Disclaimer:  The usual disclaimers apply.  I’ m not making money.  This is
just for fun.  The character belong to, and are the sole property of the
Marshall family.

Title: The Searching
Author: Liddy



Note:  the story takes place somewhere between Maggie’s reappearance and
redisappearance, and the final episode.  I am taking liberties with some of
the events, and with the time line.  Just imagine this taking place while
the stories in the series were going on.


The Searching, Part 1


          Neil took a deep breath and filled his lungs with cool, crisp mountain
air.  There was a chill in the air as he rode to the mission that day.  “
The snows will be coming soon, winter in the mountains can be a cruel and
unforgiving time,” he thought to himself, as he let his horse meander down
the familiar, and well trodden path.  How many winters had he spent alone,
these last few years, and how many winters had he spent in loneliness in the
years before that.  It amazed him how people could feel even lonelier around
someone than they could  if there were no one there at all.  
        This thought made him suddenly stop on the path that looked out over the
mountain ranges.  He sat in silence listening to the sound of the wind as it
moaned through the now nearly empty trees.  “The world is still, if only we
could keep it this way.”  He drew his jacket around his throat as a
shuddering breeze blew down off the mountain.   The gray clouds covered the
morning sun, and Neil pulled the collar of his jacket  even closer. “Yes, it
would be a cold winter.”  Like so many before.  He sat looking out over the
mountains, as the memories came flooding back to him.    Slowly, Neil was
roused back to reality.  He shook his head, and silently admonished himself
for such thoughts.  He needed to get a move on anyway, he thought.  He
wanted to get to the mission before Christy started her day at school.  He
touched the saddle bags that  were bulging with the books  he had searched
for all morning.  One about physiology, and another about geography.  He had
also stuffed several books about Scotland in at the last minute.  He thought
Christy might like to read some of exploits of the mountain peoples’
Scottish ancestors to the children. He knew how much they enjoyed listening
to stories of Bonnie Prince Charlie, and Clans of the Scots.
        In the other saddle bag he had stuffed several pounds of campier.  He
didn’t know why, but in his mind he thought perhaps the mission might be in
need of more campher.  As he set off down the path again, he hoped he would
not be late, he hoped he could give the books to Christy in person.  He
wanted to hear her  gentle voice saying thank you Doctor.  He wanted so see
her smile at him.  Her smile lit up the world.  He wanted to look into those
blue eyes, and carry the memory of that moment with him.  Although he would
never admit this to himself.  In the Doctor’s mind he was helping out a
friend, and being kind to the children.

                                ---------------------------------------


        Neil arrived at the mission to the sounds of children playing in the school
yard, and the smell of Ruby May’s cooking.  “Ah, possum again,” he thought
to himself with a smile.
        “Alice,” Neil stepped down from his horse and waved to the familiar smiling
face, as she worked in the garden.  “I thought the garden would be least of
your worried now.”
        “Just bringing in the last of the summer beans.  One always misses a
handful or two. I think this winter we will need all that we can get. “
Alice said as she stood up and stretched her aging, and aching back.  “I
think we will still be more fortunate that most of our neighbors will be
this winter.”
        “We usually are”, Neil said, with a sad sigh.
        “Yes, we never know what God is trying to teach us, but there is a lesson
in everything.”  Alice had known Neil MacNeill long enough to know not to
start a discussion on philosophy with him, so she let the subject drop.  “To
what do we owe this unexpected pleasure”
        Neil  was surprised by her question.  “Campher,” he said after a few second
of thought,  “I thought you might be needed a fresh supply to stock up for
winter,” he told her as he reached into his saddle bag and pulled out the
canvas bag.
        “Capher, Doctor?” Alice questioned him. “ Did thee forget?  You sent Ruby
May back with Campher just last week.”
        An embarrassed look crossed the face of the good doctor, and all he could
do was reply, “Oh, yes, so I did.”  “Well, he continued  in that case I’ll
be taking this back with me.”  he let the bag drop to his side, and turned
to mount his horse.  “Oh, I nearly forgot, I brought some books for Christy
to read to the children.  Is she at the school?”  
        A stern look crossed Alice’s face, as she came to realize the real reason
for the Doctor’s visit.  “Oh, I see, thee has brought books for the
children.” she said, quickly turning around to hide the displeasure in her
face.  She hastily dropped the handful of green beans into her basket. 
Alice new the Doctor was fond of Christy, and even though Christy would
admit to only a friendship with Doctor MacNeill, she was sure that the two
had strong feeling for each other.  Feelings other than friendship.  She
knew and saw that the feelings existed, even if neither the Doctor nor the
teacher would admit it to themselves.
        Turning around to face Neil once again, Alice looked him straight in the
eye.  “Neil, thee has just missed Christy.  She took Prince and rode over to
your place early this morning to give thee some pictures the children drew
for thee in school yesterday.  She wanted to be back before school started. 
Though I don’t think she’s going to make it.”  Alice thought a moment and
them added.  “Did thee not see her on the path coming to the mission?”
        “No,” Neil replied, but my thoughts were elsewhere.”
        “Oh,  Neil, Thee wouldn’t have missed her if she took the same path.” 
        They both studied each other’s faces, and turned to search the path which
lead back to the Doctor’s cabin.




The Searching- Part 2

        Christy let Prince amble along the river bank that same morning.  She had
hoped to make her visit to Dr. MacNeill’s cabin a quick one, and be back to
ring the bell that would call the children at the usual time.  As she rode
along breathing in the air, and letting the breezes take her, and her
imagination to where ever they wished to be, she came to the realization
that school would start late today.  “ The river is so peaceful, I could
stay here all day,” she thought to herself, as she let Prince guide her
along his familiar route to the Doctor’s cabin.   A route that the horse and
the teacher had become very familiar  with in the months since Christy had
come to Cutter Gap.
        Somewhere in the back of her mind she hoped to meet Neil  on that
riverbank.  That is why she took the longer way, along the river this
morning, and not the shorter, quicker path over the mountain.   As Christy
looked peacefully at the water, she also searched the distances around each
bend and turn in the river, and listened for the familiar kurplunk of the
flies that the Doctor used for fishing.  Christy new that Neil loved to fish
for hours in the fall, before winter set in.  Trying to catch the last of
the running trout, and to make summer last as long as possible, before the
ice and snow settled over the mountains.
        “Well, Prince should we quicken our step?  We do want to find the Doctor
before he has to run off on an errand of mercy.”  The horse perked up his
ears at the sound of Christy’s voice, and quickened his step along the
rocks, while his rider gently nudged him on with the heel of her shoe. 
Christy had never been much of a rider, but she had come to trust Prince,
and he had come to trust her.  She new he would take her to and return her
from her destination safe and sound.  So she let him do the work, while she
let her mind wonder around the beauty and majesty of the mountains.
        “I hope we don’t miss him,” Christy resumed her conversation with her
equine companion. “I know he will love the pictures the children drew. 
Perhaps we can even talk him into visiting our little school again to tell
us more about Bonnie Prince Charlie.”  Christy patted Prince’s neck.  “I
think the children would like. Don’t you.”  she said to the horse.  What she
wanted to say, and what she was thinking were very different from the words
that escaped her mouth on that chilly morning by the river.  She wanted to
hear the Doctor’s gentle voice saying “Thank you Christy.”  She wanted to
feel his touch as their finger accidentally met while she handed over the
pictures.  She wanted so see him smile at her.  His smile seemed to light up
the world.  She wanted to look into those blue eyes, and carry the memory of
that moment with her.  Although she would never admit this to herself.  In
the teacher’s mind she was bringing a gift to a friend.
        Christy’s morning journey along the river bank was nearly over.  Only a few
more minutes and she would be at the Doctor’s door step.  She strained her
neck to catch a glimpse of the cabin.  
 As she came around the last bend in the river, Christy heard a strange
sound in the woods.  She stopped Prince, and cautiously jumped down off of
his back.  “I have a feeling I know what that was,” she whispered to Prince,
and patted him once more on the neck.  
        “Creed Allen, aren’t you supposed to be at school by now?” Christy hollered
into he woods.  The whispering stopped, and Christy heard the leaves and
twigs crackle as what ever made the sound came closer to where she was
standing along the river bank. 
        “Creed, come on out," I’m going to give Dr. MacNeill the pictures from
yesterday.  You can come too, and then you can ride with me back to school.”
        Christy heard the bushes swish and sway from behind her as she turned to
look in the other direction into the woods.  She knew she had caught Creed
trying to spend the day hunting for arrowheads instead of learning about
letters and number so she decided to play along.  She pretended that she
hadn’t heard him coming out of the woods behind her.  Christy waited for
just the right time to turn around and surprise him.  
        “Can I come back with you too, teacher?”  A rough and brash man’s voice
came from behind her.  Christy turned around to came face to face with a
mountain man she had never seen before.  Christy gasped as the man grabbed
her by the arms, and pulled her into the wood.  He had taken her by
surprise, she didn’t have time to think, or to resist.
        “You didn’t answer my question, teacher, can I come too?”  The man spoke so
closely to her that she could feel his breath blowing her hair away from her
face.
        “Who are you?” Christy asked trying to be brave, but the tremble in her
voice was evident.  “Let me go, you’re hurting me.”
        “Oh, well now If I told you my name, then you might tell them people that
you seen me, and we couldn’t have that.
        “Please, let me go.  I don’t know you, I can’t tell anyone anything.”
        “Sorry teacher, ‘fraid I caint do that,” as the stranger spoke  he
tightened his grip around her arms.  “Hey, boys, lookie what we got here. I
found someone listening to our little plan,” he hollered over his shoulder
into the woods.
        Christy watched in horror as two more men came out of the woods, and stood
close to her.  She looked from face to face hoping to recognize someone who
would stop this, but she didn’t know any of these men.  Her heart jumped
into her throat, and her breath came short, as the men looked her over. 
“God, please help me,” she thought to herself.  “Please let Neil come along
the river, and stop this,”  Oh, God please,” she prayed, as she saw a fourth
figure step out of the forest.  She turned her head to look at the man
coming toward her.  It took a moment, but in that man’s face she saw the
scared face of a boy.
        “Lundy,” she called out, “Help me.”  Christy began to struggle.  
         Lundy paused, and was quiet for a short time “I...I..I  caint do that Miss
Christy. You might tell."   Lundy’s words made Christy stop struggling, and
stare at him.  She felt betrayed,  utterly alone, and terrified.
        “Lundy,” Christy searched him with her eyes, “Please.” her desperate voice
pleaded with the boy she had once hoped to help.
        “Miss Christy, I caint.  You heard us talkin’, you heard what we did.  See
I told these guys Doc MacNeill’s cabin’s full of pickens that we can sell,
so we waited for him to leave this morning, and we helped ourselves.”
        “Neil’s gone,” Christy thought to herself, as a feeling she had never know
before began to wash over her.
        “Lundy, you dern fool,”  one of the men who had come out of the woods,
yelled at him, taking off his hat, and hitting Lundy with it several times.
        “What, I’m sorry,”  replied Lundy as he coward away from the blows of the
hat.
        The man who was still holding Christy by the arms began to yell, “Silas,
stop that.  It don’t matter, we gotta take her with us anyway.  Lundy said
this here teacher would be trouble when he saw her comin’ down the river." 
The man released his grip on one of Christy’s arms, as he tried to quiet the
two men down.  “ We don’t want her talkin.”
        “Ah, come on Rup, we don’t got enough for us. We don’t need another one
with us.  Just leave her here and take her horse. By the time she gets back
we’ll be long gone.”
        The man who was holding Christy’s arm tight began to fight with the other
men.  He wanted to take her with them, and they wanted to leave her behind. 
Christy saw this as her only change.  She was only being held by one arm
now, and they weren’t paying attention to her.  She reared back her foot,
and landed a hard kick on the shin of the man they called Rup.  He winced,
and yelled in pain, and for a split second he let her go.
        Christy began to run, if she could make it back to Prince, she would be
o.k. she could out run anyone riding Prince.  She felt the man grab for her,
but the pain of her kick must have been to much,  because he couldn’t catch
her.  As she looked back she could see the other men, including Lundy,
running after her.
        “Dear God, please help me,” she again said to herself.  As she reached the
bank of the river.  She could see that Prince was only a few feet away.
        The next few seconds seemed to Christy like hours.  The voices of the men
were a jumble of sounds.  She heard their foot steps behind her, then
nothing.  She did not look back as she ran, she kept her eyes focused on the
horse, her escape.  The next sounds she heard she didn’t recognize.  A loud
bang, and another, and another, and then she was knocked to the ground in a
daze.  She had reached Prince, but had only put her hand on the saddle when
she was stopped.  
        Light, voices, sound, and pain all swirled around her like a dream.  She
tried to get up but her whole body was on fire.  As she lay on the ground
she could feel herself gasping for breath and every breath was agony. Out of
the corner of her eye she saw Prince running down the river bank, back in
the direction to the mission.  One thought kept running through her mind.
“Neil, where are you, where are you?”
        Christy’s eyes drifted open and closed.  She heard the mountain men talking
but could not understand what they were saying.  She felt herself being
lifted up and carried back into the woods.  She did not know how far they
walked, but soon she felt herself being lifted onto a horse, and then the 
horse was running.  Every step the horse took, cut through Christy’s body
like a knife.  
        She didn’t know where she was going, but  she knew she could no longer stay
awake.  Just before she drifted off into an unconsious oblivion, she came to
the realization that she had been shot.



“The Searching”-Part 3

        Standing in the mission garden, Doctor MacNeill gave a quizzical look at
Alice Henderson, and for some time they stared at each other.  “Alice, I
didn’t see Christy at all this morning,”  he finally spoke.
        “There has to be some explanation.  Are you sure you took the same path you
always take?” Alice questioned him, as they turned again to look back down
the path.
        “Yes, I took the only marked path between here and my cabin, the path
Christy  always takes. I’ve met her on that path many times. “  The doctor
could feel fear, and uncertainty swelling in his chest, but he told himself
that Christy was only late, and she would be coming down that path any
minute.  He strained his eyes to look farther into the distance.  
        Alice pressed her hands together and put them to her lips as if praying to
God for the explanation she had asked for.  She finally spoke.  “This is not
like Christy at all,” she said.  “She would never be this late starting
school.  Even when she has an errand to run, she is always back in time to
ring the bell.”  Alice now recalled not hearing the bell ring that morning,
and she knew that the time was well beyond ten o’clock.
        “Miss Alice,” a voice called out from behind.  Alice and Neil turned around
together to see Ruby May bounding up into the garden.   “Where is Mizz
Christy?   She was supposed to ring the school bell, and I know that she
would want us to be learning by now.  Mizz Christy always says...”
        Alice interrupted Ruby May before she could finish.  “Ruby May,” she began,
“Have you seen Miss Christy this morning?” A look of hope crossed both the
doctor’s and the missionary’s faces.
        “No ma’am,” Alice and Neil signed together, their hopes of hearing about
Christy had been dashed. “Not since she left early this morning to take them
pictures to Doc MacNeill’s place.  She  took Prince and said that she’d be
back directly.  Said it wouldn’t take her long, and that if the Doc weren’t
at  home she leave the pictures for him.”  Ruby May looked at Doctor
MacNeill, “Did you like the pictures?” she asked him.
        “I haven’t seen the pictures,” he told her quickly.  “Ruby May, did you say
you saw  Miss Christy leave?” Neil's face was a blaze with hope again, and
Alice took noticed of this reaction.  
        “Yes, sir.”
        “Do you know what time it was when she left,” he asked her, grabbing her
softly by the shoulders to look at her face.
        “Well, now lets see, the rooster was crowing, and the crow called four
times, “Neil gave her an impatient look, Ruby May could never come quickly
to the point, “So I reckon it was  about  seven o’clock.  Yeah, it had to be
at seven because the light was not bright like it is at eight, but no dull
like it is at six.  Yeah, it was close the seven o’clock.”
        “Neil it doesn’t take two hours to get to your place and back,” Alice told
him.  She wanted to question his reaction to hearing Ruby May’s news, but
knew this was not the time nor the place.  That would wait for later.
        “Well Miss Christy’s back, Mizz Alice” Ruby may said matter of factly.
        “I thought you said you hadn’t seen her since she left,” the doctor
questioned  her.
        “Well, I haven’t seen Mizz Christy, but Prince is out grazing down yonder
in the field.” 
        “Prince is back, Ruby may?” Alice asked her.
        “Yeah, and Mizz Christy must have been in an awful  hurry to get school
started, she left his saddle on and everything, poor thing.  Guess she
figured she just send one of us to take care of Prince once she got school
started, and...
        Ruby may was again interrupted, this time by the doctor,  “Ruby May, lets
go see if we can take care of Prince.”  Neil was anxious to see the horse,
and hopefully its rider.
        “O.k. follow me,” Ruby May ran off down the hill toward the school, with
the Doctor, and Miss Alice following behind.
        Neil and Alice followed Ruby May past the school, and into the front
pasture.  Ruby May was the first to reach the horse, who nuzzled her hand
when she offered it  to him.  The young girl said a few kind words to the
horse before walking around  the other side of the horse to gather up his
reins.  “AAAHHHHHH, “ Ruby May let out a loud piercing scream, that made
Alice and Neil quicken their pace to a run.  
        Alice reached Ruby May, and putting a comforting arm around her shoulder,
asked “What’s the matter child?”  Ruby May pointed to the side of Prince’s
saddle.
        The Doctor who had already seen the saddle stopped short; his eyes widened,
and he had no words. On the side of the horse’s saddle,  and on the side
horse himself were large spots, and splatterings of red blood.
        Doctor MacNeill composed himself enough to examine the horse, and
determined the blood had not come from Prince.  Although he would not say
it, for fear of upsetting Ruby May and Alice, who was already thinking the
same thing,      and for fearing that saying what he thought would make it true.
The doctor knew in his heart (which was now beating faster than he could
ever remember it beating in his life) that the blood could only have come
from the horses rider, from the young woman he had hoped to see that
morning, but was to late. The blood on the saddle belonged to Christy.
        Neil, finally spoke, “Dear God,” were the only words he was able to form.


“The Searching”-Part 4

        Neil desperately searched around the trees and ditches of the path he had
wondered down earlier in the morning.  He was looking for..he didn’t know
exactly what he was looking for, but he knew who he was looking for.  When
Prince arrived back at the mission without Christy, and with blood covering
his saddle, it hadn’t taken Neil long to mount his own horse, call for Alice
to organize a search party, and gallop back toward his cabin, to look for
her.  His heart leaped with anticipation and fear every time he rounded a
bend or looked closer to examine a fallen tree.  His anticipation, though,
was always rocked back to reality when he realized what he was looking at
was a bush, or clump of leaves, and not the young woman he was growing more
concerned about by the minute.
        “Come on, Neil, look more carefully, you’re missing something, you’re
missing something,” he said to himself as he could see his own cabin in the
distance.  Suddenly he stopped.  “Maybe, “ he thought, “if she’s hurt, she
could have been able to make to my place.”  Neil kicked the sides of his
horse, and brought the beast to a full gallop.  When he reached his own
property he began looking even before he could see any detail.   He knew
every stump and stone around that cabin, today he was looking for something
out of the ordinary.  
        Neil jumped down off the horse’s back even before it stopped.  Christy had
to be here. There was no other explanation for not finding her on the path. 
He bounded up the stairs, and stopped on the top step.  He would not let his
brain or his heart believe what he saw.  He was so sure that she would be
waiting here for him, in what ever condition she would be .  All that Neil
MacNeill saw when he surveyed his porch, was just what he had left there,
and no sign of Christy.  His mind worked quickly, “Inside,” he thought to
himself, even though he knew he had bolted the door when he left that
morning.  He turned the handle anyway, just in case, but nothing.
        The doctor ran his fingers through his thick red hair, and tried to come up
with another plan.  He decided to search the path again, on his way back to
the mission, maybe if she were hurt, she had made it to the road by now,
after hearing him pass by the first time.  He would certainly find her this
time.
        Again, Neil resumed his search of fallen logs, and weeds, again to no
avail.
        
        -----------------------------------------------------------------------
        “Any luck, Doctor,”  Miss Alice yelled running up to meet Neil as he
returned to the mission pasture.  
        Neil knew that meant that Christy had still not shown up at the mission,
but asked anyway. “No, you mean she’s not returned yet?”
        “No, we were all hoping that yee had found her,”  Alice replied searching
Neil’s face for some explanation.  An explanation he could not give.
        The sun was now peaking through the morning clouds and high in the sky, and
the clock had just passed twelve, Neil had taken longer than he thought he
would to search for Christy.  He had hoped to meet her coming down mountain
path, with little more than a cut arm, or a heart leg, that would heal, but
that hadn’t happened.
        Neil, still atop his horse, surveyed the mountains around the school,
hoping to see the familiar form coming to him.  He saw men, some walking,
and some on horse back coming toward the school, but not the person he was
hoping to see. He squinted his eyes against the brightness forming on the
horizon.  His mind was racing, but he could make no logical thoughts form
from the events of the morning.  
        “Doc,  what’s up,”  Jeb Spencer  motioned to him.  Alice had sent John
Spencer, Rob Allen, and some of the other boys to gather the men and tell
them to meet at the school, but she hadn’t told them why.  She did not want
to worry the children. “John and Rob, found us down at the river and told us
to get everyone up to the school, said you were needin’ some help.” 
        Neil gave Jeb a long look, then his eyes seemed to flash.  Alice was
explaining Christy’s disappearance to the men who were now showing up. 
“That’s it,” Neil blurted out, “The river.”  Neil quickly turned his horse
around, and yelled over his shoulder, “Jeb follow me.”   
        Alice and the others watched as the two men galloped off toward the river. 
Then Alice thought to herself, “Oh, no you don’t Neil, you’re not leaving me
out of this. “  Alice ran over to Prince who was still wearing his saddle,
in all the confusion no one had unharnessed him.  She jumped up onto the
horse and followed behind the to men.  “”Ruby May,” she yelled, “Ask
everyone to wait here, we’ll be back shortly.”  “Hopefully they won’t be
needed,” she thought to herself. 
        
        ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Neil rode along the river looking at every rock, and in every shallow pool.
Why hadn’t he thought of the river?  Christy loved the river, he should have
known that she would have taken that path in the morning.  It was a quicker
way to get to his cabin, and she had to be back to start school.  “If
anything, has happened to her,” he thought to himself, “While I was wasting
time searching a path, I should have known she hadn’t taken...”
        “Doc, I sure don’t see no sign of Mizz Christy,”  Jeb yelled from behind
him.
        “Keep looking,” the doctor yelled back “Keep looking.” Then added to
himself, “She’s got to be here.”
        Alice took all of this in.  She knew that the teacher and the doctor were
close friends, but something other than friendship, had put that sound of
desperation in his voice. She had only heard him sound this way once before.
She stared questioningly at the man who rode ahead of them, and although she
could not see his eyes, she saw his head searching, looking back and forth
for anything that would give a clue to Christy’s wear abouts.  She had also
seen him search his way before.
        The trio made their way nearly to Doctor MacNeill’s cabin, when Alice
finally spoke. “Neil,”...”Neil,” she yelled louder.
        The doctor stopped, and faced her with hope in his eyes, “What have you
found something?” he yelled back at her.
        “I think we are looking in the wrong place.  We’re almost to your cabin and
we haven’t found any sign of her.  “Alice motioned with her head up the
river.  
        The doctor looked ahead, to see that in fact he was almost again at his own
doorstep.  “We keep going, Alice, “until we are sure she is not here.”
        “Doctor, I think that thee can see she is not here.  I want Christy to be
here just as much as you do, but we must face the facts.  We need to go back
to the mission, the men will be there.  We can get the searching party
started.”  Alice replied to him, as she trotted up along side.  They both
let their horses come to a stop.  Neil looked down at the river, as if he
were hoping to find the answer there, or to find Christy there.
        As the two of them stared at each other and contemplated their next action,
Jeb let his horse wonder around the river bank.  As he looked into the
forest something on the rocks caught his eye.  He jumped down off of his
horse for a closer look.
        Jeb, studied the rocks, then yelled, Hey Doc, Mizz Alice, come here.”
        They too jumped off of their horses, and joined Jeb near the forest edge.
        “What do you make of this, Doc?” Jeb questioned him.
        Neil took one look and new instantly that he was looking a blood, and he
knew in his heart that he was looking at Christy’s blood.
        “Oh, Neil,” Alice said as she saw the doctor look around the woods for a
sign of Christy.  One that was not there.
        “Alice, Jeb, spread out, and search, she has to be in the woods. “  Neil
ordered.  
        The three searched every inch of the woods from the river to Neil’s cabin,
but found nothing. They stood in silence, until finally Neil spoke.  “I was
so close this morning,” he          pointed up to his cabin, “I was just
there, searching the wrong path.” To himself he thought,          ” What
have I done.  Was she here then, did she see me, did she call for me, and I
couldn’t hear her.   Why hadn’t I searched here first.  I should have known.
Why hadn’t I taken the river path this morning on my way to the mission?”  
        Neil walked around the river bank, letting these doubts fill his thoughts,
then came to stop in front of Prince, who still wearing Christy’s blood on
his saddle.  Neil reached out and touched the blood, as if in a trance. 
Alice noticed this too.


“The Seaching”-Part 5

        Neil’s mind was racing with images and thoughts, and possibilities of what
might have happened, and what could have happened.  All of the
possibilities, though, he did not want to imagine, except one.  He clung to
the hope that when he returned to the mission this time, Christy would be
there wrapped by the fire, waiting for her sprained ankle, or cut arm to be
attended to by the one person whom she needed most, him.  If only he had
taken the river path this morning, none of this would have happened.  If
only, If only...
        Neil, Alice, and Jeb raced back to the school yard.  Neil’s heat sank even
deeper into his chest, when he saw the crowd of men gathered outside of the
school.  The crowd had grown even larger than before the three had left to
search along the banks of the river.  Neil knew that this could only mean
one thing.  Christy had not yet arrived back safe and sound.  He was sure
that with Alice’s and Jeb’s help they would find her sitting by the river.
Even finding her hurt by the river would be better than this... this... this
not knowing where she was, or what had happened to her.  He hadn’t even
thought  of what would happen if they didn’t find her.  To him that was not
a possibility.  He was sure when he left, that he would be returning with
her.  Now, he was returning without her, and he had wasted even more
precious time, in another futile search that turned up nothing.
        Riding behind the Doctor, Alice was deep in thoughts of her own.  She was
growing even more worried about her young friend by the minute, as the
doctor was.  She knew that Dr. MacNeill was worried about Christy.  She was
surprised to see just how worried he was.  The deep furrows, in the Doctor’s
brow, and set of his jaw were like a mirror into the the thoughts of the
good doctor.  Alice had known him a long time.  She had seen him in all of
his different moods.  She had seen him worry over patients and friends, but
she had seen him worry this terribly over someone only once before.  She
remembered the same look on the Doctor’s face years ago, when his wife, her
daughter, had drowned in the same river they were searching just minutes
ago.  She knew that her thoughts and the doctor’s thoughts at this moment
were the same.  Had the river taken another from their lives?  Margaret, her
daughter had come back.  She prayed the same would be true of Christy, and
pushed the image out of her mind. 
        Alice looked once more at Neil whose eyes were fixed ahead of him.  She
wondered to herself, “ Was his torment over worry for a friend, or was it
something deeper.”  As they rode up to face the group of men, even her own
thoughts surprised her.  As she brought her horse around to where she could
see Neil’s face, who had stopped in front of  her, she could see the fear in
his eyes.  “This is more that blaming your self for taking the wrong path,
doctor,” she thought. “Thou are... in love with Miss Huddleston.”   She
wondered if Christy felt the same way about the doctor. Alice kept her
thought to herself, knowing that the subject would come up later.  Besides,
right know she was very concerned about Christy.  She too was desperate to
find her.  Although, she had never said it, Alice had come to think of
Christy as a daughter.  She was filled with motherly concern over what had
or would happen to her.

        --------------------------------------------------------

        “Doc MacNeill, what did you need us here fur?” A voice shouted from the
crowd.  Neil recognized the voice as belonging to Tom McHone.
        The shouts of the men wakened the doctor, whose thoughts were far away, but
he could not form any words to explain.
        Noticing the Doctor faltering to answer Alice’s voice chimed up,
“Gentleman,”.  Neil was grateful for her help, he knew that he could not put
the events of the morning into anything comprehensible right now.  
        “It seems that Miss Christy is missing, “ Alice continued after a pause to
gather her own thoughts. “She left early this morning to deliver a present
from the children Doctor MacNeill, and she hasn’t been seen since. Her horse
arrived back at the mission, but  Christy was not with him.  There was blood
on his saddle, that must of come from Miss Huddleston.”  The men looked at
Neil who kept his searching eyes fixed on the ground, still trying to find 
the missing piece that would bring Christy home.  He knew in his heart that
she was back there on that trail, even if in his mind he knew she was not. 
Where else would she be, where else could she be.  The men could tell from
the doctor’s reaction that this was serious, and they would soon be
searching for the young teacher, to bring her back safe and sound.  Back to
the community that had grown to love her.  Each one said a silent prayer for
her safe return.
        “Gentlemen,” Alice spoke again,” We need your help. We have to organize a
search party.  We must find Miss Huddleston before dark,  before the
temperature drops.  Will you help us?” Alice knew that the mountain men were
not much help when it came to working for others.  However, she also knew
that this situation was different, and they would all pull together to bring
Christy home.
        Without a seconds thought yells of “I’ll hep”, and “Which way do we
search,” arose from the crowd.  
        Neil finally looked up from the ground, with a new strength, and
encouragement. With all this help from friend and neighbors, Christy would
be home before sunset.  When finally Neil spoke, he began yelling orders. 
“We don’t have much time, and we don’t know which way to search,” he yelled
over the crowd.”
        “You men,” Neil pointed to one group of men,”  “You search around the
mission. 
Jeb, you take some men with you and search over toward the mill.”  Neil
continued shouting directions until all of the men had dispersed, and begun
searching for the young teacher.
        “Alice,” Neil had a questioning sound in his voice.  He almost didn’t want
to ask his next question, but decided he needed the help.  “Where’s
Grantland, he should be here helping.”  More than anything Neil wanted to be
the one to find Christy, but another horse and pair of eyes were what they
needed now, not the rivalry between the Minister and the Doctor.
        Alice, spoke without even thinking, “David’s preaching over in Lufty Branch
this week.” she yelled over the Neil.
        “We could really use him here.” he replied.
        Alice thought for a moment then answered him, “Neil, I’d ride over and get
him.  I know he’d come, but...” Alice thought she saw a twinge of anger
cross the Doctor’s face. “...I’d be of better use here. We’ll find Christy
today, no need to waste anymore time.”  This time Alice thought she saw a
look of guilt cross the Doctor’s face, and she was instantly sorry she had
chosen those words.  “We’ll find her.” With those words Alice rode off in
the direction of Fairlight’s house.  Christy may have gone there to seek
help.
        Neil rode off in the direction of his cabin for the third time today.  He
would find Christy no  mater what it took.   
        Somewhere in the mountains at that very time, Christy lay unconscious, and
bleeding on the back of a horse riding further and further away from the
people who were desperately searching for her. Further away from the person
whom she would desperately need before it were all over.                


“The Searching” - Part 6

        Neil rode up to the front door of the mission.  It was well past midnight,
but all of the windows were ablaze with light.  He jumped off his horse, and
taking two steps at a time, bounded up onto the porch.  In a frenzy he threw
the door open, praying that what he saw inside would be the sight that had
been in the back of his mind.  He had searched all day, and well into the
night, for some sign of Christy.  He knew that she could not have just
vanished, and that she was somewhere in those mountains.  
        He had searched from atop his horse all day, probing field, and hollow,
jumping down only to examain rocks, and caverns more closely.  Then it would
be back to his horse, and back to the hopeless feeling that grew with in him
as the hours passed.  “Why was there no sign of her?” He asked himself. 
“Why, can’t I find her? Where is she. I have to find her, she needs me.”  He
even started to pray once, but something inside him made him stop, and all
he could say was, “even if she’s hurt let me find her, I’ll make her all
right, just let me find her.”  
        When the light left the mountain, making it impossible to see, he dropped
down off of his horse and groped his way along in the dark, feeling blindly
at large piles of dirt and debris on the forest floor.  All that he found,
however, were decaying fallen leaves, and rocks. Nothing that resembles the
beautiful young woman, that  now tortured his heart, his mind, and his soul
with uncertainty.  Neil hoped beyond hope that what he would find behind the
mission door would put an end to torment of the day.
        “Is she safe, where is she... Christy,”  Neil yelled into the mission as
the door flung open, and he stepped into the room, searching the faces of
those within.  The looks that he found on those faces answered his question
before anyone spoke.  The doctor looked from face to face, in each one he
saw his own dashed hope, and anguish.  Then he noticed Alice, who seemed to
have been crying. “Alice,” he bellowed, rushed over, and grabbing her by the
shoulders, “What has happened to her?”  He asked, looking her in the eyes. 
Neil didn’t want to hear the answer, the looks on these faces made him
assume the worst.
        Alice searched his face, and looked into his eyes, “Neil, we haven’t found
her.”  she said, putting her hands over his, which were still clasping her
arms, in order to show him some sign of comfort. She had come to realize
during the day that if Christy were not found, the doctor would take the
news hardest of all.    
        Neil let go of her arms,  and stepped back.  “You all looked so grim, I
thought...”
He couldn’t finish, he just stood there looking at the floor.
        There was a long pause where no one in the room spoke.  Alice, Neil, Ruby
May, Jeb, and Fairlight, who had returned to the mission with Alice when she
heard what had happened to Christy, all remained silent, as if mourning the
passing of a dear friend.
        “Jeb, bring me a fresh horse,”  the Doctor finally broke the silence. 
“Help me put my saddle on Prince. “
        “Neil, you’re not going out again to search tonight, you can’t see your
hand in front of your face, out there.”  Alice pleaded with him.
        “And what would you have me do Alice,” Neil shouted back, “sit here all
nice and warm by the fire, while Christy lays out there dying in the cold.” 
His words were like a knife into the hearts of all in the room, and he knew
it.  He searched their faces.  He saw Alice draw back, Fairlight grab hold
of her husband’s arm, and Ruby May begin to cry.  
        “I’m sorry,” he finally replied to them all,  “I mean I’m going out to find
her before the temperature drops even more.  Neil knew that it got cold in
the mountains at night, at this time of year.  He also knew that if Christy
were really hurt, she would be no match for the chilling night air.
        Alice wanted to lecture him about not needing two people to look for, but
realizing that his mind was made up, and that in fact he was not a man
looking for a friend, but a man looking for the woman he loved, she knew she
could not stop him with mere words.
        “Be careful, Neil,” was all she finally said.  
        As the men readied the horse outside, the woman prepared some food for the
doctor to take with him.  Neil took the sack from Ruby May, who was now
crying full out. “Please find Mizz Christy, Doc,” she said as she handed it
to him.
        “I’ll do my best Ruby May, I promise.” 
        “How long will you be gone?” Alice asked Neil as he mounted Prince.
        “I’ll search until I find her, Alice,” Neil told her, “Until I find her.”
        Neil looked into the eyes of the group assembled before him.  He knew that
all of their hopes for Christy’s safe return lay on him.  He knew that all
of his hopes for Christy’s safe return depended on him finding her, and he
knew that somewhere out there in the cold, night, mountain air, his Christy
was depending on him to find her too, and to bring her back.
        Neil did not let his horse saunter into the woods as he normally did when
he left the mission.  He kicked Prince hard, and galloped full out into the
woods.  Those who were left behind could only watch him depart until they
could not longer see him, or hear the hoof beats of the horse.  Alice who
stood apart from the others, long after the Doctor had left, said the prayer
that the Doctor had been unable to say,  “Dear God, please help him find
her, please help him her.”


“The Seartching” - Part 7

        Christy lay on the dirty floor of the filthy cabin, as if she had dropped
there in a heap.  She was still unconscious.  The gang of mountain men  who
had taken Christy had traveled for days, and finally stopped at their
destination.  This shack deep in the mountains.  The only reason it would
have been considered a shack was because it had probably once been someone’s
home, that had long since been abandoned.  The walls were falling down, and
the porch leaned to one side.  The roof was in terrible need of repair, and
the floor upon which Christy lay looked as though it had never seen a broom.

        The young teacher lay crumpled among the discarded bits of food, filthy
clothes, and paper wrappers, as if she had been discarded herself.  She was
so still for a time, that the group of men who included Lundy Taylor,  had
thought she was dead, and had even discussed what to do with the body.
                                ----------------------------------------------
        
        As several days passed however,  Christy began to slowly regain
consciousness.  At first she felt as if she were swimming in a dream.  The
sounds of men’s voices, the smell of burnt food, and alcohol, and the pain
that ran all along her body flowed together, leaving her more confused, and
fighting against the consciousness that was beginning to overtake her. 
Several times she tried to open her eyes, but her mind always told her this
was a dream, and her eyelids fluttered shut again, allowing her to escape
the confusion and the pain.  
        Finally, after several days of hovering between sleep and wake, she was
able to fully open her eyes, if not her mind to the situation she was in.  
Her blue eyes, searched the room, but could make out nothing.  The streams
of light that flowed through the cracks in the walls, and pooled upon the
floor  where she was laying, made it impossible to make sense of the images
she was looking at.  
        She lay back on the floor, letting her eyes adjust to the light, and slowly
came to realize that she was laying on the floor in a strange cabin she had
never been in before.  She still did not remember having been shot.  She
only knew that her body ached every time she moved.  She also realized that
the voices that had been haunting her dreams, were there in the room with
her.  She listened to them, and searched for one familiar to her, but she
did not know the men these voices belonged to, except one that  she may have
heard before.   Still, however, she listened, hoping to hear the one
familiar voice, with the deep Scottish accent, that would let her know she
was in a safe place.  She listened, and listened.  Finally, the voices
traveled off into the distance, and disappeared with a burst of light, that
brought pain to her eyes, and confusion to her mind once more.
        “Neil, where are you?” Christy mouthed the words, and made a move to get up
off of the floor.  This caused pain, like she had never known before, to
surge, and rip through her body.  With out thinking, a small wail of pain
escaped her lips,  then another, and another.  Her breath came in short
gasps, and the tears came to her eyes.  After several minutes she could also
feel rivers of warm liquid running down her arm, and her side. That’s when
she remembered she had been shot.  If she had been able to see it, she would
have seen that her white blouse was now nearly completely red, and that the
beige skirt, she had so carefully chosen to wear days ago, was now a patch
work of dirt, and blood stains.
        Her mind was now racing with terrifying thoughts. “Where was she?”  “Why
had this happened?”  “What would happen to her now?”  Her brain reeled from
terror and pain.  She was  lost in her own thoughts.  So lost that she did
not notice one of the mountain men kneeling over her, almost face to face,
until she felt his hot breath on her face.  
        Painfully and shakingly she opened her eyes to meet his steely glare, and
what ever he had in store for her.  She looked this man straight in the face
expecting to see a rough, rugged, dirty, beast, but instead she saw the same
boyish face, that she remembered seeing in the woods before this had all
happened.  Whispering  questioningly she was able to form the name, “Lundy?”
        “Mizz Christy,” the voice sounded almost as scared as she was, “Lay back
down, and go to sleep.  Make ‘em think you’re still not well.”
        “Why?”
        “Please, just do it, Mizz Christy, you don’t know what they’ll do when they
find out you’re awake.  It was Lundy, and he was pleading with her to
pretend to be asleep
        “Lundy, please, tell me what’s going on,” Christy pleaded in a teary voice.
“ What has happened, why?”  Christy made a move to get up once again, but
the intense pain stopped her, and Lundy grabbed her by the arms.  Christy
was so frightened by his grasp that despite the pain, she began to struggle.
She was not strong enough to fight however, and Lundy soon won the battle. 
To Christy’s surprise Lundy did not yank her to her feet, or  pull her
around the floor, or even call out for the other men.  Lundy gently helped
Christy lay back down on the floor.  He again pleaded with her, “Please,
pretend to be asleep, “ but it was too late.
        From behind Lundy, Christy saw the light burst forth again, and heard the 
voices of the other men.
        “Well, well, looks like she awake, Silas.”  the tall man said.
        “Yep,” the other man shoved Lundy out of the way, and bent down over
Christy, until she could feel his breath in  her ear.  He whispered, “Looks
like we can have some fun know.”  Right boys, he yelled over his shoulder, 
“We gonna have some real fun now.”  The man laughed and slapped Lundy on the
back.
        Christy could feel the man touching her arm, and the touch caused her to
shake uncontrollably.  Combined with the pain, her head began to swim again.
“Oh, please, “ she whispered, “Please don’t, please let me go. “
        “Now, little lady you’re talking is just going to make it worse for ya,”
the man spit back at her.
        Christy was now choking on the smell of the man, and pleading in her
thoughts for Neil to come through the door.  She felt the man touching her
arms, then her hair,  then her legs, and felt him start to lift her skirt. 
“No, please,”  she tried to struggle, but the man’s grasp, and the pain kept
her glued to the floor. She was now gasping, and crying uncontrollably.
        Christy felt a sharp hard sting on her face, and the man once again, spit
at her.  “I told ya,  the more ya talk, the worse it’ll be. Ya say anything
else, and the next hit’ll be worse.”
        Christy laid back with her eyes closed, and her fists doubled up so tightly
that she could feel her finger nails digging into the flesh of her palms. 
Her breath was shaking, and gasping.  Her thoughts were only on one person. 
She thought of Neil and wondered if he knew where she was.  She could feel
her skirt being lifted even higher, and the man’s weight getting closer, and
closer to her.  He was not just touching her know, she could feel him
grabbing her legs, and he wasn’t letting go.  In a small weak voice Christy
cried out for Neil, hoping he was close enough to hear, hoping he would come
in and stop this, but he wasn’t anywhere near her, and he didn’t come.
        Suddenly, Christy felt the man’s weight being lifted off of her, she moved
painfully and quickly to  push her skirt down the best she could.  When she
looked she saw that Lundy had the man by the neck, holding up against the
wall, punching him over, and over.  “You ever try to touch Mizz Christy
again, Rup, I’ll kill you.  You hear me.  I swear I’ll kill you,” Lundy
yelled at the  man in between punches.  After several punches to the face. 
The man fell to the floor, coughing, and spitting out blood.  In the corner
of the room Christy lay trembling, and in horror of what had almost
happened, and what would happen next.
        The man they called Rup stood up, and walked over to Christy who looked at
him with fear.  After several minutes he spoke.  “Fine, but get her out of
her, take her outside, tie her up somewhere.  I don’t care, just get her out
of my sight.  I don’t want to see her again.” With that the man walked over
to the other side of the shack, and collapsed on the bed, coughing, and
spitting.  
        Lundy walked over to Christy and started to gently pick her up, to take her
outside, when another of the men in the room pulled him back, which caused
Christy to wince in pain, and be tumble back to the floor.  “Naw, you been
enough trouble today, Taylor.  I’ll take her.”  This man pulled Christy up
from the floor, causing  her to cry out in pain.  “You shut up, Missy,
you’re just lucky I don’t feel like killing anybody today.”  He threw
Christy over his shoulder, and carried her outside.
        The light hit Christy’s eyes like a knife, and she shut them hard.  The man
carried her far away from the cabin.  Each foot step caused Christy
unbearable pain, and she struggled to stay awake.  She could tell she
wouldn't be able to stay awake much longer.  The mountain man stopped
walking, and dumped Christy down on the forest floor next to a tree.  With a
sharp yank, he pulled both of her arms behind her. Christy screamed out in
pain.  It was this pain that swept her again into  unconsciousness.  The man
tied a rope to both of her arms, and then to the tree.  He tied the knots
extra tight, and double roped her hands, just to get her back for  what had
happened in the cabin.  “Sleep tight, Missy, you won’t be goin’ any where
for a long time.”  He laughed, as he walked away, leaving Christy tied
there, with the cold mountain night approaching.   




“The Searching” - Part 8

        Neil had not slept or eaten in days.  He had been searching all over the
mountains for his Christy.  The beautiful young woman, who now haunted every
thought.    He had wanted to be the one to find her, and the one who
searched so hard the first day she went missing.  Now as day slipped into
days, and days into weeks, he was becoming a man obsessed.  He saw her eyes
in every blue pool of water he searched, and heard her voice whispered on
the wind.  He even thought he heard her calling him,  “Neil, where are you?”
He had heard it plain as day, but only for a short time, and in a voice so
small and helpless, he was shocked to realize that it was his Christy’s
voice he was indeed hearing.  He had stopped and looked all around him, and
shouted back to the invisible voice. “Christy, where are you lass?  I’m
coming, show  me where you are.”  But, he saw nothing, and heard nothing
more.  So he plodded almost mechanically on.
        There were times he lost himself so in the thoughts of her that  when he
regained himself, he had to back track to search the area again, afraid that
he had missed something.  He remembered how sweetly she brushed back his
hair that night by the river, and the sad desperation in her voice when she
believed that some of the children might die from Scarlet Fever.  How cruel
he had been to her then.  He would never forgive himself for that.  He vowed
to make it up to her, if... when he found her.  He remembered also the sound
of her laugh, and the twinkle in her eye when she looked at him as if she
saw through to his soul.  “Maybe she did,” he thought to himself.  All of
these thoughts that were so precious to him were always interrupted by the
remembrance of the blood on Prince’s saddle, and the rocks at the river
bank, and the Doctor would resume his search for Christy with renewed vigor.
        The weather was getting colder, and Dr. MacNeill pulled his collar closer
around his neck.  Anyone who would have seen him then would have remarked on
the frantic look that covered his face.  His eyes were wildly searching
everything, and he harshly urged the black horse on pushing him to the
limits.  This was not a man searching for a lost person.  This was a
desperate man seeking a part of himself, a part that had been stolen away. 
A part that he did know how to find.  
        Neil stopped several times at cabins, some he knew and some he didn’t. 
“Hello,” he would frantically call out when he came upon them, hoping with
all his heart that his voice would be recognized by one who had taken
shelter there, and who would run to greet him. This scenario he played over
and over in his mind, as well.  As the days became blurs to him the ending
of scenario changed.  He knew now that if Christy were in one of these
cabins, and did greet him there, he would take her up in his arms, and never
let her go.  He would be there to protect her this time.  He was to
preoccupied with searching for her to let his mind listen to the thoughts
forming there.   If he had listened to his thoughts  they would have told
him how much he loved this young woman, and how much he was in love with
her. 
        As he rode up to another one of these cabins, a hard and steady rain began
to fall.  “Hello,” he called, and his call was greeted by a middle aged
woman, and six or seven children, who stepped out onto the porch one by one.

        Neil did not even bother to get down off his horse.  “Have you seen a young
woman?  She may be badly hurt?  Please have you seen her.”
        “Nope, sorry, aint seen no woman, hurt or well.”  The woman answered her. 
        Neil’s eyes sank to the ground.  He should know better then to hope.  How
many cabins had he been to, and the answer was always the same.  Still in
his heart he could not give up. “Thank you,” he said to the woman, and
started to turn Prince to leave, when the woman spoke up again.
        “You’re welcome to stay and wait out the rain.” 
        “Neil looked up at the sky, and torrent that was falling from it.  “No, I
have to keep looking.  Thank you all the same.”   Neil turned and galloped
on to search another range of mountains.  He did not know how far he had
traveled through the mountains, or even if he was heading in the right
direction.  He just hoped beyond hope that he was.

                                ----------------------------------------------
        Miles away from where Neil was now searching, Christy lay on the earth, her
hands bound to the tree behind her.  Her wounds had started to bleed again. 
She must have regained consciousness at some time because she now had fresh
wounds on her wrists, fingers, and hands, from the rope cutting into her
skin, as she tore at it, and in vain struggled to free herself.   
        The struggle, the loss of blood, and exposure to the cold, and the rain had
taken the last of her strength.  Lundy had even snuck out once with some
food her, but try as he might, he could not wake her.  He could not even
make out for sure if she was breathing, so he gave up and walked back to the
shack.  He had not come out again.  
        Now an eerie silence settled over the woods where Christy lay.  Nothing
moved, nothing stirred, and nothing could be heard.  The rain that was
falling, was hard, and cold... even this did not awaken the small, fragile
figure crumpled on the ground.  
              

“The Searching” - Part  9

        Neil’s search for Christy was wearing on him.  He trudged on through the
forest, with no sign of her.  No sign that she was even on the same earth as
he.  Neil was caked with the grime of searching in the rain, dirt, and cold
for days, or weeks, he did not remember how long he had been searching.  It
seemed to him that he had been searching forever, for the young women whose
eyes he was now seeing in everything in front of him, and whose voice
whispering, “Neil, where are you?” was now constantly striking daggers into
his heart.
        The search was also wearing on his horse.  Neil was forces to stop several
times in the last few days to let the tired beast graze on hard fall grass. 
This seemed to refresh Prince, but Neil knew that he would soon have to stop
for a time to let the poor animal rest.  He wondered to himself how much
further away Christy would be when he finally resumed the search.   Finally,
as Prince’s steps began to falter on the river rocks, Neil was forces to let
him rest, but Neil was unable to do the same.  
        All through the night, he listened to the sounds on the wind, and even
tried to make himself hear Christy’s footsteps coming toward him out of the
blackness of the forest.  Once he turned to await her approach.  He even let
his heart believe that she was actually there.  He waited in the darkness
for her touch on his shoulder,  her soft voice saying “here I am, Neil.”  He
even awaited the sweet smell of her air as it flowed down around her 
slender shoulders.  He waited, and waited, and waited ... and gave up the
dream.  He sat the rest of the night against a tree, his head turned toward
the starless sky, his hands clutching his jacket closer to himself to guard
against the cold night air.  Somewhere in the depths of this desperate night
spent  alone by the river, this man, a man of science who had no need for
God, this man who had long given up the idea of a life with someone, this
man whose  heart had suddenly been thrown into chaos...prayed.  
        “Dear God, I know I’ve never been one to believe, and I’ve made that
perfectly clear to everyone, to myself, and to you.  I know I have no right
to ask anything of you, but I’m not asking for myself.  I’m asking for
Christy Huddleston, that gentle soul, who has never done anything to anyone
in her life, except care for them.  She believes so deeply in you. She needs
you now, more then ever .  You must watch over her, and protect her...” 
Neil paused for a short time, looked down at the ground, then back up to the
sky.  When he cast his gaze upward once more, he was weeping with despair.  
“Please let me find her, I must find her, there’s so much to say...”  he
stopped...  “So much to tell her.”  He paused again, for a long while this
time...  Finally, he set his jaw firmly as if denying the rest of the tears
that were about to over take him, and he added, “Let her be safe, and cared
for, and loved for the rest of her life.  I can live knowing that she is
safe, I can’t live with this fear and doubt.  Please, help her, help me find
her,...Amen.”  Neil could no longer stop the tears that now came freely.
                                ---------------------------------------
        Neil was back in Prince’s saddle searching before the sun rose the next
morning.  He knew he had let too much time pass.  He also knew that with
every minute that passed, his chances of finding Christy grew slimmer and
slimmer.  He continued to look as dawn over took him, and then passed him
by, leaving him once again in the light of day.  He felt as though his
prayers had not worked.  He still could not find were she was, but he would
not give up.  She was waiting for him.  The Doctor would not admit it to
himself, but he too was losing hope.
        Through the dense brown growth of the woods, over a small mountain range,
Neil noticed a steady stream of smoke billowing up into the air.  “Another
cabin,” he thought to himself, his heart raced, and sank at the same time.  
He had been to so many cabins, and none had known anything of Christy. 
Still he could not leave any stone unturned.
        It took Neil well into the morning to make it to the cabin.  As he rode up
to the porch, he called out his greeting, of “Hello, “ to let those inside
know that he meant no harm.  He slowed Prince to a slow walk, so as not to
startle the cabin’s occupants.  Doctor MacNeill got a good look at the
pathetic condition of this cabin, but his mind was else where and he hardly
took notice.  He did notice the man sitting at  a table on the porch, and
motioned to him.  The man, who looked to Neil as if he’s been in a fight
recently,  looked up, but made not attempt to acknowledge the
Doctor. Undaunted by the man’s demeanor, Neil rode up to the porch,
dismounted Prince, and walked up the crooked steps.  
        “What chya want,” the man questioned Neil without looking at him.  He was
busy fiddling with the pile of odds and ends in front of him.
        “I looking for a young woman, “ Neil got right to the point.  “She been
missing from the mission over in Cutter Gap for sometime.  Have you seen 
her?”  He asked the man who was not facing him.
        “Ain’t seen no woman,” the man answered.
        “Are you sure, think very hard,” Neil demanded, “she’s twenty years old,
and she probably had her hair...”
        The man turned to face Neil, and looked him up and down. “I said, I ain’t
seen no woman, now get off my porch, and off my land.”  The man turned back
to his work on the table.
        Neil let out a long sigh,  ran his fingers through his hair, and started to
leave lost in his thoughts.  He was sure this would be the place.  Where
would he go now?  Turning to leave his eyes quickly and blankly rambled over
the pile of junk the man was working on...  Then he saw it, a glimpse at
first.  He was not even sure if he had really seen it, or if he just wanted
to see it.  When he looked once again, he was sure.
        Neil slammed  one hand down on the pile, and caught the man by the throat
with the other.  “Ain’t seen a woman, aye?  What’s this?”  He picked up the
man with the hand that held him, and slammed him up against the cabin wall. 
He held his other hand high over the man’s head, to reveal a small gold
cross dangling from a small gold chain. 
        “I..I..I found that, on the trial,” the man stammered, and Neil slammed him
harder into the wall.
        “Where is she,” Neil was like a mad animal,  “What have you done to her?,
If you hurt her, I swear...” he yelled, in his deep Scottish voice.
        The man began to struggle wildly, throwing punches, and trying to escape
Neil’s grasp.  Neil in turn threw punches.  He was blind with the rage of
searching in vain for weeks.  Neil was taking all of his anger, frustration,
and worry out on this man, whom he was certain was lying to him about 
Christy.  He pummeled the man until his hands were numb, and the man could
hardly stand.  “Tell me where she is,” he frantically hollered at the man,
as he let him go.  
        The man stumbled backward, looked Neil in the eyes, and answered,” I ain’t
tellin’ you nothin.”
        With contempt in his eye, and rage in his heart , Neil doubled up his fist,
and landed a thunderous blow to the side of the man’s face.  His head flew
back upon impact, and the sound that followed left no doubt in Neil’s mind
that the man’s neck was broken.  He fell backward , and sunk down the wall. 
Neil walked over to him, and picked him up by the collar.   It was obvious
the man was dead.  Neil dropped him to the floor.  He knew that he was
supposed to save lives, but at this moment he didn’t care.  This man had
done something to Christy, and all Neil wanted was for him to pay.  
        Neil stepped over the man’s body into the door way of the cabin.  “Christy,
he called out, “Christy, It’s Neil,  where are you lass.”  His eyes
adjusting to the darkness of the cabin, searched from corner to corner,
finally focusing on the blood stained floor across from the door.  He knew
instantly that Christy had been in that cabin.  One by one he began flinging
aside, and overturning everything in his path. It was no use, “She’s not
here ,” he thought to himself, as he searched everything over and over,
frantically tossing  chairs, and garbage, and blankets out of his way, only
to toss them back to their original place, when he searched again.  
        Neil had finished in the cabin, and had found nothing, other than Christy’s
necklace, and Christy’s blood on the floor.  He stood tottering from
frustration,...”Outside,” he thought to himself.  The Doctor once again
jumped over the man’s dead body, and raced outside. He did not know where to
begin looking for her.  Neil ran from junk heap to junk heap, searching each
with mad desperation, that only increased each time he was left empty
handed.   He searched every out building, every clump of trees, and the
rickety old barn, over and over again.  
        The sweat poured off of his forehead, as the day grew into one fruitless
search after another.  Finally when exhaustion had overtaken him, and
reality had set in, he fell to his knees on the ground clutching her
necklace.  “Christy,” was all he could say, and he repeated her name, until
it lost all meaning to his ears, but not to his heart.  he stayed this way
until well into the afternoon.  He could not make himself believe that he
could not find her.  Days of searching, and she had been here, but how long
ago had that been?  Is she even still alive?  All these thoughts raced
through his head, and he sunk even further to the ground, bracing himself
with the hand that was not holding the gold chain like a life line.
        “No, don’t give up that easily, MacNeill,” he yelled at himself,  ashamed
of having even thought of returning to the mission without her. “You get
back on the blasted horse, and keep looking for her, she is depending on
you.” he thought to himself as he looked over his shoulder at Prince who was
still standing by the cabin porch.
        Slowly Neil picked himself up off the ground and stumbled over to Prince.
The day had taken more than his strength from him, it had taken the hope
that still remained.  As he clumsily mounted Prince, Neil was slowly
becoming aware that he was not now searching for Christy.  He was, in all
likelihood, searching for Christy’s body.   
        The Doctor sat motionless in the saddle for some time, staring at the small
cross he held in his hand.  He new he should be moving on, but something
inside of him had frozen his limbs, and try as he might, he could not depart
this place.  Finally, Neil clasped both hands over the gold necklace, and
held them up to his fore head. His face was a maze of agony, helplessness,
and exhaustion.  There he sat atop his horse, his hands pressed to his
heads, as if he were praying for the longest time.  Suddenly he threw his
head back to face the sky,  and  screamed, “Oh, God, where is she?”  Then
again through his breath, he whispered, “Where is she?”
        When he regained himself, Neil began to leave.  He surveyed the cabin one
last time. He surveyed the yard, and its contents one last time, and he
surveyed the woods around the cabin one last time.  He turned to leave,
Prince walked several steps when Neil pulled hard on his reins to stop him. 
The Doctor turned quickly around in the saddle, and turned Prince back
around.  Neil stared off into a very distant clump of trees, he could not
make it out clearly, but something there was strange.  It looked...it looked
like.  It was.  There far away from where he had been searching around the
cabin, off in a dense clump of trees,   Neil could make out only one thing,
it looked like a small arm sticking up in the air resting against a tree. 
He could only make out the hand, not the body it belonged to, that was
obscured by other trees.  His face turned white with shock, and fear.  He
kicked Prince hard, and raced off in the direction of what he had seen. 

“The Searching” - Part 10

        Neil raced off in the direction of the trees where he has seen, or thought
he had seen something.  His heart and mind raced with the possibility that
he had found Christy.  He still could not see the body obscured by the
trees, but he was now positive that what he had seen was someone’s hand. 
“Was it Christy?”  “Could she hear him coming,?”  Thoughts of every kind
rambled over his mind. Somewhere though, in the back of his mind, a fear was
creeping upon him.  He could hear it echoing in his ears.  “Was she alive?”
        The body laying against the tree slowly began to reveal itself, first more
of the arm, then Neil could see the shoulders.  It was definitely the body
of a woman.  As he rode closer, and was almost upon the person laying by the
tree, Neil could see that the person was laying on the ground. He could see
the breeze tousling the woman’s hair and letting it fall back again against
her beautiful yet very pale face. The face he had seen so many times in
front of him while he searched.  The face he had seen in his dreams had
always been smiling at him, the way he remembered it often doing in the
past.  The face he now saw in front of him seemed lifeless. He rode at a
full gallop to get to her, not wanting to waste a precious minute.  
        As Neil neared the spot where Christy lay, the trees finally parted to
reveal the gruesome scene.  A scene that Neil was not prepared for.  There
in front of his eyes, was Christy... his Christy, the woman he had searched
the endless days and nights to find.  The woman whose disappearance had
brought so much pain.  The woman whom he had prayed to find and return
safely to the mission.  There in front of his eyes Christy lay motionless on
the ground, her hands bound behind her tied to a tree.  Her clothing
divulged the truth of what she had been through while he was helplessly
searching in the wrong places.  Her once white shirt waist was now caked
with dried blood, and her skirt revealed further injuries.  It too was
covered with her blood.
        Neil jumped from  his horse before it  had even come to a stop.  He
stumbled up the embankment to where Christy lay, frantically grabbing at
weeds,  and bushes that lined the pathway between the Doctor, and the young
teacher, even grabbing at the earth itself to steady himself.  The rain from
several days before had turned the ground into a soft muck, so for every
step forward Neil took, he slid backward two steps.  He struggled up the
side of the hill, all the time keeping Christy in  his sights, and calling
her name.  Hoping beyond hope that she would awaken.
        The anger rose within Neil with every step he took toward the woman he
loved.  “What had they done to her?” he asked himself when he was finally
able to touch her.  Gently he put his hand under her head and lifted her
face off of the cold, damp ground.  She was as cold as ice.  This
realization turned his own blood to ice. Quickly the doctor took his pocket
knife out  and released Christy’s hands from the ropes that held her captive
around the tree.  Her hands slid down the tree, and crumpled lifeless around
her body. 
        Neil put his ear down to Christy’s face to listen for any sound that the
young teacher was still with him.  He tried several times but could hear no
sounds of breathing.  Frantically he felt around her slender neck for a
pulse.  He found no sign of life this way either.  He pulled his hand away,
as the tears rose to his eyes, and he softly picked her wrist off of the
ground.  Here too he felt no signs of life.  In one last act of desperation
he felt again for the artery in her neck, placing his fingers deeper into
her skin this time.  
        “Christy, lass, come on, show me you’re still here.”  He desperately spoke
to her, as his frantic breath blew the hair away from her face.  He still
felt nothing...Suddenly he became aware of a very small very faint jumping
in Christy’s skin just under his middle finger.  It was not strong, and it
did not come often.   He felt again and again just to make sure that what he
had felt was real, and not his mind playing tricks on him.  Dr. MacNeill
instantly knew what he was feeling.  She was alive, just barely, but she was
alive.  
        Neil knew that he had to get her back to the mission , and soon.  The
softness of her pulse, and the number of beats, told him that she would not
have lasted the day, had he not come along.  He also knew that there was no
sense in wasting time trying to awaken her.  She was deeply unconscious, and
probably had slipped into a coma.  He could not even be sure that she was
hearing his voice, or feeling his touch.  He just had to hope that she
could, and that she knew she would soon be safe, if he could get her back to
Cutter Gap in time.
        Neil quickly looked over Christy’s wounds.  She had been shot in the
shoulder.  He could see from the amount of blood that she had lost, and the
rips on her  shirt waist, that the bullet had entered and left her body.  He
felt for and found the exit would on her back.  He could also tell that she
had been shot on her right side.  He could not tell how badly she had been
injured from this bullet.  He was certain, however, that her injuries were
severe, and that this bullet was still in her.  The Doctor, for at time, let
his training take over, and examined Christy as a patient, not as the woman
he loved.  Had he let those feelings take over, and he would have been
rendered completely useless to help her.
        A more thorough examination would have to wait.  At this moment, his
concern was to get her back to the mission.  Neil took off his well worn
jacket, and gently placed it over Christy’s shoulders.  Being careful not to
reopen the wounds, and cause them to bleed again.  She had lost enough
blood, any more could kill her, and he knew that. 
        Neil stood, and placing one arm around Christy’s shoulders, and the other
under her knees, lifted her small, fragile body into his strong arms.  He
was shocked to realize just how thin she had grown.  She weighed almost
nothing in his arms, and at that moment he never wanted to let her go.  He
felt that there was something good, and right about holding her in his arms,
and protecting her.  
        Neil carried Christy down the  muddy embankment to the waiting horse, and
carefully lifted her onto Prince’s back.  The horse turned his head to look
at the young woman, as if he recognized her, and knew that she would soon be
depending on him too.  Neil mounted the horse, seating himself in the saddle
still holding Christy to steady her.  He placed Christy’s limp body in front
of him, and cradled her in his arms, letting the small weight of her body
lean back against the strength of his own.  Her head rested against his
chest, and under his chin.  He could feel the wind blowing her hair into his
face, but made no attempt to push it away.   “Christy, you’ll be fine, lass,
I’m here now,” he whispered to her as he nudged Prince forward.  “You don’t
need to fret anymore, I’ve found you,”  he added as the tears came to his
eyes.  His wished more than anything that she would awaken a brush them
away, but she she just remained limp in his arms. 
        Neil did not know exactly how far he was from cutter Gap, he knew that he
had traveled for weeks to find Christy.  He had taken several twists and
turns along the path, and had back tracked many times.  He knew that he
could not take that long getting back.  Christy would not survive a journey
like that.  He was already concerned about what the rough ride was doing to
her wounds. Neil was sure that Prince would make the trip as smooth as he
could for her, but a trip on horse back in the mountains is never an easy
one, no matter how careful one tried to be.  “We’ve got to be quick about
it,” Neil spoke to the horse, “She can’t take much more of it.” 
        The cold night air was creeping up around them.  There would be no stopping
for them until he had gotten Christy safely back home.  Neil again rode off
into the darkening night, as he had done on the night Christy went missing. 
At that time he had been alone, and racing against time.  Now he was riding
through the night protecting his passenger, and again racing against time. 
As Neil  rode on cradling Christy in his arms, he discovered that Prince was
able to find his way, without  much guidance from him, leaving him able to
care for the delicate woman in his arms.  He whispered words of comfort to
her as they made their way quickly along the path.  He caressed her  small
face with his large strong hand, as she leaned against his shoulder.  He
bent his head down and kissed her forehead as he remembered doing when she
first came to the mission.  
        Neil let his hand fall on Christy’s neck several times to check again and
again for her pulse.  He found it each time, after several tries.  Each try
made his heart skip a beat, only to return to its rhythm upon feeling the
slow, small beat of the blood flowing through Christy’s artery.  As they
rode on, Christy’s left arm slipped from Neil’s grasp and dangled lifelessly
at the horses side.  Neil did not notice this, he was too busy with his own
thoughts and prayers, and with the comforting feeling of holding Christy
close to him.

“The Searching” - Part 11

        The endless days and sleepless nights were agony to Neil.  He had again
been traveling for days trying to find something familiar to him, trying to
find his way back to the mission, but could find nothing he recognized
except to the small unconscious figure that he held cradled in his arms. 
Christy had not awakened despite Neil’s best efforts.  She had remained
silent since the doctor had found her against that tree days ago.  His blood
boiled when he thought of what could have happened to her.  
        The nights were the worst of all.  The cold was terrible now, winter would
soon be upon the mountains.  It came fast higher up.  During the nights Neil
would clutch Christy even tighter to him, yet he could feel that the warmth
had long ago left her.  He had stopped feeling her neck for a pulse nights
ago.  It happened when he held her close to himself to warm her up.  He held
her face close to his own, but could not keep her steady, and she slipped
down a bit until her head rested against his neck.  At first he couldn’t
even tell it was happening; the wind was blowing strong, and he was so very
cold, he doubted he could even feel his own skin.  After several minutes
Neil became aware of a sensation on his neck.  
        At first he brushed it away, wanting to keep what ever it was away from
Christy, but he began to feel it several more times. Finally he realized he
was not feeling the wind or bugs, or what ever else flies around at night. 
The small and infrequent        sensations he felt on his neck were Christy’s
breath.  The breaths were so tiny he was sure that she was not getting
enough air to sustain her, and so much time escaped in between each one that
after each he became frantic with anxiety until he again felt the slight
rush of air on his skin.   
        All through those long nights Neil would brush his hand over Christy’s
hair,  gently stroke her injured shoulder, and whisper soft words into her
ear, hoping that some part of her could hear him.  Even though he had no
idea where they were, and even though he knew that  they were far from the
mission, he always told her that they would be there in the morning, or that
they were getting closer.  He prayed that she could not hear the desperation
in his voice, the uncertainty, and deep fear for her safety.  He prayed that
if she could hear him, she would be comforted by his words, and the false
hope that the she would soon be back at the mission.

                                --------------------------------------------

        Neil rode through the darkness of another long night spent traveling the
mountains trying to find the way back home, all the while trying to keep
Christy warm...trying to keep her alive.  Neil knew what was happening to
her, he could feel it with each cold night spent on the trail.  He refused
to let his mind believe it, always replacing the thought as soon as it
entered his head, but there was no denying it now.  With every night that
passed the cold took part of Christy with it.  As she became colder, and
colder, despite Neil’s best efforts, her breath also came less frequently.  
        He had to find the way back to the mission.  He would not  let Christy, the
woman he loved, die in his arms.  He could not live with that memory.  In
the back of his mind, during one of the short times he had let himself think
of the possibility that she was dying, he had made up his mind that if
Christy were to die, he would not be returning to the mission.  If God took
Christy, he would have to take him too.  Once again, however, he pushed the
thought out of his mind,  his heart would not let him give up, and he kicked
Prince to hurry the horse along.

                                ------------------------------------------

        The light of the next morning was soon upon them.  The soft hazy mountain
mornings had been replaced during the night by the first flakes of winter. 
They tumbled down from the sky and landed all around them.  Neil noticed how
they were captured by Christy’s hair like little jewels. He spoke softly to
Christy to let her know they had made it through another night.  
        “Lass, wake up, we’re almost there,” he lied as he choked back the tears, “
the sun will be up soon, you’ve got to wake up, or Alice ‘ill have my head
for not bringing you back sooner.”  Neil waited as he always did when he
spoke to her, for some reply, but none came.  “Christy, please...”  he
choked on his words, and looked straight ahead as if searching for the right
thing to say to his beautiful Christy that would bring her around, but found
nothing.  He felt that her breath on his neck was even softer then it had
been the night before, and this was more then he could bare.            
        He stopped the horse for the first time in days, and there next to the
river Neil held Christy in his arms.  Really held her in his arms, he buried
his face in her soft hair, and wept.  “Christy, please don’t give up, you’re
strong,  you’ve got to come back to us.  You can not give up.”  Neil spoke
these words softly into her ear, and then waited for to stir, but again she
was still.  
        A deep mournful aching broke from the doctor’s chest, and escaped his lips,
as the tears streamed down his face...”Why,” he shouted at the heavens, 
“Why would you have me find her, only to take her away from me again?”  
“Answer me,” he shouted again,  “If this is your idea of love, take it.”  
        He turned his face to Christy, pulled her even tighter to him, and
everything fell silent.  It was an eerie silence, and it made the doctor 
swallow his own breath as he waited to feel Christy’s next breath on his
neck.  Finally... he felt to the short gasp of air.  He kicked at the horse
to get him going again, and once again, on they rode. 
        As the light became brighter, and the trees began to part more and more. 
Neil could see more of the river that he had been following.  Neil began to
look around, when a strange feeling of anxiety welled up inside of him.  He
knew this place.  He had been here to fish hundreds of times.  He was on the
right track, and he was closer then he had thought.  He kicked Prince again
until the horse was nearly galloping down the river bank.  He’d have Christy
home before night fall.  Neil looked at the Christy small face, and
whispered into her ear.  “Christy, lass, were are almost there, we really
are almost there this time, stay with me, please.”



“The Searching” -Part 12

        Neil galloped along the river bank, trying to make it to the mission house
before...just trying to make it to the mission house.  He was not sure that
Christy would last much longer.  He definitely knew where he was, they were
in territory he knew like the back of his hand.  He was letting the horse
run faster now then he had before, it was next to impossible to feel for
Christy’s breath on his neck.  He just had to hope that she was still
breathing.
        Neil’s face was wild with desperation when he finally made the decision not
to take Christy directly to the mission.  He had not been thinking clearly
or he would have thought about this before.    He could follow the river,
and be at the mission before night fall, or he could cut through the woods,
over the McHone, and  Spencer properties and be at his cabin before noon. 
He cursed at himself for not thinking of it before. It was the obvious thing
to do.  It should have been his first thought, and yet he, the person on
whom Christ was depending,  had not thought about taking the shortcut until
just now.  “How am I supposed to get her well, when I can’t even get her
home.”  He abused himself with his thoughts.
        Neil turned Prince off the river bank, and disappeared into the woods.  It
was a rougher ride, but he had to go this way.  Besides he would have
everything he needed at his cabin.  He knew that he would have to operate on
Christy to take out the bullet that was still lodged in her side.  Better
that he do it at his place, where the supplies are readily available, then
have to make due at the mission house.  He was not going to take any chances
where Christy was concerned.
        The Doctor kept the horse at a steady pace, as he crossed Mchone land.  Up
and over the hills, and through the dense forest of trees they rode, Neil,
all the time trying to find Christy’s breath on his neck, but felt nothing. 
It was all he could do to keep his emotions in check.  He was almost there,
he kept saying to himself.  “We’re almost there,” he kept saying to
Christy.”
        After what seemed like an eternity, Neil rode past the fence posts that
marked the line between the McHone, and Spencer farms.  The  fence itself
had been taken down long ago.  These were neighbors who did not need fences.
Neil paid no attention to the long forgotten fence posts, as he flew past
them, and soon he could see the Spencer cabin up ahead in the distance.  He
thought of just riding on, but a thought made him ride up to the cabin.  
        The cabin was silent.  For a moment Neil was afraid that no one was inside,
but yelled out just to be certain.
        “Hello, Fairlight, Jeb, are you in there.”  The desperation in his voice
was evident. 
        There was silence for a moment, then from the dark porch the door was
jerked open, and Jeb Spencer stepped outside.  He knew immediatley who had
called his name.
        “Hello, Doc,” he called running down the stairs, as Fairlight emerged from
the cabin behind him.  Jeb ran up to Neil, who was clutching the unconscious
Christy in his arms.  “You found her.” 
        When Fairlight heard that her dear friend had been found she too ran down
the steep steps  of her cabin, and raced to stand at her husband’s side. 
“Christy,” she reached out and touched Christy’s leg, but drew her hand
back, when she did not feel the young woman stir.  “Doc. MacNeill, what’s
wrong with her,  is she...”  Fairlight couldn’t finish her sentence.  She
stood staring into the doctor’s eyes, not wanting to hear the answer.
        “She’s not good, Fairlight,”  Neil answered her plainly, and pulled back
his coat that had been covering her since he first found her in the woods,
to reveal the extent of her injuries, and the fresh trails of blood on her
clothing from her wounds being reopened.  
        Fairlight stood speechless, looking from Christy’s face to the Doctor’s to
her husbands, but no words were said between the three.  They all knew how
serious Christy was, and they could all tell it would be a miracle if she
lived.
        Neil quickly cover Christy again with his jacket. Fairlight and Jeb both
noticed that even this did not awaken Christy. Fairlight also noticed the
loving way that Neil was protecting Christy.  
        “Fairlight I need your help,” Neil began.  “Could you make it to the
mission and tell Alice that I’ve found her.  I have to get Christy to my
cabin, but I’ll need Alice’s help when I get there.  Tell her to bring some
fresh linens, and bed clothes.  Can you do that?”
        “Doc, you know I will,” Fairlight looked at the Doctor, and at her husband.
She reached out  and touched Christy’s leg once more.  She knew that
somewhere in her sleep Christy would be able to feel the love of friends,
and she hoped that would help.  “I’ll go now, Jeb mind the young ens ’til I
get back.”  Fairlight turned and began running in the direction of the
Mission.
        “What can I do to help, Doc?  Jeb asked”
        Neil was already preparing to leave, as he kicked the horse, and started
galloping to his cabin, he shouted back over his shoulder.  “Pray, Jeb,
Pray.”
        
                                ---------------------------------------------

        “Miss Alice, Miss Alice,” Fairlight shouted as she ran into the yard of the
mission house on the cold winter morning. The snow flurries that had started
the night before had not stopped.  “Miss Alice,”  Fairlight again shouted as
she bounded up the steps and pounded on the front door of the mission. 
Alice Henderson had been taking over some of Dr. MacNeill’s duties in his
absence, and Fairlight prayed she was at home.  Finally the door creaked
open, and Fairlight was standing face to face with Reverend Grantland.  
        “Oh, Preacher,”  she began, “Is Miss Alice here,”  Fairlight paid no
attention to manners as she pushed past David, and walked inside.  She new
that it wouldn’t matter anyway.  They would all want to know the news. 
Alice was just coming down the stairs, she had heard Fairlight calling out
in the yard, and knew she would probably be needed.  
        Alice looked weary.  She had not had much sleep in the past few weeks.  No
one at the Mission had. Alice spent her nights worrying about her young
friend.  So much time had passed since the doctor had left to search for
her.  She knew that with every passing day that brought no word of their
return, the outlook grew more grim.   
        David too had passed the last several weeks in growing anxiety.  He
returned to the mission several days after Christy’s disappearance. Alice
had sent Jeb Spencer over to Lufty Branch to fetch the preacher after Neil
had not returned.  David took Christy’s disappearance especially hard.  He
had been gone when she disappeared, and was not given the opportunity to
search for her.  He too, like Neil MacNeill hoped to be the one to find
Christy, so every spare moment he had, when he was not ministering to his
parishioners, or taking over Christy’s teaching duties, was spent on horse
back, in the mountains looking for the woman that he too loved.
        Fairlight looked up at Alice coming down the stairs, and back again to the
preacher standing by the door.  “He found her,.”
        “What, who, ... found Christy,” Alice could hardly believe her ears.  She
was prepared to hear news of the worst.  Then she realized that Fairlight
had not said anything about the condition that Christy was in.  She raced
down the stairs to stand next the Fairlight.  “Mrs. Spencer, how is she,
where is she?”
        “Doc found her, he took her to his place, and sent me to fetch you.  He
said you need to go there fast, to bring fresh linens, and bed clothes too. 
Miss Christy’s...,”  Fairlight fell suddenly silent, and turned her eyes to
the floor.
        Alice’s eyes turned anxiously to David, who gently grabbed Fairlight by the
arms,” “What, Christy’s what...,” he begged for an answer.  One did not
come, Fairlight just stared into his eyes, unable to put into words what she
had seen earlier when Doctor MacNeill moved the coat aside to reveal what
had happened to Christy.
        “Linens, and bedclothes,” David finally broke the silence. “That’s what he
said,”  “Alice you go ahead to MacNeill’s place to help.  Fairlight and I
will get those things together and follow you there.  It sounds like he
needs your help now.” David put a reassuring hand on Fairlight’s shoulder.  
        Alice turned to Fairlight, Mrs. Spencer, I’m sure everything will be fine,
thee will see.”  With that she looked up a David before leaving the mission
house to journey in the snow to Doctor MacNeill’s cabin.  The truth was no
one standing in the room that morning believed that it would be all right.


“The Searching” - Part 13

        Alice Henderson was very much out of breath by the time she reached Dr.
MacNeill’s cabin.   The morning snow was now lightly covering the ground
around her feet as she ran, but she noticed neither the snow nor the cold. 
She just kept remembering the look on Fairlight’s face when she burst into
the mission house just minutes before  to announce that Neil had found
Christy.  She remembered also how Mrs. Spencer could not bring herself to
tell them about Christy’s condition.  Alice ignored also the pain in her
lungs that running in the cold air brought about as she raced up the steps
to the Doctor’s cabin, and threw the door open.  She prayed to see Christy
sitting there by the fire, but instead her eyes met a very different scene.
        Alice could barely see in the dimly lit cabin.  Obviously Neil had not
taken the time to light any lamps, or start a fire.  Alice’s eyes danced
quickly around the cabin, and came to rest on Dr. MacNeill.  He had made a
make shift examining table out of his dining table.  Alice could see the
small, fragile figure that rested on top of the table.  From the doorway it
looked nothing like Christy.  This poor creature was too small, and frail. 
Alice remembered Christy being more vibrant, and much more healthy.  She had
forgotten that Christy had been gone for weeks, and she didn’t know Christy
had spent nearly all of this time outside tied to a tree, with bleeding
wounds, and nothing to protect her from the encroaching cold of winter.
        Alice slowly stepped over to the dining table, where Neil was working
feverishly examining this person.  Alice kept her eyes on Neil, not wanting
to look, not  wanting to know what had happened to Christy.  Finally, she
let her eyes slip from the doctor’s face to whomever laid upon the white
sheet that Dr. MacNeill had used to cover the table.
        She stood horrified for a moment, as she realized this tiny figure was
indeed Christy.  In the dim candle light, that the Doctor worked by, Alice
could see the true picture of what Christy had been through unfold before
her eyes.  She slowly searched over Christy’s body.  Her face was pale and
drawn, it looked like Christy’s face, but it looked different at the same
time.  When Alice let her eyes move from Christy’s face to her body she let
out a gasp, and raised her hands to her mouth as if praying.  She could now
see the wounds, and their aftermath all over her clothing.  There was now
not an inch of her shirt waist that wasn’t covered with blood, and her skirt
was also nearly completely drenched.  “Oh, Neil,” was all she could say.
        “Alice, I need your help,” Neil said without looking up from the wound in
Christy’s shoulder.  His red hair hung around his face in scraggly curls, 
and the sweat covered his forehead.  Neil had already undone Christy’s shirt
waist to reveal her wounded shoulder.  He hadn’t bothered with the buttons,
he had simply, and quickly ripped it open with his bare hands.  Every second
counted now.  He wasn’t thinking about her modesty.  He was thinking about
saving her life.  Alice could see now that her under garments and corset
were also covered with blood.  
        “She’s barely breathing, feel for her pulse, Alice hurry.”  The doctor
shouted his orders to the woman who had been his nurse so many times before,
which brought her back around.  She remember that she was there to do a job.
To save her friend.  She would take all of this in later.
        Alice quickly took hold of Christy’s wrist, but felt nothing. She shot a
worried glance up at Dr. MacNeill, who was working with his surgical
instruments probing Christy’s shoulder.  “Neil,” she whispered.
        “Not there, Alice, her pulse is to faint to feel for it there, feel the
artery in her neck.”
        Alice reached her hand for Christy’s neck, just as Neil was turning her
over on her side to see the damage the bullet had done to her back when it
left her body.  Finally, Alice felt her pulse, or at least she thought she
did.  It was too weak, and short to tell for sure, she kept her hand on
Christy’s neck to wait for another indication of her pulse, but one did not
come.  She looked at Christy’s shoulder.  “She’s been shot?” Alice could not
believe that this was happening to Christy.
        Neil continued to work on Christy as he explained the situation to Alice.
“She has a bullet wound in her right shoulder, it entered and exited.  She
was also shot in the side.  I haven’t looked at that one yet.  Oh, this
shoulder is badly infected,”  he continued.  Alice could not tell if he was
talking to her or to himself. 
        Finally Neil looked up from his patient.  “Alice,” he began, as he looked
her intently in the eye, Alice saw the desperation in his own face.  “I’ve
got to get my instruments ready.  I’ve got to try to cut most of this
infection out of her shoulder, and I’ve got to take the bullet out of her
side.  Get her ready for me.  We’re not wasting any time.”  Neil gently laid
Christy back down on the table.  He looked at her face, and stroked her
hair, before disappearing into the room where he kept all of his
instruments.
        Alice could hear Neil readying the surgical tools that he need to save
Christy’s life.  She knew the minute she had felt for Christy’s pulse that
the situation was much worse than she had imagined.  Alice gently and
carefully removed Christy’s soiled clothing.  When she saw the wound on her
side her heart sunk to the floor.  “Dear God,” she prayed, “Why has thou
done to her.”  Alice also removed Christy’s bloody corset, and
undergarments, and then covered her lower body, and chest with two pieces of
white fabric that Neil had brought out and laid across the chair.  Alice
knew that Neil was a gentleman, and a Doctor, but she also knew that Christy
would feel more comfortable knowing that  she were covered.  
        Neil had gone quickly to the well to fetch two bowls of water.  One to
sterilize his surgical instruments, and the other for Alice to use to wash
the blood and dirt off of Christy, and away from her wounds.  Alice dipped a
cloth into the water, it was cold, but there was not time to heat it up. 
She worked quickly to clean away the remnants of Christy’s ordeal, and when
she was finished she covered Christy’s whole body with a long white sheet,
just as Neil came from the other room with his instruments.
        Neil laid the instruments on the smaller table that sat close to where his
patient lay unconscious, and walked over to Christy.  He then lifted the
sheet to examine her side.  Alice saw his face go white, when he saw what
she had already seen.   There in the flesh of her right side, just under her
rib cage, was a large gaping whole left by a horrid bullet.  Alice could
tell by the redness around the bullet wound that an infection had set in
there too.  She had already looked at the bullet wound in Christy’s
shoulder.  The redness around that injury was already working it’s way down
Christy’s arm.   This she thought was not going to be easy, these infections
are very bad. 
        Alice watched as Neil clasped Christy’s hand in his own, and leaned down to
whisper in her ear.  “Lass, this will not hurt, I promise you that.  When
you wake, it’ll all be over, and I’ll be the here. Just hold on a bit
longer, my...Christy.”  Then Alice watched startled as he moved his face
over to her forehead, and softly kissed her.  This concerned her but she
said nothing, and Neil acted as if she were not even in the room until he
once again started to shout his orders to her.  
        “ Alice we’ll still have to put her under, do you remember what to do?”
        Alice remembered how to use the ether, and moved to pour the foul smelling
liquid into the cloth over Christy’s mouth.  
        “O.k, that’s enough.”  Neil said after a few minutes, “We need to get
started.”  First, we’ll take the bullet out of her side.  Ready?”   He
questioned her as he stared into her eyes.  Then Alice saw him do something
she had never seen him do before.  Neil took a deep breath, as if he drawing
in all of his confidence, as if he were nervous.  
        The Doctor finally seemed to regain his composure, and let the knife move
swiftly along Christy’s right side.  Neil made a long incision in Christy’s
side, and pulled back the skin to reveal the muscle underneath, but not the
bullet.  Neil again worked swiftly with the knife to cut into the muscle and
sinew, shouting orders to Alice as he worked.   After several minutes of
searching with probes, and feeling around with his fingers, Neil found the
path that the bullet had taken through Christy’s body, but still could not
find the bullet.
        “How’s her pulse?” His question was more of an order for Alice to check
Christy’s neck for a pulse.
        After a few seconds of searching for her pulse came Alice’s answer.  “It’s
not at all strong, but it’s there.”
        “The bullet’s deeper than I had thought, I’m going to open her abdomen
more.” He told her.
         Alice watched as Neil’s skillful hands moved carefully inside of Christy’s
body.  She could see the worry on Neil’s face as the damage the bullet had
done became evident.  There was a great deal of blood on Neil’s hands
whenever they emerged from her stomach to retrieve an instrument that he
needed, and Neil was calling on Alice to hand him more and more strips of
cloth to sponge away the blood that had gathered in Christy’s abdomen.  
        Neil cursed more than once at whomever had done this to Christy, and at her
injuries.  It took close to an hour for Neil to find the bullet, and he
closed his eyes in frustration when he realized where the bullet had
stopped, and where it had gone.  
        Neil spoke again, but again Alice was not sure if he was talking to her or
to himself.  “The bullet  went through her liver,  that’s the reason for all
of the blood.  I’m fairly sure, I can suture it up.  The damage is bad, but
I’ve seen worse. “  Alice could tell there was more, so she let him finish. 
“The blasted bullet is resting very close to her spine,”  Neil continued
letting out an exhausted and exasperated sigh.  “I’ve got to be careful,
more than careful when I’m taking it out.  One wrong move, and she could be
hurt even worse than she is now.”  Neil stood there for a moment his hands,
covered with blood,  hovering over Christy’s wound.  
        Just as he was about to resume the surgery to remove the bullet, a pounding
on the door startled him.  Then he heard David Grantland’s voice, on the
other side.  Neil shot a frozen glare toward the door as it opened.  During
his long trip back to the mission cradling Christy in his arms he had
thought of only himself, and the woman he loved.  He had forgotten about the
other man in her life.  At that moment he hated David Grantland.  “Get out,”
Neil yelled at David, who was already coming inside, followed by Fairlight
        Seeing the sights before his eyes, David stopped dead in his tracks. 
“Christy... what happened to her?” He started to move closer.
        This was more than Neil could take, and he strode across the room to come
face to face with the Reverend.  “I said get out,”  Neil repeated.
        “Christy, let me see her, let me help,”  David pleaded as he began to push
Neil aside.
        Neil, once again stared coldly at David, then held up his hands for David
to see.  They were still covered with Christy’s blood.  “Look, Grantland, do
you want this on your conscience?”   David stood there staring at MacNeill’s
hands.  “I said get out, so I can save her life.”
        Fairlight, who was standing just behind David, put the bed clothes, and
linens down on the chair, and put her hand on David’s shoulder.  “Come on,
Preacher,”  she said quietly,”  Let Doc. MacNeill do his work.  We’ll see
her when he’s done.”  She led David back out the door.  David moved backward
out of the room looking from Christy to Neil until Fairlight shut the door.
        Neil moved immediately back to Christy’s side, and began to work on her
again.  He worked carefully and mechanically, his scalpel in one had and a
pair of forceps in the other.  There was no room for error. Repairing the
hole in Christy’s liver had slowed the blood flow a little and made it
easier to see.  It was several more minutes until Neil had the bullet, and
could pull it out.  Neil was finally able to begin to stitch Christy’s
wound.  He knew that she would take a long time to recover from this injury.
In his mind he was overjoyed to have gotten the bullet out.  It also killed
him inside, when he realized what he had done to her to remove it.  He had
performed surgery hundreds of times before, but never on Christy, never on
the woman he loved.
        Neil relinquished this thought for a while, and turned his attention to
fixing Christy’s shoulder.        
                   



Part 14 coming soon