Cheyenne Saturday - Empty-Grave Extended Edition by Richard Jessup Page B

she swung up on a pony.
    “We'd better light out fast,” Ellis said, cutting south to avoid the draw. “Unless we can get help from the camp to come back and clean out those other Cheyenne, there's goin' to be hell to pay with a herd of buffalo stampedin' through the tents.” 
    “Let's go,” Liza Reeves said tersely.
    Trailing the third pony, they moved off to the south and east, riding hard in the late afternoon sun.
     

Chapter 6
    AT ONE O'CLOCK Liam Kelly began to fret, searching the plains to the west. By this time the Johnny-Jacks had laid four miles of rails, faster than it had ever been put down before. Kelly rode a borrowed horse to the railhead now, ignoring the Jehus' carts hauling the rails.
    By two o'clock Kelly really began to worry. He rode back to the tent city, hoping with all his might that Ellis and Jake and Liza Reeves had returned safely with news that his fears were unfounded. He pounded up to a stop before his tent and threw the neck rope to the crippled Jehu who came out to greet him with a grin. “They show up yet, boy?” he demanded.
    “Not yet, Mr. Kelly.”
    “Never mind the horse, lad,” Kelly said. “Get over to Watson's and see if they've stopped there for a drink. Then come find me at the general's.”
    The boy nodded and hobbled away as quickly as he could on the make-shift crutch. Kelly turned toward the general's tent.
    “General's moved to his caboose, Kelly,” Billy Brighton told him. The ex-major was sweating over a drafting board. “Any word from Jake, or from Miss Reeves? Or from the cowboy?”
    “Not a sign of them,” Kelly said.
    Brighton pursed his lips. “You better get over and tell the general. That detachment of soldiers that came down on the pay train's due to return to Omaha tonight. And some of the regulars with the camp are going back on leaves, the replacements coming in next week. If there's anything coming up, we're going to be mighty shorthanded.”
    Kelly hurried out of the engineers' tent, half ran to the rails, flagged a Jehu and climbed aboard. Flying down the side of the rails with a load of cross ties, Kelly was deposited outside the general's caboose and climbed aboard.
    One half of the car was given over to sleeping and living quarters for the man in charge of putting through the Union Pacific. The other half resembled a small arsenal, littered with drafting boards, rolls of surveyors' maps and engineering gear of every kind.
    The congressmen were still bending the general's ear when Kelly swung up on the car and pushed in.
    He caught the general's eye. The general knew at a glance that his big roving bucko was worried. He bent a finger at Kelly and moved away from the others and into his private quarters.
    The door closed behind them and he turned to face the big man. “What is it, Kelly?”
    “No word, General,” Kelly said heavily. “Still nothin' specific. I sent a scout out 'fore noon and he was trailed by that young woman, Jake Reeves's sister. I haven't heard from either of them. Nor Jake, either. I don't like it, General.”
    The general closed his eyes and pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “Want me to send out a detachment of soldiers?”
    Kelly shook his head. “No, sir, but Major Brighton just told me that the pay train guards and some regulars were headed back to Omaha tonight on the return supply train. If we could keep them in camp, it might help—in case anythin' happens.”
    “If anything happens, Kelly,” the general said. He pointed to the door. “There are three congressmen outside, and each one of them is intent on hamstringing this whole operation. They hated President Lincoln's guts and they'd just love to go back to Washington and raise hell. I can't go into the whole political-financial intrigue of the building of this railroad now, Kelly, but unless you can give me concrete assurances that Goose Face and a war party are in the area, I can't ask the detachment of regulars going home on leave—or