End of the Hunt by Jack Hanson

Author:Jack Hanson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

12

“TOOK YOU LONG enough to catch up to us, old chap,” White Bear said with some sarcasm in his voice.

“Well, hoss,” Barlow said as he climbed out of the saddle, “if I’d known you was gonna run like a scared rabbit till you was almost in Chihuahua, I would’ve made a little more haste. As it was, I figured you was gonna take your time once you got a few miles from that spot that spooked you so much. Not keep goin’ like Ol’ Scratch was on your tail.”

“Who is this Old Scratch?” Ortega asked.

“Satan his own self, hoss,” Barlow responded as he walked his horse and the pack mule to where the other animals were. “The way you boys must’ve been ridin’, you must’ve thunk he was right behind you.”

“We did not ride fast,” Ortega protested. “You were too slow.”

Barlow grinned a little. “Mayhap, hoss. Mayhap. But this goddamn mule was sure some skittish about bein’ took back.” He began unsaddling Beelzebub, while his two companions unloaded the supplies from the pack mule.

Done, the three sat at the fire, and Barlow hungrily tore into the antelope meat that cooked there, and downed some coffee. “You boys have any trouble on the trail since that damn earthquake?” he asked between bites.

“No, old chap,” White Bear said. He still was a little nervous, worrying that his medicine might’ve gone bad and that this had brought on the earthquake. But he couldn’t think of anything that he had done that might’ve caused his medicine to go bad.

“Glad to hear it. What next, Manuel?” Barlow asked.

“We head to the desert, though it will be some time before we get there, really. Couple of weeks, if we have no trouble. Then we head west.”

Barlow nodded. “Well, it’s robe time for this ol’ critter. We got us a heap of travelin’ to do, so I suggest you boys turn in, too.” Without waiting to see if they did, Barlow got his sleeping robe and stretched it out. He shrugged off his heavy blanket coat, and slid into the sleeping robe. He was asleep within minutes of his head touching down.

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