Free Those Jensen Boys! by William W. Johnstone

scrape in a town back down the trail a ways, and he stepped in to give us a hand. I think he was just passing through and happened to be in the same saloon we were.”
    Emily leaned forward on the driver’s seat as she asked, “Did he shoot anybody?”
    â€œYou don’t have to sound so bloodthirsty,” Bess told her.
    â€œThere wasn’t any shooting,” Ace replied with a shake of his head. “Just a little ruckus. He did draw his gun once, though. He just didn’t have to shoot.”
    â€œWas he as fast as everybody says?”
    â€œHard to tell. We were slapping leather at the same time, so we weren’t really watching him. At least I wasn’t.”
    Chance said, “To tell you the truth, I think I shaded him just a hair.”
    â€œYou did not!” Emily cried in disbelief. “You did not outdraw Smoke Jensen.”
    Chance shrugged casually. “You weren’t there. I’m just tellin’ you what it looked like to me.”
    â€œHow gullible do you think I am?” Emily said with a snort. “Some saddle tramp outdrawing Smoke Jensen . . . that’ll be the day!”
    It was after noon by the time the stagecoach reached the foot of the long climb to Timberline Pass. Making the ascent would take most of the rest of the day, Bess explained as she stopped to rest the team. Going up was a lot slower job than coming down had been.
    â€œOf course, the last time we had to come down faster than we usually do, since Mr. Eagleton’s men were chasing us and shooting to spook the horses,” she added.
    â€œI’ve been thinking about that,” Ace said. “They shot over your heads deliberately, didn’t they? That way, if the stagecoach went off the trail and crashed, your bodies would be found in the wreckage but wouldn’t have any bullet holes in them. Nothing to tie back to Eagleton what happened. That’s pretty cunning.”
    â€œNobody ever said Eagleton wasn’t smart,” Emily put in. “Just that he’s a lowdown skunk.”
    â€œYes, but if he’d go to that much trouble to cover his tracks, why have somebody ambush you in Shoshone Gap? If you were gunned down, everybody would know you’d been murdered.”
    Emily shrugged. “Don’t ask me how a varmint like Eagleton thinks.”
    â€œOne way or another,” Chance said, “he wanted you two girls to wind up dead . . . and that’s something he can’t get away with.”
    â€œWe can talk about that later,” Bess said. “We usually stop here and have something to eat. By the way, we picked up those supplies you boys left at the general store in Bleak Creek.”
    â€œWe appreciate that,” Ace said. “We’ll pay you back for them.”
    â€œDarn right you will,” Emily said. “We’re not made out of money.”
    They ate in the shade of some aspens, making do with bacon, coffee, and some biscuits the Corcoran sisters had brought from the café in Bleak Creek. It was actually a pretty pleasant meal, as even Emily relaxed and wasn’t as prickly as she had been most of the time.
    However, the shadow of the trouble that had been plaguing the stage line still hung over them, and none of them could quite manage to completely forget about it.
    When the meal was finished and the team was rested, they started the climb to the pass. As Bess had said, it was slow going as the big draft horses strained against the harness and the stagecoach creaked and wobbled. Ace and Chance followed it on horseback, since the road wasn’t wide enough for them to ride alongside.
    Both brothers constantly scanned the slope above them for any sign of another ambush or any other sort of trouble. By the time the coach reached the halfway point of the climb, nothing unusual had happened.
    Bess brought the vehicle to a halt on a wider, level spot where the trail doubled back on itself in one of those