Danger on the Oregon Trail

Chapter 15

Beth sat up in bed. Someone was pounding on her door and she threw the blankets back, wondering if the boarding house was on fire. Opening the door, she was surprised to find Lilly standing there, dirty and sweaty as if she'd run all the way from Michael's property.

"What's wrong? What's going on?" Beth asked.  "Where's Michael?"

"Some man took him!" Lilly gasped as Beth pulled her inside the room and sat her on the bed while she pulled on one of her older dresses.

"What do you mean? Did you recognize him?"

"No," Lilly shook her head. "I was under the wagon, looking for a bag of nails and Mr. Rogan heard someone coming up from the road. He told me to stay hidden and not come out no matter what he heard. I stayed there all night until the sun started to come up, then I ran straight here!"

Beth opened the top drawer of the small dresser in the room and took the pistol Michael had left with her, sliding it into the pocket of her dress. There were five extra bullets and she dropped those into her other pocket.

"Do you remember anything else?" she asked, ushering her out the door and down the steps.

"He had a horse that looked blue." Lilly wrinkled her forehead, but gasped when Beth missed a step and nearly took a tumble. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Beth caught herself and hurried on down to the kitchen where Mrs. Abernathy was preparing breakfast for the tenants of the house. "Mrs. Abernathy, I have a huge favor to ask." She explained what had happened, but didn't want to take Lilly with her. "She's a great help when I'm cooking, I'm sure she could-,"

"Say no more," the woman said. "I'll keep an eye on her. Go find your friend."

"Thank you!"

"But, I can help you find him!" Lilly called after her.

"Lilly," Beth turned around. "I know you could help, but if that man got a hold of you when I could have made sure you were safe here, I'd never forgive myself."

"Do you know who he is?"

"I have an idea," she said. "Now, please, stay here. Help Mrs. Abernathy. I'll be back as soon as I can, and hopefully with Mr. Rogan. Do you understand?"

"Yes ma'am," Lilly murmured.

"No sneaking off to follow me,"

"Yes ma'am." she whispered.

"Thank you."

Beth ran down the street to the livery stable and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the young man walking up to unlock the doors for the day. "Oh, thank goodness," she said. "I need one of my horses and the saddle Mr. Rogan left."

"Yes ma'am," he said. "I can have it ready to go in about five minutes."

"Thank you." she smiled and tried to remain patient, but was pacing back and forth in front of the door when he let the horse out a few minutes later.

"Is everything alright?"

"I'm not sure. My husband may have been kidnapped." She didn't have time to explain and technically he was her husband still. That was another errand she needed to run.

Riding through town at breakneck speed, she was thankful it was so early and there were hardly any people out and about in the street. It took her a good twenty minutes to reach the place where Michael had started building the house. But she spotted the wagon first and pulled the horse to a stop beside it. Lilly had said she was under the wagon, looking towards the house when she was looking for the nails and had to turn around to see where the man had taken Michael. She had described two very tall trees that tilted away from each other at the very top and formed a V where the moon had been. He had pulled Mr. Rogan almost straight towards those two trees.

Leading the horse towards the trees when she spotted them, she saw drag marks in the dirt. She followed them, listening closely for any sounds that would suggest they were still close by.

Beth was by no means a great tracker, but it seemed like every so many yards, she would find a drag mark in the dirt. A few times, there was also a button that appeared to have been dropped right after and she knew Michael was leaving her clues.

This went on for miles. She'd been paying so much attention to the marks in the dirt, that she wasn't even sure where she was anymore. But the countryside was beginning to change and  become more hilly. There were large boulders that anyone could be hiding behind and she walked slowly, being careful to watch for signs of anyone that could be watching her.

The sun was sinking low in the sky and she realized she'd been walking all day. Her best guess was that it was around six in the evening and she began to feel panic welling up in her throat at the thought of having to spend the night out there, all by herself. She had the gun, and the horse, but she hadn't thought to bring any other supplies.

Just as she began to feel sorry for herself, wondering how she would stay warm and if she'd be able to find water, she stopped and held her breath. She had heard voices and she listened very closely until she realized that they were coming from a small canyon over to her right. She had skirted around it earlier, but now she needed to get a closer look. She tied the horse to a nearby tree near some grass and crept over to the edge of the canyon.

Down below, she saw three horses. One was a blue roan she'd seen many times before and now she was fairly certain she knew who was down there. Checking the gun in her pocket, she made sure it was fully loaded before reaching into her other pocket to make sure the bullets were still there. Then, she carefully made her way down the rocky bank until she reached the bottom of the canyon where she carefully picked her way closer to the horses.

"You had me thinking I was losing my mind!" a familiar voice chuckled, echoing through the canyon.

"Why'd you do it?" That voice she knew was Michael's, even though he sounded weak and tired.

"What did you do before you joined the wagon train?" the man asked. "You probably sold all your possessions and just carried all that cash with you, didn't you?"

"Maybe I did,"

"Well so did everyone else." the man snapped. "Thirteen families, averaging fifteen hundred dollars a piece makes for a nice prize to be had. And we wouldn't have had to worry about any witnesses if my assistants knew how to count!"

"You can kill me if you want," Michael said. "But I already knew it was you and I sent a telegram to a friend of mine in Iowa. He's a federal Marshall. He'll be looking for you."

"You couldn't have known it was me." he shook his head. "But I do want to know where that pretty little wife of yours is."

"Go to hell." Michael spat.

"Maybe. But I think I'd like to have a little fun first. Now, you tell me where she is, or I'll just go find her myself. And if I have to go search for her, I'm going to drag her back here and make you watch while I slit her throat."

"I'll never tell you where she is."

"That's so sweet of you. I guess the two of you really were married after all, eh?"

Michael was silent.

"No?" he chuckled. "Then why do you care so much that I want to find her?"