Jodi Thomas - The Lone Texan

Finally, they were ready to leave. Sage turned to Bradford and added, "If you hurt her, I'll shoot you.”

"If I hurt her," he answered. "I'll load the gun.”

"Fair enough." Sage took the reins and motioned for the boys to climb up. Bradford helped Andy, making sure his feet were in the stirrups.

Sage glanced back as they rode away. The cowboy had his arm around Bonnie. They looked like a settled couple. The only thing that worried her was that they seemed to have settled faster than water in a shallow well. She made a promise to herself to keep an eye on the cowboy.

Sage smiled. Both of them were old enough to know their own minds. If Bonnie wanted the cowboy, and he obviously wanted her, who was she to stand in their way?

She glanced back one last time. At the rate they were moving in the relationship, they'd have a half dozen tall, thin kids by the time she got back from the winter camp.

DRUMMOND AND DANIEL TORRY MADE IT TO TEAGEN'S side about the time the arguing started between Sage's big brother and the judge. Teagen was a man of logic, and his tolerance of fools was a gnat's worth of time. To him, the judge stopped being rational when he insisted that the boys needed to leave immediately and suggested his sister, the doctor, come along.

When Drum caught Teagen's glance, he turned his gaze to the hills, silently passing the message that Sage and the boys were gone.

Teagen nodded slightly in understanding and took a breath as if reconsidering the judge's threat. "All right, Judge Calvert. I'm trying to see your logic. If that man is the boy's guardian, I should hand them over, but it's really pointless to argue, since the boys are not on my ranch."

"What?" shouted a thin man dressed up like a man of wealth. He'd only opened the carriage door to listen before, but now he stepped out.

The judge frowned at the thin man and shook his head at Teagen as if he wouldn't be fooled with a lie.

"If you don't want to take my word that the boys are not on my ranch, I'll let you in to look. But just you. No one else.”

"As a gentleman and the boys' only relative, I object” The man with the judge looked about as much like a gentleman relative from England as sock puppets look like real farm animals. In fact, Drum decided, sock puppet was a good parallel. Someone had dressed him up in clothes that almost fit but still controlled the strings to his every action.

Judge Calvert stared at Teagen. "The man's got a right to say who comes on his land, and I've never known a McMurray to lie”

The relative huffed. "There's always a first time."

If looks could kill, the stranger's body would be splattered from the bridge to the border. Teagen was not a man anyone would dare call a liar.

The judge lifted his hand. "He doesn't know you, Teagen, or he wouldn't be so foolish”

"Who are you calling a fool, sir?" the relative shouted.

Drum swore he could see Teagen building steam. "Mister"- Drum looked directly at the stranger-"your being a fool is the only thing keeping you alive right now. Teagen is an honorable man. He wouldn't shoot a man in cold blood, but as for me, I get paid for it. About two bits would be my price if McMurray wanted to hire me. You'd be dead before a scream would have time to crawl up your throat."

The fool had enough sense to back away, sputtering an apology.

Daniel loaned the judge his horse and stood guard while Drum and Teagen took Calvert back to the house.

When they stepped on the porch, Calvert turned to Teagen. "I've no need to look around if I have your word that your sister and the boys are not here”

"You have my word," Teagen answered.

"And if you knew where they've gone, would you tell me?" "No," Teagen answered honestly.

The judge considered his answer. "That English fellow's got all the right papers and enough money to hire a gang of hard men to see he gets what he wants, but I can't say as I blame you. There's something about the man I don't trust. With or without the boys, when I get back to Austin, I plan to do some research.” He took out his pipe. "They keep saying that the boys are with your sister. If they are, she's in danger. These men plan to get what they came after with or without me. I wouldn't want to think of her getting in their way and, if she was my sister, I sure wouldn't want her going along with this crew to wherever the relative suggests."

"I'll tell her that if I see her” Teagen answered. "But my sister is a woman with her own mind. She doesn't take much to being told”

Drum almost swore in agreement.

As they turned to head back to the horses, gunfire rang out from the direction of the bridge.

Drum was in the saddle and riding full out before Teagen could calm his horse enough to mount. They both reached the bridge with their guns out and ready.

Shelley Lander had climbed out of the second coach and was waving his arms wildly. "Hold on, Roak," he shouted. "Hold on the men are just letting off a little steam. Don't start firing at them. We've come a long way to get the boys, and now they feel like they've been tricked.”

Drum disliked Shelley and wouldn't have minded killing the man, even if he was the brother to Sage's first husband. He held his gun level and glared at the gambler.

If the man named Charlie, whom Sage had described as the outlaw who'd been so cruel to her, stepped from the carriage, Drum wasn't sure he could stop his gun from accidentally going off three or four times. But if anyone else rode with Shelley, he didn't show himself.

Teagen and the judge caught up. Both demanded to know what was going on, but the riders were already turning about, heading toward town.

Shelley yelled for the judge and Smith boys' relative to get in the carriage. If Sage wasn't at the ranch, she was bound to be in town. "Hurry," Shelley shouted. "We're close. I can feel it. When we catch up to her. I'll convince her to come along for the safety of the boys, and we can all be on our way."

"I doubt it," Drum whispered and didn't lower his weapon until they were almost out of sight.

Teagen drew his attention. "Where's the Ranger?"

Drum twisted in the saddle. Daniel Torry was nowhere in sight. The judge had left Daniel's horse standing a few feet behind them.

Gunfire sounded from the direction the men had gone as if they were firing off rounds to celebrate.

Both Teagen and Drum slid from their horses and looked around.

"He couldn't have walked back to the house so fast," Teagen commented.

"He sure as hell didn't go with that gang of worthless flesh." Drum didn't like the only other possibility. "Either he climbed into one of the coaches, or…"

Drum didn't finish. He saw the answer floating near the riverbank: Daniel's body, facedown.

Both men dropped their weapons and dove in from the bridge. They hit the water swimming. Both moved to the rocky side and began tugging his body out. As soon as they were at the bank, Teagen drew the lifeless Ranger over his knee and pounded hard on his back.

Drum stood, helpless. Daniel thought he was so tough. He would have fought the entire gang of men if they'd tried to cross the bridge. But Daniel couldn't swim. They must have tossed him over, then fired their guns to cover up his shouts for help. They'd claim he drowned if questioned, and Drum couldn't prove different.

Teagen kept pounding. Daniel's body bowed with each blow, and his arms and legs flapped.

Drummond hadn't protected his one friend, and Daniel didn't get to die a hero.

"Breathe!" Teagen ordered. "Breathe or I'll break your back."

Drum raised his hand to stop the next blow just as water poured from Daniel's mouth and he began spitting and cussing.

Teagen held Daniel's head down until it seemed he'd spat up half the river. When he let him up, the Ranger was as gray as a tombstone.

"Are you trying to kill me?" he sputtered. He gave Teagen a look that said he'd take a swing at the man if he had the energy.

Drum grabbed Daniel and pulled him up by his shirt. "Damn it, you scared a year off my life.”

Daniel made no attempt to fight. "Well, pardon me. I was busy dying. I had two choices, stay underwater or be hit by the bullets slicing through the river just above my head”

All three men laughed. For men who didn't laugh easily, they roared. Daniel sat down and put his head on his knees. Drummond dropped by his side and fell backward. They were all three wet and cold and very much alive.

Teagen stood and helped both young Rangers to their feet. They rode back to the house and drank, while Martha put Thanksgiving dinner on the table.

"First warm day," Drum promised, "I'm going to teach you to swim. I don't know if my heart could take dragging my only friend out of the river again”

Daniel shook his head. "When I was a kid traveling around with my pa, he'd stop now and then and go back to his preaching ways. I was washed in the water every time we'd draw a crowd. Left me with a real fear of water over my head."

Daniel raised his glass. "I'm in both your debt”

Teagen drank then said, "That you are. As soon as you have a good meal, I want you and Drum riding toward town. Daniel, you stay close to the clinic to make sure everything is all right there. Drum, you know where Sage is headed. With luck, you'll catch up to her before nightfall. You stay with her until we come for you."

"Agreed," Drum answered.

"But if we go toward town, we'll be headed right into that gang again. I'm not looking forward to having to die again to keep from drowning."

"Take him through the pass” Teagen ordered.

Drum raised an eyebrow.

"Blindfolded," Teagen added.