Grizzly Trail by Moffat Gwen

Author:Moffat, Gwen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2019-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

Returning through the forest they were silent until the pines thinned enough for the horses to walk abreast, then Seale said without preamble: ‘She was warning him, wasn’t she?’

‘I’m sure of it. Her manner changed when she learned about the skinned bear. Would you say their affluence is sudden? None of them looks as if they get enough to eat.’

‘They’ll get plenty of meat, but deer meat and elk are hardly a balanced diet. Did you notice that there were only coyote skins in the tent? They had deer skins lying around when I called that other time, after I found the unbranded calves. There’s no closed season on coyotes, by the way; they’re varmints.’

‘So the deer—and elk?—skins had been removed. Would those have fetched a high enough price to purchase a stove and a rifle?’

‘I wouldn’t think so. The stove has to be over a thousand dollars, and that rifle looked new to me; it must have set him back a few hundred. Fifteen hundred is what I’d guess, and that’s a lot of money for the Trotters to have come into suddenly.’

‘How much is a bear pelt worth?’

‘Mel! You don’t think that!’ Miss Pink did not respond. ‘We’ll have to ask Sim,’ Seale went on, her voice troubled. ‘You really are bothered now: telling Mae that Sim knew where we were, that he was waiting for us—’

‘Just taking precautions.’

Pines crowded the trail and forced the chestnut to drop back, the riders occupied with their own thoughts. As soon as she could, Seale let Miss Pink come abreast again.

‘Mae was scared,’ she said. ‘But Jed wasn’t. What did you make of that?’

‘Jed could know something that Mae doesn’t. Otherwise it’s just additional information, and I can’t see where it fits.’

‘Maybe it doesn’t. Coincidences do happen and it’s possible Jed and Billy shot several elk and sold the carcasses without keeping the meat for themselves. That way they might have got enough money for a stove and a rifle. And because no one in that family ever bought a hunting licence in his life, they’re worried about all the police activity, which is why they’ve cached the skins somewhere.… And now it appears there’s another poacher working the area, and he’s mean. Real mean.’

‘Yes,’ Miss Pink murmured, as if to herself. ‘Was she warning him about another poacher, or was she just warning him?’

They emerged from the trees and, starting across the horse pasture, saw two other riders approaching.

‘That’s Tara Osborn,’ Seale said. ‘I never expected that lady would turn out to be a neat rider. It’s a shame Lee can’t mount her on something decent. Look at that animal she’s on! All it’s got is bad vibes. Still, she’s coping well enough. The guy with her looks as if he’s never been on a horse in his life until now.’

Tara waved and her horse jerked into a canter. There was a startled cry from her companion as his own mount leapt forward. Tara spun back and ranged alongside him, laughing gaily.

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