The Ferguson Rifle (Louis L'Amour's Lost Treasures) by Louis L'Amour

Author:Louis L'Amour [L'Amour, Louis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2020-05-26T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Once away and into the winding woodland trail, I slowed down. Bob Sandy was hanging on with one arm, the other holding his rifle. “You did some shootin’, Scholar. How many did you get?”

“One,” I said, “and either scared or nicked two more.”

“The way you was shootin’ they must have figured they’d tackled an army.”

We rode up to the overhang and Talley reached up to help Bob Sandy down. “The Scholar saved my bacon,” he said. “Had me dead to rights.”

“We thought we heard shooting,” Kemble commented.

While Cusbe Ebitt worked over the wound, I explained briefly, with comments from Sandy, what had taken place. Then Bob explained what began it. He had been riding along a good mile behind us, and suddenly they closed in and opened fire without warning. “I don’t know what this outfit is after,” Bob said finally, “but they mean business.”

We gathered more fuel, cooked our meat, and sat about the fire. Several of us collected boughs for Lucinda’s bed. Isaac and Degory built a crude shelter out in the woods and opposite the cave where a sentry could watch in both comfort and concealment. We had scarcely finished these chores when we heard the sound of a horse walking, and then a voice called out, “Hallooo, the camp!”

Hastily, I threw a corner of blanket over my Ferguson rifle. There was no sense in letting them know what we had. Isaac had stepped back into the shelter and sat quiet there.

“Come in with your hands free!” Talley said.

It was the leader of them, the tall, pale man I had seen in the night. He wore buckskins but a planter’s-style hat and he rode a magnificent black horse.

He walked his horse into the light, and looked about, his eyes missing nothing. At last they fell upon Lucinda.

“Well!” He bowed, removing his hat with a sweeping gesture, the perfect cavalier. “My niece! It has taken me a long time, my dear, but now we are together again, and thank God for that!”

“I…I do not know you,” she said, but her voice was halting and frightened.

“Not know me? I am your father’s brother, Colonel Rafen Falvey, at your service. I’ve come to negotiate with these…kidnappers for your release.”

Degory Kemble said quietly, “You’re misinformed, sir. Miss Falvey is with us of her own choice. We’re honored to be her escort to the Ohio towns.”

“Well, now, that puts a different look on the situation. I was told my niece had been kidnapped, and rushed after you to obtain her release.” He dismounted, somewhat stiffly, I noticed, like a man who might have been wounded slightly.

He walked up to the fire, and never have I seen a man so cool, so completely in command of himself. Obviously he had chosen to risk everything on a brazen demand for the girl, and I admired the fellow’s nerve. Yet when I looked at Lucinda, I was worried.

This man who claimed to be her uncle was no more than thirty-five, only a few years older than I, and he was handsome, debonair, and obviously educated.

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