Though her mind expected to find Tanner in every dark corner she lit, he wasn’t there. The three of them moved around the room, stepping over the piled goods.
White Horse went to the front door and opened it, walking outside to look in all directions. He returned a moment later, drawing the latchstring as he pulled the door tight and set the bar across to secure it.
She looked from him to Rosie. “We should search thestorage room and the cabin better. But what if he’s not here?”
Rosie started toward the back door. “We’ll answer that question if we have to.”
She had to hurry to catch up with her sister’s long stride, and as they reached the open door of the storage room, she held the lantern out for them to see inside. As before, White Horse entered first, but this time Rosie followed on his heels.
A strange dread pressed on Lorelei’s chest, and under her own strength, she might not have followed them inside. But once more, a verse slipped through her spirit.Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lordof hosts.
Go ahead of us, Father. She took a step in, then another. This room looked mostly undisturbed, except for one crate that had fallen over on its side.
She pointed to it. “Is that what hit you?”
He hesitated, studying the box. “I do not know.” His voice sounded almost as though he was disappointed with himself.
Or maybe he thoughttheywere.
But then he moved to the scant stack of crates that still lined one wall. “Rifles gone.”
The words sank like a stone in her belly, and she focused on the patch of barren dirt. She and White Horse had laid the crate of rifles in that very place after they unloaded them from the mule. She hadn’t been in here since.
She turned to search the room. “Maybe Tanner moved them. Would he have taken the box to the trade room so he could access it better?”
Or had this entire awful event been carried out by Purceyand his cronies, the ones who’d come to steal the rifles before? Now that she thought about it, the situation did sound like something they would do. Ransacking the trade room and carrying off Curly, the rifles, and even the mule that had been theirs to start with.
“I don’t think so, Lor. We can...”
Her thoughts drowned out the rest of Rosie’s response as certainty crept through her. Either those men had injured Tanner and taken him captive along with the calf and mule, or somehow they’d stolen the animals and rifles, and Tanner went after them. Either way, Tanner needed help.
She turned and marched outside toward the cabin.
“What are you doing?” Rosie strode after her. “Lorelei. Answer me.”
Her sister’s sharp bark was one Lorelei would never have ignored before, but she didn’t turn around this time, just called over her shoulder, “I’m getting food and supplies from the cabin. Tanner’s gone after those men, and he needs help.”
“Do those tracks look fresh enough?” Lorelei motioned to a set of hoofprints pressed into the ground on the other side of White Horse. They’d been searching from the moment the sun rose enough for them to see.
They should have found the tracks last night and be caught up with Tanner now. But White Horse and Rosie had both insisted they would never find the prints in the dark, not among so many others on this well-traveled path away from the trading post.
The two were probably right, for they’d been searching atleast an hour so far, leading their horses behind them, and still hadn’t found tracks recent enough to be from Tanner or Purcey’s crew.
Nor had they found tiny buffalo prints. Had Curly been carried on one of the horses? That seemed most likely, though he was nearly a size that would be too large to hoist.
White Horse bent over the tracks and studied them but then shook his head as he straightened and moved forward. He must’ve located another likely possibility, for he paused to study a new spot.
She held her breath as she waited, scanning the area around him. So many horses had traveled the stretch coming to and from the trading post. How could they know exactly which ones belonged to Tanner’s mount and the men who’d ransacked the fort and stolen the animals?
Rosie was tracking on White Horse’s other side and had moved ahead a little. She bent over the ground, then crouched even lower. Had she found a likely suspect?
Lorelei needed to focus on her own section of trail. Just as she turned to the ground ahead of her, Rosie’s voice sounded. “Look at these.”
The words were clearly intended for White Horse, so Lorelei kept her place as the brave moved forward. They would let her know if they found tracks promising enough to follow.
She scanned the rock-and-grass-strewn path ahead, searching for any sign of a recent horse print or the more oval shape the mule might have left behind. White Horse had said to search for deeper indentations, especially deep at the toe, which would mean the tracks were both recent and made from horses on the run.
“This might be them.”
