Cherokee by Giles Tippette Read Free Book Online Page B

didn’t want to get into that. “So Charlie Stevens pulled out on you.”
    â€œYes. And I was plenty bitter about it. He tried to get me to come with him, but I wouldn’t have none of it. Said when I set in to do a thing I got it done. But Charlie went on back to the Indian Territory. Said at least there was people there. Said if he was gonna starve to death he was at least going to do it with a woman in bed next to him.”
    â€œDid you think hard of him?”
    â€œI did. Mighty hard. And I let him know it.”
    â€œIs that when you robbed him of the money?”
    â€œFive hundred dollars? We didn’t have five hundred anything between us. No, no, that come later. At least a year later, maybe more.”
    â€œThen tell me. And pretty soon too.”
    He looked off. “Let me see . . . Been so long. I remember sticking it out by myself for six months. Seven months, eight. Almost the best part of a year. Gawd, it was hard goin’. Before, it was just a miserable life. But without a partner, somebody to help you pull on the rope, well, it was near impossible.”
    â€œWasn’t anyone else around to help?”
    He shook his head. “Months went by and I didn’t see a soul. Once got trapped by a Comanche hunting party near Caney Creek. Hid out in the weeds for three days. Didn’t have nary a bite to eat, and the only water I got was what dew I could lick off the morning grass. Them Injuns was camped right on top of me. Fortunately I’d left my horse well upstream and had been working my way down the creek looking for freshwater mussels when I run slam-dab into them Injuns. Wasn’t nothin’ to do but hop in the weeds and hide. I thought they was never gonna leave. At least they didn’t find my horse. He’d done a sight better’n me. I’d left him tethered so he could get to fresh water and grass.”
    â€œYou going to get to Stevens pretty soon?”
    He spit again and looked at his empty tumbler and then at me. I just shook my head. He looked disappointed, but he said, “Wa’l, after that hard year things suddenly kind of took an upswing. There had come a pretty good influx of people into Texas and Tennessee and Arkansas and such places, and all of a sudden there was a demand for beef. Them ornery Longhorns went to six dollars and then eight and then ten, and I could see a man could make a pretty good piece of change if he had some help. So I saddled my horse an’ set out for the Indian Territory. Didn’t have no real sure idea where Charlie would be, but we’d originally been set up near a little settlement called Anadarko. So I headed that way and damned if I didn’t find him! He’d gone into the sawn-lumber business and was doing pretty fair. The Ouchita River runs right near Anadarko, and Charlie had channeled off a piece of the stream and built him a raceway that would turn a saw blade, and he was settin’ there turning out sawmill lumber and selling it as fast as he could cut it. There was considerable pine trees around that part of the territory, and he had him a regular crew cutting timber and hauling it to his sawmill. Well, he was right pleased to see me. Had him a house built right there next to his sawmill. Nice house built out of his own lumber, three or four rooms. Had him a mighty pretty . . .”
    He stopped.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œNothing,” he said. “Swallowed some tobacco juice. Went down the wrong way.” He made a big show out of coughing. There was something about it that struck me strange, like he was covering up something, though for the life of me I couldn’t guess what.
    I said, “He had him a mighty pretty what?”
    He cleared his throat. “What? Oh, I was just going to say he was mighty well set up. Good business, good house—made that dugout seem like the place you’d keep the hogs in. Anyway, we visited and I stayed the night and then the