Firestick by William W. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2020-05-05T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 27

Moosejaw was taking a well-earned breather. He’d spent the day following Apache signs, much of the time with an itch between his shoulders like one of the red heathens was drawing a bead on him with an arrow, then he had ridden hard to bring word back to town. Now, for the past hour or so, he’d been overseeing the preparations Firestick had left him in charge of. Only after the warning riders and the escort wagons had headed out did he relax enough to realize how hungry and exhausted he was.

The hungry part wasn’t an especially big deal, since his appetite was seldom fully satisfied, and the exhaustion was the kind that left a body feeling more keyed up and restless than actually being ready to rest.

Which left it to Daisy Rawling, Moosejaw’s lady friend, to spot his weariness and insist it receive some attention. Though many, including Daisy herself, might laugh at attaching the term “lady” to anything about her, that’s the way Moosejaw saw it, and woe to anybody foolish enough to cross him on the subject.

The way she was fawning over him at the moment, demanding he plop himself down on a sawed log stool positioned near the wide-open front doors of Daisy’s blacksmith shop while she fetched him a pair of thick beef sandwiches, a double slice of pie, and a pot of coffee from the Mallory Hotel kitchen only increased the fondness with which he gazed upon her.

“I tell you,” Daisy was saying while he chewed hungrily and washed the bites down with gulps of steaming coffee, “if I’d known you was out there chasing after Apaches all day, I would’ve been worried sick.”

“Well, there weren’t no chance to tell you before I had to light out,” Moosejaw replied. “But now that you say it would’ve troubled you, I reckon I’m glad that’s the way it went. I wouldn’t have liked doin’ what I was doin’, all the while knowin’ you was back here frettin’ so.”

“A gal has a right to fret if she wants to,” Daisy said determinedly. “And even though I understand how you had no chance to say anything to me on account of how it came up sudden-like and you had to leave out from the ranch . . . well, the same excuse don’t hold true for that doggone Firestick. He should have let me know what was going on when he made it into town. Soon as I see him again, I aim to give him a piece of my mind for not doin’ so!”

“Aw, come on, Daize,” said Moosejaw. “Firestick’s got enough on his plate, what with the Apache trouble and now what sounds like a murder havin’ took place out at the Wingate ranch. Don’t you think he deserves to be cut a little slack? He couldn’t have told you too much about what I was up to anyway, not until I reported back what I’d found. Before then, he had to be careful what he said so’s not to rile up an Injun scare in case it turned out to be a false alarm.

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