die, he heard the sounds of running horses, and then a man shouting Letty’s name.
Eulis was deep in the mine shaft when Henry Smith had reached the mine. Robert Lee was on duty. His first instinct had been to reach for his gun when the man had ridden up, then Henry had shouted.
“Get Eulis! Letty’s got trouble.”
Robert Lee turned on his heels and ran into the mine, shouting Eulis’ name.
Eulis was loading ore into the mine cars when he heard Robert Lee.
“Here! I’m here!” he called back, and leaned his pick against the wall. “Mose, take over here for a minute until I see what’s up.”
He lifted a lantern from a peg in the wall and started walking back toward the entrance. Even though he’d heard concern in Robert Lee’s voice, he had not connected it with the possibility that Letty was in trouble.
He rounded a bend in the shaft about a hundred yards from the entrance and ran into Robert Lee.
“Whoa, there,” Eulis said. “What’s so all fired important?”
“Henry Smith came riding in from town. He said Letty’s in trouble.”
Eulis felt the ground go out from under him.
“Letty?”
“Henry said she’s in trouble,” Robert Lee repeated.
Eulis pushed past Robert Lee and started running. He heard the footsteps behind him, but didn’t stop to wait. Moments later, he burst out into the open. Henry had saddled Eulis’ horse and was waiting by the mine, holding the horse’s reins. T-Bone was waiting, too; tongue hanging and ready to go wherever Eulis went.
“What happened to her?” Eulis cried, as he swung up in the saddle.
“I don’t know what all happened, but when I saw her, she was carrying a baby and helping a woman down the street. I reckon they were on the way to the Doc’s house.”
He immediately thought of the woman and the baby who’d been crying in the room next to theirs.
“Oh lord,” he muttered.
“I’m coming with you,” Robert Lee said, as he mounted his own horse.
Henry took off his hat and shoved a hand through his hair, as if uncertain of what else to say.
“Hey, Eulis… about that woman who Letty was helping…”
“What about her?” Eulis asked.
“She looked near beat to death.”
Eulis paled.
“You said she was on her way to Doc’s house?”
“Looked like it,” Henry said.
Eulis spurred his horse and took off across the valley at a gallop with Robert Lee and the dog right behind.
There had been a warm, steady wind blowing all day, whipping through the new growth of ankle-high prairie grass and rustling through the trees, but Eulis didn’t hear it. He didn’t hear anything but the hard, steady gallop of his horse’s hooves, and the bone-jarring sound of his own heartbeat thundering in his ears.
Each leg of the trip that he made into town was marked by a different thing. From the mine as they rode into town, it was a large boulder in the shape of a man’s bowler hat—the lightning-struck tree that had been split into three pieces but continued to grow—then the twin pines at the crest of the road, before it began to slant downward toward the city below. It was three miles from Denver City to the Potter mine, and it was the fastest trip he’d ever made.
As he rode into town, he saw a huge crowd gathered at the far end of the street. From the corner of his eye, he saw the sheriff come running out of his office as he went riding past. Then, only a few yards from the edge of the crowd, he saw her.
It was his Letty. But he’d never seen her this way. Her face was streaked with tears and dust—her features contorted with rage. It was the bullwhip in her hand, and the bloody man on the ground at her feet that sent him flying off his horse. He went running through the crowd, shouting her name. Robert Lee had dismounted, and was right behind with his hand on his gun. The dog saw Letty, and lunged at the man on the ground.
One minute Letty was pulling back her arm for another blow and the next thing she knew the whip was yanked from her hand. She reacted like an animal, spinning around in a crouched position, readying herself for a fight.
Then she saw Eulis. His lips were moving, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. There was nothing in her head but the hammer of blood pounding through her veins, and the memory of a baby’s last cry.
Eulis could tell