Oregon Trail by Jack Hanson

Author:Jack Hanson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

To Barlow’s surprise—and great disgust—Crunkleton was waiting out on the prairie when Barlow was ready to set out in the morning. With Buffalo 2 trotting around them, Barlow, Crunkleton, and Stavely rode out, towing a long string of pack mules behind, moving fairly swiftly to put some distance between them and the first wagons. Barlow was surly, not only at having the loathsome Crunkleton along, but also because he was accompanied by Stavely, and thus had decided to leave Dora Lee behind for the day. It was going to be a long, lonely—and intensely annoying—day for him, he was certain.

They rode in a small arc, from the Platte River on the north, bowing out to the west, and several miles to the south. The scenery was, by and large, pretty bleak: The sandy soil did not allow a lush growth of grass, and what was there was pretty well cropped down by the previous wagon train. The Platte, never very deep at the best of times, was, in many places, a broad muddy puddle. Trees were virtually nonexistent, even along the river. The passage of the previous wagon train was well marked by dead oxen and mules, discarded belongings, and occasional graves. Game was scarce, and the sun was an unrelenting ball of heat that seared the earth and everyone on it.

Barlow finally found a spot where there was some water that was relatively clean, and marked it for a nooning site. Though it was still only mid-morning, the heat was intense, and the men and animals took a short break. Barlow loosened his saddle and made his two companions do the same, allowing Beelzebub and the two horses to breathe. Then the men sat, gnawing on some jerky and sipping judiciously at the muddy river water. Buffalo 2 lay on his side near Barlow, tongue lolling, breathing heavily to try to cool himself.

“We been pretty lucky so far, boys,” Barlow said flatly. “If you’ve been observant at all, you’ve seen what the earlier emigrant train’s been through. We ain’t lost but two or three animals so far, and nobody’s had to toss out any belongin‘s, but that’s comin’. And the only one who’s gone under has been ol’ Mr. Sedgewick when he got run over by his wagon last week. We ain’t even had much sickness, but I expect that ain’t gonna last neither.”

Crunkleton looked rankled by the information, and the dawning knowledge that Barlow was not shirking in his duty.

Stavely, however, was thoughtful, thinking back on the morning’s travel so far, and what he had seen. It did not look good to him, and that was beginning to worry him.

“Maybe I was some hasty in thinkin’ you wasn’t payin’ full attention to your duty, Mr. Barlow,” Stavely said seriously. “Unless you been leadin’ us on a strange course to confuse us—and I ain’t sayin’ you done so ’cause I don’t think that’s the facts—what you said about it bein’ difficult to find decent sites for our night camps must be true.

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.