“He’ll get caught in the blast,” Lee said, standing to see better into the canyon. There was a great deal of sadness in his voice when he spoke of the inevitability of losing his beloved horse.
The horse kept running and the bears got out of its way.
Less than a minute later, the dynamite exploded, closing the entrance to the canyon and trapping the outlaws inside. Lee was knocked to the ground by the blast, but the dust hadn’t settled before he was running down toward the opening. When he was halfway down, his big horse came running to him with rolling, terrified eyes. Lee hugged the animal’s head and talked to him to quiet him.
“What the hell were those bears for?” Lee yelled at Blair, who’d followed him down. They could hear the shouts and shots in the canyon below, and the dust hadn’t settled yet from the explosion.
“I didn’t mention it, because I knew you’d patronize me, but it’s been too long,” Blair said, almost shouting, not letting him frighten her. “Taggert’s been gone more than enough time. I knew the outlaws were going to find us before long, and then we’d be stuck in that cabin with a dozen men shooting at us. They can climb out of that canyon fairly easily, but I thought that maybe, if it were timed right, the bears could delay things. I do hope no one hurts the bears. All they wanted was the honey.”
Lee started to say several things to her, but nothing seemed to fit. “I’ve never seen a woman who didn’t have a sense of danger. Don’t you realize that you could have been hurt?”
“So could you,” she said, with her chin in the air.
He grabbed her by the arm, not yet ready to forgive her. “Now, I’m afraid to leave you here while I go for the sheriff.”
He didn’t have a chance to say anything else because at that moment, the sheriff and six men came running up the mountainside. They were completely out of breath.
“You all right, Doc?” the sheriff asked, panting, his big chest heaving. For all his gray hair, he was a man in good condition, and he’d made it up to the canyon in very little time. He’d known exactly where the canyon was after Taggert had described it—and he also knew, better than anyone else in town, Leander’s propensity for taking things into his own hands. “Taggert said you were in trouble.” The next moment, his mouth fell open as he looked over the rim into the canyon below. The people were like toys as they ran around the rock walls and looked for ways to get out. “You do this, Doc?”
“Me and the Missus,” Lee said in a drawl that made Blair giggle.
The sheriff pulled back from the edge while the men of the posse kept watching. “Don’t let none of ‘em escape,” he said over his shoulder, as he stood there looking at Blair and Leander. “It looks like you found your match, boy,” he said to Lee and there was anger in his voice. “How come you couldn’t wait for me to get here? Why’d you have to take the law in your own hands? Somebody could have been hurt by this. Those people down there have killed men. And that Frenchie leader’s meaner’n a snake. I’ve warned you about this sort of thing before. One of these days you ain’t gonna come out of one of your do-gooder scrapes alive.”
“What’s he talking about?” Blair whispered, having never seen the sheriff angry at anyone before. She’d known him all her life, but he was a gentle, quiet man to her.
“What took you so long?” Lee asked, ignoring Blair’s question and the sheriff’s anger. “We were afraid something had happened to Taggert.”
“He got nicked on the head by a bullet and was out for a few hours. That’s why it took me so long to get here. We just learned of you capturin’ that woman a few hours ago. But it looks like we’re too late. She get away?”
“She’s down there,” Lee said.
“Not for long, she ain’t,” one of the men of the posse said. “That’s a woman climbin’ up the side of the canyon.”
Blair looked toward the man and, as she did, her peripheral vision caught sight of a movement. She saw one of the sheriffs men, almost hidden by a tree, put his rifle to his shoulder and aim. He’s going to shoot her, Blair thought, and she knew that no matter how bad a person was or what he’d done, she couldn’t stand by and watch that person be killed. Blair took a flying leap at the man and managed to land close enough that she hit his leg and knocked his aim off. The rifle fired into the air well above Françoise’s head.
But Blair hadn’t thought about the consequences to herself, and the next moment she was trying to hang onto the cliff edge, her feet dangling over the side.
The sheriff and Lee reacted instantly, each man on his belly, grabbing an arm and pulling her to safety.
“She’s the one for you all right,” the sheriff said, his voice heavy with disgust, as he helped pull Blair onto the safety of the rocky ledge. “You just be real careful of her and don’t let her get hurt.”
“I’m doing everything I can to protect her from herself and from me,” Lee said solemnly.
Blair sat on the ground at the feet of the two men, dusting herself off and looking down into the canyon where she’d almost fallen.
“All right, boys,” the sheriff said. “Somebody volunteer to stay here and watch ‘em while we go get some help. And they all better be alive when I get back.”
“Sheriff, you mind i
f you don’t mention our names—or Taggert’s—in this? And could you send somebody over to the company store of the Inexpressible and claim our IOU for the crowbar and the dynamite?” Lee paused and smiled a moment. “And send the bill to my father. He owes me.” He turned, the reins to his horse in one hand, and took Blair’s hand in his other.
“Where you off to now?” the sheriff called as they went up the mountain.
“On my honeymoon,” Lee called over his shoulder.
“You be careful. That Frenchie escaped, and I don’t imagine she has any love for the two of you.”
As Lee waved to the sheriff, he whispered to Blair, “Love is just what I have on my mind.”