Manassas by James Reasoner

Manassas by James Reasoner

Author:James Reasoner [Reasoner, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Brannon family (Fictitious characters) -- Fiction., Bull Run, 1st Battle of, Va., 1861 -- Fiction., Manassas (Va.) -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction., Virginia -- History -- Civil War
Publisher: Cumberland House
Published: 1999-01-15T06:00:00+00:00


their mounts, he figured, and once the fire was burning strongly, they had come back here and ridden off.

That didn’t mean they were gone, though. They might still be out there somewhere in the darkness. He might be filling their rifle sights right this very minute. But there hadn’t been any shots after the first one. If the Fogartys wanted to kill all four of the Brannon brothers, they’d had their chance before Will and Titus and Henry knew that the fire was anything more than an accident.

The blaze was just the opening move in a chess game of revenge, Will sensed. He turned and ran back to the front of the barn to find that Titus and Henry had gotten Mac on his feet and half-carried him over to the house. Mac was sitting on the top porch step with his mother and sister fussing over him. Titus and Henry were already filling buckets at the well, and Will joined them.

The next few minutes were hectic as the three uninjured brothers raced back and forth between the well and the barn, flinging their buckets of water on the corrals and the hog pens and the open areas around the barn where grass grew. When Will was satisfied that they had the surroundings sufficiently doused, he and Titus and Henry switched to the barn itself, throwing bucket after bucket of water into the flames. Their efforts didn’t accomplish much—the barn was beyond saving— but Will wanted the fire to burn itself out as soon as possible, just to stop the threat of its spreading.

Later, it was a wet, bedraggled, soot-covered bunch that sat on the porch of the farmhouse and watched the last of the smoldering embers collapse on themselves. Tendrils of smoke continued to rise from a dozen places in the ruin of the barn.

Mac was still coughing from time to time, but he was breathing easier now. In a hoarse voice, he asked, “What happened to all the horses? Where did they go?”

“They were mighty spooked when they ran out of there,” said Will. “They probably didn’t stop running for a while.



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