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“Tie them up,” James says and then moves to the front door. “Shorty!” he hollers as he sticks his head out. No longer needed, he cancels his shield.

“Yeah?” comes the reply from the dark.

“It’s over,” he hollers. As Shorty approaches, James asks, “Did any make it outside?”

“Two were out with the horses,” he says. Then he points to two forms lying on the ground a little distance from the door. “They came running when you entered through the door.”

James nods then notices Scar beginning to go through the pockets of the dead men for anything of value. Leaving him to his work, he crosses the room and passes through the door leading into the room with the children.

Potbelly is there, already having untied them. Two bodies lie on the floor of the men who had been here when Scar and Potbelly made their appearance. Potbelly has bits and pieces of glass and wood in his hair, testament that he had been the one to smash through the window first. Most likely jumped through.

Turning to the children, he sees their eyes wide with fear. He gives them a big smile in an attempt to put them at ease but fails miserable. “Are you okay?” he asks them slowly.

None understand what he’s saying, they simply stare at him with fear. To Potbelly he says, “Stay here with them. Try to make them understand that we mean them no harm.”

“I’ll try,” he replies, though he’s dubious about his ability to do that when they don’t even speak his language.

“At least keep them in here until we’re ready to leave,” says James before he turns and makes his way back out to the front room.

“What should we do with them?” Shorty asks about their three prisoners when he returns.

“We’ll take them back to stand justice,” James tells him.

Jiron is at a table over in the corner, several dead bodies lie on the floor before it. “Hey look at what I found!” he exclaims. Turning around to the others with a grin, he holds up a bulging sack. Jingling it, they hear the unmistakable jingling of coins.

“Must be the stuff they stole from the people at the inn,” suggests James.

“Probably,” agrees Scar.

Jiron takes it over to the large dining table and upends the sack, spilling out coins, gems and other valuables onto its surface. He picks up several gems and tucks them into his pocket. When he sees James giving him a disapproving look he says, “For our trouble.”

“No,” says James. “Put them back with the others.”

Jiron frowns but does as bidden.

“That is going to go to the lady that was recently widowed,” James says with conviction. “Small enough consolation for losing a husband.”

“Perhaps,” pipes up Scar. “Unless he was a real piece of filth like my old man was.” Taking the items gleaned from the dead men, he adds them to the pile on the table.

“Whatever the case may be, it’s time we took the girl back to her mother.” James has Potbelly and Shorty begin getting the prisoners tied across the backs of horses in preparation for the trip back. Grabbing one off the floor, they take him outside to the waiting horses.

He then goes over to Jiron where he about has all the coins and such put back in the sack. Glancing at the table, his eyes briefly examine the coins and jewels still awaiting their turn to be returned to the sack. Several gold coins and others of a lesser value, half a dozen jewels of varying sizes and colors, and two necklaces.

Just about to turn away and cross over to the room where Potbelly has the children, he pauses and turns back toward the items on the table. When Jiron reaches to pick up another handful, he holds out his hand. “Hang on a minute,” he says. Something, a whisper of memory comes to him.

Then realization strikes. Reaching out, he picks up one of the necklaces. It bears a heart shaped gold medallion with two small diamonds in the middle. The heart with two small diamonds is what drew him to the necklace, in his dreams they had been two lights.

Each time in his dream when he had entered the Tunnel of Love, there on the wall just inside was a large heart with two lights blazing forth. In