"Kid. Psst, Kid! Over here."
Kid followed the sound of the voice down the hall and into the kitchen. Peering down behind the stove he saw a strange sight. Mr. Holloway was crouched behind the stove supporting a young woman's head in his hands. The girl had thin, spidery lines that looked like scars running around both eyes, she also had a line of blood running down the side of her face. Her eyes were closed and she was very still. Holloway's long gray coat was draped across her.
"Is she, is she dead?" Kid asked stuttering.
"I don't think so. But she will be if they find her. I've got to get her somewhere other than here. Can you take her to the Station with you?" Mr. Holloway asked him hopefully.
"I'm real sorry, Mr. Holloway, but I can't. I've got to get to Sunset Creek. Teaspoon will have my head if I'm not out there and back in time for the next packet." Kid told him.
"There isn't a Sunset Creek for you to go to, Kid. All that's left now is a lot of ashes and dead people." Mr. Holloway said in a very solemn voice.
Kid stared at him in horror. "I'll explain it all to you later. Take her with you, Kid. Tell Teaspoon that her name is Colleen Callahan. He knows who she is. Now go!"
Kid took the young woman in his arms and laid her across his saddle. He sprang up, wrapped his arm around her waist, and spurred his horse in the direction of the Pony Express Station House.
It was a strange assortment of young men. An Indian, and African-American, one with no hair, one blond and dressed all in buckskin, one that looked too small to be any good, and another that looked like he'd shoot you if you looked his way. Their eyes scanned the area.
"Kid's not due back until tonight, right, Lou?" The tough looking one asked the small one.
"No, Jimmy. He's not." Lou replied.
The one without any hair tapped the Indian on the shoulder and signed something. "Ike said, that the rider's coming in a hurry. There's also more than one rider." The Indian said.
"How can you tell?" Lou asked him.
"The horse doesn't sound right." He replied.
Just then the Kid and his horse rounded the bend in the road. Kid was riding hard. He pulled Katy to a stop just in front of the house. The others stared at him in shock, and at the young woman in front of him on the saddle. She looked like a china doll, a rather strange china doll. Pale skin, dark hair, thin and dressed like a man. "Ike, help me. Take her inside." Kid said lifting the girl up and passing her to Ike. Ike carried her inside. Teaspoon and Rachel jumped up when he walked into the main room where they were.
"What happened, Ike? Who's that?" Teaspoon asked.
Ike jerked his head in the direction of the group of riders around Kid. Teaspoon walked out the door and across the yard to the others, leaving Ike and Rachel to care for the girl.
"Bring her in here, Ike." Rachel said, walking over to the room that she normally slept in. "Just lay her down there on the bed." She instructed. Ike did as he was told.
When Rachel came over and began to unbutton the shirt the girl was wearing Ike turned to go.
"Don't go anywhere, Ike. I'm going to need your help."
Blushing hard Ike stood looking at the ceiling while Rachel gave him the girls clothes, guns, knives, and hat to hold.
"Just put those clothes in the chest and come with me to see what Teaspoon found out from the others." She told him.
As they walked out into the main room all of the other riders looked worried.
Who is she? Ike signed to Buck.
<Ask Teaspoon>, Buck signed back.
Ike turned to Teaspoon and signed the question to him.
"All I'm going to tell any of you is that her name is Colleen Callahan. That's all you need to know for now."
<How'd she get here?> Ike signed.
Buck asked the Kid. Kid told them the whole story about what Holloway had said. He even included the gruesome news about Sunset Creek. They all sat in silence for quite some time. The quiet was interrupted when Deputy John Samara walked in the door.
"Where is she?" Were the first words out of his mouth. Everyone stared at him in shock. "I know she's here, Holloway told me. Just let me talk to her." He said. Everyone relaxed.
"No one's going to be talking to her for a while yet, John. She's still out cold." Rachel told him, walking to him to give him a hug and take his coat, hat, and gun belt. "Why won't anyone tell us what happened?" Kid asked.
John and Teaspoon looked at each other.
"Can I tell them, Marshal Hunter?" John asked.
Teaspoon nodded to him.
John opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a strong female voice from the back.
"Excuse me, but I would dearly love to know where I am. Would someone mind coming back here and telling me?" Rachel stood. "I'll go. You tell them, John." John cleared his throat and began.
"Colleen Callahan, Callie as she's better known, is one of the best female gunfighters ever. Her parents were killed in the range wars about twelve years ago. She and her sister were sent to an orphanage in Sante Fe. A nun who worked there adopted them and changed their last names from Callahan to Gallagher. Colleen never was able to forget about what had happened to her parents, she was determined for revenge. When she was about 15 she ran away from the orphanage with three of her friends: James Crags, Michael Runes, and Luke Morgan. There was trouble wherever they went. Gunfights, saloon brawls, things like that. Well, about a year and a half ago, Callie and her boys went to Sunset Creek looking for an old enemy that had shown up again. The man that had killed her parents. Some fellow named Van Dahl. They were set up. Her boys were all said to be killed and for a while everyone thought that she was dead. Truth was though, that she had just been hurt real bad. Three gunshot wounds, and being bashed across the eyes with a whiskey bottle will make anyone want to lay low for a while. But there's something else about her that I'm fairly sure only a few people know. Callie's, well, see that whiskey bottle hit her across the eyes and she's, well, she's..." John trailed off, looking at the back of the room. "For one thing, she's up." He said abruptly.
Everyone turned in the direction he was facing. A young woman stood there looking in John's direction with a defiant and cocky statement. "What were you going to say, John? That I'm blind? It's no great secret." She said. The face that they'd all seen now had a strong mesmerizing voice and crystal blue eyes to go with it. She had a very beautiful face, despite the scars that ran around her eyes. The way she was standing there you never would have been able to tell she was blind. Ike watched her every move. Her cocky attitude was very evident. She was looking in John's direction like she could see him. It was eerie. Her clothes were men's clothes. They fit her loosely, but you could still see that her shape was very feminine. She had a pair of ivory handled Navy Colts, much like Jimmy's only hers were engraved with something and the one on her right side had a small silver cross hanging from it, slung low on her waist. A knife was strapped to her left leg. She had another knife at her belt. Her shirt was white and she had on a tan vest over it. Her pants were dark brown and they were pulled down over her boots. She held her hat in her hands. It was black with a feather attached to the hatband. The feather was small and red. She put the hat on her head; frowning when she felt the bandage that was wrapped around her temples. Ike thought she looked amazing.
"I've got to be going, Deputy. Real nice of you to invite me to stay, Rachel, but I've been here too long." She said.
"Please stay, Callie. It's dangerous for you to be out. I'm sure one of the boys won't mind giving up a bed for one night." Rachel said.
"Boys?" Callie asked.
"Yes. The Pony Express riders for Sweetwater. There's Buck; he's the one closest to you. He's an Indian half-breed. Then there's Kid and Lou. Kid's the one who brought you here. Then there's Cody and Jimmy. Then over here there's Ike. He can hear but he can't speak." Rachel told her.
Callie shook hands with each of them and then turned to Rachel. "I really have to be going. Good night." Then, with one hand out she walked across the room, feeling her way to the door. When she stepped outside she whistled loudly. A few moments later a horse trotted into view. "As you can see, I brought your horse." John said. "You're wrong, Deputy." She said bitterly. John looked at her in shock. She turned her head in his direction so that the scars were plainly visible. "I can't see." She told him then, turning, mounted her horse and spurred it into a gallop. In moments the sound of hooves disappeared. The group stood there inside the door in a kind of shocked silence. Ike tapped Teaspoon on the shoulder and signed him a question. <Should she be riding when she's hurt?> Ike asked. "No, she shouldn't be riding! Come on all of you! We've got to find her before she gets sick or hurt or something such as that!" Teaspoon said. No one moved.
"COME ON ALL OF YOU!" He yelled. With a start all of the boys ran to the barn and saddled their horses. As soon as they were all saddled they set out in search of someone that none of them knew and they were all fairly certain they would never find.
