Read Online The Mother Lode by Gary Franklin - Free Book Online Page A

remained.
    â€œHave you thought about how you’re going to do this?” Ellen asked. “Because it looks utterly impossible.”
    â€œWe’ve got rope,” Joe told her. “I’ll go down and tie up some boards; then you ask that mule we’ve tied behind our wagon to drag ’em up. When we get a full wagonload, the mule will pull me up and we’ll call it a day.”
    â€œAre you sure that you’re up to this?” she asked, making clear her skepticism. “I mean, your hip isn’t fully mended and your foot is still swollen and purple.”
    â€œI’ll do it,” Joe vowed. “Let’s quit jawin’ about it and set to work.”
    Without another word, Joe got the ropes out of the wagon and tied them together and then around his waist. “Wrap your end around the wheel a couple of times and just play out the slack as I work my way down,” he ordered. “It’ll go fine.”
    Joe went over the edge and started down. The slope was steep and rocky and the footing was awful. So bad that he kept falling, and he was glad that Mrs. Johnson couldn’t see the struggle he was having. But foot by tenuous foot,
    Joe was making his way down and using every shrub and little tree that he could grab to keep from falling more than necessary.
    At last Joe came to a pile of lumber that was stacked about like if you’d tossed a pitchfork of straw into a loose pile. There were boards aiming in all directions, and he found it hard to untangle them and then get them pointed up and down the slope. When he had a half dozen eight-to-ten-footers lined up, he shouted, “Pull ’em on up!”
    It worked just fine for the first part up the slope, but then the lumber got snagged on a big bush, so Joe had to fight his way back up the slope and get the tangle straightened out. He was gasping and in pain, but determined to get a load this day.
    â€œOkay! All clear! Pull ’em on up to the top now!”
    This time the lumber slid over the lip of the road above, and in no time at all Ellen Johnson was standing on the edge looking down. “I’m going to throw the rope back, but I don’t know if it’ll go all the way down to you!”
    â€œDo your best.”
    The rope, of course, didn’t go all the way down to Joe, so he had to scramble back up to reach it, then drag it down for more lumber. It took them all morning to drag up maybe fifty boards, and some of those were splintered and probably not worth the effort.
    â€œPull me up!” Joe shouted when he was so tired and in so much pain that he could no longer stand.
    The little Mexican mule was probably almost as weary as Joe when he was dragged onto the road and lay gasping in pain and covered with dust.
    â€œI don’t think this is worth it,” Ellen said, looking at the small number of boards she had stacked on the edge of the road.
    â€œI’ll do better tomorrow,” he promised. “But I think I’ve about done all that I can do today.”
    â€œMaybe we could hire help.”
    â€œWho in Genoa would help?” he asked.
    â€œNo one,” she confessed.
    â€œThen we’ll do it ourselves and I’ll pay you for your time, Mrs. Johnson.”
    â€œAll right,” she said quietly. “We’ll have to go up a little higher to find a place to turn this wagon around. Then we’ll load the lumber.”
    â€œSounds good,” he gasped, biting back the pain radiating from his hip and crushed foot.
    â€œNo, it doesn’t sound good, and I’m not a bit sure that the lumber is worth the pain and effort. But you know what?”
    â€œWhat, ma’am?”
    â€œI’m going to hold my head up high when we drive back through Genoa so that those folks don’t know how tough it was this morning. And that we aren’t going to quit until every last stick of lumber is retrieved.”
    Joe had to grin despite his pain.