Longarm and the Bank Robber's Daughter by Tabor Evans

Author:Tabor Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Chapter 9

The view from the heights was spectacular. Heavily forested mountain slopes swept down to rugged foothills, and the land continued to fall away from those hills until it leveled out into a broad green plain that extended for several score miles before rising again into another range of mountains.

Longarm and Emily paused on a jutting shoulder of ground to peer down at the western foothills of the Sangre de Cristos and the prosperous ranch land of San Luis Valley beyond. It was late the next afternoon. There had been no more trouble. The trip on up to the pass and through it had been uneventful. Longarm was thankful for that. His wounded arm was stiff and sore, but he was convinced it was going to heal just fine. Emily had taken good care of him.

Now she rose in the stirrups and searched the panorama in front of them for any sign of their destination. “I don’t see anything,” she said. “Nothing but miles and miles of pretty country, that is.”

Longarm pointed. His keen eyes had already picked out several tendrils of smoke climbing into the sky. “Look right over there,” he told her. “I reckon that must be Sweetwater City.” The settlement’s location was several miles northwest from where they sat their horses. Pretty good for steering a path across the mountains by dead reckoning, he thought.

“Where’s the creek and the canyon?”

Longarm lifted the reins and clucked to his mount. “Let’s go see if we can find out.”

They rode north through the foothills, Longarm picking the easiest route for them. Emily had done fine on the high, narrow trail to the pass. She had turned a little pale when the path skirted drop-offs of two thousand feet, but nobody could fault her for that. She’d kept her horse under control and followed steadfastly along behind Longarm. He figured that she deserved some easier going now.

They had made love again the night before, camped high in the mountains just west of the pass, bundled in blankets against the chill of the altitude. Longarm sensed a little desperation in the way Emily had clung to him as they coupled. She had been through a lot in the past few days, even for a bank robber’s daughter. During that time, she had seen more violence first-hand than she had witnessed in the entire rest of her life. But she had come through it strong and resolute, and Longarm was proud of her.

As they huddled in their blankets afterward, their talk drifted to Emily’s father. “I believe he must have had a real change of heart,” she had said. “Even though he may never know about it, I . . . I hope he hangs on until we’ve recovered that gold. I think that would please him. He never really meant to be an outlaw, you know.”

“What started him on the owlhoot trail?” Longarm had asked.

“The war, of course. I suppose he saw too much killing, too much blood. That does something to a man, I expect.

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.