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“I know, kid,” he said, looking back to where Tommy and Frank had been. “Okay. Real quiet. Get the others up and start moving back that way. Move.”
The boys shook one another, waking one after another until they were all standing and following the man. He kept close to the canyon walls, trying to keep the boys away from the water. But it was no use. The water was rising, and the boys were in serious trouble.
“Up there,” said Rusty. “Look up there. There’s a ledge that you can get up on. You’ll get wet, but you’ll be safe. Come on.”
One by one, he lifted the boys above him to the ledge, the water now nearly to his waist. There was one boy left, the smallest.
“I can’t reach,” cried the boy. “I’m scared.”
“Buddy, I know,” said Rusty, “but I need you to reach more. Try harder. I’m losing my footing.”
One of the older boys laid on his stomach, reaching for the arms of their smallest camper.
“No! No, don’t do that,” said Rusty. “I can’t risk you falling.”
He was holding on for dear life, one arm around the boy, the other gripping the corner of the ledge. They were going to die. Suddenly, he had an idea.
“One more time, kid. Come on, get on my shoulders.”
The little boy stood on his shoulders, still struggling to reach the ledge. Now, cold and shaking, he was weak. Then it was as if the whole world lifted from his body. Looking up, Rusty saw the face of a man, a very angry, very dangerous man, holding the boy.
“Don’t hurt them. They’re just kids. Get them to safety,” he said.
“I won’t hurt them,” said Trak. “Take my hand.”
Rusty couldn’t believe the man was reaching for him as well, but the moment he lifted his arms, the raging waters took him away.
“Help him!” yelled one of the boys. “He saved us.”
“Hold on, kid,” said Wilson. “Come with me. My friends will try to help him.”
Trak took off along the ridge of the canyon, running, trying to see the head of the man who’d lost his footing. It would bob up, then go down again. Zeke, Ian, and Ghost thought about diving in but knew they would risk their own lives without equipment or ropes.
When they spotted Trak stopped up ahead, they knew the man was gone.
“He went under and didn’t come back up,” said Trak. “There are rocks everywhere. He could have hit his head or something.”
“He saved those boys,” said Ian. “That means something to me.”
“That leaves the other two. Did you get a good look at that one?” asked Ghost.
“Yep. Rusty James. Serving seven years for armed robbery. He wasn’t one of the dangerous ones we wanted.” Trak looked back at his friends. They were soaked to the skin, looking like drowned rats, which they almost were.
“Let’s get back to the kids. Until this rain stops and the sun comes up, we won’t be able to do a damn thing,” said Zeke. “In the morning, Trak and I will set out to find the trail of the other two.”
By the time they found the others, they were already beneath another ledge higher up in the canyon, a fire burning, and the boys being treated for minor injuries.
“Everyone okay?” asked Nine.
“We are. He was swept away,” said Ghost.
“He was nice to us,” said one of the boys. “He helped to save us and made the other men stop so we could rest. He even helped us catch fish so we could eat dinner.”
“We’ll make sure to tell everyone that,” smiled Wilson. When the kids were down, sound asleep around the warm fire, the men began making their plans.
With no leverage to use with the kids, the convicts would be desperate to find their cave with the money and get the hell out of Idaho. Normally, that would have been wonderful, but now the men felt as though they had a score to settle.
Just when they thought things would improve, chilling winds came howling through the canyon, sending shudders through everyone.
