Ravens Of Yellowstone by Russell James

Author:Russell James [James, Russell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2021-12-21T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-two

Nathan awakened in the middle of the night, consumed by a wonderful idea.

He needed to find one of those cavalry outposts if they still stood.

He knew it would be a longshot. A hundred years was a long time for any structure to survive unattended. But the simpler and sturdier the construction, the more likely it might still be standing. There wasn’t anything more alluring to a historian than to set foot where no one else had stood for a hundred years or more. It was as close to having a time machine as he would ever get.

He turned on the light and began to make a plan. He went to the topographic map he’d annotated earlier. He realized a serious flaw to his plan.

He wasn’t a big fan of trekking through the woods.

He never had been. Never joined the Boy Scouts, never went to summer camp, never roasted marshmallows by a camp fire. He thought there was a good reason human beings turned from hunter/gatherers into an agrarian society with fixed homes, and that was because slogging through swamps and then bedding down in an insect-infested world was miserable. When he’d told his family that he was becoming an NPS ranger, they all thought he was joking. He had to explain that not all rangers did the kinds of things Kathy West did.

Of course, now he was planning on doing one of those Kathy West things.

He looked for an outpost that was relatively close to a road. There was no point in biting off more than he could chew. The spot he’d marked for Outpost 11 looked like a good candidate.

He seemed to remember there was something special about Outpost 11. He went back to his pictures of the Roosevelt Room map.

Outpost 11 was in a darker and larger font than the other outposts. That difference wasn’t some artistic decision, not on a map.

The outpost was at the head of a valley, a very secluded location where the runoff would be minimal and the two hillsides would shield it from the worst of the weather. That boded well for its survival.

Switching back to the topographic map, he saw that the route between the road and the outpost position had no improved trails. Awesome. Just him and a GPS and a whole lot of trees. And maybe a bear, or a wayward bison. Double awesome.

Whatever wildlife is out there, it won’t be worse than giant crabs and fire-breathing dragons, he thought.

He considered calling Kathy to join him for the adventure. It was best not to hike alone and considering what the two of them had survived working together, she was by far the best choice for a partner.

But digging up history was his mission, not hers. He could do this on his own. It wasn’t like the outpost location was on the other side of the world. He should be able to get there and back before lunch.

But he’d pack himself a sandwich, just in case. And a can of heavy-duty bear repellent.

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