"Come in with your hands free!" Talley said.
It was the leader of them, the tall, pale man I had seen in the night. He wore buckskins but a planter's-style hat and he rode a magnificent black horse.
He walked his horse into the light, and looked about, his eyes missing nothing. At last they fell upon Lucinda.
"Well!" He bowed, removing his hat with a sweeping gesture, the perfect cavalier. "My niece! It has taken me a long time, my dear, but now we are together again, and thank God for that!" "I... I do not know you," she said, but her voice was halting and frightened.
"Not know me? I am your father's brother, Colonel Rafen Falvey, at your service.
I've come to negotiate with these... kidnappers for your release." Degory Kemble said quietly, "You're misinformed, sir. Miss Falvey is with us of her own choice. We're honored to be her escort to the Ohio towns." "Well, now, that puts a different look on the situation. I was told my niece had been kidnapped, and rushed after you to obtain her release." He dismounted, somewhat stiffly, I noticed, like a man who might have been wounded slightly.
He walked up to the fire, and never have I seen a man so cool, so completely in command of himself.
Obviously he had chosen to risk everything on a brazen demand for the girl, and I admired the fellow's nerve. Yet when I looked at Lucinda, I was worried.
This man who claimed to be her uncle was no more than thirty-five, only a few years older than I, and he was handsome, debonair, and obviously educated. He carried himself with style, and he seemed in no way disturbed that he was among men with whom he had lately exchanged shots.
"Then, of course, there's no problem," he said cheerfully, extending his open hands to the fire.
"Lucinda, if you'll get what you wish to take with you, we can be riding back to our camp. It's not far and we have a number of men, a much safer escort than this small group, if you don't mind." For the first time, I spoke. "I'm afraid it's less simple than you seem to believe," I said quietly. "Miss Falvey is with us because she wishes to be. We feel ourselves perfectly adequate to escort her where she's going." He looked at me. Some shadow of the overhang partly concealed my face so he was forced to peer.
Yet my comment in no way disturbed him. "It's quite simple. It's better for a young lady of Miss Falvey's years to be with her family.
I have nothing against you gentlemen, but of course, her own flesh and blood--was "I don't know you," Lucinda said quietly.
"I've heard my father speak of a half-brother of his who was a complete scoundrel." Talley chuckled, and Rafen Falvey's face tightened. Yet a moment later, he smiled. "He was joking, of course. My brother and I often made such jokes. He always laughingly said I was the black sheep of the family, and he was the prodigal son who would sometime return.
"Come, Lucinda. Let's go. We've talked long enough." She hesitated, and then she said, "I--was Her reply was interrupted by Jorge Ulibarri. The boy had suddenly come into the light. Now he pointed his finger. "He murdered your father! He shot Mr. Conway!" Rafen Falvey's face stiffened with anger.
"You, is it? Next time you'll die." Suddenly there was a pistol in his hand.
"Lucinda, you'll come with me... now! And the first one who moves will die." He produced a second pistol. "And you, Lucinda, will be the next to die." None of us had weapons in our hands. Nor were we within reach of any. My Ferguson was under the edge of the blanket, but I would have to take it out, reverse the muzzle, and then fire... much too late.
Isaac Heath spoke from the hidden shelter directly behind Falvey. "At thirty feet, with a rifle, Colonel Falvey, I'll not miss. My bullet will take away the base of your spine, and rip out the front of your belly.
I don't think you want that to happen." He was no gambler, I saw that at once.
He was willing, even anxious to kill, but he did not want to die, nor to be left to die.
With a rifle at his back, he had no chance and he knew it. I got to my feet and casually reached over to pick up one of my own pistols.
"I suggest, sir, that you ride out of camp.
I further suggest that you keep riding. The next time I shoot I'll have a better target." "It was you, then? In the woods back there?
You're more of a woodsman than you look." He was staring at me, a strange light in his eyes. "Ah? You very much resemble Ronan Chantry," he said. "In fact," he peered into my face, "you are Ronan Chantry." "You have the advantage of me, sir." "You fought a duel with a friend of mine. I was to have been his second but I was delayed and arrived too late." "A friend of yours was he? You should choose your friends with more care." He smiled at me pleasantly enough. "I only regret his marksmanship. Had I been in his place, I would not have missed." His arrogance angered me. "You had your chance this night, and you did no better." If I have ever seen death in a man's glance, it was in his then. "On another occasion I'll do better. I'll kill you, my friend, and I'll enjoy it." He turned his attention abruptly from me to Lucinda. "You'd do better to come with me," he said. "I at least might leave you enough for some gowns. That's more than you'll have from this rabble." "They're gentlemen, sir. Can you say as much?" He shrugged. "I care nothing for gentlemen or otherwise. I'll have you in a day or two, and whatever goes with you. When I'm through with you, the Indians can have what's left." He turned sharply, looking from one to the other of us. "As for you, all that live will be staked to anthills, depend upon it." Abruptly he mounted his horse, tucking one pistol behind his belt to do so, and without a backward glance, he rode off down the trail.
No one of us moved or spoke for several minutes, and then it was Solomon Talley.
"We'd best not low rate the man. He's a scoundrel, no doubt of it, but he's also a damned brave man. It took nerve to ride in here and speak as he did." I looked over at Lucinda.
"He's your father's brother?" "Half-brother, but an enemy to my father from childhood. I remember some word of him now, but I wasn't often with my father so I knew little of this man." The rain had stopped and suddenly we had had our fill of the place. With only a few words to be assured that all agreed, we saddled up and started off down the trail, camped in an isolated clump of trees at nearly daybreak, slept three hours, and took to the road once more.
We had deliberately mentioned Ohio, hopeful that our pursuers would try a wrong direction, yet not very hopeful, at that. The Mandan villages were our destination, and it was a long ride and a hard one. First we must find the treasure, if treasure there was, and for that moment Rafen Falvey would be waiting.
Obviously he knew something, but not enough. He needed us to locate it for him, and we had no choice but to find it, and then take our chances on getting away.
I was worried, as I believe we all were.
Rafen Falvey was no mean antagonist.
To take him lightly would invite disaster.
Solomon Talley and I led off. "We must know more about him. How many men he has, how they're mounted and armed." "That there's sensible. Trouble is we ain't got the time. Seems to me we got to keep movin', and when we get that gold we got to really light out." The man to whom we had talked was not only intelligent, but shrewd, a knowing, conniving man and one filled with hatred. We must be on guard every second.