Six in the Wheel by Frank Leslie

Author:Frank Leslie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gale, Cengage Learning
Published: 2018-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWO

“Ho, now!” said the second man from the door. He was the shortest of the group, with buckteeth.

He looked a little like William Bonney, or Billy the Kid, a young outlaw who was known to hole up with the senoritas in Fort Sumner from time to time. This young man even wore a squashed, ragged, black hat like the Kid’s. “Just hold on, there, Mr. Revenger, sir!” He looked at Scrum. “You say Chet Starr here ...or... Scrum Wallace mistreated a woman? A girl? One in the family way?”

His questions had all been directed at Scrum himself.

Scrum glared at Sartain.

“Tell him, Scrum,” bit out the Revenger. “Tell your friends what you did.”

Scrum shouted, “I reckon you done told ’em.” He cut his eyes toward his pards. “That’s what happened, boys. But I was egged on by the others. We’d all been drinkin’ in Benson, see, and we was on our way back to the fort. We heard tell in Benson that our old pal, Sartain, was seen holed up with some old desert rat and his granddaughter.”

He stepped forward and pointed an accusing finger at Sartain, narrowing one eye. “We thought Sartain was dead along with the rest of his patrol that was ambushed by Apaches. No one found his body, but plenty of them boys in the patrol had been cut up beyond recognition by the squaws. We figured that’s what happened to the Johnny Reb here. Well, since we was just drunk enough, we thought we’d ride out and check if it really was him livin’ out there. We thought we’d give him a hand back to Bowie, if he needed it.” He added that last with sarcasm.

“Ain’t that sweet?” Sartain said, giving an acid grin beneath his sand-colored Stetson’s broad brim.

“When we got there, that old man and the girl clammed up when we asked about Sartain. We got the impression he’d been there, after all, but he maybe didn’t want no one knowin’ about it. Like maybe he’d fallen for that purty little blond-headed belle who filled out that tight blouse of hers right well and decided to desert.”

In truth, Sartain had been intending to rejoin his regiment at Fort Bowie, but only after he’d repaid the old man and the girl for nursing him back to health. He’d been gone from the fort for three months. He hadn’t thought an extra week or two would make any difference.

He’d had only eight months of service left before he’d have been a free man. He’d asked Jewel to marry him once he mustered out. He figured they could wait that long. Neither one had known she was pregnant.

Until then, he’d visit Jewel every furlough he was granted. Sartain had intended to help the old man out in his mine, once he and Jewel were married. A veteran of the War Between the States, he’d grown fond of the peace he’d found down there amongst those desert rocks and cactus, the shy, beautiful Jewel, and her strange but accommodating grandfather.

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