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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] kept picking up, and the prairie was wet without being soggy. Galloway stayed with the herd and I cut out, riding off to the south to swing a big circle and see what I could pick up. Within the next hour I had their sign, and by the time a second hour had gone by I had pegged most of their horses. I knew which one Judith rode and the tracks of all her other horses, and I also knew which one was Black Fetchen's. It had taken me no time at all to identify them. This was wide-open country, and a body had to hang back a mite. Of course, Page 33 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html they were well ahead of me, so it was not a worrisome thing right away, but it was something to keep in mind. Of course, a man riding western country just naturally looks at it all. I mean he studies his back trail and off to the horizon on every side. Years later he would be able to describe every mile of it. As if it had been yesterday. First place, it just naturally had to be that way. There were no signposts, no buildings, no corrals, or anything but creeks, occasional buttes, sometimes a bluff or a bank, and a scatter of trees and brush. As there wasn't much to see, you came to remember what there was. And I was studying their sign because I might have to trail the whole outfit by one or two tracks. There was one gent in that outfit who kept pulling off to one side. He'd stop now and again to study his back trail, plainly seen by the marks of his horse's hoofs in the sod. It came to me that maybe it was that new rider with the scar on his jaw. Sure enough, I came upon a place where he'd swung down to tighten his cinch. His tracks were there on the ground, run-down heels and all. Something about it smelled of trouble, and I had me an idea this one was pure poison. And so it turned out ... but that was another day, and farther along the trail. Chapter 6 The land lay wide before us. We moved westward with only the wind beside us, and we rode easy in the saddle with eyes reaching out over the country, reading every movement and every change of shadow. Now and again Galloway rode out and took the trail and I stayed with the herd, taking my turn at bringing up the drag and eating my share of dust. It was a job nobody liked, and I didn't want those boys to think I was forever dodging it, riding off on the trail of the Fetchens. Of a noon, Galloway rode in. He squatted on his heels with those boys and me, eating a mite, drinking coffee, then wiping his hands on a handful of pulled brown grass. "Flagan," he said, "I've lost the trail." They all looked up at him, Larnie Cagle longest of all. "Dropped right off the world," Galloway said, "all of a sudden, they did." "I'll ride out with you." "Want some help?" Larnie Cagle asked. "I can read sign." Page 34 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Galloway never so much as turned his head. "Flagan will look. Nobody can track better than him. He can trail a trout up a stream through muddy water." "I got to see it," Cagle said, and for a minute there things were kind of quiet. "Some day you might," I said. We rode out from the herd and picked up the trail of that morning. It was plain enough, for an outfit of nineteen men and pack horses leaves a scar on the prairie that will last for a few days - sometimes for weeks. Of a sudden they had circled and built a fire for nooning, but when they rode away from that fire there wasn't nineteen of them any longer. The most tracks we could make out were of six horses. We had trouble with the six and it wasn't more than a mile or two further on until there were only three horses ridden side by side. And then there were only two ... and then they were gone. It made no kind of sense. Nineteen men and horses don't drop off the edge of the world like that. In a little while Hawkes rode over with Kyle Shore. Shore could read sign. Right away he began casting about, but he came up with nothing. "The way I figure it, Mr. Hawkes," I said, "those boys were getting nigh to where they were going, or maybe just to those stolen cattle, so they had it in their mind to disappear. Somebody in that lot is almighty smart in the head." "How do you think they did it?" Shore asked. "I got me an idea," I said. "I think they bound up their horses' hoofs with sacking. It leaves no definite print, but just sort of smudges ground and grass. Then they just cut out, one at a time, each taking a different route. They'll meet somewhere miles from here." "It's an Apache trick," Galloway said. "Then we must try to find out where they would be apt to go," Hawkes suggested. "Or just ride on to where they'll likely take that herd," Shore added. "Maybe we shouldn't waste time trying to follow them." "That makes sense," I agreed, "Suppose they just hole up somewhere out on the plains? Is there any reason why they should go father?" "I figure they're heading for Colorado," I said. "I think they're going to find Judith's pa." They all looked at me, probably figuring I had Judith too much in mind, and so I did, but not this time. "Look at it," I said. "Costello has been out there several years. He has him a nice outfit, that's why he wanted Judith with him. What's to stop them taking her on out there and just moving in on him?" "What about him? What about his hands?" Page 35 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html "How many would he have on a working ranch? Unless he's running a lot of cattle over a lot of country he might not have more than four or five cowboys." They studied about it, and could see it made a kind of sense. We had no way of telling, of course, for Fetchen might decide to stay as far from Judith's pa as possible. On the other hand, he was a wild and lawless man with respect for nothing, and he might decide just to move in on Judith's pa. It would be a good hide-out for his own herd, and unless Costello had some salty hands around, they might even take over the outfit. Or they might do as Hawkes suggested and find a good water hole and simply stay there. In such a wide-open country there would be plenty of places. The more I contemplated the situation the more worried I became, and I'm not usually a worrying man. What bothered me was Judith. That girl may have been a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |