Savage Courage by Cassie Edwards

Author:Cassie Edwards [Cassie Edwards]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781428518001
Publisher: Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
Published: 2012-01-30T10:11:23+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Not as all other women are

Is she that to my soul is dear.

—James Russell Lowell

On his steed, his hands tightly wound around the reins as he traveled with the soldiers in single file up the small mountain pass, George could not stop worrying about what their Apache guide had said just before he headed back down the mountain, alone. The guide had warned everyone that they should return with him to the fort, not go farther into the mountain.

His eyes and voice frantic, he had said that all who traveled on this mountain today were in danger of being attacked by “ghost sickness.” He’d explained that ghost sickness overwhelmed a person with extreme nervousness and fright. He said he had already been struck by it. That was why he was retreating.

He claimed that this ghost sickness was often brought on by the hooting of a nearby owl at night. The whole camp had been disturbed by an owl all night after the storm had passed. It had not ceased its call until daybreak.

George had awakened just in time to see the owl flutter away, higher up the mountain. It had been huge and white, its wingspan even larger than any eagle he had ever seen.

George had further questioned the guide about this ghost sickness. The guide had said that the Apache had an excessive dread of owls, and that if an owl hooted near one’s camp, it was an omen of the most frightful import. The Apache believed the spirit of the dead entered into the owl and came back to warn or threaten them.

Not believing in such superstitious hogwash, George had ignored the guide—even when the man refused to travel onward.

“We must travel on foot until the pass widens again,” said the soldier who had taken over the duties of the guide. “Let’s head toward that growth of aspen trees over there. There seems to be a path worn in the grass that leads to those trees. We may just find something interesting.”

They followed the path, leading their horses behind them, and when they came to the aspens and made their way through them, what they found on the other side made George’s heart skip a beat. From this vantage point he could see a well-hidden, newly built cabin nestled on the floor of a canyon, with a cluster of trees on each end standing like sentinels, guarding whoever lived there.

“Surely it’s the scalp hunter’s cabin,” George said, his heart pounding.

He struggled up into the saddle again and rode with the others until they reached the cabin and surrounded it.

“Come out with your hands in the air!” Colonel Hawkins shouted. “Don’t try anything funny. You’re surrounded.”

“I don’t think anyone is there,” a soldier said as he sidled his steed close to George’s. “I see no horse, and there isn’t any smoke coming from the chimney.”

George gazed at the chimney and saw that the soldier was right. There was no smoke.

He looked cautiously around the cabin and saw no horse.

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