“Those are the first words you have said to me since noon. I thought you had lost the power of speech.”
“How can you make light of our plight?” I responded. “We are in the company of killers, pawns to their every whim.”
“It is worse than you think.”
“That is not possible,” I assured her. “The only thing worse would be if we were dead.”
Blue Water Woman leaned toward me and whispered, “There is no gold, Robert.”
“What?”
“I lied. There is no cliff, no vein, no gold.”
I was dumbfounded.
“Are you all right?”
It was all I could do to keep my voice down. “Do you realize what you have done? Do you know how mad those three will be? They will slit our throats for sure.”
“They intend to anyway,” Blue Water Woman said. “They have no intention of letting us go.”
“Why the charade? What do you hope to gain?”
“Five days of life. Five days in which, as you whites say, to turn the tables. Five days in which we must do to them as they plan to do to us.”
That gave me pause. “Wait a minute. Are you suggesting we kill them?”
“If we do not, we are dead. And I very much enjoy being alive.” Blue Water Woman reached over and placed a hand on my leg. “Understand this, Robert. It is us or them.”
“You expect too much of me,” I said. “I have never killed anyone. I don’t know as I can. Frankly, it amazes me that anyone can take another human life.”
She studied me, then said, “When I was a child, our village was raided. More than once. I saw the bodies of people I cared for. I saw an uncle who had been gutted, and his intestines hanging out. I saw a girl, a close friend, whose head had been bashed in with a war club. I stood over her and watched as her brains oozed out.”
“We come from different worlds,” I remarked.
“There is more. Among my people, the men are the fighters, the warriors. But Salish women are expected to fight, too, when the need arises. When our villages are attacked, the women resist fiercely.”
I surmised what she was leading to. “You have killed before then, I take it?”
“Only when I had to. The first time, I was eleven—”
“Dear Lord.”
“—a Piegan had my brother on the ground and was about to stab him when I ran up and plunged a knife into the Piegan’s neck. I can still feel his blood on my hand and arm, still see his eyes widen and hear his gasps.”
“I could not do that.”
“I need to know I can count on you, Robert. I cannot best all three of them alone.” Blue Water Woman gave a barely perceptible nod at our captors, then whispered, “Will you help, Robert? Are you with me?”
I looked into her eyes and would have agreed to anything. Swallowing, I said, “I am with you to the extent that I will do what I can to help. But I do not think I can do the actual killing.”
“Leave that to me, then,” Blue Water Woman said. “When it happens, it will happen fast. So be ready.” She had more to say, but just then the brothers came over to the fire.
“What are you two jabbering about?” Jess Hook asked.
“Our plight,” I said. “And how happy we will be after she shows you the gold and you let us go.” I said it to test his reaction, closely watching his face as I did, and for the briefest of instants I saw in his eyes that Blue Water Woman was right; they had no intention of permitting us to go free.
I assumed Blue Water Woman would wait a day or two before she made her bid to escape. That is what I would do. I would lull them into thinking I was going along with them, and catch them when their guard was down.
Even so, I spent the evening in a state of nervous expectation. The rabbit was delicious, but I did not eat much. After our meal, the brothers and Cutter sat and talked about their previous escapades. Although “escapades” does not do their evil natures justice. They casually mentioned people they had killed and laughed about gruesome deeds they had committed.
At one point Jess said, “Do you remember that family in the wagon? The settlers who aimed to build a cabin in the foothills?”
Jordy chuckled. “The husband sure was a trusting soul. The look on his face when Cutter stuck him!”
Cutter’s cruel features curled in one of his rare grins. “I got him low down, and he squealed like a stuck pig. It took the yack a long time to die.”
Is it any wonder my thoughts turned to the dark depths to which a perverse soul may sink? I slept fitfully, tossing and turning, and must have woken up half a dozen times.
Toward dawn my eyes suddenly opened. I lay on my back, staring up at the stars and contemplating the fickle nature of fate. It depressed me, so I rolled onto my side to try and get back to sleep.
For a few seconds I could not make sense of what I was seeing.
Jess Hook and Cutter were snoring. Jordy Hook was supposed to be keeping watch. He was seated by the fire, which had dwindled to tiny flames, his forehead on his knee, his rifle by his side. He had dozed off.
An arm’s length from him, on her belly, was Blue Water Woman. As I set eyes on her, she slid one arm forward, then a leg.
She was not waiting a day or two.
She was making her bid now.
My insides churned. If Jordy or one of the others woke up, there was no telling what they would do to her.
Blue Water Woman inched forward. She was close enough now to touch him. Her hand snaked toward the knife on Jordy’s hip. He mumbled in his sleep, and she froze. When he stopped, she extended her arm all the way and lightly grasped the hilt.
I scarcely breathed. I glanced at Jess and Cutter. They slept on, undisturbed.
Blue Water Woman started to ease the knife from its sheath. She had it almost out when that which I feared most, occurred.
Jordy Hook grunted, opened his eyes and sat up.
Chapter Fifteen
Some moments we never forget. They are indelibly seared into our memories. When we think of them, they are as fresh as when they happened.
This was one of those moments for me. I thought for sure Jordy would yell and the others would leap up, with dire consequences.
But quick as lightning, Blue Water Woman drew his knife and plunged it into his ribs. Jordy’s back arched and his mouth opened. She clamped her other hand over his lips before he could yell, and like a punctured water skin he deflated and sank onto his side on top of his rifle. She tugged at the weapon, but it would not come free. She snatched one of his pistols instead. Then, yanking the knife out and beckoning to me, she rose into a crouch and moved toward the horses.
I was on my feet and at her heels in a twinkling. I was stunned, my mind sluggish. We were halfway to the string when I realized that if we rode off, I would have to leave my journal, paintings and sketches behind. I could not do that. I stopped.
Blue Water Woman reached the first horse. She glanced back, and motioned.
I shook my head. I refused to leave my work in the hands of cutthroats who might destroy it.
She motioned a second time, urgently.
I had to make her understand. I hurried toward her to explain.
That was when the horse, apparently smelling the blood on the knife, whinnied.
Jess Hook rose onto his elbows. He saw his brother. He saw us. His hand swooped to his pistols and he roared, “Cutter! They’re trying to get away!”
Fingers wrapped around my arm, and I was pulled bodily into the dark. I did not resist. Too much was happening too fast.