“Look up,” Molly said, touching his shoulder. “Is that light up there?”
Fargo looked up. Thirty or forty feet above them there was a thin line of light, unless he was imagining it.
“We’d never be able to climb up there,” Molly said. “Not in the dark. Maybe not even if we could see.”
“If we can’t go over, we have to go under,” Fargo said.
He started scooping sand away from the bottom of the wall. Molly heard what he was doing and got down on her knees to help. Before long they had made an opening big enough to slide through. A faint light shone under the wall.
“You first,” Fargo said.
Molly didn’t wait for him to say it again. She flopped down on her belly and wormed beneath the wall. Fargo was right behind her, her feet practically in his face. When he stood up on the other side and brushed off the sand, he found himself in another cavern. He could almost make out the contours of this one because across from them there was a slit in the cave wall, no wider than three feet across. Light shone outside it, and looking at it hurt Fargo’s eyes.
Above them the bats stirred. It was as if a giant sigh had gone around the cavern. The smell of their droppings was almost overwhelming.
“Let’s get out of this smell,” Molly said. “I don’t want to be here when they wake up.”
“They won’t start flying out of here until dusk,” Fargo told her.
“I don’t care. I want out of here now.”
Molly started off across the floor of the cave and had gone eight or nine steps before her feet slipped out from under her on the slick guano. She landed on her rear and sat there until Fargo made his way to her.
“You have to be careful when you’re walking in shit,” he said.
“I appreciate the good advice. Now help me up from here.”
Fargo did as he was asked, and Molly stood up, holding onto his hand to steady herself. Clinging together, they went toward the light.
When they reached it, Molly shoved through, with Fargo right behind her. The rivulet ran out of the cave into a small pool that overflowed on down the side of the hill that they found themselves standing on. It was late afternoon, and there were clouds in the sky, but the hazy sun was almost blinding to them because they had been in the cave for more than twelve hours. They fell down on the grass and closed their eyes.
After a while Molly sat up and said, “I’m filthy. I’ve been crawling around in a cave all day, and I have bat shit all over me. I’m going into that pool.”
“With your clothes on?” Fargo asked.
“No. I plan to take them off and wash them out after I’ve bathed. I’ll trust you to be a gentleman and keep your eyes off me.”
“I’m glad you trust me that much,” Fargo said.
Molly started to take off her shirt, but she stopped and said, “You’re not being a gentleman.”
“That’s one thing I’ve never been accused of. Do you mind?”
Molly grinned and said that she didn’t. “But maybe I shouldn’t bathe. Murray must know we’re gone by now. You don’t think he’ll find us here, do you?”
Fargo didn’t see how it was possible. Murray probably didn’t even know about the connecting caves. He’d surely checked on his prisoners by now and discovered they were gone, but he probably thought they were just wandering around in the depths of the cave or trapped in the tunnel. Or maybe he was smarter than that. Maybe he’d search for them.
“I think we can take a quick bath, and then we’d better get ourselves out of sight.”
“What do you mean ‘we’ can take a bath?”
“I think you know what I mean.”
Molly grinned again. “All right, then, come on.”
Molly stripped off her clothing and waded into the pool. Fargo removed his buckskins but paused long enough to admire the action of Molly’s ample but firm backside as she moved away from him into the water. It was the kind of sight he never got tired of. When she entered the water, she turned to face him, and Fargo went in after her.
The pool was only a couple of feet deep and the water was cold, but it felt good on Fargo’s skin as it washed off the grime and sludge. He ducked his head under the surface and came sputtering to the top, flinging his hair back out of his eyes. The pain in his head was easing, and the cuts on his hands no longer stung.
Molly was sitting nearby, watching him. She raised herself to float closer, and when she got beside him, she reached under the water and grasped a part of him that was standing at attention.
“I thought you might be in that condition,” she said. “Even after all that just happened to us, you’re still as stiff as a fence post.”
Fargo nodded and said, “It’s your fault. Looking at you got me that way.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to do something about it,” Molly said.
She turned to straddle him and sat on his rod, letting it slide right into her. Even in the water she was slick and ready for him. When she had settled herself on him, her large breasts flattened against his chest, the nipples poking into him like small hot stones.
“You have a lot of scars,” she said, putting her finger on one. “Where’d you get that?”
“I picked it up from a grizzly.”
“Does he have a scar, too?”
“Nope,” Fargo said. “He’s dead.”
“I’m not surprised,” Molly said, giving a little wiggle. “How are we going to do this?”
“I figure we’ll find a way,” Fargo said.
“I bet you’re right,” Molly said, and she pressed the palms of her hands on the tops of his shoulders, raising and lowering herself on him. Her body was buoyant in the water, and a couple of times she almost bounced too high, but Fargo held onto her hips so that she didn’t slip away.
It wasn’t long before she was churning the water into a froth. Her head fell back, and she opened her mouth. Fargo knew what was about to happen, but he couldn’t do a thing to stop it. He was about at his own limit, and when she started yelling, he shot into her, bucking up off the bottom of the pool with each volley.
“YeeeeeHaaaaaaw! YeeeeeHaaaaaw!” Molly cried, kicking out with her legs on either side of Fargo and sending little waves to the shore.
When she was finished, she collapsed against him, and they sat quietly for a minute or so.
“I hope Murray didn’t hear that,” Molly said.
Fargo hoped so, too. He figured Molly had frightened the wildlife for a couple of miles around.
“We’d better clean up and get out of here,” he said, and they did, washing out their clothes and putting them on wet. It was uncomfortable, but Fargo didn’t think it would be smart to hang around there much longer.
By the time they were dressed, it was dusk, and the bats started to come out of the cave. At first there were only a few of them, but within a couple of minutes there were so many that they formed a black cloud overhead. The humming of their wings filled the air as they flew away, shadowed against the darkening sky and showing no interest at all in Fargo and Molly.
“I told you they wouldn’t tangle in your hair,” Fargo said.
“That doesn’t mean I have to like them.” Molly shuddered. “Let’s get out of here.”
They started walking. Fargo looked back after they were well away from the pool, and bats were still flying out of the cave. There had been thousands of them in there, he thought.
Molly didn’t look back. She wanted to know where they were going.
“To get us some horses. Judging from what you told me, I figure it’s too far back to the farms to walk.”
“Yes, but I don’t know where we’re getting any horses.”
“From Murray. He might even have my horse there. I’d like to have him back.”