Winter Kill

Chapter 31

Salty’s worries proved to be well founded. The storm piled so much snow in front of the cave’s entrance that by the next morning it was completely blocked by the white stuff.

Frank and Salty stood there looking at it for a few moments before Salty said, “Well, I reckon somebody’s gonna have to burrow out through there. You feel like bein’ a mole, Frank?”

Conway stepped up behind them. “Let me do it,” he said. “I’m the biggest. I can make a good tunnel for us.”

Frank turned toward him. “Are you sure you want to risk it, Pete? The tunnel could collapse on you.”

“Well, you’ll have a rope tied to me, right? Just pull me back out, and I’ll try again.”

Frank thought it might not be that simple, but Conway had a point about being the largest member of the group. He nodded and said, “All right, we’ll give it a try. I’ll get my rope.”

Everyone gathered around as Conway got ready to try to dig out. Jessica threw her arms around him in a hug that contained a hint of desperation. “Don’t let anything happen to you,” she told him as she embraced him.

Conway patted her awkwardly on the back. “Don’t worry about me,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”

He started the tunnel by digging a hole out as far as he could reach without leaving the cave. Then he stretched out on his belly, and Frank tied the rope around both his ankles, so they could pull him straight out of the tunnel if they needed to. Then Conway looked back over his shoulder, grinned at them for a second, and started using his mittened hands to shovel snow behind him as he crawled forward. He packed it on both sides as best he could, to strengthen the walls of the tunnel.

It was slow going, and it took a long time before Conway’s feet and legs disappeared completely into the tunnel. Salty had warned him not to shout back to them unless it was an emergency, because loud noises could cause the snow to fall, collapsing the tunnel. So a tense silence filled the cave as minutes stretched out into an hour or more since Conway had started digging out.

Frank knelt by the entrance to the tunnel, letting the rope slide through his hands. They had worked out signals before Conway went into the hole. Two tugs meant they should pull him back as quickly as they could. Three meant that he had made it through the drift safely.

He didn’t really need to feel the three tugs that came on the rope, though. A shaft of light shot through the tunnel, and Frank knew that Conway had reached the outside world. A moment later he felt the rope go slack and pulled it back through.

“Who’s next?” he asked.

“I’ll go,” Jessica said.

Frank knew she didn’t want to be separated from Conway any longer than she had to, but they all had to crawl out sooner or later, so Jessica might as well go as any of them. He nodded and said, “All right, lie down here and I’ll fasten the rope to you. When you get out, untie it and tug on it three times.”

Jessica was able to make it through the tunnel a lot faster than Conway had, of course, since she didn’t have to dig her way out. Frank sent the women through one by one; then Salty enticed the dogs to follow him with some dried fish. That just left Frank in the cave. He was glad to be leaving, because that meant they were on the last leg of the trip to Whitehorse, but he was sorry to lose the warmth from the fire, which was burning down to nothing behind him as he crawled out.

The sun wasn’t up yet, but the sky appeared to be clear. The storm had passed, leaving several more feet of snow on the ground. That wouldn’t slow them down, though, Salty declared. They would be in Whitehorse before nightfall.

Frank had been worried about Stormy and Goldy, but they had made it through the night just fine and tossed their heads in greeting, happy to see him and Dog, as always. He saddled them up while Salty and Conway hitched the dog teams to the sleds. Everyone had already eaten breakfast in the cave, so it didn’t take long before they were on the move again.

They left the range of hills where the cave was located and entered a long, broad valley flanked by white-capped mountains. Whitehorse was at the other end of the valley, Salty informed Frank, in a great bend of the Yukon River near that stream’s headwaters.

It was a beautiful day and they were able to make good time. Everyone’s spirits rose even higher. Frank rode alongside Salty’s sled and asked, “What are the chances of getting back to Skagway?”

“None at all,” the old-timer said, confirming what Frank had suspected all along. They were doing good to beat the worst of the weather to Whitehorse. “That last storm probably dumped a good fifteen or twenty feet o’ snow in the passes. Nobody’ll get through there until it melts off in the spring. If you ain’t willin’ to spend the winter in Whitehorse, you might be able to make it out by goin’ down through Canada, but I wouldn’t recommend it. That’d be a hell of a hard trek at this time o’ year.”

Frank smiled. “I suppose I can be a Canadian and stay in Whitehorse for a few months.”

“That’s what I’m gonna do.” A wistful note entered the old-timer’s voice. “Next spring, though, I think I’m gonna head south. I got me a hankerin’ to see the Rio Grande again.”

That sounded good to Frank, too. But before that would be possible, he had to settle accounts with Soapy Smith. And before that, he had a few awkward months to look forward to, spending time in the same town with Fiona Devereaux, who was still angry with him. With luck, Meg would be out at her new husband’s claim, and he wouldn’t have to see her and think too much about what might have been.

It took most of the day to cover the length of the valley. The light had begun to fade by the time they reached the settlement. The sight of smoke rising from numerous chimneys was a welcome one. It represented civilization.

Whitehorse was a bigger town than Skagway, but it was a similar mix of tents, log buildings, and frame structures made of raw, unplaned planks. As the sleds approached, the young women grew more solemn. Maybe they were thinking about the fact that they would soon be meeting their new husbands, Frank mused. Those had to be sobering thoughts.

The dogs were yapping noisily as they entered the settlement, and that drew plenty of attention. Men stepped out of the buildings to see what was happening. Frank expected some cheers of excitement, but the town was strangely quiet.

“Over there,” Fiona said, pointing to a large, two-story building with a sign over its entrance that read HARGETT’S. “That’s where we’re supposed to go.”

“Looks like a saloon,” Frank said with a puzzled frown.

“Well, it may be, but it’s also a hotel. I have rooms booked there for everyone. I lost the letter I got from Mr. Hargett in the shipwreck, but I’m sure he’ll honor our arrangement.”

Frank hoped so. From what he had heard about Whitehorse, the place was as full up with gold-hunters as Skagway had been, maybe more so.

The sleds came to a stop in front of Hargett’s. The snow in the street was deep enough that it was level with the porch. The women were able to step from the sleds right onto the porch, where they congregated nervously. Frank dismounted and tied Stormy’s and Goldy’s reins to one of the posts that supported the awning, since the hitch rails were covered up.

Fiona pushed back the hood of her parka and said, “All right, ladies, let’s go inside.” She turned to Frank and went on. “Would you come with us, Frank? You’ve been with us all the way, so I’d like for you to see the end of this.”

“Well, sure, I suppose I can do that,” he said with a smile. “Be nice to be there for the finish.”

Meg turned and gave him a sad smile as the group started to file into the place. He sensed that she was saying good-bye to him.

Hargett’s looked even more like a saloon when Frank stepped inside. He saw a long hardwood bar on the right, poker tables and faro layouts to the left and rear, and some stairs at the end of the room leading up to a second-floor balcony with rooms opening off it. The main room was full of men, most of them hard-faced hombres in thick coats. A couple of potbellied stoves in the corners gave off some heat, but the room still held a chill.

Alarm bells suddenly went off in Frank’s brain. Something wasn’t right here. His hand had started to move toward his gun when boot leather scuffed on the floor behind him. Even with all the speed he could muster, he wasn’t fast enough. The blow was already falling. Just as his fingers touched the Colt, something crashed against the back of head, driving him forward off his feet. He heard screams as he landed on his face, scraping it on the rough floor. Blackness swirled around him, trying to close in and carry him away.

But he was still aware enough to hear Fiona say, “You really should have taken me up on my offer, Frank.”

That was the last thing he knew for a while.

As he had told Conway after the shipwreck, pain meant life. Pain was a good thing, because the absence of it was death.

So Frank knew he was alive, because his head hurt like hell.

He had been knocked out before, and the experience hadn’t improved any. Now he was cold, too, he realized as awareness seeped back into his brain, and lying in darkness on what felt like cold, rocky ground. He got his hands underneath him and tried to push himself up. As he did, he bumped into something beside him. He heard a groan and then a muttered, “What in tarnation…?”

“Salty?” Frank rasped. “Salty, is that you?”

“Yeah. Frank? What…what the hell happened?”

Frank struggled to a sitting position and reached out to explore around him. His fingers brushed what felt like a log wall. He leaned against it to steady himself and ease the pounding in his skull.

“We got double-crossed, that’s what happened,” he said grimly.

“Double-crossed? By who?”

“Fiona.”

“Miz Devereaux? But that don’t make no sense!”

It was starting to, Frank thought. It was all starting to make sense now, and he didn’t like the picture that it formed in his head.

“There were men waiting for us when we went inside,” he said, “but they weren’t miners who sent off for mail-order brides. I don’t reckon those ladies were ever intended to have husbands. Fiona made a deal with this fella Hargett to bring them up here and turn them into whores.”

Salty cursed bitterly. “That’s the most low-down, despicable thing I ever heard. Why would anybody take advantage o’ innocent gals that way when there’s already soiled doves up here?”

“You just said it yourself. They’re innocent. Hargett can charge a premium price for them, and he can keep on charging higher prices for a while, just like Soapy Smith intended to do.”

“Shoot, if that’s what’s goin’ on, why didn’t Miz Devereaux just throw in with Smith whilst we was in Skagway, ’stead o’ comin’ all the way through that snow and ice to Whitehorse?”

“Maybe Hargett promised her a bigger cut than she thought she could get from Smith,” Frank guessed. “I don’t know, and I don’t reckon it matters. Did they bushwhack you, too?”

“They durned sure did. Some fellers came up and started talkin’ to Pete and me, and the next thing we knowed, they walloped us over the head with their guns. Then I reckon they dragged us off and locked us up in…what is this place, anyway?”

“A smokehouse would be my guess,” Frank said. “Is Pete in here, too?”

“Danged if I know. Lemme feel around…Yeah! I got him, Frank. He’s here. Got a big, sticky goose egg on his head where they clouted him, too. He’s breathin’, though.”

Conway regained consciousness a few minutes later. After he let out a few groans, his senses returned enough for him to ask where he was and what was going on. Frank and Salty filled the young man in, and he then exclaimed, “Jessica! You mean they’re going to turn Jessica into…into a…”

“Not if we have anything to say about it,” Frank said.

“But what are we gonna do?” Salty asked. “They bushwhacked us ’cause they knew we wouldn’t stand for what they’re plannin’ to do. They got our guns and locked us up in here.”

“How come they didn’t just kill us?” Conway wanted to know.

Frank said, “I reckon they had their reasons. As for what we’re going to do…well, I haven’t figured that out yet, but since we’re still alive, I don’t see any point in giving up.”

Salty chuckled. “You sound like that big galoot of a lawman I used to know. Mighty stubborn cuss, he was.”

“So am I,” Frank said.

The rattle of a chain somewhere outside made them fall silent. Frank spotted an orange glow filtering into the sturdy shack through cracks around what appeared to be a door. A key turned in a lock, and the door swung open. Light from a lantern spilled into the square room, making the prisoners squint against its glare for a few seconds before their eyes adjusted. Frank saw a man standing outside the doorway, holding the lantern. He was flanked by two more men carrying shotguns.

The man with the lantern wore a suit instead of a parka, but didn’t seem to be cold. He was a narrow-faced hombre with dark hair under a flat-crowned hat. The lantern was in his left hand, a Smith & Wesson .38 revolver in his right. He covered Frank, Salty, and Conway with the gun as he grinned and said, “Welcome to Whitehorse, gentlemen. Come on out.”