The Texan's Reward by Jodi Thomas

Author:Jodi Thomas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

JACOB DALTON MADE IT BACK TO THE OUTLAWS’ CAMP and finished off the last of their coffee while examining the mailbags and the two Wells Fargo security boxes. The train robbers must have been riding hard, for nothing seemed to have been opened. They’d been prepared to travel when they’d hit the train. Most of the saddle packs were filled with supplies enough to last a week.

He circled the camp, widening his search with each pass, until he stepped outside the shelter of the cliff ’s ledge. Cold rain soaked him so completely he could feel his flannel shirt sticking to his body even beneath his coat, but he didn’t slow. Ten feet outside the camp he found the body of the man who’d been on guard the night before. The outlaw couldn’t have been more than twenty and had taken one shot in the head. He had no weapon on him, and his pockets were turned out. His partners in crime apparently hadn’t been satisfied with splitting his share of the loot, they robbed him in death as well.

The boy Jacob had left tied up said his father was one of the men looking for the horses. What kind of father allowed his son to watch such a senseless killing? Jacob asked himself as he dragged the man’s body toward the fire.

Lifting the boy’s slicker, Jacob slipped it over the dead man’s shoulders, then leaned the body on a bedroll so that it looked like the boy had fallen asleep by the fire while the others were gone. He found the kid’s hat and shoved it low over the dead man’s face. Anyone walking up might think the body was the boy sleeping, if they didn’t look real close.

Jacob built up the fire so that it blazed between the dead man and whoever might be approaching. With any luck, the posse that would be following the men had kept moving during the night and were now close enough to see smoke if there were a break in the storm. The wood he used was wet, so steam rose along with the smoke.

Jacob smiled. He could use a little help right now, but it wasn’t something he usually planned on.

Checking the camp, he memorized it in case he had to act fast with no time to survey the area. The returning members of the gang might come through the trees, but he’d bet anyone on foot would take the easier path up from the clearing, even if they had to circle around. If they came from the north they’d have to climb down from the twenty-foot cliff. From the south, trees made the ground uneven and dangerous in the mud. They’d have to return to camp from the east.

The rain came in spurts. A cold early morning drizzle washed the world to gray. Jacob stepped beyond the shadow of the cliff to wait for the first man to return. A few feet beyond the overhang to the west, the ground disappeared.

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.