Damnation Valley by William W. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-04-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

It was well after dark before Breckinridge and Charlie Moss reached the promontory where Carnahan and the other man had hidden to ambush them. Breck was confident he could find the place, even by moonlight, and that turned out to be true. The boulder-littered knob was easily visible in the silvery illumination.

They put in to shore, pulled the canoe well out of the water, and then climbed to the top of the ridge behind the promontory, taking their supplies with them.

“We’ll make camp here and pick up the trail first thing in the morning,” Breckinridge said. “Better get some sleep, Charlie. Tomorrow’s liable to be a long day.”

“I’m sure it will be, so you wake me up in a few hours and get some shut-eye yourself,” Moss said.

“That’s what I figured on doin’.”

Moss spread the bedroll he’d carried on his back and stretched out. Within minutes, he was snoring. Breckinridge sat with his back propped against a rock and his rifle across his knees. Exhaustion sat heavily on him, but he was accustomed to staying awake when he needed to, no matter how tired he was. He didn’t doze off as the stars wheeled through the ebony sky above him and the moon raced through the heavens.

When he woke up Moss and lay down himself, he went out like someone had walloped him on the head with a hammer.

Moss roused him from sleep when dawn was still a small, rosy arch on the eastern horizon. Moss built a fire and the two men made a fast, sparse breakfast of some fried salt pork. By then the sun wasn’t up but the light was good enough for Breckinridge to start looking for tracks.

He found some leading south away from the river. Two different people had made them. One set of footprints was more sharply defined and deeper than the other. Jud Carnahan’s boots had left those prints, Breckinridge thought. The other tracks, some of them mere smudges, were left by Ophelia Garwood, who had been wearing slippers when she was taken hostage.

That was more confirmation Ophelia was alive. Breckinridge welcomed that. He believed there was a good chance Carnahan would keep her alive, and he was going to hang on to that hope unless and until they found proof to the contrary.

Like Ophelia’s body.

Breckinridge shoved that thought out of his head and gathered his gear. Charlie Moss did the same. The sun had just started to peek over the eastern horizon when the two men set out, heading south over mostly rolling prairie that was broken here and there by gullies, ridges, and hills. Mountain ranges bulked in the distance to the south and west. Breck wanted to catch up to their quarry before they reached any of those mountains, because the more rugged terrain would just make a rescue more difficult, but he would do whatever was necessary to save Ophelia and bring her back to her sisters.

They had water skins slung over their shoulders and from time to time drank sparingly from them.

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.