was nonplussed. How in the world did they find me? Well, figuring that out wasn’t the highest priority at the moment. Survival took first place. Thus, after recovering from her momentary shock, she gave supreme thought to how she was going to stay alive.
She was far enough back in the cave where she couldn’t see Trent—or them, she assumed, though she had no idea how many—and they couldn’t see her, either. She had all her weapons with her, but they wouldn’t be much use until she had some targets. And if they kept firing into the cavern, a bouncing bullet might render all her armory moot.
Trent had made himself pretty plain—as had Terrell when Allie had met him a few weeks previous. She wasn’t going to be able to reason with them, and, as far as she could see, she had only one option—to retreat deeper into the cave. To go outside would be suicide. No doubt Tolliver’s men were hidden in the trees and would start firing as soon as they saw her.
Allie grabbed her rifle and threw a few shots out the cave opening. “You want me, Tolliver? Come get me. I’ll fill you with more holes than there are in a Swiss cheese factory.”
Several rifle shots answered her. Some of the stuck in the clay walls at the entrance of the cave, but a couple of them got deep enough to ping around. “Come on out, Ranger. We’ll make this as painless as possible.” More rifle shots, but none of them hit their target.
Allie shook her head. If they kept firing like that—and they would—she knew she’d eventually get hit. She’d have to make her way farther into the cave and hope she could find a way out.
She took a thick burning stick from the fire; it would work for a torch. She then kicked the fire out. Quickly, holding the torch and her rifle, she trotted back to where Ranger was standing. “I’m sorry, boy, I’m going to have to leave you. But I’ll be back to get you.” As much as she wanted to bring him along, she didn’t need the added burden. She laid the rifle and torch on the ground, opened her saddlebags, and took out some paper and matches. She stuffed them into her pockets and pants—just in case she needed more light. Allie had no idea what she was headed into, but she did know what awaited her outside.
Why didn’t McConnell let me go after them? He may end up regretting it…
But McConnell’s regrets were the least of Allie’s concerns at the moment. She held the torch in front of her and went around the “S” bend of the cave….
“How long we gonna wait for her out here, boss?” Hank said. “She ain’t comin’ out.” As dumb as he was about some things, Hank had some smarts when it came to gunplay.
“No, she’s not, and we’re going to have to risk going in after her. But let’s throw some more shells in the cave first. Maybe one of them will ricochet and hit her.” So the Tolliver men cut loose again, at least 30 shots, most of them bouncing around inside the cave. Allie had put her horse deep enough into the “S” curve to keep him from being hit by a stray bullet; otherwise, he might have been cut to shreds. The lady Ranger was gone by then, though.
“Let’s go see if we got her, boys,” Trent said. The other men were a little hesitant to leave their hiding places, and none of them made a beeline for the front of the cave. They all circled around and approached from the sides. When they got to the edge of the opening, Trent called out.
“You in there, Ranger? Come out and let’s get this over with. You haven’t got a chance. I’ve got 10 men with me.” That wasn’t true, of course, he only had five, but letting Allie think the matter was hopeless was a good ploy.
The only thing was, Allie didn’t hear him.
And when she didn’t answer, Trent motioned to his brother, who was on the opposite side of the cave opening. They had done this sort of thing before. Trent and Terrell would go in low and firing, and the men behind them would follow—all of them shooting. If Allie were there, she might kill one or two of them, but they would surely get her.
Trent counted with his fingers…1, 2, 3…and the action began. He and Terrell hit the dirt and were shooting their rifles as quickly as they could cock them. The other three men dove and rolled into the cave entrance, and immediately started firing. But within a couple of seconds, Trent yelled, “Hold your fire! She’s not here.”
The men stopped, hearing the noise of the shots echo deep down the cavern chamber. “Where’d she go, boss? She was here a minute ago. We heard her.” That from Hank.
Trent studied the inside of the cave. Then he said, “She went the only place she could have gone, Hank. Deeper into the cave. And that’s where we’re going.”
The gang stood up. “We’ll need a torch,” Terrell said.
“Yeah,” Trent replied, and walked over to where Allie had had her fire. “She smothered it. She’s a sharp one, all right. But there’s some wood here we can use. Duck,” he called.
“Yeah.”
“I’ve got a little lamp oil in my saddle bag. Go get it. We’ll light one of these sticks and go in after her.”
Duck cast a glance at Terrell, who nodded. They were close to getting Allie Summer and the younger Tolliver brother wanted to go into the cave and pursue her, too. It would be risky, but anything to do with Allie Summer would be risky.
So, within five minutes, the Tolliver gang had a nicely burning torch and wound around the “S” curve, leaving Ranger alone, and hunting for the woman they wanted to kill…
Allie heard all the shooting, of course, and she suspected that, when Trent found the forepart of the cave empty, he’d come after her. She had no option but to continue on and hope that she didn’t run into a dead end. Allie did look around, as she progressed deeper, for a place to lay an ambush. But there wasn’t any. The cavern remained pretty consistent the whole way. Occasionally it would narrow or the roof would get lower; but it never got bigger and it never forked. It slithered through the hill like a snake.
“We’re coming after you, Ranger! This is going to be sweet!”
The echo was strong so it was difficult for Allie to make out all the words Trent yelled, but she got the point. And they weren’t all that far behind her. She picked up her pace a little, holding the torch in front of her, the light showing the way for about 15 feet in front of her. Beyond that…pitch darkness. If that torch went out, it would be frightening indeed. She was glad she had brought added paper and matches.
About a half mile in, she must have neared some kind of underground water because the air became damp as did the cavern walls. And indeed there were also drops of moisture falling from the roof. It became a bit of a concern because some of them were falling on the fire of her torch. She tried to do what she could to protect it, but the droplets became thicker…and thicker…Allie hurried on…the dirt on the ground was largely thin mud and she almost slipped once…
And then she did slip. And fall. And drop the torch.
And it went out.
The darkness was every bit as horrifying as Allie had feared. She had never encountered anything like this before and it almost shattered her nerves.
But she knew she had backup—the paper and matches. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she stood up, and slowly, gingerly, deliberately removed some paper and the matchbox from the pocket. She hoped, by lighting some paper, that she could find her torch, and that the latter wasn’t too sodden to catch fire again. The paper wouldn’t last long, and she only had so many matches.
Allie could do this by feel, and holding the paper and matchbox in one hand, she started to strike a match with the other. But then she stopped. It wasn’t quite as dark as she thought it was. She looked ahead of her and thought she saw a pinpoint of light in the distance. With hope rising within her, she struck the match. She couldn’t see the light ahead any more, but the match provided enough illumination for her to move forward. She didn’t bother with the torch; she just headed straight on at a slow trot.
When the match burned down, she had to drop it. Allie took a moment to let her eyes get adjusted to the darkness, and again she saw the light ahead. A little bigger. She was losing time to the Tollivers, she knew that, so she lit another match and hurried on. When that match burned down, she lit another…and then the idea struck her to roll her paper tightly and light it. She took a moment to do that, and got a rather nice torch out of it that wouldn’t burn too rapidly. It wouldn’t last forever, either, but hopefully that light ahead was the outside world and she’d shortly be free and clear of the cave.
And fortunately, that’s what Allie found. Within five minutes, she was outside. She quickly scanned around. The “fortunately” almost immediately became an “unfortunately.”
She was on a small spit of land, maybe 30 yards by 30, that ended, all around, in a sheer cliff. Allie went to the edge and looked—it was at least 600 feet down, with huge boulders at the base. A little desperate now, she searched the edge of the precipice to see if there were some way she could climb down; but then she realized that wouldn’t work anyway, because she’d be a sitting duck for the Tollivers. She looked at the hill from whence she had just emerged and thought she saw a possible climb; but again, she’d probably be seen. And it was too late anyway.
Before she could make any decision on what to do, Trent Tolliver and his five men walked out of the cave.
Smiling. All of them. Wicked smiles. Well, one of them—Ed Monger—wasn’t smiling. He never smiled.
They were all holding rifles—including Ed Monger.
And all of those rifles were pointed at Allie Summer.
Allie was up against it—in more ways than one. Not only did the business end of six rifles stare at her from in front, but a 600 foot sheer drop to death stared at her from the back. She had her rifle in her hand, and her first thought was to take Trent Tolliver and as many of his goons as possible with her to hell. But she wasn’t in position to fire, and even as quick as she was, she might never get a shot away. Another option didn’t come immediately to mind.
But Trent wanted to gloat a little. “Well, it’s nice to meet the famous—and soon to be late—Ranger, Allie Summer. You’ve quite a reputation, you know that, don’t you.”
“I’m flattered,” Allie responded. “That and two cents will buy me a cup of coffee.”
“You’re life isn’t worth two cents right now, woman, because you made one big mistake—you killed my brother. You, Rob Conners, and a woman named Kelly Atkins in River Bend all killed a Tolliver. And you all must die for it. Kelly Atkins and Conners are already dead. And you’re about to be.”
All of this—except her own part in the matter—was news to Allie; she didn’t know that two other Tolliver brothers were dead, and thus knew nothing of the part Rob Conners and Kelly Atkins had played. And as surprised as she was to hear about Conners, it was the news of Kelly’s death that utterly appalled her.
“You killed Kelly Atkins?”
Trent shrugged. “What would you have done if she had killed your brother?”
Allie gritted her teeth. It took all her willpower not to position her rifle and start firing—a shootout she knew she would lose, but again, at least she might be able to take Trent Tolliver with her. But she held off. “Tolliver, you are the lowest, stinking scum I’ve ever met in my life. To kill an innocent woman, a harmless woman like Kelly Atkins just because she buried one of your rodent brothers—“
“She wasn’t innocent, Ranger. She killed a man, in cold blood—“
“A man who obviously needed killing, just like the scumbag cur I wasted. Your brother had just robbed a bank and murdered three people in the process. What would you have done if you were me?”
“I imagine, if I were a lawman, I would have done the same thing as you. But, you didn’t answer my question. If you were me, what would you do to the three people who killed your family members?”
“I’m not you, Tolliver, and I never could be. And if I had a family like yours, I’d disown them and change my name so that nobody would ever know I was related to them. I’ve got a few decent bones in my body. I doubt you even know what the word means.” Allie was trying to keep Tolliver talking, hoping she could find an opening. Any opening. With the rifles of six deadly outlaws pointed at her, only one idea came to mind.
“Oh, I know what the word means, Ranger. I just don’t care because there are more important things to me in life than decency. I learned a long time ago that the ‘decent’ in life end up with nothing. Either that, or they end up with six rifles pointed at them and their backs to a sheer cliff. This world belongs to the strong, Allie Summer, and you’re weak. And that’s why you’re about to die. Now, I’m tired of talking. Boys, let’s see how many holes we can put in her…”
But before the men could aim their weapons to fire, Allie Summer did an amazing thing. A suicidal thing, but nonetheless amazing. Saying, “I’ll see you in hell, Tolliver,” she dropped her rifle, bent her knees, and did a backflip off the shelf she was standing on. She disappeared from sight.
The six Tolliver men were stunned to say the least, and stared for several seconds. “Alley oop,” Duck Soupe muttered, making a pun. “What a way to go.”
“Yeah, but there’s several hundred feet between her and the ground. There’s no way she could survive that,” Trent said. “But let’s go see for sure. I don’t trust that woman not to sprout wings and fly away.”
So the six men walked to the edge of the abyss. Sure enough, they saw Allie Summer, lying flat on her back on a boulder at the base of the mountain. There was blood coming from the back of her head. She didn’t move.
Trent Tolliver looked at his men and smiled. “That’s three. Revenge is sweet, isn’t it. Now we can go celebrate.”
Terrell was smiling, too; he had wanted to avenge his brothers almost as much as Trent had. “Let’s go rob the River Bend bank,” he said.
Trent laughed and slapped his sibling on the shoulder. “Don’t tempt me, brother, don’t tempt me…”
And the six men made their way back through the cave to their horses, laughing, hooting, celebrating, and—in Trent Tolliver’s case—planning the gang’s next move.
That “move” ended up being completely different what he had initially contemplated.
But no less vicious and deadly.