Return to Blood Creek by Frank Callan

Author:Frank Callan [Callan, Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Robert Hale
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

In the yard shack, Emilia was dressing Cal’s wound again. She had spent an hour calling him a fool and he had been squirming in pain since he got back from his shooting. Now Emilia knew, and no one else. ‘Mr Roney, you did a fine thing, but also a stupid thing. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for saving . . . again. . . my dear brother. The truth is, I can’t see a bad man in you. I wish I could tell everybody who you really are and what you did today.’

‘That’s real kind, but as long as I’m here, you’re likely to be in trouble. Nobody must know what you’re doing . . . helping a man they all hate.’

She saw that he was comfortable, gave him soup and then more coffee, and gave him something from the doc that would help him sleep. Then she left. Cal thought about reaching out and taking her hand, and then, losing the words he thought he had ready to say to her, he dropped the notion and called himself a fool. He didn’t know what he was afraid of, yet something inside held him back.

Cal knew that he needed sleep, but his thoughts were tormenting him that night. In the early hours he woke up, and his mind was so confused that he wasn’t clear whether he was in the middle of a bad dream or just remembering – but in his thoughts he relived the day that Don Lerade had called him in to the Pinkerton office in Laramie and told him about the job out where the Platte bends south a little. It was a long way off, but Lerade knew that Cal was acquainted with that part of the territory. He saw the scene in his mind, clear as day.

‘I hear you know that Creek well, out past Long Corral?’

‘Sure do, Mister Lerade, I grew up around forty miles north.’

‘Well, we’re pretty sure that the robber is holed in around that place . . . Cy Felder. He’s a desperate man, and he was willing to take a life for a few hundred dollars. He’s likely to do it again. Word is he’s a bad character . . . willing to steal a coin from a corpse’s eyes. Can you bring him in, Cal?’

‘Sure. Give me some descriptions.’

‘Seems he’s close to a veteran named Gulley, survived the war and learned a heap o’ bad habits in the process.’

That had been imprinted in his mind, and Cal knew as he came round at sun-up, that he should be out there looking for Felder and Gulley, not lying around in bed. The pain seemed to have eased. His appaloosa was in the stables next door, along with his saddle and leathers, and his guns were hung on the wall in front of him. ‘It’s time to bring in your man,’ he said to himself – but at that moment, in came Emilia, seeing that her patient was stirring, and already mad at him.

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