Love Inspired Historical November 2014 (89 page)

Wes turned toward the men who'd ridden from camp with them. “Someone get the sheriff.”

They followed Wes through a tight canyon, so tight that they could barely fit their horses through. If Joseph had been in charge of navigating the passage, he would have been tempted to turn back. It seemed to be nearly impassable as his horse slipped on some rocks.

“Careful!” Wes called behind them. “We're almost there.”

A large boulder blocked their path. Wes jumped off his horse. “We'll lead the horses through here. Funny, I don't remember this boulder being here before.”

They managed to squeeze past the boulder, and from there, Wes's description of being almost there didn't seem to be so far off. The canyon opened up, and to their right stood a large rock formation. Ahead, nothing but sheer cliffs and the edge of the mountains. From his vantage point, facing the villains directly seemed almost the smarter choice.

“We can tie up the horses here.” Wes gestured at a tree with well-worn ground. “Looks like this is probably where someone else did.”

That someone being his pa? Or someone else? Joseph examined the rock formation that Wes said was the rear of the rock where they'd likely taken Annabelle and Nugget. He clambered up the pile of debris. Piles of rock had been dumped here and there, almost as if someone was searching for silver but hadn't found it yet. Someone had been prospecting here.

The other two men joined him, scrambling up the rock, looking for a way to sneak around the front. A fissure in the rock appeared to be almost large enough for a man to squeeze through. If his pa had hidden silver in here, he'd made it nearly impossible for anyone to get to it. But maybe that was the challenge. The way he'd kept it safe all this time.

And why two people were in grave danger.

Joseph peered into the rock opening. Could there be a way through here to where Annabelle and Nugget were being held?

A sound, almost like someone calling Annabelle's name, reached his ears. Joseph squeezed in deeper. Could they have escaped?

“Annabelle....” The word echoed to his ears.

They were there. Had to be.

He squeezed back out of the cave and motioned to Wes and Frank. “I can hear someone calling to Annabelle through here.”

Without waiting for their answer, Joseph returned to where he'd positioned himself.

“I've got a lantern.” Wes's voice sounded behind him, and light filled the tight space.

Joseph pressed against the wall, realizing there wasn't enough room for two men to walk comfortably in the space, which dead-ended only a few feet ahead of him.

“Annnnnnnaaaaabellllllleeee....” The voice came again. “Bring out my silver, or we're going to use dynamite.”

Dynamite. The hair on the back of his neck stood up as the air grew distinctly colder.

In a cavern like this, who knew how stable the rocks around them were. Dynamite could get them all killed.

A child's voice singing “Rock of Ages” echoed through the cavern. Nugget.

“Give me the lantern.” He reached back to Wes, who handed him the light.

Joseph held it up, shining it against each side of the rock around them. Surely there was some passageway to lead them to the girls.

* * *

Light seeped through the crack of the boulder that Nugget had said her father pushed aside to get her out. Was it one of Slade's men? Or someone come to save them?

“Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee.”

Though Nugget's childish voice spoke of Christ, Annabelle looked around for a hiding place in the rock they were already hiding in. Was there a deeper place for them to find themselves in?

A small voice inside her told her to have a little faith. And she was reminded that she needed to simply believe.

“Annnnnaaabellleee....” Slade's voice came from the other end, though sounding closer than his previous threats had been. “Bring out my silver, or I'm going to use dynamite.”

Surely he wouldn't be threatening dynamite if he was sending someone else in through the other side.

“Nugget.” Annabelle got the little girl's attention, and indicated to the rock. “I see light coming from there.”

The little girl jumped up. “Papa!”

She ran to the boulder and clawed at the crack. “Papa, we're here. The bad men are trying to steal our silver.”

“Nugget!”

Joseph. Tears clogged her throat at the sweet sound of a voice she'd never imagined she'd hear again. Annabelle closed her eyes and breathed a simultaneous prayer of relief and prayer for his safety. Against these evil men, Joseph would be no match.

Still, he was alive. All the regret over his death could be erased. She could love him, and let him love her in return.

If they got out alive.

She spoke low and urgently, not wishing for their voices to echo back to Slade. “We're both here, and we're safe. But I don't know for how much longer. Slade is threatening to use dynamite if we don't bring out silver for him.”

“Papa moved the rock out of the way to get me out of here,” Nugget added.

“Who else is there?” Slade's voice called out. He yelled something to his men, probably to either look for the other entrance or ready the dynamite. Neither would end well for them.

Annabelle knelt in front of Nugget. “Can we send some silver their way? If we tempt them with something, it will give Joseph more time to get us out of here.”

Nugget looked in the direction they'd come from, then back at the boulder. “But Papa said...”

“If there's a lot of silver, it won't matter if we give them some. Besides, it'll give the sheriff a way to find them.”

The little girl examined her like an older, wiser, person would. Weighing the risks and benefits of her plan. But mostly, she looked like she wanted to cry.

Nugget nodded slowly, then walked over to another rock. “Behind there.”

It looked like any other rock in the place. Part of the many piles of rocks that seemed to lead nowhere. But she trusted Nugget. Annabelle pushed against the rock, but it didn't budge.

“Help me.”

Nugget joined her, pushing with all the might the little girl had. Her face reddened with the exertion, but nothing seemed to move.

From the direction of the other boulder, Annabelle could hear sounds of scraping at rock, but no movement.

“Annnnaaabellle....” Slade's voice threatened.

“I'm trying,” she called back. “Truly. I just need to move this rock.”

She pushed harder, using all of her strength. Nugget grunted as she helped Annabelle push against the rock, which began to move slightly.

Finding silver would give them more time for Joseph to get through the other entrance.

“Dynamite can move the rock.”

His voice sounded closer, like he'd managed to find a way through the tiny passageway.

Nugget seemed to realize that, too, as she cast a worried look in Annabelle's direction.

“Come on.” She motioned to Nugget, and pointed at the other boulder.

They moved to the other boulder. “Slade is coming,” Annabelle said in a harsh whisper.

“Push!” Annabelle said loud enough for Slade, or whoever he might be sending after the silver, to hear.

They gave a couple of shoves at the rock, just as Slade entered the larger cavern.

Annabelle's heart stuck in her throat, and she willed it to go back to normal. To cling to the hope that Joseph would find a way to get them out.

Slade's clothes were torn and covered in dust from using a pick to get to them. Dirty, messy work, and he clearly wasn't happy about having to do the work himself. And, she noted, he'd had to leave his gun behind. Maybe they stood a chance after all.

He tossed the pick at them as he held up the lantern. “What kind of trick is this? There's no silver here.”

Annabelle shook her head. “Nugget says it is. She said her father came for her from behind this rock, so it must be here.”

Slade looked even more imposing than ever. “That so?” He shone his lantern around the rock. “Yes, we'll need some dynamite.”

Hopefully Joseph had heard.

Nugget tugged on Annabelle's skirt. Annabelle looked down at the little girl, who looked terrified at the prospect. “Papa said—”

“I don't care what that no-account papa of yours said,” Slade roared as he spun in their direction. “All's he had to do was give me some silver and we'd have been square. But that lyin', cheatin'—”

“Enough!” Annabelle gave him a stern look. “There's no call to use such language.”

Then, she looked down at Nugget. “Or dynamite. Clearly, with these tunnels, this is an established mine. We need to dig out the access to the silver, and when we have a better sense of the layout, then you can dynamite where appropriate. If you randomly blast things, you're going to make an awful mess, and I'm sure it'll be that much harder for you to get your silver.”

Slade leaned in at her, his eyes gleaming with enough avarice to make her wonder how anyone could have seen anything other than what a cold, hard man he was. His laughter rang through the cavern, surely carrying through to the other tunnels where the others could hear. They were in grave danger.

Slade kicked the pick. “Start digging.”

Annabelle took the pick and started swinging it, aiming for the gap in the rock where she knew Joseph would be, but far enough away that she wouldn't strike him with debris. She hoped.

“Help. Please,” she said the words as quietly as she could, but Slade immediately jumped up.

“Who you talking to? Who's there?”

Annabelle spun. “I suppose your praying was just for show, so you have no idea what it looks like to truly pray.”

Her own words shamed her. How long had she merely given lip service to her faith? Making people think she believed when she had none? Even now, her faith was weak, so weak she could hardly defend it. But here, in the cleft of the rock, she had to believe that she was in the protection of a greater rock.

“Your God's not going to help you. He didn't help your family. Didn't help mine. You think you've uncovered some elixir to make Him listen?”

She closed her eyes, trying to drown out the shame of his words. But just as the familiar darkness threatened to overtake her, another truth sprang to the back of her mind. And her mother's voice came to her, clearer than anything else she'd heard in a long time.

It said in Isaiah, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

It didn't matter what her thoughts were, or how she perceived the situation. The Lord's purpose was far greater than she could see. She just had to believe.

“You hated me,” Slade's voice taunted. “Because I didn't get the doctor in time to save your brother. You thought I was too busy going after silver.”

Annabelle's eyes flew open, and she looked at him. “I put my faith in the wrong man.”

“That you did.” He gave the kind of laugh Annabelle imagined only came from a truly wicked being.

And, with the most callous of looks she'd ever seen, he grinned. “Sorry.”

Rage boiled inside Annabelle at the unfairness of it all. How long she'd suffered for her supposedly rash judgment of this man, which, as it turned out, had been right all along. But then she remembered a passage from Genesis, when Joseph's brothers feared that he would take retribution for what they had done to him. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

Whether Annabelle had been right or wrong, the Lord knew, and not only would He take full accounting of all that had gone on, everything, including all of this, would be used for the Lord's purpose.

Oh, how she'd resented her father trying to comfort her with placating words of how the Lord's will would be done. But now she understood. The Lord saw, and He knew.

Annabelle had a choice. To act in accordance with what the Lord had commanded her, or to act on her pain.

A flash on the other side of the rock caught Annabelle's attention, and she noticed that Joseph had almost worked his way through.

“May the Lord have mercy on your soul,” she whispered, setting the pick down with a loud clank, and going to where Nugget sat, whimpering.

“What's that?” Slade looked past her, toward the spot where Annabelle had been digging.

Moments later, his face mottled with rage, he spun. “You've been stalling so's they can—”

“Annabelle, get Nugget out of the blast area so we can blow this rock.” Joseph's voice rang through the cave.

She didn't need another invitation. Annabelle grabbed Nugget by the hand and yanked her in the direction of the other tunnel. Though Slade's men waited at the other end, at least it would offer them some protection from the blast until Joseph could get to them.

Slade shoved at her back. “Make way, you stupid—”

An explosion rocked the cavern. Rocks and debris flew everywhere, filling the area with so much dust Annabelle could hardly breathe. She covered her mouth with a sleeve as she pulled her handkerchief out of her pocket to cover Nugget's. At least it would afford the child some protection.

The heavy weight of Slade's body pressed her to the ground, and she shifted to keep most of the weight of the two adults off a squirming Nugget.

“Are you all right?” Annabelle choked the words out, thankful that at least she knew Nugget was alive. Slade, on the other hand, remained a dead weight on top of her.

Nugget coughed, and Annabelle thought she might have heard the little girl say yes.

“Don't try to talk. The dust's too thick.”

“Hey, boss!” A man's voice called from the other end of the tunnel. “You ready for us to get the silver?”