Escape and Pursuit by Orrin Russell

Author:Orrin Russell [Russell, Orrin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-07-20T04:00:00+00:00

20

Balum cupped a hand over his brow to shield his eyes from the sun rolling over the earth’s far edge. From where it rose it launched shadows long and wide across the land. Bushes with their buds still tight sent leafless silhouettes outlining their shapes like dream catchers laid crookedly over the grass. The contours of tree limbs moved along the ground, a dark tangled maze that shortened with the sun’s rise. The shadows crept up the mountainside, all the way to where Balum stood under the crest of a ridge squinting down at the valley he had ridden through the day before. At the northernmost end a few patches of snow remained. They were tucked away in the shaded furrows where the sun’s rays did not linger.

He waited, watching, while the gray minded its own business several yards away. It took a few minutes with his eyes narrowed on the valley, but eventually he saw them; specs of movement that might have been mistaken at first for a small herd of deer. But it was them, thirty miles out. He was sure of it. He’d first seen the columns of their campfires two days ago. They had gained ground since then. Whoever Freed had with him, a few good trackers counted among them.

He had hoped the search would be called off. The state of Colorado was behind him, or soon would be, and the New Mexico Territory was out of Freed’s jurisdiction. Yet there they were, closing the distance like wolves on the scent of an elk.

He turned from the ridge and walked over to where the gray had discovered good grazing. It was time to think long-term. He had almost no food left. He had no money and no rifle, only the Dragoon. Ammunition was sparse. He could make his trail hard to follow, but there was no hiding it completely. If he continued to ride aimlessly, like a frightened animal, they would close in and kill him. They were well-equipped, with shelter, water, food, and ammunition. It was only a matter of time.

The gray rose its head at the crunch of footsteps, and when Balum mounted up and led it over the ridge and down the other side, the horse took to it as though a curiosity needed to be sated within it. It trotted through the trees, its steps quick and eager, and stretched its neck forward with its eyes wide and focused.

In the saddle, Balum had time to think. Once out of the foothills, the land would change. The farther south he rode, the more arid it would become. What lay to the south was an expanse of desert that stretched thousands of miles, down to Mexico and across to California. Apache country.

It was a danger riding into that eternal expanse of sand and scrub brush, where cacti stood out from the dry earth like lone sentinels shouldered against the wind, and the call of the coyote the only sound to be heard under the arching celestial skies of night.

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.