Cimarron Jordan by Matt Braun

Author:Matt Braun
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

Six

1.

Jordan left the Sweetwater in early June, bearing due northeast over the Canadian and Wolf Creek. Upon reaching Camp Supply, he turned the gelding north along the road to Dodge. While he had seen plenty of Indians above Antelope Hills, they all appeared to be of the tame variety. Reservation Indians, folks were calling them these days, as opposed to the renegades who were still raiding down south. There were rumors afoot that the Cheyenne had become increasingly restive, demanding to be returned to their ancestral lands above the Republican. But the government was holding firm, and as yet there had been no general outbreak of violence. The real trouble, according to scraps of information Major Cogswell chose to share with lowly civilians, was the Sioux. The mightiest tribe on the western plains had taken the war trail, and there was widespread fear along the frontier that it might spark an uprising among the hostiles in Indian Territory.

The country was awash with speculation, but one thing was for damn sure. Jordan was almighty thankful he had never been tempted to hunt on the northern plains. The Sioux made the Comanche and Kiowa look like a bunch of amateurs.

The long solitary ride to Dodge gave him plenty of time to think. Not just about Indians, either. The purpose of his trip was a business confab with Jason Rath. Or perhaps it was merely an excuse. The plainsman hadn’t quite made up his mind on that score. He knew that some part of his journey was prompted by a need to see Julia again, but just how big a part he wasn’t exactly certain. As with most things concerning Julia, it remained confused and hard to pin down. Like trying to catch a butterfly with a fruit jar.

Back on the Sweetwater he had suddenly awakened to the fact that almost a year had passed since he last visited Dodge. Time had somehow gotten lost in the shuffle, overlooked or ignored, or maybe just buried beneath the press of greater urgencies. Building a town and operating a hide outfit, not to mention playing blindman’s bluff with the hostiles, had a way of focusing a man’s mind on events instead of dates. His calendar became the day Sweetwater City was completed, the morning he had shot the white buffalo, and a bloody dawn in a canyon to the west. Time itself was merely a silent hourglass, passing unnoticed, something a man lost track of in the rush of building and killing and staying alive.

Though letters had passed back and forth between Dodge and Sweetwater by way of the supply trains, Jordan had never been much at expressing himself on paper. Hiram Greene made long, scrupulously detailed business reports anyway, so he really couldn’t see the need to waste time laboring with pen and ink just to pass along idle chit-chat. Rath’s letters had been filled with praise for the roaring success of the trading post and glowingly optimistic about prospects in Dodge. It seemed

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