Chapter 1.5 - All

The burning remains of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway's engine number 271 lay scattered across the bottom of Johnson Canyon. Pockets of smoldering coal and burning railway cars are strewn across the steep slope leading to the dry creek bed. The sounds of the injured and dying passengers fill the air along with a strange buzzing noise, the night sky is clear but moonless; away from the patches of flame the darkness at the canyon bottom is absolute.

***

George Treble‘s eyes slowly flicker open, his body aches everywhere and he finds it difficult to breath. It is as if a great weight is slowly squeezing the life from him. The large bandit lies on top of him. Close by he can hear voices speaking in a foreign tongue.

"Wir müssen den Fall für den Arzt zu finden." The one voice hisses.

"Vielleicht, wenn der Kapitän nicht so ein Durcheinander gemacht hätte." Says another.

"Ja."

A single gunshot rings out across the canyon.

Footsteps get closer and closer as another gunshot echoes through the canyon.

***

A short distance away and on a ledge directly above Mr. Treble, Nathaniel Preston returns to consciousness, he feels remarkable well if slightly confused about his location. Below him the wreckage of the train lies scattered and burning, a handful of men are picking their way through the scene slowly, carefully. They’re clearly looking for something, a single shot rings out and they turn to look in its direction before resuming their search.


***

Donovan Pearson awakens with a start as a pistol is discharge out not far from his location. He’s sore but not excessively so, all things considered and beneath Is laying beneath something substantial but even with the nearby fire light he’s uncertain just what it is. Heavy planks, metal straps, perhaps the floor or roof of one of the carriages the bodies of one of the bandits is close by, his neck twisted terribly a large chunk of metal protruding from his skull. Someone starts walking across the structure above him.

***

Napoleon Cuauhtemoc opens his eyes and beholds the glory that is the Milky Way laid out above him a glowing river of stars stretching from horizon to horizon in an uninterrupted display of cosmic majesty. Wait, no it is interrupted; something large floats in front of the luminous ribbon in the sky. A shot rings out near by bringing is attentions back to the Earth. He's laying flat on his back atop a rocky outcrop near the top of the canyon, he has no idea how he got here or for that matter how he'll get down.

***
Harris Darrington awakens in a shallow puddle of water, the darkness around him is almost impenetrable. Perhaps 20 yards away a small fire burns. His body aches worse than that time he fell off his father’s prize Arabian at the Hudson Valley Equestrian Park four seasons ago. There’s a soft groan not far to his left. A gunshot rings out in the darkness some distance away.

The man snorts a little as George struggles to get out from underneath him. His pistol is still in its holster under his jacket. Looking at the large bandit George notices that one of his scatter guns is still in its holster. A few yards away George notices the woman who was holding the bag, she’s a tangle of blonde hair, skirt cloth and petticoats.

***
Gathering his wits about him Napoléon finds his pistol and looks down upon the burning wreckage below. He can see at half dozen or so groups of men wandering about seemingly searching for something. They appear to be in uniforms of some kind and from his vantage point he can see a larger group of six or more individuals.

***
Patting himself down quietly Donovan can not find his own weapon, looking over at the dead bandit he notices that the man has a long barrel Colt Navy revolver jammed in his belt along with 2 spare cylinders that appear loaded. Of the professor there is no sign but looking the other way he does see the nervous little man’s leather valise.***
Nathaniel is on a rocky protrusion jutting out of a scree slope spilling out from a gap in the canyon wall. He realizes that any attempt to move will result in a lot of loose rock crashing down the slope.

He blinks for a moment looking at the wreckage, the amount of energy required. Nathaniel can not even begin to wrap his head around what kind of weapon could do something like this.

***
Harris draws his weapon and looks in the direction of the noise. He see’s a black skirts, white petticoats and a long tangle of hair.

Looking about Nathaniel spots a lever action shotgun about 5 feet away sticking barrel down in the loose rocks of the slope, he also spots a bit lower than his is, caught in a scrubby bush a large rectangular object he thinks could be his portfolio.

He thinks upon closer observation that some of the people clumped up near the middle of the wreckage could be prisoners. Four of them are standing and three are on their knees.
It’s hard for Donovan to tell which bandit this is because of the piece of iron protruding from his face but he thinks it might be the fellow who had the shotgun to the french girl. The weapon is indeed loaded, caps appear intact and the ball ends look pristine. The weapon is a single action so he will have to pull the hammer back manually between shots, this will make a very distinct noise.

Sliding across the ground he makes a small amount of noise as he goes for the bag and whispers the professors name. The footsteps above him stop.

"Hast du das gehört?" A voice asks, there’s a clatter of stone near by.

"Ja, ich glaube, da ist jemand in der Nähe."
Sounds as though he’s sleeping, he snorts a little as you take the scatter gun.

He looks about quickly and spots the older of the two Southern gentlemen about 10 feet away, he still has his pepper box clutched in his right hand but given the terrible angle of his neck he is quite dead.

The woman he does not recognize, she’s blonde, quite pretty but has a nasty gash on her forehead that’s trickling blood all down across her face. Still held in her right hand is a carpet bag full of money.Moving over to the woman he spots a man with a rifle wandering through the wreckage, he appears to be in a uniform of sorts and is definitely looking for someone or something. The woman is sheltered behind a rock from the man with the weapon. When he starts to sort out the tangle of hair, skirts and petticoats Harris figures out he has not one but two women, Ruby and one of the French women. Ruby appears fine, the French woman has a curved hunk of copper wedged between the ribs of her corset and into her chest. Harris can’t tell how bad the wound is, she’s still breathing but the white of her blouse is slowly turning red.

***

Somewhere across the wreck a voice calls out.

"Senden des Professors und der Erbin an das Luftschiff."

From their perches up high Napoleon and George watch as two people from the middle of the wreck suddenly fly up into the sky and vanish into the darkness.

There’s a pair of loud screams that disappear into the heavens, one is definitely male and the other is definitely female.

Ruby pulls a couple of carefully folded hankies out of a small pouch at her waist and packs them around the piece of metal and applies pressure, blood squeezes out between the tiny woman’s fingers. The French woman gasps and her eyes flutter open, "It’s okay Miss, " Ruby whispers, "it’s okay, Ruby’ll take care of you. "

"Mister Darrington, have you seen my mistress?"

The soldier stops as Ruby speaks and looks in your general direction.

You take careful aim, lining him up in your sights as he starts to move in your direction and squeeze off the shot."Hier drüben! Hier ist jemand!"
Donovan lays there quietly for a moment that feels like an hour, the boards above him creak and groan as the man moves about and then there’s a shot close by followed by a man shouting.

"Hier drüben! Hier ist jemand!"

Who ever is above him suddenly runs off in the direction of the shot.
Shuffling across the ledge George gets to the woman and rolls her over to check her out, something hard pokes him in the belly and there’s the sound of a pistol hammer being cocked. "Not so fast sweet pea," she whispers, "Bist du mit diesen Jungs zusammen?"

She watches your reaction carefully, "No, don’t Deutsch sprechen so I suppose not. Umm hun, would you be so kind as to remove your hand from my..." The blonde woman glances down and George realizes he has one hand firmly placed on this woman’s right breast.

Before he can react there’s a shot from down in the wreck followed by a man shouting.

"Hier drüben! Hier ist jemand!"

Napoleon creeps over to the rifle, he grabs the weapon and checks it over, seems alright.

"Kovalsic, Helen Kovalsic and I can assure you they are most definitely not after me." She glances over at the passed out bandit, "How’s Buford? Sleeping as usual by the look of it."

"That fellow appears to be in a spot of trouble," Helen remarks pointing at the man in the wreckage firing the pistol. Hitching up her skirts she heads towards the sleeping bandit. "Buford," she hisses, "get up!"

A second shot rings out and the bandit awakens with a start.
It sounds as if the second man takes off as well.

Wriggling his way across the ground beneath the wreck Donovan manages to retrieve the valise. The case is well built and expensive, it’s also rather heavy. Jammed full of newspapers and documents.

A second shot rings out.
His second shot goes dreadfully wide, ricocheting off a heavy plate of cast iron near the soldier.

The man raises his pistol and takes a shot back at Harris.Napoleon creeps across the ledge and retrieves the rifle, it’s a nice solid looking Henry. The magazine is loaded but the chamber itself is empty so you have 8 rounds.

Another shot rings out below.
Moving cautiously across the scree slope Nathaniel grabs the butt of the shotgun and carefully pulls it out of the ground. Barrel appears clear and when he pulls the action down slightly he notices that there’s a round in the chamber. You have 6 rounds.

Moving further down he manages to get to his portfolio, the case is definitely looking rather rough but it appears intact.

A second shot rings out.

Nathaniel and Napoleon are slightly higher and can see two more soldiers approaching the man firing the pistol, both are clearly circling to take him from different directions. Napoleon, being somewhat higher also notices that there’s something of a scramble ensuing where the guards and prisoners are but he’s uncertain just what that’s all about. Two of those guards have headed towards the commotion while three others remain behind.

There is plenty of cover down here, between the twisted remains of the train and the boulder strewn nearly dry creek bed. If you moved slowly and quietly you might be able to find a place to hide you’re not sure about the French woman though. You do hear sounds of other people moving through the wreck.

"Do be careful m’lord," Ruby says quietly, "I believe more may be on their way."

Harris fires two shots at the soldier as he attempts to move to a better position. Harris’s first round hits the man in the chest as he moves causing him to twist mid stride, he collapses two steps later impacting a large boulder before falling into the creek beds loose gravel. His second shot goes wide.
It appears that Donovan is underneath the wreckage of the dining car, shattered tables, and plates as well as bent cutlery are strewn all about him. There are a few ways out, some appear tighter than others. Opposite the direction that the man ran off in is a largest of the openings, nearly 3’ tall.

***

Nathanial and Napoleon spend their turn aiming.

While Napoleon is aiming at the guards near the prisoners he watches them doing something next to two of their captives, there’s a hand motion and suddenly those two captives are yanked skyward towards the hovering airship. A loud scream echos through the canyon as the captives disappear into the sky. Definitely a man and a woman this time.

Nathaniel and Napoleon both notice two more soldiers from further down the canyon moving towards the bulk of the wreck, they’re carrying a lantern or something so they’re quite easy to spot.

George begins to sneak off as the large man awakes with a snort.

"What the hell..."

The blonde woman puts a hand over his mouth and shushes him.

"Crimeny sakes woman, what the hell happened?"

It’s about this time you hear the two shots followed quickly by the shout as some folks are jerked skyward.

"Where’s he skulkin’ of to?". The big man asks.

The woman says something George doesn’t quite catch.

"Give me the gun, lets see if we can’t sort these fellers out."

Donovan a sawed off double barrel, little worse for wear but it appears functional near the exit he spotted. Creeping out from beneath the wreck he can hear someone, maybe two, coming up from behind him as someone gets yanked skyward. A couple of very loud rifle shots echo through the canyon and whoever is coming up behind him stops suddenly.
Easing into the shot Napoleon watches the two prisoners disappear up towards the skyship. He exhales and pulls the trigger, a very loud shot rings across the canyon and the soldiers entire right arms separates from his shoulder. The man looks about shocked for a moment before collapsing to the ground.

A second very loud shot also rings out and the soldiers near the prisoners take cover.
Ruby looks at Harris and then at the French woman and then back at Harris, "I do not know sir."

She puts the woman’s over the bandage and the piece of metal, the woman’s eyes go a little wide as she looks down.

"Nous devons aller maîtresse," Ruby says quietly getting around and putting the woman’s arm over her shoulder, "tout de suite." Then she helps the woman to her feet, Harris watches as what little colour there was drains from her face but she remains quiet.

"I am so sorry Miss." Ruby says apologetically.

Two more very loud gunshot ring out over the gorge.
Nathaniel squeezes the trigger, there’s a thunderous roar that fills his ears as the man in the uniform collapses.

There are 2 soldiers who have moved from the far end of the wreckage (west end) to where the remaining 1 prisoner is, there was still 1 remaining soldier where the prisoner is, and 2 soldiers have moved from the prisoner location through the wreckage towards where the shooting was earlier. All of the soldiers have taken cover now and unslung their rifles.
Peeking about from his hidden location Donovan can see a single man in a uniform with a rifle, he’s in an exposed location from where he is and is clearly scanning the canyon side above him where the train appears to have come from. He knows there was a second set of footsteps but he doesn’t see a second man.
Looking about Nathaniel spots three people moving through the wreckage towards the darkness and possible safety of up canyon, there’s large boulders and no fire up that way, Nathaniel thinks two of the people are women by their silhouettes and the third must be a man.
"It is just Ruby sir, I am not a Miss sir," she’s got one arm around the French woman and has her arm over her shoulder.

Harris looks about and doesn’t see anyone but there is a reasonable path out of the wreckage and into a large group of boulders in the darkness beyond.

The Frenchwoman inhales sharply as Ruby stumbles trying to make her way around a large piece of wreckage, "I am so sorry Miss so sorry."

"C'est bien chéri," the Frenchwoman puts a bloody hand on Ruby’s cheek and smiles weakly, "je ne te blâme pas."

The rock clatters between a pair or boulders to the soldiers right, he turns his head slightly to look but keeps his rifle trained up slope. "Gunnar, Was machst du gerade?"

A second voice to his left answers, "Ich war es nicht."

The soldier you can see rotates his rifle and body around slowly.
The one woman who appears to be a maid, black dress, white apron, hair mostly tied up in a small white kerchief, stops suddenly her eyes are wide as saucers, there’s a large bloody hand print on her cheek. She is clearly incredibly frightened and holding things together by just a thread. The maid is supporting a woman in a blue and white dress with long red hair that was probably once up but has since become undone. The woman looks pale and barely capable of remaining on her feet. On the other side of the woman in blue and white is a tall thin man, dressed quite dapperly, black suit, tie, expensive white shirt. He appears dirty and battered but otherwise healthy.
"Please sir," the maid says clutching the injured woman closer, "do not hurt us, sir, I beg of you."

"Ruby, Vous êtes plutôt jolie quand vous avez peur," the injured woman says with a weak smile.

"Now is not the time Miss."

"Je suix meurs ma chère, il n'y a pas d'autre moment."

"Don’t be so dramatic, you’re not dying Miss."***

Somewhere above the canyon a voice booms out, "Kehre in die Liftzone zurück und bereite dich auf das Bombardement vor." Four bright spotlights appear in the sky and begin moving slowly across the canyon floor.

Napoleon and Donovan both notice the soldiers fall back quicky towards the middle of the wreck. Napoleon can see that they’re headed towards where the prisoner is being held, Donovan can not.

"That sounds bad," Ruby whispers, "that sounds very bad."

Ruby waves Nathaniel off, "I have her sir, no point in your suit getting bloody as well, perhaps those boulders over there will provide some shelter for us."

Nathaniel and Harris glance in that direction and for an instant they think they can see a the figure of a man waving them over and then he disappears behind a large rock.

" Vous êtes si attentionné, magnifique.""It’s my duty Miss, it’s who I am."

There’s a single rifle rapport from the area where the train came from above you, followed by a man yelling.
Napoleon fires his rifle, there’s a loud ringing noise as the round ricochets off something metallic and the search light remains lit, the light quickly begins to track towards his current position. He could flee down slope towards the wreckage, towards the tunnel the train was passing through when the attack began or continue to hide behind the rock he’s crouching behind.

He does here a very loud *clack* from somewhere above him, from personal experience it sounds like the breach either opening or closing on an artillery piece. As Donovan scrambles away from the middle of the wreck he spots three, no four people headed in the direction of a large group of very big boulders further up stream. Two appear to be supporting a third, at least one is a woman, he can see her dress.

A shot rings out from higher up the canyon walls, and Donovan glances over his shoulder as one of the searchlights begins to move in that direction.

Scrambling across the bottom of the of the canyon, Harris. Nathaniel, Ruby and the French woman arrive at the boulders just before first cannon shot rings out followed rapidly by three more. The booming rapport of the cannons followed but the explosions bounces off the tight stone walls seeming to come from everywhere all at once. A small hand reaches out of a thin fissure in the canyon wall.

"This way," a woman says loud enough to be heard above the cacophonous echoes of the cannons, "there’s an opening just back here."

She steps into view, "Quickly now, are there any more of you?"

Nathaniel recognizes her as the woman the bandit chose to rob his fellow passengers.

***

Donovan scrambles through the wreckage and rubble as the world behind him begins to explode. He makes it to the boulders in time to see a woman in a dirty yellow dress showing a man in a black suit into a small fissure in the canyon wall. Pebbles and rock fragments rain down from above as she looks at him covering her head, "Are you the last of them?"

One of shells ricochets off something metallic in the wreck and detonates over head. The woman screams and jumps back into the fissure.


***

Napoleon scrambles along the twisted length of the railway tracks towards the tunnel, there’s a massive crater just before the tunnel. Its glowing bowl smokes and hisses and seems smooth as water, but he doesn’t have time to admire the devastation as he hears the cannons on the airship open up and begin pounding the wreckage just as he darts into the darkness of the tunnel.

Rapid fire, smaller bore by the sound of if, probably a Hotchkiss he thinks.

The tunnels not long, 100 metres at best, he might be able to get through and scramble down the far side, might be enough cover to where he saw those other people fleeing to. He’ll have to pass through first, see what’s on the other side.

Napoleon runs about 20 yards into the tunnel, the cannons continue to fire at the wreckage and the area behind him but short of some miraculous ricochet there's no way a round could possibly get to him. Shrapnel maybe if they dropped a round right at the entrance to the tunnel. He continues to move forward and eventually ends up at the far end of the tunnel. The cannons continue to rain destruction down upon the wreck, at a much slower rate than before.

From this point he can't see the airship or the wreck but he can see the light from the fires and the collection of boulders on the far side of the canyon the survivors ran to. There's a narrow gully filled with loose rocks leading down from the tracks to the canyon floor he should be able to head down easily and the noise of the shelling will give him cover for any noise he makes.

***
The narrow opening in the canyon wall is smooth and sinuous, clearly it's a water channel. It proceeds in and up a few dozen feet before the opening up into a large round chamber perhaps twenty feet across, there's a small opening in the ceiling and another one in the wall just to his right. The floor of the chamber is covered with fine sand, rounded cobbles and a handful of large flat slabs of stone. There's a man in this room, a very large man, he's somewhat rough looking, with a well trimmed salt and pepper beard, powerful arms and a broad chest.

"Jesus Christ," He says looking at Harris and the wounded French woman, "you can put yer irons down fella, I ain't a threat and this ain't the time nor the place to cause a ruckus. Dreadful sorry about the cussin' ladies." He nods at Nathaniel when he comes in, "Howdy. Miss Kolva ... Miss Helen! There anymore stragglers or this the last of them?" He nods to Ruby when she comes in tipping his dented bowler slightly, "Ma'am."

The blonde woman in the yellow dress yells back up the passage, "There's one coming more Mr. Calahan!"

Ruby looks at Harris, "I do not sir, I must have fainted when the wreck happened and woke up atop her. It's all my fault sir, I should have held her hand or something so we didn't not get separated."

Nathaniel's pretty sure this fellow is the big bandit who picked the woman in the yellow dress out front to assist him.
"Put her on that flat rock over there," the large man says to Harris and Ruby, "oh my, that ain't pretty Miss, ain't pretty at all."

Nathaniel kneels down beside her to take a better look at the wound, there's a curved clean piece of copper jammed through the boning of her corset and then into the woman herself an inch or two below her right breast. From the angle it looks as though the corset took the brunt of the initial impact and then the fragment got wedged between her ribs.

The large man kneels next to Nathaniel as the woman in the yellow dress squeezes into the chamber followed by Donovan.
"We can look once the shelling ends," the woman says taking a long deep breath before pushing her hair back behind her ears and smoothing her dress out. Despite her trembling hands she strikes Donovan as remarkably calm.

"I have not seen her, Mr. Donovan, not since the accident." Ruby replies.

"Oh my," the blonde woman says looking at the barely conscious French woman, "you may want to be careful with that."

Ruby looks over at the Nathaniel, the big man and the French woman her eyes are compassionate and filled with sorrow, "Oh I am sorry about that Miss, oh, oh dear."

The Frenchwoman looks up at Ruby offers up a weak smile, "Ce n'est que de l'argent ma chèrie."

"You need to stop saying that Miss."

"Je meurs ma chère, pardonne-moi."

"Can she speak anything other than French?" The large man asks.

"She understands English just fine Buford, Mr. Calahan, I'm pretty sure she can speak it," the blonde woman looks directly at the Frenchwoman and raises an eyebrow, "N'ai-je pas raison, ma chérie?"

The Frenchwoman smiles she moves her hands towards the shard and then pulls them back just before touching it, "But it is such an ugly language, no?"

Scrambling down the slope Napoleon hits the bottom just as the barrage comes to an end. There wreckage is deathly quite and as he makes his way across the canyon floor towards the boulders he witnesses a dozen or more troops drop down from the airship on lines.

Looking at the taper on the metal fragment and the fact that it has finished edges he doesn't believe that it goes much beyond an inch into her. Nathaniel scrambles through his mental notes on anatomy and he can't recall there being anything terribly important at that depth in this location. It doesn't appear to have perforated her lung, the blood would be bubbling if it had. He'd still like very much to get a closer look at the wound prior to just doing anything drastic like yanking the fragment out.

"I have some small scissors and an embroidery needle with some silk thread if that helps m'lord," the woman dressed like a maid says quietly behind Nathaniel. "You really do want to be careful with that corset though sir."

"That I was," the large man says quietly, "sometimes in order to catch a very bad man you have to do morally ambiguous things. I'm a bounty hunter and Helen is my partner."

Helen nods, "Technically Buford you're my partner look it's all rather confusing, we were hunting for Darius McFadden he leads that group of ruffians and you really really do want to be careful of that thing."

"Helen, you're not helping," the large man says quietly, "I can get at the side laces over here, start cutting, loosen it off if you think that'd be best mister."

Helen and Buford both glance over at Donovan as he lets the hammer down on his pistol, "Probably best if we don't start nothing stupid in here, got enough troubles as it is." Buford says.

"Wait wait," the maid / Ruby says, "I have a small light, doesn't last long. It might be useful."

"Just push ze front together and undo ze fermoir, the clasps," the French woman says slowly, "'ave none of you ever taken one of zese off?"

"M'ladies laces up in the back," Ruby says fishing through a small bag and eventually producing a small cylinder with a glass globe on one end. "So yes."

"Très traditionnel, vous devriez la convaincre d'essayer ce style, d'accès beaucoup plus facile." The Frenchwoman smiles weakly and chuckles before reaching up and pushing her breasts together. The Frenchwoman inhales sharply when she does so, "Just undo ze clasps ma chérie."

"You probably do not need to know what she just said," Ruby says blushing as she reaches in to undo the top couple clips.

"I could stand a French lesson or two," Buford says.

Ruby helps with the clips, it gets harder to undo them when they're closer to the wound as compressing the corset becomes more and more painful. Under the corset the Frenchwoman is wearing a white blouse that's soaked in blood and sticks to her skin leaving very little to the imagination.

"We could cut that open, there's really no other way m'lord." Ruby says handing Nathaniel her scissors. They're small, delicate and very expensive looking.

While the corset is still attached to her via the metal fragment he can lift it up enough to get a look under it. She gasps and starts to squirm as he peers beneath the corset and blouse at the wound. Buford grabs her shoulders and holds them down.

"Helen, sit on her legs so she doesn't wriggle about so much." Buford says quietly, "She'll do more harm to herself than good trying to get away from the pain. Wish we had some ether."

Nathaniel's second appraisal is pretty much like his first, the fragment went in at an angle that allowed it to get wedged on her ribs stopping it from going in to deeply. It's still bleeding but not to much, with something clean he might be able to staunch the bleeding long enough to allow him to sew the wound shut. He's got alcohol, not pure enough for proper sterilization but beggars can't be choosers.

The Frenchwoman sucks air in through her clenched teeth and whimpers, tears streaming down her face as he completes his second examination. Nathaniel looks over and notices that Ruby is holding one of her hand and Helen is holding the other.

The Frenchwoman nods Nathaniel grabs the shard and with a small wiggle he manages to pull it pretty much straight out. She jerks arching her back at the pain and gasps but doesn't make hardly a noise. He drops the shard, still impaled through her corset and goes to work on the wound, cleaning it as best he can, flushing it with as much of his gin as he dares use before going to work sewing the wound shut. There's very clearly a notch in both of her ribs from the fragment but the damage seems to limited to the intercostal muscles and the pleura seems intact.

As he's finishing sewing her up the bombardment outside suddenly comes to a halt.

Ruby stands up and turns around hiking up her skirt and pulling vigorously at something and you can hear cloth ripping, a few moments later she has a large white piece of petticoat, "We should cover you up mum, Ce n'est pas approprié avec tous ces messieurs ici." She looks at Helen, "Can you help me sit her up ma'am, so we can get the rest of that off her and salvage some of her dignity?"

Helen nods and they help the French woman sit up so they can peel the remains of her blood soaked blouse off.

"Oh dear," Ruby says in a hushed voice as they begin to wrap the petticoat around her.

"What?" Helen asks helping with the cloth, "Oh... Oh my goodness."

There's a scrabbling noise the comes from the passage back out to the canyon.

Buford pulls a pistol out of a holster on his belt and points it towards the passage, he positions himself between the women and the opening.

***

In the canyon Napoleon finds a thin almost invisible from some angles fissure in the canyon wall, he can see a couple boot prints in a small pile of sand below the opening. Erasing the tracks as best he can he heads up into the fissure.

Looking about Napoleon sees a handful of men, Donovan, Harris, Nathaniel and a very large man, Buford, who looks suspiciously like one of the bandits from the train as well as three women (Ruby, Helen, and the Frenchwoman) one of whom is laying down and looks badly wounded. In fact she's only partially dressed and appears quite bloody.

There's an opening in the roof of this chamber, which is about 20 feet across and another opening in the wall that seems to lead back along a natural fissure in the rock. This whole place has been worn smooth by flowing water.

The Frenchwoman looks at Harris adjusting the petticoat top she’s wearing so she doesn’t accidentally pop out of it, "Mariette," she says running a hand cautiously over the bandage. "Merci beaucoup docteur, gentil monsieur, mesdames. Je te dois ma vie."

Ruby takes off her white apron and lays it across Mariette’s chest. "You just relax Miss, you need your strength."

Donovan slowly releases the hammer on his pistol but doesn’t put it away, "You think they may have snatched Lady Fortinall? Bastards!" He looks at the women, "Apologies ladies."

"Running might not be wise," Buford remarks looking up through the hole in the ceiling, "they got an advantage of elevation on us, I mean I’m game but I ain’t pleased about the thought of running into artillery fire, not again, not at my age."

I'll give you all a chance to respond to the previous post before I post again.

"Well met Miss Mariette, I am happy we could help. Miss Ruby, I will do what I can to help you find your mistress as well, although I think we should wait until it is safe to go out and search. It wouldn't do her any good for us to get hurt or killed and then be unable to help her if we find her. I fear her innovation might have made her a target for these kidnappers though and we might have to get some help in locating her." Harris will still have his gun out, but more relaxed now and he will try to give an encouraging smile to the others.

"Thank you Mr. Darrington," Ruby says giving Harris a slight bow.

The large man Buford sits next to the opening to canyon his pistol in his hand listening carefully.

Mariette leans her head back and closes her eyes for a moment.

The woman in the yellow dress, Helen, looks up the second tunnel to see if she can see where it goes.

"Kovalsic," she replies with a smile as she scrambles into the opening, "Helen Kovalsic of the New York Daily News, fine work you did there Mister?"

"Oh my, Buford you are not getting out this way sugar."

"Ain’t the first time I had to go out the front door of the farmhouse Helen," the large man grumbles.

The big man near the entrance stands up, "I suppose a round of introductions are in order, that little lady over there," he gestures towards the woman in the yellow dress investigating the other way into this chamber, "is Miss Helen Kovalsic of the New York Daily something or other."

"News, Buford, the word is News." Helen is attractive, with curly blonde hair, blue eyes and an easy smile.

"My name is Buford Callahan, I’m a bounty hunter." Buford is a tall, barrel chested man in is mid to late 40’s with massive hands and salt and pepper hair.

"My name is Ruby," Ruby says standing up and offering a little curtsy , "Ruby Donovan, you can just call me Ruby. I don’t have any particular skills, I am, was Lady Fortingal’s maid servant. Probably not much call for a lady in waiting out here. I don’t imagine." Ruby is quite small, with dirty blonde hair and dark eyes.

"Mariette," the Frenchwoman says from the stone, "I used to have a last name, not anymore." Mariette would probably be gorgeous, if she wasn’t grey in colour and covered in her own blood.

A man in a crumpled bowler with a well trimmed mustache sticks up his hand, "Donovan Pearson, I was working as a bodyguard for that Professor Pearson fellow, couldn't find him after the wreck but I found his valise.

"There might be a way out up here," Helen says looking up the passage, "it angles up and it's smooth like there's been water flowing down here but it's quite narrow, Miss Ruby, Mister Hernandez or I might make it but I don't know about the rest of you gents."

Helen hops out of the opening, straightens and dusts off her dress, "Be my guest."

Climbing up into the second opening Napoleon notes that this one does indeed angle up towards the surface following a natural fissure in the rock there is indeed a narrow spot that he can get past with out much effort. It's a pinch where the fissure turns and there's a blade of stone that he figures he could easily break with something no harder than a rifle butt, perhaps even his boot though he would have to be cautious because the sand stone looks likely to fracture at sharp angles.

Following the passage a few ways further he finds that it does indeed open up to the plateau above the wreck on the south side of the canyon perhaps a half mile back away from the wreck.

It's a bit of a climb to get out of the water worn channel but he can definitely see the airship, well he can see the void in the stars where it is and the searchlights probing the canyon. You can not see what's going on down there. Further away from the airship there are any number of large features you could use for cover, you figure there's any number of large gullies here that you could make your way through as well. Either back towards Ashfork or forward towards lord only knows what.

It occurs that Buford is by far the biggest person in the group if you could knock this section of rock out in such a manner that he could get past then everyone could get past. What's your preferred instrument of destruction?

Working carefully and quietly on the knife edge of rock it takes Napoleon 40 minutes or so to remove enough that he figures Buford can squeeze past. He heads back to the chamber when he's done.

Ruby comes back from the entrance to your hiding place, "They're really giving the wreckage the once over, m'lords, they're after something very specific."

Donovan blinks, "Wait just a tic, the Professor, he was paranoid that some fellow named, Rass, Rassmus, ah bugger I can't recall it, but his bag, he wouldn't let that out of his sight, kept it with him when he slept." Donovan grabs the leather valise and shows it to everyone, there's an elaborate lock on the front.

There's a soft click as the lock disengages.

A number of objects drop out of the bag, a rectangular bundle of letters or something wrapped in worn butcher paper held in place with a white string. A handful of newspaper clippings, a dog eared brochure or pamphlet printed on heavy card-stock, a small 5 shot cap and ball revolver, and something oddly shaped wrapped in stained white cloth and tied closed with a red ribbon. The lighting is terrible now as the moon has fallen below the horizon. Ruby still has her light but it's gotten rather faint.

"It's just Buford," the large man says gruffly, he gets up and flexes his one knee leg carefully before climbing up into the smaller hole.

Buford is so broad in the chest and shoulders that he fills the entire opening and has to force his way through parts that Napoleon hadn't considered. "Bit of a squeeze," he says getting to the knife edge turn and forcing himself through the worst part. He gets stuck part way but manages to get past. Once he's past he basically forces Napoleon to keep moving forward to the next opening large enough to accommodate both of them. "Mighty fine work there fella, much appreciated."

Mariette groans, and starts to try to get up. Ruby and Helen come over and help her to her feet, "One of us is going to have to push and one's going to have to pull to get her into that opening Ruby."

Mariette takes one of Ruby's hands and puts it on her backside, "Vous pouvez pousser ma chère."

Helen giggles and Ruby blushes, "And now it's awkward," Ruby says quietly as Helen climbs up into the opening.

"Come one sweetie," Helen says reaching down and pulling her up as Ruby helps push her forward, "up we get."

Mariette whimpers and makes a few small sounds pain but miraculously doesn't cry out.

"You know," Donovan says looking over at the women's antics, "Buford probably could have picked her up with one hand."

"You're not helping," Helen says pulling Mariette into the opening and pulling one of the other woman's arms over her shoulder.

Ruby follows them both into the opening and quickly disappears into the darkness.

The soldiers are all but invisible to you, they're down in the canyon and you're up top a good 1/4 of a mile or better back from the edge. The airship on the other hand is only visible because of the void in the stars where it is. You'd estimate by the dimensions of the void that it is a Zeppelin of some kind, which would fit with the German speech.

Mariette nods, "I can move, I do not know for how long"

About a hundred yards further on there’s another gully that opens up, the sides aren’t steep where you are but it looks to provide some good cover not to far along.

The gully is another water worn channel carved in the sandstone, it's not more than 4-6 feet deep and it looks like a decent place to hide or move through the area away from the canyon.

Nathaniel half carries Mariette across the open ground with Ruby's help, she sits down in the gully behind an outcrop of rock, "Merci Monsieur."

"We're going to have to figure something else out if we are to continue running sir," Ruby says looking at Mariette with concern, "I also need to know if those scoundrels have my mistress or if she is somewhere else hiding."

Mariette leans back holding her side, "Ma sœur Esmeralda a également disparu."

Helen, Buford and Donovan also slide down into the gully and take cover.

"She says her sisters also missing," Ruby reports.

Buford frowns in the half light, "Wonder how long they're gonna look for that bag?"

"Sooner or later, won't someone notice that a train is missing?" Helen asks, "I mean we should arriving somewhere at around dawn shouldn't we?"

Donovan looks about from the top of the gully, "There's a camp fire or something over there," he points towards a large outcrop server miles away in the lower plain.

Buford pulls out his pocket watch releases the cover and stares at it a moment, "It's just after midnight, how fast does one of them airships move?""If I remember the schedule right," Donovan says, "we're supposed to arrive in Kingman at about 6am."

"So the earliest anyone's gonna realize something's gone wrong is 6 or 7 tomorrow morning," Buford says with a grunt, "that is a long time for those fellers to fart around in that canyon over there."

"If they telegraph back to Flagstaff or Ashfork, we might get help by," Helen thinks, "noon tomorrow."

Donovan nods, "Sooner or later help will show up, we can hide and wait it out or we can run."

Buford grunts, "Only problem is that one ain't running," he points at Mariette.

"What do you suppose those lights over there are?" Helen asks.

There's a scrabbling sound in the loose gravels further down the gully.

Sounds like footsteps, not booted footsteps but something softer, maybe moccasins.

A pair of young native men step out of the shadows, they're dressed in beaded leather tunics and pants, both have long black hair and both are armed with rifles. They look at Napoleon and nod, "We don't want to hurt you, we saw the and heard all the shooting, there was a bright green flash earlier. The chief wanted us to check it out."

Buford eyes them suspiciously, his hand on his pistol.

The two young men look at each other, "May I take a look at her?" One of them asks, "Mother might be able to help, it depends on how bad it is."

Mariette lethargically waves him over and so he comes over to look at her, then he turns to his friend and says something in a language none of you understand. The second man nods and heads off back down the gully.

"I sent him to get the horses, one of us will take her to Mother, the other one will lead the rest of you back to our camp. Does that sound acceptable?"

The second man comes back a few moments later with two horses, he hops up on to one, "Help her up here and I will take her to Mother," he says gruffly.

Buford stands up, "You're sure about this? I mean not that I think these fellers are working for those fellers but still."

"I'm sure it'll be fine Buford," Helen says patting his arm in a reassuring manner.

"Should I go with her?" Ruby asks as you help Mariette on to the back of the second horse.

The more congenial of the two native men nods and stands beside his horse making a stirrup with his hand so that Ruby can climb up behind Mariette. Ruby puts a hand on his shoulder and hops up behind Mariette and the two horse start off slowly down the gully.

"It’s going to take us a bit to walk back to our camp, we’ll stay low in the gully, so their flying machine doesn’t see us." He nods in the direction the horses just left in, "My name’s Hector, by the way. What happened to the train boss?"

Hector smiles, "No, I'm calling you boss, what happened to the train? Normally it goes through, makes a lot of smoke and noise, sometimes it sets things on fire. This was different."

"That's not normal right? I mean even for you guys," Hector ducks under an overhang, "watch your head and there's a puddle on the left here."

"I mean we hear about these guys, anarchists going around blowing stuff up in Europe, you think these guys are anarchists?"

"They're to organized," Buford grumbles having to almost crawl to get under the overhang.

"You're a big son of a buck aren't you?" Hector says with a smile helping Buford back up.

"Anarchists work in small cells," Helen says taking Hectors hand when he offers it, "one or two men and a bomb maker, they're all about bringing about the end of Empires and revolutionary change."

"Aren't you just a red ragger," Donovan remarks, "how come you know so much?"

"I'm a reporter," Helen replies, "I research my topics to get my facts straight before writing an article. Rather than creating a story that confirms my own narrative."

There's a change in the noise of the airship, looking back you can see it's beginning to make a wider circle around the wreck instead of simply hovering over a single location.

"Freedom fighters want to replace the existing infrastructure, the hierarchy," Helen says in response to Napoleon, "they want change to benefit the populace, or sometimes just themselves. Anarchists on the other hand just want to burn everything to the ground."

Hector nods, "So that's a no to the Anarchists, they're not Americans, Confederates or otherwise. Heard 'em talking, that ain't English. We've only ever seen one airship here before so it's kind of a big thing."

"Sounded German to me," Donovan says stepping around a puddle.

"It's not exactly German," Helen says, "it's close, maybe a local dialect."

"You mean like the difference between Americans and Englishmen?" Buford asks, "Both speakin' the same language but not quite understandin' one another."

The chatter goes on like this for the better part of an hour as you follow Hector down an escarpment to a sharp crack in the bluff. A handful of yards back into the crack there's an opening with a dozen or so horses and a hand full of small fortified stone buildings. He exchanges words with a middle aged man with a rifle standing post on a rock above the crack.

Hector nods towards one of the buildings, "Over here, you can rest in this one, catch your breath. I'll go check on your injured lady friend, see how she is."

Buford looks about at all the Indian's looking back at him, "Oh ya this feels safe."

"At least they're not shooting cannons at us Buford," Helen comments.

"You got a point there ma'am."

Inside the structure is a well organized and clean native house, there are sleeping mats on the floor and large pottery jars filled with dried food of various types. Rows of dried peppers hang from the long wooden beams that support the adobe roof. Near the middle of the room there's a hole in the roof and a wooden ladder leads up to a second floor.

A young woman working on some kind of loom looks up as you enter the room, she raises an eyebrow and goes back to work on the large blanket she's working on. Next to the door there's a large ceramic pot full of water, "Grab a drink if you're thirsty," she says quietly, the loom clicks and clacks as she works, "sit and relax, are you hungry? I can have Leon bring some food if you're hungry."

"Well you're welcome to stay as long as you need to," the woman says to Napoleon her English is remarkably good, "we don't have much but what we have is yours."

Helen and Buford both accept some water from Napoleon and Helen thanks him, Donvan simply waves his hand. "I'm good for now mate."

The native woman looks seriously at Nathaniel, "What you see of us is all that is left, there was a time when the rains fell here more often and we had gardens atop the bluff, now we live day to day and move from refuge to refuge looking for a safe place where we can live peacefully and get back to farming the land."

The blanket covering the door pulls back and Hector comes back with Ruby. Ruby smiles, "She's resting comfortably, the lady they call mother figures she'll pull through without infection."

"How often do the trains come by?" Helen asks.

Hector grunts, "One goes West at sundown and one goes East at the hottest part of the day."

"It's probably best if you don't mention you met us to the railway men if you decide to go and meet them in the morning," the woman says, "they will blame us for this and drive us from this refuge."

"She will undoubtably come down here to see you when she’s done," the woman on the loom says as she continues weaving.

Buford sits down, back against a wall and shift his hat down over his eyes and begins to snore almost immediately.

"That," Hector remarks, "is a uniquely useful talent."

Helen sits on the floor, pulls a notebook out of her bag and begins to write in it with a black fountain pen.

A while later the door opens and an ancient woman in robes wanders in, Hector and the young woman stand up and bow respectfully. "Mother." They both say.

The old woman grunts and frowns at them, she looks at the rest of you, "Your friend will be all right, she is currently sleeping."

She eyes you carefully, "You make a lot of noise, shook the foundations of my house, woke me up from my rest."

"Oh for the love of Pete sit down and my name is Mary," the old woman say irritably, "I keep telling them but they won't listen hopefully you will."

Buford chuckles but still appears to be sleeping.

"That one gets it," Mary says.

There's a knock on the door and the other young man you met with Hector comes in, he exchanges a few words with Mary and Hector and then heads out.

Hector looks at the others, "He says the airship is flying off, headed West. dawn is only a couple hours off so Lucas figures they must be heading for a safe place."

Mary nods, "Probably a good time to get some rest, you're safe enough for now." She heads out the door, "Of course you're all young and foolish so if you want to stay up all night be my guest just don't be cranky about it in the morning."

Hector shrugs, "There's the canyon over that way, the winds get pretty high in there. Maybe they found what they were looking for and headed to somewhere else. There's a lot of land to the West, even before you get to the ocean there's a lot of land."

New thread btw. Sorry should have said something.