Chapter 5

Ben immediately ordered everyone to reload their weapons and to mount up. He asked Missus Taylor if she could ride, and to his relief she could. Ben quickly caught up the horse that the man had been riding who’d slid off the back of it, after he’d made it rear up, and brought it to the woman so she had a mount.

Ten minutes later Ben, Cecily, and Dove, as Missus Taylor told Ben and Cecily to call her, were on the horses and riding back towards the fork in the trail, moving at a steady ground-eating lope. It took them less than a half hour to get there. As they rode, with Ben in the lead, all three fretted about what they would find once they reached the trading post. It didn’t bode well for anyone, knowing that the raiders’ compatriots were holed up at the place.

At the fork in the trail Ben brought everyone to a halt so that he could check for fresh sign. The chance was that Blossom and Cecily’s family might not have passed the forks as of yet. They were travelling in a farm wagon and it wasn’t the fastest of conveyances. It was also possible that Blossom chose a more direct route to the trading post, going cross country instead of following the route that Ben and Cecily had taken. Dismounting to check, Ben walked back and forth along the trail, casting around as he went, in the hope of spotting fresh sign. Regrettably his efforts were to no avail.

“Nothing,” Ben declared in frustration after several minutes of searching around. “I don’t know if they’ve passed here already or if they’ve taken another route, or, if they’ve even left the homestead yet.”

“Should we ride back there and have a look?” Cecily enquired in an anxious voice, glancing up the trail that led towards the homestead.

“No,” Ben replied with a sharp shake of his head. “We need to head towards the trading post, just in case they’ve passed us already, or Blossom has taken a different route. If we’re lucky we’ll either meet them on the road or we’ll get there first. The question is which way do we go? I know that Blossom said the trading post was to the northwest of where I met you, but where is it from here?”

“It’s down that trail leading to the west,” Dove informed Ben and Cecily, “maybe a half day or so by wagon. We should make it in a couple of hours.”

“Do you know it well?” Ben enquired with interest, hoping to garner some information from the woman. “What can you tell me about the place?”

Dove fell silent for a moment, as if she was reflecting on what Ben had asked, and then she started to tell him what he wanted to know.

“The post is set down by the big river,” Dove explained. “From here we’ll hit a patch of countryside that is a bit rougher than the rest of the land hereabout. At a point just short of the trading post we’ll hit the river trail. That was probably the trail you and the others were travelling upon. I know that it comes out of the southeast a few miles down from the trading post and it follows the bend in the river until it reaches the post. Afterwards, it crosses the creek just north of the post and pushes on into Kansas. The trading post is situated down a hill that leads to that creek and faces the river. There’s a stable and corral there along with an enclosed pasturage where travellers can put up their livestock for the night, and then there is the main trading post. It’s basically just a great big log cabin. I’ve visited it a couple of times.”

Ben nodded his head as Dove described the trading post and how to get to it. He even had her get down off her mount so she could draw a map in the dirt of the trail with Ben’s knife, so that he had a visual image of the place. Once he’d seen the map and asked Dove a few more questions, specifically about Big Ed and who else might be at the trading post, he rubbed out the drawing and ordered everyone to mount up once again.

They rode on for another hour until they reached where the trail they’d been following connected up with what Dove called the river trail. At that point Ben brought them to a halt.

“Get down and water the horses,” Ben told Cecily and Dove, “while I take a look around to see what I can see.”

As Ben spoke, he pointed to the river. The land to the left of the trail sloped down towards it, and a person with care could lead a horse to the water’s edge so the animal could drink. Both women looked and then nodded their heads in silent acknowledgement. As they headed off to take care of that chore, Ben got down to work. It didn’t take him long to come up with an answer.

“I don’t see anything to suggest that Blossom has been by here,” Ben called out in a reassuring manner as he stepped off the trail and started walking down the slope towards the river and where the two women were watering the horses. “There’s been a lot of traffic on the trail, including a couple of wagons, but I haven’t noted any sign of an unshod pony travelling over it. I think we’re still ahead of Blossom and your family, Cecily. If you want, you can wait here for them; while I ride on to have a look at what’s going on at the trading post.”

“No, Marshal Ben,” Cecily told Ben without pause, glaring defiantly up at him as she said the words. “I made a promise to you and I intend to keep it. If you say that my brother and my boys are safe, I believe you. I’ll see them later, once we’ve finished this job.”

“What about you Dove?” Ben enquired looking at the other woman. “You needn’t go on with us, unless you want to. This is my job, not yours.”

“I’m with you, Marshal Ben,” Dove replied with commitment in her voice, using the name that Cecily preferred to use when she addressed Ben. “Those men killed my man and his boy, and they intended to hand me over to their leader to be first raped, and then carted off to the south to be sold into some whorehouse. I intend to ride with you, and to get my revenge.”

Ben thanked the woman for her volunteered support. Then he enquired just how far they were from the trading post. Dove took a second to think about it and then told Ben that they were very close. Then, almost as if someone wanted to confirm Dove’s statement, a gunshot rang out in the distance, bringing the trio about, alert and wondering what had just happened.

“That had to have come from the trading post,” Dove declared nervously, her dark eyes wide with concern and staring off towards where the sound had come from. “Something bad must have just happened.”

Ben nodded his head in silent agreement. Then he glanced about, trying to decide what to do next. He spotted a clump of trees growing just off the trail and towards the river, and decided that they’d serve as a good place to tether the horses, before heading off and seeing what was up at the trading post. Quickly, Ben explained his thoughts, and to his satisfaction, both women agreed with him.

Ben led them over to the thicket of saplings, and once they’d tethered their animals, Ben told them to grab their long guns along with their powder and ammunition. Once they had all done so, Ben led them up the trail towards where the gunshot had rung out.

The trek didn’t take long. They walked down the trail, keeping the river to their left as they went for about five hundred yards. The trail turned with the bend in the river, and then it climbed up a long slow grade towards the top of a rise. As they headed up the grade, Ben motioned the women to stay well behind him. As Ben neared the top of the rise, he slowly lowered himself down onto the ground so he could inch forward and peak over the rise without being detected.

Ben started in response to what he saw. The trading post lay below him as Dove had described it to him and Cecily, earlier that morning. The land below the rise was sort of bowl shaped. The trading post stood to the right of the trail and backed up upon the rise. It was a large, low lying structure. The trail ran past it and downward towards a distant creek. There was a low lying barn situated just before where the trail crossed the stream, and next to it there was a corral and a paddock. They were also on the right side of the trail. Behind them stood a small wood; a mix of cottonwoods, elms, and a couple of big oak trees.

What started Ben was what stood on the trail and along the far side of it. There were a pair of large wagons parked at the bottom of the rise and towards the river, there was another one that stood in front of the trading post, that appeared to be in the process of being loaded up, and there were a couple of groups of people. One particular group of people concerned Ben the most. They were down by the two wagons, standing at the bottom of the hill, and from what Ben could tell, those people were all women, and from what he could see, they were bound and under guard. Two men stood near them, watching them closely, both armed with what looked to be shotguns. Those men would definitely prove to be a problem.

The other problem that Ben spotted was the group of men who were standing next to the wagon that was parked outside the trading post. From what Ben could see, two of the men were prisoners. They were unarmed and they were being bossed around. One was a big man and the other was shorter, and much older. They were going into the trading post with empty hands, but when they came back out, they were carrying all sorts of stuff. Watching them were two men again armed with shotguns, and since neither man followed the two into the trading post, Ben figured there had to be at least one other guard inside the place, watching the men as they came in and collected what they’d been sent to fetch. That meant that at the minimum Ben had at least five men he needed to either overpower or kill, if he was going to put an end to this band of thieves. Realizing this Ben slipped back away from the rise, and then back down the slope leading up it, so he could rejoin the two women.

“It’s bad,” Ben declared first off, before going into detail. “I’ve spotted at least four armed men over the rise and at the trading post, and I’m certain there are more men, either in the trading post or below it and out of my line of sight. Two of those men are standing guard over a group of women. From what I could see, there are at least eight of them there, tied up and helpless. There are also two male prisoners who are being used to empty the trading post. One’s big with long hair and a bushy beard, and the other is small, wiry looking, with long white hair.”

“The big man is probably Big Ed,” Dove informed Ben in a low, but confident voice. “The other man could be anyone. It certainly doesn’t sound like the boy that Big Ed employs. He’s a young teen.”

Ben nodded his head in response to the information and then he glanced back up the slope towards the rise, trying to remember what he had seen. It took him a couple of seconds before he said another thing. When he did, Ben asked Dove a question.

“Is there a backdoor into that trading post?” Ben enquired in a thoughtful manner.

“There is one, Marshal Ben, and I know how to get to it from here,” Dove acknowledged without pause, her face brightening up as she went on. “All you need to do, if you were so inclined, is to scoot off to the right here, following the lip of the rise and continue around swinging with the lay of the land until you get to where the woods begin. Then with a little care you could work your way through the trees and the brush until you reach the back of the trading post. If you were lucky, you could get into the place unseen.”

“Are you planning on freeing the two men first, Marshal Ben?” Cecily asked excitedly.

“I am,” Ben confirmed with a nod of his head, looking seriously from one woman to the other. “Hopefully there’s only one guard in the trading post and I can get a drop on him. If I can, and if I can get the other two men to help out, then we just might have a chance to take these bastards down without anyone else getting hurt.”

“What do you want us to do, Marshal Ben?” Dove asked pointedly, her face stone hard and just as serious as Ben’s was.

“My concern is for the women down below on the flat by the river,” Ben pointed out without very little hesitation. “I’m concerned that if bullets start flying between us and the raiders that one of the women might end up dead. My best hope in this is that I take the man in the trading post without causing a ruckus, and then I free Big Ed and the other man. The problem then is that we need to take care of the two guards outside the trading post first before the men and I can get out and do something about the other men. If we’re too slow or we’re just plain sloppy a woman might just get hurt.”

“We could deal with them for you, Marshal Ben,” Cecily offered eagerly. “I’m a good shot with a long gun. You know that. I shot that man back on the wagon when he tried to shoot Dove. I’m certain I could deal with the men guarding the women. You just have to let me try.”

“I’m certain you could, Miss Cecily,” Ben declared smiling as he did, before becoming serious once more, “but there are two men and you’ve only got one shot. I’d prefer if both men went down at the same time.”

“Well then Marshal Ben, you just leave me your rifle and everything will be fine,” Dove interjected with a mischievous smile etched upon her face. “I’m just as good a shot with a rifle as I am with a shotgun, and I can promise you this, those bastards aren’t going to get a chance to hurt anyone ever again, once I get them in my sights. Besides, that there shotgun is better for dealing with vermin up close and personal. You might need it, once you’ve dealt with whoever is in the post.”

It was a plan that Ben gave some thought to, taking in what he’d seen by spying over the lip of the rise, and taking in what Dove had told him. In the end he decided it was the best plan they were going to come up with, given the resources they had at their disposal. With that agreed, Ben traded his Mississippi rifle with Dove, giving her his powder and ammunition in exchange for the shotgun she was armed with and the shells for it. Then after giving both women a few final instructions, Ben slipped away.

It took Ben ten minutes to work his way around the back of the trading post, and then into the woods, without getting caught. It took him another five minutes, moving as quickly as he could through the woods, towards the backdoor of the trading post. After that it took Ben five more minutes, looking at the latch on the door, and listening at the door, to decide on the best way to get in.

The backdoor proved to be a relatively easy issue. There wasn’t anything like a lock on it, as there would have been back home in Ben’s time. It was simply a barrier made up of three roughhewn planks that had been joined together with cross planks. It swung inward on leather hinges and from what Ben could discern by peeking through the cracks in the wooden door and the frame of the doorway, there was no bar in place that would keep Ben from opening it. The only real issue was whether the guard inside would notice the door opening.

Ben decided that he needed to leave the shotgun behind. It was a useful weapon, and he’d certainly come back for it once he’d overpowered the guard inside the trading post, but it was an awkward weapon to tote around when you wanted to sneak up on someone and knock them out. He laid it down on the ground behind the trading post, and then he drew his pistol. If he was really lucky, he’d use the weapon as a handy club. If not, he’d shoot the man.

Ben slowly lifted the latch on the backdoor and once he felt a little play in the door, he pushed it open. He did so slowly and gently, and as he did, he listened for any hint that he’d been discovered.

The man inside the trading post was a loud mouthed asshole, and from the sound of it, the man’s complete attention was on the two men who were being used as slave labour. The man kept taunting them, telling them what was going to happen to them once they’d finished working, and what he intended to do to Big Ed’s squaw. The more the man talked, the louder he got and the more confident Ben became that he hadn’t been spotted yet. The only time the man stopped talking was when the two men went back outside to load the wagon. When they did and the man clammed up, Ben came to a nervous halt.

Dove hadn’t been able to tell Ben too much about the interior of the trading post, other than it was big and dark inside, and that the single room that served as the trading post was partitioned by a long counter top that ran from one side of the post to the other. The space behind that counter top was the area where Big Ed normally stood, and where his living quarters were. Those were down a narrow passage that ended at the backdoor. As Dove had told Ben, on one side of the passage was a storeroom and on the other was Big Ed’s cabin. Dove had never been back there and seen them before, but she knew they were there.