Chapter 43

Thomas Murray had searched every bit of the ledge that his cave was near but the search had been futile - there was no sign of Joey anywhere. Cursing his son for disobeying him and putting himself in more danger than he realized, Murray was more determined than ever to protect the boy, at any cost.

He knew his son hadn't had any water in hours so he had to have taken one of the paths through the underbrush and climbed down the slope. Murray decided to follow the same path he assumed his son had. Once at the bottom, he walked the valley floor, heading toward the creek, when an unexpected sound caught his ear. Was that a horse? Nah, it couldn't be - he didn't own one, the paint his son had been on was taken away by that marshal, and those two other boys were long gone. It had to have been his imagination playing tricks on him.

Murray rounded a bend and stopped dead in his tracks. In front of him, tethered to a tree, was not one but two horses and he'd seen those horses recently, too recently in fact. Damn those foolish boys for not listening to him. Now they would have to pay for their stupidity. First it was Joey then the Indian and the blonde kid - what was wrong with young people these days? No respect for what their elders told them, that's what the problem was.

Not wanting the two boys to know he was on to them, Murray left the horses as he found them. More determined than ever, he strode toward the creek. Maybe those two deputies had the same idea as he, that Joey was headed toward water. It would be too good to be true to find all three in one place but anything was possible. He had never thought he'd ever see his son again after all these years and here they were in the same valley together. Now if only he could convince his son that he had changed, that he wasn't full of anger anymore and all was forgiven. If only...

Buck and Charlie could hear the creek in front of them as they raced down the path toward it. They burst through the underbrush at the same time, with Buck calling out, "Kid!"

They stopped short when all they saw was water.

"Guess we were wrong and he didn't come this way after all," Charlie said.

"We can't be wrong ... not again," Buck muttered, more to himself than out loud. He quickly went to the edge of the creek and started to walk around with his head bent down, looking for a sign, any sign.

Charlie sat down on a rock. "How would we even know if Kid was here anyway?" he asked as he drew in the sand with a stick.

"People leave footprints, remember?" Buck said, starting to get annoyed. Now was not the time to give up, now was the time to search even harder. They had proof now, something they didn't have before.

"Yeah, I'm fully aware of that, Buck, but come on, we were all over this spot just this morning and so was that trapper. How you gonna tell one print from the next?" He looked at Buck skeptically.

Buck was now bent down toward the ground. He looked back and grinned. "Easy. What type of person do you know would lie down on his belly to get a drink of water?"

Charlie looked at him as if he was crazy, and this wasn't the first time he'd thought that, but he didn't say it. Instead he shrugged and looked around hoping to pull an answer out of the air. "I don't know, maybe someone so tired his legs can't support him. Maybe someone hurt ... hurt -"

He got up and ran to Buck's side. "Is that what you found?"

"The sand is soft around here, makes for good markings." He pointed with the toe of his boot.

"Well, what are we waiting for, let's find him!" Charlie said excitedly.

"That's easier said than done because it looks like he disappeared again."

"Don't even say that, I'm tired of all these disappearin' acts, reminds me of a magic show I saw once in St. Louis - never could figure out how that guy did things either."

"Well this is at least easy to explain. No tracks but plenty of water so what I'm thinking ..." Buck let his voice trail off to give Charlie a chance to catch up to his ideas.

"... Is that Kid took to the water to cover his tracks."

"Right," Buck agreed. "Kid's hurt but he's got enough common sense to know he's being followed. What I don't understand is why he hasn't tried to find us. He can't possibly think we would abandon him or assume him dead without proof." He sounded hurt at the possibility.

Charlie noticed the change in Buck's voice and went to the Indian's side, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Look, Buck, Kid's hurt, you said so yourself that it's bad, even if he is able to get around. Maybe he's not thinking straight, that's all. What do you say we get the horses and ride along the water for a while?"

Buck looked at the younger man beside him and nodded his appreciation. "Sounds like a plan."

They turned to head back to where they'd left their mounts when they heard grasses rustling in front of them.