Read Online Long Road to Cheyenne by Charles G. West - Free Book Online
Authors: Charles G. West
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myself, but I ain’t been able to find the time.”
“I was gettin’ a little tired of Mary’s salt pork,” Cam said, with a grin for the lady. “We’ll see what kinda luck I got.” He climbed back into the saddle and turned Toby around. “If I get some luck, I oughta be back by suppertime with fresh meat.”
Raymond watched him closely as he rode away, and as soon as he rode out of earshot, he turned to Mary and asked, “Where’d you hook up with him? What do you know about him?”
Surprised, Mary replied, “Truthfully, I haven’t known Cam for very long, but I trust him completely.” She went on to tell him about her initial meeting with Cam when he appeared out of nowhere to stop what could have been a fatal stage holdup. Raymond made no further comment, but he was not ready to disregard his suspicions about the man’s true intentions.
• • •
Cam figured it was too early in the day for deer or elk to be feeding, so he rode along the ridges, looking for likely spots where they might be resting in the dense pine belts. While he looked, he thought again of Raymond Bishop. The man didn’t appear too happy to see Mary and the girls.
And he eyed me with a definite look of suspicion
. He remembered Painter and Jones joking about Raymond’s inhospitable ways, and his claims on the mountain as his destiny alone. After meeting the man, Cam could readily understand why he wasn’t thought of as neighborly by the other miners in the small gulch. Then his thoughts went to Mary and her daughters. He supposed that his agreement with her was completed. She had asked him to take them to Destiny, and in Destiny they were. But he felt that to do his part, he should see them safely back to Custer City, where they could catch the stage back to Cheyenne. Then there was the question about Mary’s rightful share of the gold Raymond and her husband had found.
The man was his brother, for God’s sake,
he thought. Further speculation was interrupted by a slight movement in a pine thicket below him.
I can’t be that lucky,
he thought, but grabbed his rifle and dismounted anyway. Dropping Toby’s reins to the ground, he made his way down through the trees on foot, moving slowly and cautiously, stopping frequently to look and listen. They were lying near a tiny trickle of water that wound its way between the trees that sheltered them. It was so dark beneath the branches that he could not tell how many there were, and he had only shadows for targets, so he had to get closer. As he strained to keep his eye on the shadows, his foot caught on a root and he stumbled and caught himself on one knee. It was enough to cause alarm in the resting group of deer, resulting in a flurry of motion among the shadows. With only seconds to pick a target, he raised his rifle and fired at the silhouette of a deer’s neck. It disappeared, but so did all the others, so he wasn’t sure if he had hit anything or not.
By the time he made his way down through the thicket, all the deer had fled, all except the one doe that lay dying on the ground. He quickly put the deer out of its misery.
Lucky shot,
he thought.
I won’t be bragging about that one. I almost fell on my ass and let them all get away
. The result, however, was fresh meat, so he dragged the carcass out of the thicket, then went to get his horse.
Anyway,
he thought,
I won’t have to go back to that camp with a rabbit or squirrel after I said I’d get them a deer
. It was a fair-sized doe, causing him to grunt a little when he hefted it up on Toby. “Damn,” he said to the horse, “maybe I shoulda butchered it here.”
When he returned to the camp, he found that Mary had built a fire and had coffee on to boil. It was still a strange picture, with Raymond sitting apart from his guests on a bench-high boulder. When she heard his horse approaching, Mary turned to greet him. Apparently it had been a difficult task trying to make conversation with her brother-in-law, so
“I was gettin’ a little tired of Mary’s salt pork,” Cam said, with a grin for the lady. “We’ll see what kinda luck I got.” He climbed back into the saddle and turned Toby around. “If I get some luck, I oughta be back by suppertime with fresh meat.”
Raymond watched him closely as he rode away, and as soon as he rode out of earshot, he turned to Mary and asked, “Where’d you hook up with him? What do you know about him?”
Surprised, Mary replied, “Truthfully, I haven’t known Cam for very long, but I trust him completely.” She went on to tell him about her initial meeting with Cam when he appeared out of nowhere to stop what could have been a fatal stage holdup. Raymond made no further comment, but he was not ready to disregard his suspicions about the man’s true intentions.
• • •
Cam figured it was too early in the day for deer or elk to be feeding, so he rode along the ridges, looking for likely spots where they might be resting in the dense pine belts. While he looked, he thought again of Raymond Bishop. The man didn’t appear too happy to see Mary and the girls.
And he eyed me with a definite look of suspicion
. He remembered Painter and Jones joking about Raymond’s inhospitable ways, and his claims on the mountain as his destiny alone. After meeting the man, Cam could readily understand why he wasn’t thought of as neighborly by the other miners in the small gulch. Then his thoughts went to Mary and her daughters. He supposed that his agreement with her was completed. She had asked him to take them to Destiny, and in Destiny they were. But he felt that to do his part, he should see them safely back to Custer City, where they could catch the stage back to Cheyenne. Then there was the question about Mary’s rightful share of the gold Raymond and her husband had found.
The man was his brother, for God’s sake,
he thought. Further speculation was interrupted by a slight movement in a pine thicket below him.
I can’t be that lucky,
he thought, but grabbed his rifle and dismounted anyway. Dropping Toby’s reins to the ground, he made his way down through the trees on foot, moving slowly and cautiously, stopping frequently to look and listen. They were lying near a tiny trickle of water that wound its way between the trees that sheltered them. It was so dark beneath the branches that he could not tell how many there were, and he had only shadows for targets, so he had to get closer. As he strained to keep his eye on the shadows, his foot caught on a root and he stumbled and caught himself on one knee. It was enough to cause alarm in the resting group of deer, resulting in a flurry of motion among the shadows. With only seconds to pick a target, he raised his rifle and fired at the silhouette of a deer’s neck. It disappeared, but so did all the others, so he wasn’t sure if he had hit anything or not.
By the time he made his way down through the thicket, all the deer had fled, all except the one doe that lay dying on the ground. He quickly put the deer out of its misery.
Lucky shot,
he thought.
I won’t be bragging about that one. I almost fell on my ass and let them all get away
. The result, however, was fresh meat, so he dragged the carcass out of the thicket, then went to get his horse.
Anyway,
he thought,
I won’t have to go back to that camp with a rabbit or squirrel after I said I’d get them a deer
. It was a fair-sized doe, causing him to grunt a little when he hefted it up on Toby. “Damn,” he said to the horse, “maybe I shoulda butchered it here.”
When he returned to the camp, he found that Mary had built a fire and had coffee on to boil. It was still a strange picture, with Raymond sitting apart from his guests on a bench-high boulder. When she heard his horse approaching, Mary turned to greet him. Apparently it had been a difficult task trying to make conversation with her brother-in-law, so
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