Chapter 7

“Two Trails To The Valley Of The Sun”

“How did it go with Ryan and the others, Jeremiah?” Kellyanne asked the next morning as soon as he and Gray Hawk returned.

“Let me put it this way, I’ll take lessons from my Sioux Elder any day. Though we left them with their hands cuffed behind their back, and their feet tied, Gray Hawk did so in a manner which would allow them to free their feet, after some effort. Ryan was given a slight break, as he was tied and handcuffed separate from the other three, who were tied together. They will need help with the handcuffs, but until they get the cuffs off, none of them will cause much trouble.”

Evan asked him, “Do you think they will come back?”

“I’d like to think Ryan has learned his lesson, but we’ll see. If the others are brave enough to try, they’ve all been warned that they will die. Gray Hawk left no doubt about it.”

“Now, we have Mother and her hired henchmen left to deal with,” Kellyanne added.

“I’ve asked Gray Hawk to go scouting with me early tomorrow. If you like, you can go with us this time.”

“Yes, I want to go! I want to learn how to follow tracks and read trail sign the way you and Gray Hawk do. I wanted to go with you yesterday, but after hearing your story, I’m glad now that you and Father advised me not to go.”

Early the next morning, they mounted and rode south with Gray Hawk leading the way. They were leaving by way of the narrow gorge, to traverse the small, winding river leading to the northern tip of Washoe Lake. At the lake, they rode their horses through the water, staying away from the lake shore, just as they had when they first entered the canyon from the south. They rode their horses out of the water onto the gravel bed, which led them to the trail Gray Hawk had used when they first met him. Once they reached the high plateau above the west side of the lake, they stayed off the main, well traveled north-south trail. By riding west through a grassy meadow, they left little sign of their presence. At times, Gray Hawk would turn to ride back east, cutting the north-south trail, to look for sign. Each time they cut the trail, they saw hoofprints of the same four horses. The four were headed north now, but they had traveled south and north, back and forth, many times in recent days.

“Does this mean they’re lost?” Kellyanne asked.

“No, they’re looking for the trail where Gray Hawk took us to the lake when we first met him. They know we left this main trail, but they’ll never find where we followed him to the lake and on into the canyon that first day. They’re leaving plenty of trail sign, as if they have no worry of being tracked, but they cannot find our trail.”

“Where are they now?” she asked.

“They’re ahead of us to the north – maybe a half a day. We’ll ride slow and track them. They will either double back again, or we’ll come upon them when they camp...

“Kellyanne, you need to remember, though this is your mother, you’re likely to see a different side of her than you’ve seen before.”

“What will make her so different now? She has always been negative toward my father and me.”

“Revenge and greed! She made the trip from Ireland to America with only one thing in mind. She’s managed to travel west across this wild, rugged land, to Nevada. Now she’s hired three men who Abe Cleveland and Frenchy both told us to watch out for. Frenchy called them, rough looking characters. We’ve already dealt with the men Ryan brought here and we learned first hand how rough they can be.”

On into the early afternoon, they rode – taking their time as they tracked the four riders. They came to a creek, which ran east from the mountain where they’d left Ryan and his three men.

Jeremiah walked upstream with Kellyanne so she could squat to pee. As he stood looking around, he spotted blood on a large rock by the creek. Then he saw blood on a scarf, and on a piece of white linen nearby. Looking closer, Jeremiah saw footprints in the sand near the water’s edge.

“What have you found?” Kellyanne asked as she walked over.

“Blood on this scarf, and a piece of white cloth with blood on it. There are footprints in this wet sand too. More than one person was here... One was a woman.”

Kellyanne looked around for sign, then stepped over to a large rock. “Look at this,” she said, picking up a shiny piece of metal lying on the rock.

“That’s part of a handcuff. Someone helped one of the men break the link between the cuffs.”

“Let me see that scarf,” she told him, reaching for it.

“This scarf belongs to Mother! She has many just like this. That piece of white cloth is from a petticoat. She was here when they broke the handcuffs. It must have been Ryan. Surely Mother wouldn’t have concerned herself with doctoring one of those other men.”

“Gray Hawk is motioning for us. He’s found more sign.”

“Four riders come here – five leave. Two ride one horse,” he told them as he pointed to the tracks where they had mounted.

“Until we know different, we’ll assume the fifth rider was Ryan. Somehow he made his way down that creek from where we left him on the mountain. Kellyanne, you follow this trail. Gray Hawk and I are going to ride out on either side of the trail to see if they’ve split off. If you see any more sign like this, just stop and wave your arms. We’ll be watching and we’ll see you.”

She rode north, watching the trail closely. She’d seen the hoofprints of the four horses as Jeremiah pointed them out to her. She knew they were headed north again. Looking to her right, she could see Gray Hawk, about fifty yards out. At times, he would swing back closer, always looking to the ground for sign.

To her left, she could see Jeremiah. He was easy to spot sitting on his black horse, above the tall grass and scattered bushes. She rode her horse off into a marshy swale between two ridges. Here, she could see the hoofprints clearly in the soft earth. The tall thick water-grass was dark green here in the damp soil. Then she saw where one horse had been ridden off to her left, away from the others. The trail through the tall grass was easy to follow.

... Suddenly, she was jerked backward from her saddle...

Before she could call out to Jeremiah, hands were covering her mouth and she was pulled to the ground, face down. When she was able to look up, she saw Ryan and her mother nearby.

Jeremiah had ridden down into the same swale, which ran from the base of the mountains – east toward Washoe Lake. As he rode up the high side again, he instantly looked around for Kellyanne. He knew she must still be hidden in the bog, so he waited for her to ride out.

When she didn’t ride out, he turned his horse and rode that way. He looked up to see Gray Hawk waving his hand, motioning for him to swing to the north.

Jeremiah knew something had happened. As he rode, his heart beat faster.

North of the swale, hidden by a small ridge, he met Gray Hawk. “They take your woman in tall grass.”

“How many?”

“Three men, woman and E-van son. He come back – Now he die!”

“They’ll all die for this. I’m going in there, Gray Hawk. Don’t let any of them get away.”

“Gray Hawk go too. No man leave.” He held up his braided leather lariat he carries coiled and tied at his waist.

“Be careful my friend.”

Jeremiah, searched his pockets for a lump of sugar. All he found was a few loose grains of sugar in his pocket. He cupped his hand for his horse to lick them up. Tying his reins together, he looped them loosely over his saddlehorn. “Outlaw, stay here until I call,” he spoke to his horse. He’d never given him a command such as this before. Though they were on their way to becoming best friends, they had far to go. Still, he leaned close and hugged his neck, before he lay his head against Outlaw’s blaze face.

With one last pat on his neck, Jeremiah left running, right toward the grassy marsh. He knew they were down in the lower part of the swag, and when he felt the soft ground beneath his moccasins he slowed.

Creeping slowly and silently, he heard a muffled sound to his right. Not risking a look over the head-high grass, he eased that way.

Through the stalks of tall grass, he could see Kellyanne lying on her side. He knew the woman beside her had to be her mother. There was no denying Kellyanne was her daughter.

He saw movement, and Ryan walked into his view. He saw the boots of two more men near where Ryan stood. This left one more unaccounted for ... the half-breed.

Just as he was about to step out, he felt the point of a knife in his back.

“Get on your feet, lawman. I told them you’d come lookin’ for the girl and I’d be the one to take you,” the man spoke from behind him. His knife was still prodding Jeremiah’s back, when suddenly, the knife fell to the grass.

The half-breed dropped to his knees behind Jeremiah. Gasping for air ... with his legs kicking, his body jerking, death took him silently.

The others had heard the Indian speak and as they turned looking for him, Jeremiah picked up McQuay’s knife and stood with his gun pointed at them.

“You don’t have a chance, Trail. We heard McQuay speak behind you,” Ryan sneered at him.

“Your half-breed just met his death-match, and if you don’t step away from Kellyanne so she can stand, all of you will die.”

One of the men quickly dropped to his knees with his pistol pointed at Kellyanne’s head.

“Drop your pistol and that knife or I’ll kill this woman,” the man shouted at Jeremiah.

Francis Flanagan made a dive between the man and Kellyanne. When her shoulder bumped his hand, the gun went off, and she fell backward on top of Kellyanne.

Jeremiah shot the man who had just killed Francis Flanagan, but the other man escaped through the grass, as he took a shot at him.

He turned to see Ryan picking up a rifle. “Ryan, you can’t get that rifle up before I kill you. You were told by Gray Hawk not return or you’d die. Now, you’ve caused your mother to be shot. Don’t be a fool and die like this yourself.”

“Try me, you bastard!” he dared, swinging the barrel of his rifle around.

Ryan Corcoran died in his tracks with a .44 bullet through his heart.

“Kellyanne, are you alright?” Jeremiah asked as he knelt beside her.

She was cradling her mother’s head in her lap when he reached out to her.

“She saved my life, Jeremiah. After all those years of hatred and anguish toward me, she died saving my life,” she sobbed as he knelt beside her.

“She knew it was over for her, Kellyanne. She gave up her own life rather than see you die. If you want to, we can take her back to the canyon and bury her.”

“No, we’ll bury her here, and Ryan too. I don’t want Father to be reminded of them ever again. They put him through hell for years until he could take no more and left for America. He’d let me bury both of them there if I asked, but you and my father are the only family I have now. I want them buried out here, away from our home so he’ll never know where...

“ ... Jeremiah, I knew you would come. Even when they threatened to kill me if I didn’t call out for you, I knew you would be here for me. I love you and I am so glad I came to America searching for my father, and then met you. I’ll never want for anything else as long as I live – you’re all I’ll ever need.”

Gray Hawk walked back into the circle of trampled grass. He was leading his horse, dragging the last of the men Francis Flanagan had hired.

There were two shovels tied on the packhorse belonging to the men. Jeremiah and Gray Hawk buried the three men in one grave, then buried Ryan beside his mother in another grave. Kellyanne took her mother’s two handbags and put one in each of her saddlebags. She went through her baggage to make sure there was nothing of value, other than her wardrobe. Then when they buried her and Ryan in the same grave, she put her mother’s clothes in the grave before they covered them.

Kellyanne never shed a tear as she stood and watched. When the graves were covered, she spoke a few words from the Bible over the grave of her mother and brother.

“Jeremiah, where’s Outlaw?” she asked when she realized he wasn’t here.

“I told him to wait until I called. All I had was a few grains of sugar, but he stayed. Let’s see if he knows my voice...

“OUTLAW!” he cupped his hands and called.

They heard him thundering through the tall grass, and jumped back out of his way when the black stallion burst into the open. He ran straight for Jeremiah, putting his head next to his face.

“Good Boy, Outlaw. When we get back to the canyon, I’m going to find you some sugar. You’ve earned it today.”

They were only a few miles around the northern tip of Washoe Lake and Silver Moon Canyon, from White Pine. They decided to return to the north end of Silver Moon Canyon by way of Frenchy’s Trading Post. Leading the four horses and the packhorse, they made a quick trip to White Pine.

“Jeremiah, you have a package back in my telegraph office. It was sent to my store with my name on it. When I opened it, I took it out and polished it up bright and shiny for you,” Frenchy told him, then placed the US Marshal’s badge in his hand.

“Thanks, Frenchy. Now I want you to meet Kellyanne Trail, Deputy United States Marshal,” he told Frenchy, as he pinned the badge on Kellyanne’s buckskin shirt.

“I almost forgot, you also have a telegraph message. I can tell you or you can read it.”

“Hand it to my deputy, and tell me what it says.”

“Looks like you and Kellyanne are on your way south to – The valley of The Sun.”

They told Frenchy they’d send him a telegraph message, letting him know where they were, as soon as they arrived at the closest telegraph station nearest their destination.

“Be gone long time?” Gray Hawk asked as they made their way back toward the hidden north pass into the canyon.

“I’m not sure, Gray Hawk. I can tell you that we’ll be back as soon as we can. I love it here in Nevada, and I hope Kellyanne will agree to make our home here in Silver Moon Canyon. That is if Evan will let us.”

Kellyanne told him, “Father would make you half owner of Silver Moon Canyon if we asked him. He’s always told me he wants grandkids. Just wait until I tell him about today and that our worries are now over for good.”