“What’s happening?” Abby clutched his arm in a death grip.
Gage grabbed his flashlight and flipped it on, rolled to his feet, and ran to the mouth of the cave.
Mateo was already there. “Flash flood. The water washes down the side of the mountain through the canyon below.” Where they had been only hours ago.
Gage shined the light on the ravine they’d been traversing, saw uprooted trees and branches rushing past in a sea of brown, muddy water. Boulders were swept away, patches of dirt crumbling off the mountainside into the violent onslaught.
“What about the mules?” Gage asked as Kyle appeared beside him.
“Hobbled them up on the slope of the hill. Damned good thing.”
“The water would have taken them if you hadn’t.”
Kyle nodded. “My dad knows these mountains. When he talks, I’m smart enough to listen.”
Gage clamped a hand on his shoulder.
“What about the trail?” Abby asked anxiously, staring down at the dark, turbulent river dimly illuminated by the spot of light shining down from so far above. “It’s going to be washed away.”
“Only parts of it,” Gage said. “We’ll have to make adjustments. We won’t know how much of a problem it is until morning. Nothing we can do until then.” But dawn was close. With all the excitement, there was no way he’d be able to go back to sleep.
“I need to check the mules,” Kyle said, beginning to pace the floor of the cave. “They’ll be frightened to death. I don’t want anything to happen to them.”
Gage shook his head. “Too dangerous. One slip and you’ll wind up in the water. In minutes, you could be dead.” He panned the ground with the flashlight, but the mules were too far away to see.
Time passed. Minutes turned into an hour.
“The rain has stopped,” Mateo said, his ear tuned to the quiet that had replaced the drumbeat against the walls outside the cave. “It won’t take long for the water to slow enough for us to leave.”
Gage studied the horizon, saw the faint gray light of dawn. “Let’s pack up and be ready to go.”
“There is still enough wood for a fire,” Mateo said. “I will make coffee while we wait.”
Gage nodded.
By the time it was light enough to see, the floodwaters had dropped to a muddy trickle, and all of them were packed and ready to leave. The bad news was, the water had washed out a portion of the rocks below the cave, taking out the path they had used to make the ascent.
It was tough going up. Going down could be deadly.
“We’re roping up,” Gage said. “The rocks are going to be like glass, the handholds unreliable. The climb’s bound to be treacherous.”
“I’ll go first,” Kyle volunteered, tugging down the brim of his damp straw cowboy hat. “I need to get to the mules.”
Gage nodded. “I’ll anchor you.”
Grabbing the nylon rope tied to his pack, he made a loop and lifted it over Kyle’s head, pulled it snug around his waist. Gage set his boot against the cave wall and fed out the line as Kyle began his descent. He picked his way down the steep rock face, slipped a couple of times, drawing a gasp from Abby, but Gage kept the rope taut. Kyle made the trip safely to the washed-out trail and disappeared in search of the mules.
“Mateo, you’re next.” Gage pulled up the rope and prepared for the second man to make the trip. Mateo was agile and experienced. He waved when he reached the bottom.
“Your turn, Abby.”
“What about you? Who’s going to anchor you?”
He grinned. “If I fall, I guess you’ll just have to catch me.”
“It’s not funny, Gage.”
His smile slipped away. “Somebody has to be the anchor, honey. I’m biggest, therefore the logical choice.”
He roped her up the same way he had the others. “Mateo will be waiting at the bottom. If you get in trouble, remember, I’ve got you.”
She nodded, adjusted the rope, and stepped out of the cave. The first half of the descent went well as Abby carefully picked her way down the muddy trail. Then the going got tougher. The ground was wet and slick with stones and debris, big chunks of the path swept away.
Gage tensed as Abby stepped on a rock, which twisted beneath her weight, and her feet went out from under her. She cried out as she slid down the mountain and swung out into thin air. The rope went taut in Gage’s hands, and though he maintained control, his mouth went dry.
This was Abby. He couldn’t let anything happen to her.
Gage tightened his grip on the rope and pulled her back far enough for her feet to find purchase on solid ground.
“I’m all right!” She waved and called up to him.
It didn’t lessen the frantic pounding of his heart or the flash of memory that carried him back to another perilous journey. Back to a woman’s terrified cries and his failed efforts to save her.
Gage shook the memory off as Abby reached the bottom and stepped out of the loop around her waist. Gage brought the rope back up, looped the coil over his shoulder, and started down the steep rock face. Where the route got dicey, he tied the rope around a boulder and hand-over-handed the rest of his way down the mountain to what was left of the washed-out trail.
Abby was waiting. She walked over and threw her arms around his neck. “I don’t care if I’m breaking the rules. I’m just glad you’re down safely.” Gage allowed himself a moment to enjoy her embrace, burying his face in her hair.
“You scared me,” he admitted.
“I’m okay.” She eased back out of his arms. “But one of the mules is gone.”
“Drowned?”
She shook her head. “Kyle thinks he broke loose and headed back to the ranch.”
“Which mule?”
Kyle answered as he walked up, leading the second mule. “Snickers, the one we were using to carry your equipment and some of the maps. I left the panniers under a staked down tarp so everything is there, just no way to carry it.”
“We’ll pare everything down to basics, pack Mort with the heavy stuff, and divide the rest of the load among us.”
“Whatever we leave behind,” Kyle said, “my dad and I can pack out later.”
“That sounds good. Let’s get going.” Gage dug through everything in both mules’ panniers, extracting the most important items. “We’ll only need enough pellets to feed one animal. We’re boiling and treating our water. With the rain, the water basins should be full, but it’s imperative to have at least enough on hand for emergencies.”
Like the weather changing and the basin drying up, or the water holes not being where they were shown on the map.
“I hate to leave my digital camera,” Abby said. “But my little Elph 190 is a lot smaller and takes great video and stills.”
Gage nodded. They sorted through everything, bringing the food, pellets for the mule, emergency water, the maps, and as much of their tarps and prospecting gear as they could manage. Gage always carried the sat phone and charger in his pack, so that wasn’t a problem.
It took over an hour to get organized, then the rest of the morning to navigate around the washout, using game trails to move through the hostile landscape. The rain had thrown them off schedule yesterday. After the flash flood, today’s slow traveling threw them even further behind.