The pursuit

Their hasty journey down from the mountains was not only dangerous; the tough weather conditions made it also quite exhausting.

While Esler and Ryo kept trying to come up with the best way to approach the tavern, and to decide whom they should contact to find out the details about what happened, without alarming half of the city, Koki kept complaining – about the difficult road, the dark, then about the mist. They descended only a short part of the whole way, when they entered the thick mass of the white blanket. It didn´t make their travel any easier, and nobody´s mood any better.

Unlike the other members of the rescue group, Jin was very quiet.

Kame didn´t try to pull him out from behind those walls of silence, which the older one built up around himself, not yet at least. He felt it would have been useless anyway. Naturally, Jin was worried about his brother and upset, as they all were, about that Leo didn´t wait up for their return and just rushed to Leadville, apparently without thinking much about the consequences.

Nevertheless, considering everything Kame knew about the Akanishi brothers, he was quite sure that in a similar situation, Jin would have done exactly the same thing. Leo was probably convinced that going there alone, accepting the bounty hunter´s conditions, was the best way to protect the others – or rather those, who remained from the original Black Riders.

It was quite difficult to absorb the news about Benny, Ian, Sherman, Todd, Carl and Patrick being dead, even for Kame, and he knew those guys for just a couple of weeks. What it had to be like for the rest of the gang then? They knew each other for so long; they were not only companions in crime, but also good friends, who trusted each other. Not to mention that everything went wrong so suddenly. In general, it was not surprising that something like that would happen, not while wandering around with wanted criminals. But that blow, falling upon all of them, was awfully unexpected.

Kame noticed Ukushi´s movements slowing down a little. The mare snorted and on her own retreated to the left side of the path as much as was possible. It was because the other side ended on the edge of the cliff. Thanks to the thickening mist, they couldn´t have seen a thing over there, even if they had the daylight instead of the flickering torches, but his mare surely felt the danger of the hidden pit. Ukushi didn´t like their night travelling any more than Kame did. Just a wrong step could have meant a fatal mistake.

Kuro, proceeding in front of them, didn´t slow down a bit though; the stallion´s hooves kept sending small stones away from the path, letting them sink in that nothing which surrounded them. Frowning, Kame soothed his mare across the neck and made her speed up the pace gently; he didn´t intend to let Jin out of his sight now or any time soon.

*

The descent to the valley took them the whole night. That thousand-time-damned fog got even thicker with the dawn; they didn´t even notice when they had passed the first houses of Leadville, until they were in the middle of the first big street.

To Ryo´s relief, Jin and Kame, who were leading their way all that time, didn´t need to be reminded to wait up for them. They found both the black stallion and the white mare standing in one of the side alleys, not too far away from the tavern, but at the distance, which was safe enough not to raise any unwanted attention.

The older one had just finished checking the hooves of his animal friend, while the younger one was carefully greasing a long scratch on his mare´s hind leg, caused by some sharp twig, with the mysterious ointment.

Ryo had already noticed this before – no matter the circumstances both guys prioritized their horses´ comfort. It made him feel a little guiltily that he had never took care for his own stallion so much.

Esler dismounted with a quiet curse. Despite insisting that he was fine, the whole-day hunt followed by the rushed ride had to wear him out heavily. After all, he was beaten up quite badly in that mine, and didn´t have a chance for the full recovery yet. Koki, reaching the shady street as the last, was suspiciously quiet, as the fatigue and worries for the others finally caught up with him.

The group of Riders gathered in a small circle, behind the bodies of their horses to discuss their next steps…

*

At the first, and even at the second sight, the Slabtown´s Tavern seemed completely abandoned. However, they could be sure about it only after Jin and Ryo sneaked in by the back entrance, and rushed through all corridors and the taproom, while Cullen with Kame secured the front of the building, pretending to be waiting for the barber to open his business – with their hands literally resting on the gunstocks.

The streets of Leadville were still full of mist and very quiet, despite the late morning, but it didn´t feel peacefully. Maybe it was just their imagination, but they expected some bloodthirsty bounty hunters or even Sheriff with his men to jump out from behind every corner.

Despite their pessimistic ideas, everything went without any disruption. Their ´scouts´ got inside the tavern and out again without anybody noticing something suspicious. The expressions of both youngsters, after they reunited with patrolling Kame and Esler, were enough to tell them that they didn´t find anything good inside.

"The whole place is utter mess," Ryo said quietly, as they were hastily returning to the horses, which they left behind the brothel building, guarded by Koki. "It seems that everything Nick said is true; there´re empty cartridges and blood everywhere."

"Any bodies?" Cullen asked in a dark tone.

"No… I think they dragged them away," the black-haired Rider replied, his face contorted with a deep frown.

"All right, we need to make sure if anyone survived or not," Esler decided harshly, once they reached the impatiently waiting blonde-haired Rider. "I know the undertaker; he can confirm that to us. Koki, come with me. Ryo, are you aware of our back-up supplies behind the stable?"

The youngster just nodded, already undoing the knot on the reins of his horse.

"Fine, then the three of you will pick everything up," the deputy leader of Riders appointed Ryo, Jin and Kame to their task. "Be careful, it seems nobody guarded the tavern, but they still might be waiting for us. We´ll meet up on the north side of the cemetery. If necessary, we´re going to check up the jail as well, but I don´t think they confined Leo here."

After that, their little group separated, going about their tasks.

*

The ´back-up supplies´ consisted of some non-perishable food, a few spare blankets, a small first-aid kit, four colts, one rifle and bullets for various weapons. A lot of them. Kame even hesitated if they really should take all of it, but obviously, Ryo didn´t intend to let anything behind.

After loading the supplies to the side pockets on their saddles, and binding the blankets over their own stuff, they headed back to the main street. They walked forward slowly, dragging the animals behind, while trying to look through the impervious mist to notice any danger on time.

"I knew we´ll be too late," Jin murmured suddenly.

Both Ryo and Kame glanced back at him, as they stopped at the corner.

"We don´t know when exactly they had left, Jin," Kame reminded him carefully.

"Doesn´t matter. They´re gone," the older one snapped a little.

Kame wisely decided not to react on that, unlike Ryo: "It´s nice that you hold on positive thinking," the Rider snorted.

Jin pierced him with his dark eyes: "Keep your optimism, I´m worried for my brother here."

"And I´m worried for my friend!" Ryo raised his voice.

"Guys…" Kame stepped in, before it could turn out into an argument, as the main street was finally getting lively with people. "This is not the time for arguing about which one of you cares for Leo more."

Neither of the two seemed to calm down, but they shut up at least. They were ready to mount the horses and head for the meeting at the cemetery, when Ryo suddenly stiffened.

"Isn´t that Flow, the telegrapher?" the Rider murmured hesitantly, as he tried to recognize the face of the man leaving the store on the other side of the street. "He should be in jail, shouldn´t he?"

Hearing the name, Jin immediately focused his attention in that direction as well. As if the man felt their stares, he stopped and looked around rather alarmed, before he spotted them.

"It´s him…" Jin confirmed darkly, just when the telegrapher started to run away from them.

Ryo threw the bridle of his stallion into Kame´s hand: "Jin, take him from the back," he blurted out just before he rushed after the man across the main street.

The younger one grabbed also Kuro´s bridle, even before Jin let it go. Ryo´s dashing steps were swallowed by the white matter very quickly, as well as his figure, while Jin disappeared behind the corner of the nearest building to outrun Flow from the side. In a significantly slower pace, Kame set off in the same direction as Ryo, leading both stallions behind, knowing there was no need to worry about Ukushi, as the mare would follow the other two even without his intervention.

*

Already breathless Thomas Flow turned into a narrow passage, relying on his shortcut, which he often used for managing the letter errands faster. Almost blinded by that awful mist, he wasn´t sure at first, but when he finally recognized the disheveled black hair of one of the Riders; his only wish was to disappear as far as possible at once.

The former telegrapher was scared of that moment every minute. He knew that the whole issue didn´t end with his release from jail. There were rumors about the clash of Riders with some bounty hunter and the former sheriff Duggan the other evening, which ended very badly for the outlaws. The Sheriff´s deputy even said that Leo Akanishi was captured, but Flow had no doubt that there were still some of them left. And just as that he was sure that they would not want to listen to his expla…

The telegrapher´s thoughts froze, as the tall figure in long coat and dark hat appeared at the end of his escape aisle. Panicked, the man turned to get back to the main street, but on that very second, the other side was blocked by another Rider.

Gasping for breath, Flow was still trying to figure out what to say, when he was shifted toward the dirty wall roughly and an elbow pressed against his neck stole any breath to speak from him.

"What´s the rush?" the young man clutching him in a painful grip hissed right into his face. To Flow´s shock, he looked exactly like the wanted Akanishi. Well, almost exactly, but the resemblance was still overwhelming.

The telegrapher tried to say something, but just a wheeze came out of his lungs instead.

"He can´t speak like this," a voice, which was very familiar to Flow, said, when the other youngster approached them.

After a tense moment, the pressure eased up a little, but Leo Akanishi´s doppelganger was obviously very far from to be willing to let him go.

"Hello, buddy," Ryo Nishikido greeted him in an ice-cold voice, crossing the arms on his chest. "Good to see you without bars in front of your face. Though, I must say we´ve heard some nasty things about you being too talkative…"

"I´m sorry," that was the first statement the telegrapher let go from his lips. "I really am. I didn´t…"

"Your apologies are less than useless to us now," the Rider interrupted him harshly.

Flow felt his knees shaking heavily and his eyes stinging. He knew those guys were not so bad at all, they helped out not only his, but also other families a lot. But they were definitely capable of anything, how else they would have acquired such a name? And he betrayed them.

Filled up with fear, Thomas made himself try to apologize again: "I had to tell them. They blackmailed me…"

"Do you really think we care?" the other youngster, who still held him pinched to the wall, hissed disgusted.

"They threatened to hurt my son!" Flow continued desperately. "Please… I just had to protect my family… You understand that, don´t you?"

Nishikido frowned, while duplicated Akanishi stared at him with eyes so dark, it made the telegrapher feel as a little dwarf.

"No! No! Let him be!" a child´s voice resonated in the air suddenly and a small figure pushed itself through the two Riders. "Leave my Papa alone!" the boy repeated stubbornly.

"Kevin… I told you to stay with your Mum…" if anything, Flow was even more afraid now. What if they wanted to take revenge on his son?

"Papa didn´t do anything!" the boy continued fiercely.

Akanishi kept squeezing the telegrapher, looking down at the kid, saying nothing.

"He betrayed our trust," Ryo said then, but Kevin didn´t listen. He even tried to push the other gunslinger away.

"Let him go!!" the boy screamed loudly.

Two Riders looked at each other and suddenly Flow found himself free. Yet he had to lean over the wall to keep standing. He pulled his son closer, squeezing his tiny shoulders.

"I just told them to where I used to deliver the messages to you. And… and about your leader having a girlfriend. But nothing else, I swear!"

"Only that was more than enough," Akanishi´s double snapped.

"I know, I know, I´m so sorry…" the telegrapher repeated, almost with tears in his eyes.

"Do you know where I´d like you to stick your excuses?" the young gunslinger snorted, kicking into some box nearby.

"Jin…" another voice, whose owner was unknown to Flow, joined the conversation.

It was a young man leading three horses toward them slowly. The angry gunslinger murmured something inaudible, before he stepped away from him and his son to the opposite wall. Flow had a feeling that the second Akanishi did that to prevent himself from strangling him.

"What else did you tell them?" Nishikido asked.

"Nothing! Really nothing!" Flow insisted on his previous confession.

"So, they were satisfied with knowing about the tavern only?"

"Not really, but I had nothing else to tell them anyway! I know nothing about your business!"

Nishikido observed him for a while yet, before he nodded: "All right, let´s say I believe you. Do you know anything specific about what happened yesterday evening?"

"Well…" Flow glanced at that doppelganger, who was suspiciously quiet. "They say Leo Akanishi was captured… and some Riders killed, but I don´t really know anything."

"Are they in the city yet?" the Rider raised another question.

"I don´t know!"

"You should at least try to be useful to us," Nishikido noted sarcastically.

"I think I saw them," Kevin announced all the sudden, making all adults look at him surprised. The boy was holding one of his father´s hands, and stared at them from his low height quite bravely.

"Whom?" the latest, and at the first sight the youngest Rider asked him rather kindly.

"Those gunmen… They took the beautiful lady and her friend away. I saw them riding around our house," Kevin explained.

Everybody stiffened.

"Are you sure?" Nishikido asked slowly.

The boy nodded: "I remember the pretty lady; she was nice to me."

"When, Kevin? When did you see them?" the Rider urged on the boy.

Kevin pouted: "If I tell you, will you leave my Papa alone?"

His father telegrapher seemed to be a little shocked over the cheeky behavior of his son, while the young gunslingers exchanged short looks between them.

"We´ll think about it," Ryo said in the end. "Depends on what you´re going to tell us."

"Well… It was late…" the boy said after a short hesitation. "My Mum wanted me to sleep but I didn´t. I played with my favorite toys and then I heard horses. It was very dark already and that mist everywhere… it was scary. But I saw them."

"Damn it…" the Akanishi´s double figured out what it meant.

"They left in the evening already," the youngest one completed him. "Where´s your house located, Mister?"

"In the outskirts, the northern part," Flow replied a little dumb-founded about the change in the course and atmosphere of their ´conversation´.

"Did it look like they´re gonna use the main road toward Denver, kid?" Ryo asked hastily.

Kevin frowned a little, thinking: "I don´t know, they just passed by our house. I don´t know where they went."

"How many of them did you see?" again, the youngest member of the company asked him.

"The lady, the tied-up man, then those two, who came to you in jail, Papa. They were scary… And then…" the boy raised one finger after another. "Four… No! Five other riders."

"Is there anything else you remember, Kevin?" the youngest Rider asked, soothing a little restless stallion meanwhile.

The boy shook his head: "No."

"Thank you anyway, that will help us a lot," the horses´ guardian smiled.

"We should go," Ryo announced. "We need to tell this to the others."

Flow looked at him, disbelieving his luck – they were going to let him go? But he stiffened under the sudden dark look of the Akanishi-like gunslinger.

"Be grateful to your son," the youngster murmured not very happily, before he turned away to take the reins of the noble black stallion from his companion.

"One more thing…" Thomas spoke once again, before he could reconsider it.

"What? Anything else you exposed?" Nishikido asked caustically.

"No… There was a telegram for you, right before they put me in jail, so I had no chance to tell you."

"Ah, really?" the Rider raised his eyebrows. "And you didn´t hand it over to Sheriff why exactly?"

"They didn´t ask about it and I´m not such a rat," Flow reacted seriously. "I still owe you all. It was the message from somebody named Barlett. Do you know him?"

"Oswald…" Nishikido breathed out. "What it said?" he asked in a much sharper tone.

"That his sister passed away during the voyage to Europe," the telegrapher announced. "And that he won´t return here to the States. He left everything to you and wished you good luck. That´s almost word by word what was written in it."

*

Crosses and tombstones peeking out from the mist felt like a deadly silent bad omen. While three youngsters loaded with ammunition supplies approached the northern, non-existing border of the vast cemetery in quite a rush, prompting their horses forward impatiently, the older gunslinger and his blonde companion waited at the meeting place motionlessly.

The gloomy expressions of both Cullen and Koki destroyed even the last hope for that at least somebody made it out from the tavern alive. Without saying a single word, both parties of their once-again-rescue-group knew that the other had no good news.

Benny, Todd, Ian, Sherman, Carl and Patrick – they were all dead. The coffin-maker confirmed they were killed during a firefight in the Slabtown´s Tavern. The man had already prepared the coffins for all of them. Apparently at the request of the sheriff, which was quite surprising since all their deceased friends were labeled as members of Black Riders. Outlaws like them were supposed to be put for the last rest under the ground somewhere aside from the official space of the Leadville cemetery, without any ceremonies. They could just assume that the sheriff wanted to present himself as a decent man. They didn't give a damn about his reasons anyway.

In the heavy atmosphere, they discussed their news, including unhappy telegram from Oswald, which just made all of them feel more depressed. Esler didn´t even need to hear the whole story about their clash with Flow to decide they would leave right away. They split the ammunition among everyone, mounted their horses again and promptly set off toward the main connection of Leadville with the east, with one clear goal on their minds – to catch up with those men, who captured their leader and Jane before they reach Denver at all costs.

***

"Where are the others?" Jane whispered urgently, using the first chance to talk with Leo since they had left Leadville. And that was not sooner than the next evening, after twenty hours of riding. They headed to the north first, before turning to the east, as they shortened the distance to Denver mile after mile, on much faster pace than she would have liked.

The captured leader of Black Riders, sitting on the cold ground next to her, tied up more tightly than she was, just glanced at her without a word. Jane pressed her lips together in annoyance, which she didn´t want to reveal. So, her suspicion was right.

"Don´t tell me you really came alone?!"

Another silent, and somewhat regretful look of the younger man´s eyes told her almost everything she needed to know.

"Oh, my dear God… Why?"

Leo avoided her reproachful stare and kept silent for a while, looking at the nearby group of five gunmen taking care of horses and gathering wood for the night campfire.

"I couldn´t let anyone else die for me…"

Jane wanted to object somehow, but seeing the expression on her lover´s face, the words stuck in her throat.

"No matter that those two shot Benny and all the others down," the young leader continued, staring at the bounty hunter and former sheriff of Leadville, who discussed something over the map, sitting at the bole of the fallen tree. "Their blood is on my hands, Jane… I couldn´t put everybody else under that risk. It was either to save you all by myself or die trying."

Jane didn´t like his speech much and Leo probably noticed that in her fierce eyes, when he looked at her again.

"But I was stupid, because I put you in the biggest danger like that," he admitted guiltily. "I shouldn´t have trusted them that they´d let you go."

No matter the consequences of what Leo did, Jane just couldn´t be angry with him. If nothing else, Leo just declared that she was the most important element in all that misfortune. He would have died for her…

"I´m fine now," she said softly. "That´s more than some others can say."

Leo´s face suddenly contorted with the suppressed pain. They didn´t really have the time to mourn the friends they had lost yet.

"Jane… No matter how this will end, I want you to know that…"

"No whispering over there!" the heavy steps approached their ´resting´ spot and Mart Duggan stopped above them with a threatening expression. "If you´re so bored, I can make you quite busy!" he snorted and without any other warning, he hit Leo across the back of his neck with the butt of the rifle.

The Riders´ leader leant forward, barely suppressing the scream of pain. With his eyes closed, trying to overcome it, Leo didn´t realize that his girlfriend was pulled up on her legs, until the former sheriff spoke again.

"And you… Get some water over there and prepare a dinner for all of us."

"Duggan…" the bounty hunter tried to involve himself, but the older gunman didn´t let him talk this time.

"What? She can be useful somehow!"

"Then untie her at least, or we´ll starve to death before she gets anything ready."

"No way! Four steps away from the camp and she´ll be on the run!" Duggan snapped.

"I don´t think so," the hunter declined, settling himself opposite to Leo, who finally caught his breath. "Honey, you´ll be back here within two minutes or I will put the bullet into each leg of your boyfriend for each second of your delay."

Duggan smirked: "That´s an unexpectedly good idea," he admitted and quite promptly, he released the knots on Jane´s ties.

"Are we clear?" Harvey asked with the revolver swinging in his hand.

Jane just nodded, massaging her wrists.

"You should move on, your time is running," the former sheriff pushed the brunette toward the pile of supplies and tin dishes, which was created after unloading of horses.

Almost as soon as Duggan turned his back to them, Harvey put his revolver aside and started searching through his pockets. It was for the cigarettes, as Leo found out when the hunter pulled the small box out. Not that he would be interested in that – Leo didn´t take his eyes off Duggan prompting Jane toward the brook under their camp. He couldn´t help but notice how all other gunmen watched the movement of his girlfriend and he didn´t like it even a bit.

"Don´t try anything funny, you hear me, Akanishi?"

Unwillingly, Leo focused on the smoking hunter.

"I won´t," he reacted simply.

"Good. You wouldn´t have liked the consequences, believe me," Harvey emphasized coldly.

***

Without any sleep or proper rest, they kept riding the second night in a row through not very friendly terrain and Ryo felt they wouldn´t keep it up for much longer. Cullen didn´t even try to pretend he was not in pain anymore, Koki almost fell from his saddle twice, dozing off and Ryo had to pinch himself a few times to keep his eyes at least half-open. Just those two in the lead of their rushing group seemed to have endless source of energy. He could understand very well what pushed Jin forward, and as for Kame… Well, the younger one was always attached to the older Akanishi like a glue.

They all agreed and bet on a very high chance that the ones they chased after had to stop for the night. Estimating their pace, they could be at the probable position of the bounty hunter and his captives sometimes in the early morning. Of course, that would do only in case of the most optimistic scenario, and that they wouldn´t fall asleep instead.

Ryo suppressed a yawn, checking on his blonde buddy again in the flickering light of one torch. Kame was carrying the second one, something over ten yards in front of them. Trying their best, they just kept heading toward Denver as two lonely lights. It already felt as if they didn´t stop for a week, not for just two days. And Ryo promised to himself, that once this adventure would be over, hopefully with a happy ending, he would take at least a week off.

*

For more than a half of the night they rode directly to the east. Kame almost couldn´t believe it when he finally realized that the horizon in front of them was getting brighter and brighter. It was a miracle nobody got hurt during their dangerous ride from Leadville yet, considering how tired they were. He felt awfully cold, but didn´t button his coat up, because the coldness kept him awake.

Dousing the torch, as it was no longer necessary, he glanced back to see Esler, Ryo and Koki blindly riding forward, barely holding onto the reins, with their horses obediently following Ukushi and Kuro.

Naturally, all horses were tired too and Kame knew they couldn´t push it much longer. He soothed Ukushi at the top of her drooped head and made her catch up with Kuro, which – in that moment motionless – dark figure was sharply visible on the background of the dawn.

Stopping next to him, Kame could see the same view over the valley, which was still hidden in the deep darkness. The road led steeply down between the slopes of two high mountains, which were now on each side of it. If Kame remembered the map correctly, they were not so far from the nearest spot of human inhabitation – Georgetown. It would be much more difficult to rescue Leo and Jane once their captors got them within the reach of civilization. They really hoped that the group stopped somewhere under that steep descent. They couldn´t have get further within one night and day, even if their horses could fly.

Kame looked at silent Jin in the dim light and that sight didn´t calm him much. His lover had dark circles under his eyes, yet they were full of the dangerous shine. His jaw was stiffened, as well as his hands on the reins, as Jin clutched them almost desperately.

The younger one shifted in the saddle a little and searched in one of the pockets for a while, before he found the small package, which he had spared for the worse times. It was full of the thick sticks from Lena, made of honey, nuts and sweet beans. Those sticks didn´t rot easily, and gave a lot of energy when needed. Separating one from the carefully packed pile, Kame reached out to Jin.

It took a while before the older one noticed it and looked at him uncomprehendingly.

"Eat it," Kame ordered him, not explaining anything, waited for Jin to take it and then prepared some more for the others, once they would catch up with them.

Jin bit into the stick carefully, but his dark expression changed once he chewed a few times.

"It´s good… Tha…ks," he murmured, his mouth full of the sweet mass.

Kame just nodded, already pulling out the map, to look at it in the morning light.

"We need to proceed more slowly from now on," he said, checking on the distance again. "Not to overtake them by chance."

"Yeah… In case that they really stopped," the older one reacted gloomily.

"They did, Jin, have some faith. We deserve some luck already, don´t we?"

Jin didn´t react for so long, that it made Kame raise his head, and found the older one´s eyes looking at him tensely.

"Jin?" he asked carefully. "What did I…?"

The older one reached out and squeezed Kame´s shoulder: "I have my luck right here…"

That was a new discovery about Jin for Kame. When he was tired and worried, he could be also quite sweet.

"Well, I´ll do my best to accomplish my job then."

Not smiling, but at least somehow more relaxed, Jin kept squeezing him for a moment, looking as if he wanted to say something more, but in the end, he just nodded and turned toward the rest of their group.

***

Leo flinched, waking up from the heavy nap, as he just couldn´t keep his eyes open no matter how hard he tried. A soft hand covered his mouth and after his eyes adjusted to the first dim light of the dawn, he recognized the face of his girlfriend right in front of him, keeping a finger on her lips.

Confused, Leo realized that she was free, despite one of the gunmen tied her up again for the night and then he looked all around the camp. He found their captors asleep in the various positions around the slightly beaming ashes of their campfire. Wide-eyed, he checked and counted them again, making sure that really everybody was asleep, including two gunmen, who were supposed to be on the watch.

Jane was already furiously working on the ropes binding his hands, cutting them with a small cooking knife, which seemed to be a little dull.

"How did you…? Why are they…?" Leo whispered, before he remembered how closely his lovely girlfriend watched all men, while they drank the hot tea and ate the meal she had prepared, and the realization hit him. "You put something in the food!"

"Ssh!!" Jane hushed him urgently, and hissed upset curse at the small knife, which didn´t work as fast as it could. "Yes, I found some herbs at the brook. But it took quite long before it worked, I´m afraid there was too little of it…"

Finally, the ropes fell apart and Leo took the knife from the gentle fingers of his lover, ignoring the itching in his fingers as the blood circulation was returning: "And you even managed to steal this… Seriously, I love you."

"Keep your declarations of love for later and cut it!" Jane scolded him, but still a lovely smile curved her lips up.

"I don´t have to..." Leo murmured, as he stuck the top of the knife right in the middle of one knot. He knew that style of binding, which Harvey had used for restraining him and like that he could release it quite quickly.

After standing up, Leo almost fell back down, as his numb legs refused to carry him, but Jane helped him out. She wanted to lead their way out of the camp right away, but Leo pulled her a little aside, pointing at the waist of one of peacefully sleeping men.

"We need a gun!" he mouthed soundlessly.

Jane frowned, but nodded and looked around with him, to pick up the most conveniently put weapon. On the spot of the ´watch´, the rifle was leaning over the tree, but that would be too clumsy for the run through the woods. Leo was aiming for a revolver or colt… which was safely hidden in the sheaths on Harvey´s belt.

He massaged his legs a little, feeling finally steady and nodded at Jane to let her know it was fine to let him go. Then he tiptoed around snorting Duggan toward the bounty hunter.

"Leo! No!" Jane protested as quietly as possible. "He didn´t drink that much, you´ll wake him up!"

This time, it was Leo, who hushed her with the finger on the lips. It was worth of the risk…

And it paid off. He managed to snatch at least one revolver, he didn´t even try for the second one, as Harvey slept on his side. Meanwhile, Jane took three rifles, which were either hanging on the low branches or leaning over the trees, hastily pulled the cartridges out and she threw them away into the thickest bushes.

They avoided the resting horses and with their hearts beating heavily, they escaped from the peaceful camp. Hand in hand, Leo and Jane got to the bank of the wide stream and almost dared to take the first calm breath, when the sudden alarmed yell reached them. Leo recognized the voice as Harvey´s. Damn it, he did wake up in the end and noticed their disappearance. Looking at each other shortly, the couple started running…