A Gold Half Eagle by Brad Fedden

Author:Brad Fedden [Fedden, Brad]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Robert Hale
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

The miles slipped by without Hal noticing – he was too deep in thought to be aware of night becoming dawn or dawn becoming day. Despite it being late summer, eternal blossom was tugging at his heartstrings. Aiyana – what had she risked to get that key? Was she now in trouble, would she get a beating? Hal wondered how Bob Mason would respond to his daughter letting the prisoner get away, especially as he was nervous about Aiyana being whisked off her feet by a handsome young man. Had Mason really said that, or were those Aiyana’s words?

Now he felt a pang of remorse at not having said goodbye properly to Aiyana, and even worse, a pang of guilt at contemplating her punishment without any chance of going to her aid. But he couldn’t go back. He didn’t even know the name of that two-bit town, assuming it had a name. Perhaps Masonville, since Bob Mason seemed to be the biggest noise amongst the citizenry. Well, he had ordered Amos and Ben to remove the body and they’d complied at once, and he did say it was left to him to do all the sheriff’s work since there wasn’t one in the town. A town without a name? No, Hal decided to think of it as Masonville, since Mason’s saloon was the only building of any note in that wind-blown bit of off-the-track Kansas.

Now a slight pang of hunger reminded Hal that it was time to seek out some breakfast. His supplies had all been used up except for some coffee beans. He was tempted to stop and make a fire while the sun climbed into the clear blue sky, but he’d lost enough time already and the two fugitives were gaining ground.

A fingerboard eventually pointed the way to Wyandott, and duly following the track, which at length joined a major road, the sprawling city came into view. Laid out with fine straight streets and teeming with life, livestock and industry, this was Hal’s first introduction to the thriving commercial activity of an important town. Riding his horse down one of the streets he mingled with folk of every description and every background. Overwhelmed by the size and abundance of tall brick and stone buildings, several storeys high, he paused to ask directions for the river and the steamboats. Such was the size of the place that it took another quarter of an hour of avoiding other road users, including carts and laden wagons of every description, and pedestrians careless of the dangers flitting from one side to the other, or foolishly stopping mid-street for a conversation, causing blockages and diversions at every turn.

At last the smell of the river reached Hal’s nostrils. There was no doubt it was the river, as the odour intensified and the noise increased tenfold. A railway track ran along the bank, where a dozen or more steamboats in a variety of sizes and colours were at different stages of loading and unloading. The river itself was a slow-moving, murky swirl of mud and debris.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.