Double The Bounty

Chapter XXX

“They’ve spotted us,” Decker said.

“How can you tell?”

“I still can’t see them,” Felicia complained, squinting mightily.

“You can’t see them, just their dust.”

“How can you be sure it’s them?” Rebecca asked.

“I can’t, but would you rather assume that it isn’t?”

“No.”

“Then we’ll assume that it is, and we’ll also have to assume that they’ve seen us.”

“Why?”

“They speeded up.”

“You can tell that from dust?”

“This is my profession, ladies,” Decker said. “I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t good at it. They’ve speeded up their progress, and we’ll have to speed up ours.”

There were no complaints, and that was what they did. “Doesn’t that beast ever get tired?” Rebecca asked, referring to John Henry.

“He never complains,” Decker said. He dismounted and studied the ground for a few moments, then stood up, looking south.

“They’ve seen us, all right,” he said. “They’ve changed direction.”

“Where are they going now?” Felicia asked.

“I don’t know where they’re going, but they’re heading toward New Mexico.”

“Maybe they’re not heading as far east as you thought,” Rebecca said.

Decker shook his head.

“They’re checking to see if we’re really following them.”

“And when they find out that we are?” Rebecca asked.

“Ah,” Decker said, mounting up, “but they won’t.”

Without allowing either of the women to ask a question, he spurred John Henry on at a gallop, and they shrugged at each other and followed.

It became a cat-and-mouse game after that.

Decker planned to circle away from the Foxxes while trying to keep their progress in view. It might convince the Foxxes that they had lost their tail, and if they then slowed their progress he’d be able to catch up to them faster.

Still, with one of them wounded they wouldn’t be able Tomove too much faster than they were at the moment. His other option was to simply run them down, but that might have put either Felicia or Rebecca in some danger.

He was in no hurry and decided to play it this way instead, trying to fool them into slowing down.

Maybe they were good at robbing banks and bad at reading the trail.

“What do you think?” Rebecca asked, coming up alongside of Decker. Her horse was laboring to keep up with John Henry. Meanwhile, Felicia had fallen behind, and if she fell any farther behind he’d have to slow down to allow her to catch up.

“They haven’t slowed down any. I guess they’re too smart for that.”

“What’s next?”

Decker turned and looked at Rebecca, then turned and looked at Felicia.

“Rebecca, I’m going to ride ahead and try to run them down.”

“And what are we supposed to do?”

“I want you to stay with Felicia. She can’t keep up well and—”

“Oh, no, Decker,” Rebecca said. “You’re relegating me to baby-sitting duty.”

“Look, I can move faster without you, and I can also move better because I won’t have the two of you to consider before I make a decision.”

“What will happen when you catch them? There are two of them.”

“Do you really think I’d be any more effective with you and Felicia along? Face it, Rebecca, having both of you along is slowing me down. Let me go ahead, run them down, and do my job. By the time you catch up, I’ll have them both trussed up nice and neat.”

“You hope.”

“I hope,” he said, nodding. “There’s always the possibility that the ground could open up and swallow me. In that case, you’d be on your own. But that’s not going to happen. I’m going to catch them and take them back into custody.”

Rebecca turned and looked back at Felicia, and when she looked for Decker she found that he had already sprinted ahead of her.

“Okay,” she said, “have it your way”