Lost Banshee Mine by Jackson Lowry & Ralph Compton

Lost Banshee Mine by Jackson Lowry & Ralph Compton

Author:Jackson Lowry & Ralph Compton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-07-06T16:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THERE’S NO DOUBT. Big Ear and his hunters passed here within the last day.” England Dan traced the moccasin outline in the dirt. He scooted along the ground on his knees and picked up a broken twig that one of the Mogollons had stepped on. Then he pointed to a bush with a limb torn off. “See how it’s still oozing sap? They might have passed through here within a few hours.”

“Hours?” Cooley swallowed hard. His heart began pounding faster as he looked around. He rested his hand on his pistol, even if that wouldn’t get him too far. He had checked the load several times since leaving Oasis. Every time he had come up with three good rounds, three spent cartridges. Praying for the live rounds to multiply hadn’t worked for him.

“Don’t worry. They’re heading north, and we’re going east. They’re back to hunting. If they bag a deer or two, they’ll dress it out and return to their tribe, wherever they’re camped.”

“It might be in that direction,” Cooley said uneasily. He stared into the thick woods where England Dan had been leading them. The trees had been so dense in some places, they’d had to dismount. Cooley was tired of banging his head on low limbs and blundering through thickets rife with thorns. Mabel got feisty when he did, and it took a goodly while to pull the stickers from the mule’s legs.

That was still better than having the stickers on his legs, but not much. He stared at his hands. If he hadn’t spent so many hours mining, moving ore and lugging heavy loads, his hands wouldn’t have been callused. That made plucking the thorns from Mabel’s forelegs less painful. He lifted his left hand and bit down on a buried thorn, caught the tip in his teeth and pulled. He spat the offending spine out.

“Then we’d better stay ahead of them. We can travel faster.”

Cooley touched his holster again. Leaving Big Ear’s horse with Mandy back in town had been a good idea, though he hadn’t thought so at the time. The chief might come on them and steal their animals again, but he wouldn’t get mad that they had his horse. England Dan had snuck out without being seen when he stole the mounts.

It was a good thing England Dan had the map. Cooley had tried to orient it and failed every time. He didn’t doubt Rutledge told the truth about being in the British Army and getting all that military training, including map reading and the like, but most men lied about their past. He had no reason to think his partner did, but stretching the truth was a time-honored duty. Who wanted to sit around a campfire at night, bored and without any liquor, and hear the same stories over and over? Embellishing them with every telling kept the entire audience amused.

He looked at his partner and wondered if he really had served with the Brits in a place he called India



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.