By Madison
Copyright 1999
Rock Creek Station...
Lou held Jimmy Hickok’s hand firmly in her own, paying special heed to the black and blue mark covering his thumb nail. “It’s just bruised,” she decided after delivering a careful thumb inspection. “You’re lucky.”
Jimmy grumbled, feeling foolish over his self inflicted wound. That’ll teach him to get careless with a hammer. You’d think after all these months of fence building, he would of mastered the art of hammering. But no. On the bright side, Lou’s warm touch did soothe his pain, and he made no attempt to pull his injured hand free.
“I’m so glad the corral’s fixed,” Lou said in attempt to change the subject.
“If I never see a storm like that again,” Jimmy began in reference to the boisterous weather the previous night contained. The vicious lightning and booming thunder came upon the station fast, encouraging twenty of the station’s best horses to dash through the wooden barriers lining the corral. Luckily, the horses were easily rounded up. “I’ll die a happy man.”
Lou nodded in agreement, though she felt dogged by a strange feeling. She tried to shake it away, but couldn’t. Ever since this morning, she felt as if they were being watched.
Outside the Bunkhouse......
He’d seen the boy do crazier things, Teaspoon Hunter, reminded himself as he stood parked behind his loudest express rider (who still hadn’t turned to face him). But for some reason the his behavior seemed odd, even for Cody. Finally, after a brief moment of observing, Teaspoon leaned over the rider’s shoulder and whispered “I heard it’s even better on the inside.”
Cody shook his head, cursed his bad luck, then faced his elder. “I was just noticing how dirty the windows are, Teaspoon,” he muttered. He wasn’t lying either. The filth stained windows had presented themselves during his investigation, being a terrible nuisance to his mission.
“I see what you mean,” Teaspoon began as he stepped closer to the window and attempted to peer in. Cody unfortunately, ended his inspection with one quick dash to the right.
“Trust me, Teaspoon,” he said, placing both his hands on the marshal’s shoulders. “They’re dirtier than the ground we’re standin’ on.” The older man seemed temporarily satisfied, moving farther from the window. Boy, did Jimmy and Lou owe him!
“This place could probably use another sprucing,” Teaspoon declared, though still curious about the rider’s peculiar behavior. “But that’ll have to wait. I got something more important for you boys to do.”
“What’s that?” Cody asked, very dreadfully.
“I need you, and two others of your choosin’ to help round up some of Mrs. Rhode’s missing stock.” Teaspoon explained.
“How many cattle are missing?” Cody asked.
Teaspoon shook his head. “Ain’t cattle she’s missing.”
“Horses?”
“Pigs,” Rock Creek’s marshal corrected. His news drew a loud, annoyed sigh from Cody.
“Great,” Cody mumbled. Then the bunk house door swung open and his subjects strolled out, curious as to why Teaspoon was here. He just couldn’t wait to tell them the good news. Once they were daring express riders, but now....now they were pig hunters. How could their old job even begin to compare?
Seneca...
The tick, tick, tick from my old Chester clock was the only sound echoing in my stuffy office. Though, at any moment I expected the beads of sweat lining my forehead to come slithering down, striking the ground with fear soiled splashes. If the tension overlaying the room wasn’t so intimating, I would’ve wiped the little droplets away before they could cause such damage. Unfortunately, I was too terrified to reach for the hanky ever so snugly bedded in my pocket.
Appeasing the trigger happy beast was my only hope for survival, I understood that fully. If only my pride did! What a dilemma I was faced with. Yielding to the hunter’s demands would be like throwing my integrity to the ground and trampling on it with muddy boots. But then, what good were morals to a dead man?
Luckily wit saved me. “I don’t know about you Mr. Colter,” I began in a quivering voice. “But I never cared for doing business on an empty stomach.” My words caught his interest immediately, leading his itchy finger far from his gun’s trigger. “My treat.”
“Lead the way,” Jake insisted as he waved his weapon toward my office door. Henry, timidly rose to follow me, though his teary eyes showed he had no clue as to what I had just done for us. I bought us time. Time that would be spent in the company of other dining citizens. Colter had just lost his edge.
On to Chapter Four
