Canyon of Death by Jere D. James

Author:Jere D. James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: western novel, apache, arizona novel, chiricahua mountains, jake silver series
Publisher: Moonlight Mesa Associates

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When not hallucinating, Jake awoke for brief periods and watched the two Indians hovering about, tending him. Surprised he still lived, he didn’t harbor any hope that he’d hold out much longer. Although the pain in his back had subsided to a dull throb, his leg seared in merciless agony. Moving it caused excruciating pain when the tip of the broken bone poked into his muscle and flesh. If only he could keep the leg immobile. Without being told, he knew it to be broken. So this is what a broken leg feels like, flitted through his mind before he again drifted off.

He awoke sometime later, time now being meaningless to a dying man, and watched soft, white snowflakes spiraling down. He smiled, marveling at the sight, and wondered momentarily if he might be in heaven until the travois jolted, causing an intense spasm of pain. No, if he could still feel the pain, he hadn’t died yet, he assured himself. But the beauty of the falling snow soon arrested his attention again when the pain had passed. His mind roamed, and he did not know he wandered in and out of consciousness, only that he’d never seen anything as beautiful as what he now saw. Perhaps I should ride along the ground all the time, he mused.

Never had the air smelled more pure and cold and clean. Tears rolled down his cheeks at the sheer beauty of everything within sight. I’m dying, he thought. Dying is not so bad. Far more pleasant that it’s given credit for. He could not drink in enough of the splendor around him. Never had snow seemed so dazzling, so lovely. So magnificent. A flake fell into his eye and he smiled with childlike happiness. Its delicious coldness made him blink. Breathing deeply, he tried to treasure the delectable air, but the breath caused him to cough – which caused his back to hurt so bad he could hardly bear the pain.

Where am I going? he wondered. Am I on the road to heaven? Jake had never been a believer, but now he wondered if there remained sufficient time to rethink his agnostic ways. The sheer beauty of the world he saw convinced him he did not travel the road to hell. He closed his eyes, feeling icy coldness on his cheeks, and snowflakes occasionally kissing his face. A mule brayed, and he suddenly understood he was being transported by someone to somewhere. But who, where, and why escaped him. Wild Bill’s alive at least, he thought. How did I get here? What happened to me? Slowly, he began to recall the gunfight in the canyon. He saw the Indian fall. And Johnny Geiger. But what had happened to the rest? And then he knew for a certainty that Nantan Lupan must have appeared. Again the Apache he’d not deemed worthy enough for his sister, Sophy, had saved his life.

His eyes closed.

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