Spur Giant: Soiled Dove by Dirk Fletcher

Author:Dirk Fletcher [Fletcher, Dirk]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-09-12T04:23:00+00:00

"BRING PAYMENT FOR MERCHANDISE IN LEATHER CASE. LEAVE FIFTY YARDS SOUTH OF WATER TOWER IN CLEARED SPACE TWENTY YARDS FROM TRACKS. AFTER DEPOSITING PAYMENT, RETURN TO THE TRAIN AT ONCE. NO DELAYS PERMITTED. YOUR MERCHANDISE WILL BE BROUGHT TO TRAIN AT FIRST PASSENGER CAR NEAR WATER TOWER. NO MISTAKES."

Spur read the copy of the telegram and pushed it back in his pocket. Fifty-yards south of the water tank. Easy enough. Twenty-yards from the tracks. Was there already a cleared spot there, or would the kidnappers make one? How were they getting Amy Hellman from Fort Smith, if that's indeed where she still was, to the water tower?

Had they gone up on a morning train and got off there? Maybe a buggy road ran nearby from Fort Smith up to the small towns between there and Fayetteville. Maybe.

Spur gave up and relaxed. Soon the train slowed and outside he could see the red lanterns of the trainmen as the long string of cars slowed to a stop near the shadows of a water tower.

Spur slipped off with his small carpetbag and walked up to the tower. He watched the men lower the spout into the engine and fill it up with water to replace that used on the long haul up the hill. He left the tower and paced off 50-yards down the tracks, and looked across the right of way. Even in the faint moonlight, he could tell there was no kind of clearing there. It was a brushy patch that would take a lot of work to cut down small shrubs and trees to make a clearing even ten-feet wide.

Spur faded away from the tracks into the brush. A few minutes later he heard the train start up and roll up the last few feet of the grade, then start the downhill run to Fayetteville. He found a faint animal trail and used it to get a quarter-of-a-mile into the trees and brush. He found a spot under a large tree that was shielded by brush and spread out his blanket. He'd have a nap and then listen to the night sounds.

He hoped he'd hear someone chopping brush, but he figured he wouldn't. The train had taken almost an hour to climb the 22 miles to the summit. The one in the morning would probably go at the same speed which meant the State Attorney General and the money should arrive at the Casper summit about seven o'clock. It would be full light by then.

It didn't give the kidnappers much time to make a clearing. Or were the instructions meant to be confusing? Once the man with the money stepped off the train and headed south, it would be easy for the kidnappers to appear out of the brush, grab the money, knock down the messenger and vanish back into the brush that grew up to the right-ofway along much of the area south of the water tank.

He stopped evaluating the situation and listened. A night bird of some sort called for its mate.

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.