With her back to the wall, Betsy faced the cot where Katie Ellen fed her new babe while Josiah smoothed her hair, muttering words of appreciation. Bending at the knees, Betsy wedged her fingers beneath the lid of the chest and eased it open. Hinges creaked, but no one noted it. Light cleared the shadows, and she spotted the terrifying hood of black with cork horns and white painted mouth. In one smooth motion, she dropped it into the bundle, lowered the lid of the chest, and gathered the sheets around it.
Nervously she approached the cot to make her farewells, but Josiah and Katie Ellen weren’t the least bit concerned. With mixed excitement and dread, Betsy hurried out and headed toward home. Uncle Fred’s coat, worn inside out, would serve well. Scott wasn’t home, so she could borrow a pair of his trousers and he’d be none the wiser. A horse from the sale barn, and all was set.
She’d always wanted to ride with the gang. Tonight was her chance.
Chapter 26
It hadn’t been as easy as he’d thought. If the Bald Knobbers had designated a time to meet, they surely didn’t break their necks being punctual. Instead, every few minutes a man left town, making it hard to follow for fear that someone was coming up right behind him.
But the trees did serve a purpose. On the prairie you were as noticeable as a tick on a hairless dog, but here you could hide in the dark if you just stood still anywhere besides the trail. But then, so could everyone else.
So far no one had ridden out of town with their peculiar costume, which meant that everyone would be stopping somewhere in the woods to take up their disguise. He wished they’d hurry. It’d be easier to know who to trail if they were all decked out.
A stocky man rode through town on a mule, not in a hurry, just trotting along like he was headed to work. Joel eased out of the trees at the crossing with his horse’s reins in hand. Let the man get just a little farther along, then Joel would step in behind him, but first he had to make sure there were no other latecomers to catch him. Looking both ways, he spotted yet another figure darting through the shadows. He froze. The others had ridden down the road with no concerns, but this man didn’t want to be seen, and he was headed toward the auction house.
Praying that his horse wouldn’t give away his location, Joel pulled the reins and eased off the road to follow the path of the loner. Once he reached the clearing around the sale barn, he stopped. Where had the man gone? To step into the opening before knowing was foolhardy, and Joel had already made enough mistakes. A gate crashed closed, hooves sounded, and right before him dashed a hooded figure on one of the horses that’d been left in the pens. Before he could reckon who in town didn’t have a horse, who might have access to any stray livestock at the barn, he realized that the figure now wore the hated Bald Knobber mask and that the mask was familiar.
Joel’s horse whinnied. He barred his arm against its muzzle, but the rider hadn’t heard. He was too busy trying to keep his light bones from bouncing out of the saddle. Joel didn’t recognize the man, but he did recognize the mask. He hadn’t thought to look for it before he left, but someone had lifted Pritchard’s hood right from beneath his nose. And the man on that horse wasn’t Pritchard.
It had to be Josiah Huckabee. Joel swung into the saddle and chucked to his mount, setting off at a safe distance behind the rider. Josiah had plenty of opportunity to run across the hood while his wife delivered their baby. And he worked at the sale barn, so it only made sense that he’d keep a mount there. While Joel would’ve expected a livestock dealer to be able to ride better, maybe the shadows were playing tricks on him. Had Josiah managed to have his wife give birth at the jailhouse as part of his plan? Joel wouldn’t think they’d go that far just to get Pritchard’s hood, but stranger things had happened. Especially here.
The moon had risen, but the clouds meant that light wasn’t constant. Joel only hoped he wasn’t discovered before they led him to Bullard’s supposed hiding place. In silence he followed Josiah for what seemed like winding miles. Once the man stopped suddenly and cocked his head, the horns of his hood swinging from side to side. Had he heard something? But surprisingly enough, Josiah seemed to consider the bend ahead and then reversed direction. Joel barely had time to rein his horse into a thicket before Josiah was facing his way. He rode toward Joel a few lengths, then plunged off the trail into a gulley. Could it be that Josiah didn’t know the way to the meeting place? Joel pondered this as he eased down the treacherous drop. Maybe Josiah wasn’t part of the gang. If he were, wouldn’t he have a hood of his own? But why join up now? Why on the very day he had a new baby?