Read Online Spanish Gold by Kevin Randle - Free Book Online

escape, depending on the situation.
    Travis had spread his blanket but had not felt comfortable. Something was wrong, but Travis didn’t know what it was. He had gotten up a couple of times and scanned the hills around the cabin. He searched for signs that someone was out there but couldn’t see a thing. There were no campfires and there was no movement.
    Just before the battle at Gettysburg he’d felt the same way. There had been nothing he could put his finger on at Gettysburg either. Just a feeling of impending doom. Maybe it was something he sensed in the air, or something that he had heard, or something that he believed. Now that feeling was back.
    But the night had slipped away with no trouble. Travis had been awake through most of it. He had laid on his back, his hands under his head, and stared up into the night sky. He had watched as the moon had tracked through it, a bright white light that washed out some of the stars. And he had used the light as he had searched the ground around him without result. There was no enemy in the hills around him and he began to think that the sense of unease was the result of the woman sleeping no more than fifteen feet away. He hoped that she was having as rough a time as he was, and then hoped that she wasn’t. She’d just lost her father. Sleep was the best thing for her. He wished her a quiet night with only the best of dreams.
    Finally, it was morning and Travis had gotten up. He’d walked around the cabin again and then checked his horse. Satisfied that the beast had made it through the night safely, he had sat down on the wall and watched the cabin, waiting for Emma Crockett to let him know that she was awake and that it was time for him to come inside.
    The door opened a few minutes later and she stood there, a hand raised against the sun. She was fully dressed. “You ready for some breakfast?”
    Travis hopped off the wall and walked toward the door. “Of course. But then we’ve got to leave. It’ll be a couple of days to El Paso.”
    â€œI’m ready now,” she said. She stepped back and let him enter the cabin. “There’s nothing here for me now. Not with my father gone.”
    â€œWe won’t be able to take much with us.”
    â€œI’ll close the cabin. If we find nothing, I’ll come back here. My friends will make sure that my things are left alone. If we find the gold, then I won’t need any of it.”
    Travis shrugged. He pulled out a chair and sat down. She turned and began to work at the counter near the sink and the hand pump for water.
    â€œYou know,” said Travis, “you could give me the information and the maps and I could go in search of the gold. You wouldn’t have to leave here.”
    â€œI thought I made myself clear,” she said, turning to face him. “There is nothing left for me here. I want to go. I have to go.”
    â€œFine,” said Travis. “It was just a thought.”
    She cracked the eggs into the pan, scrambled them with a wooden spoon, and then walked to the fireplace. She set the pan on a metal grate and shook the handle. She studies the fire and the eggs and didn’t say anything else to him.
    Travis had planned to ride out as soon as breakfast was over. He’d then revised the plan, telling her they’d take only what they needed to get to El Paso and then would buy any additional supplies there. But Emma Crockett didn’t have a horse, just her father’s mule. Travis ended up riding into Hammetsville to buy a buckboard and two horses to pull it. He returned to find Crockett waiting for him. She had dragged the chest out of the door and was sitting on it.
    â€œWe’re not going to be able to take this all the way to the cave,” said Travis, stopping close to the gate.
    â€œWhy not? The Spanish had their wagons close to it. It’ll make it easier to get the gold out.”
    Travis wrapped the reins