The Cheyenne Trap by Matt Chisholm

Author:Matt Chisholm [Chisholm, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: joe blade western series, the storm family saga, peter watts, colt 45, matt chisolm, the american wild west, western pulp fiction, outlaws and gunfighters
Amazon: B07RZTV8Q2
Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing
Published: 2019-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

Ten

When they packed Charlie into the travois, Annie declared they were killing him. Her voice must have echoed to the Sangre de Cristos. Blade told her if she broached the subject just once more, they would leave her and Charlie behind. She believed it and shut up.

The Indian girl did Charlie proud. This was not the first time she had packed a wounded man on to a travois. With two straight willow poles and a rawhide reata, she fashioned a first-rate bed for him and he had to confess she did a good job.

For McMasters, the going would also be hard, but he did not utter one word of complaint. Blade and the Indian girl somehow got him into the saddle and looped his belt over the saddlehorn to keep him there. His movements were so uncertain and his mind now so obviously confused that Blade had a last minute regret for his decision and he almost changed his mind. The half-breed must have read his thoughts. He reached down from the saddle and gripped Blade’s shoulder—‘You’re doing the right thing, Joe. Just keep going. Sweep your back-trail clean.’

Annie, they hoisted on to her mule. They agreed there was no sense in making her walk, for she would make enough noise to wake the dead. Pilar took the lead, walking, holding the line of McMasters’ horse. Then came the horse pulling the travois, tied to the horse ahead of it. Keeping her eye on Charlie came Annie. The Indian girl brought up the rear with a heavy willow switch with which she wiped out their tracks as they moved almost silently along the narrow beach of the river. Blade gave himself a roving commission up and down the little column. He kept his eye on the little burros and their precious burdens.

A half-mile along the river, McMasters’ belt snapped under his dead weight and he pitched from the saddle. Not even the fall daunted him. Luckily he fell into soft sand. They put him back into the saddle and lashed him there with a rope. Then they went on.

Two miles along the river, their passage was barred by rocks and Blade took this opportunity to travel for a while through the shallows, which gave the Indian girl a rest from her labors. She climbed up behind McMasters to hold him upright and generally comfort him. Blade got himself in the lead with Pilar and found the ideal place to leave the water, going over gravel for a way and then across flat rock. They then went painfully and slowly over a wide sweep of loose shale which brought them to a rocky shallow canyon that took them north-west. Blade consulted McMasters, carefully describing the area to him and the half-breed said, yes, this was the place. They headed down the canyon no longer attempting to wipe out their tracks. Blade told Pilar to ride the travois horse and she gratefully climbed aboard.

An hour later under a high clear moon, they were out of the canyon and heading through the foothills which grew wilder every mile.

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