Destiny Of The Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone Read Free Book Online

see if you wanted coffee, and I heard Bob say he was going to Corpus Christi tomorrow. You did say that, didn’t you?”
    â€œYes,” Kleberg answered.
    Alice smiled broadly. “Then this will work out just great!” she said. “Papa, you remember a couple of weeks ago I told you I wanted to go to Austin, and you said it would be all right if I could get someone to take me to Corpus Christi to catch the train?”
    â€œYes, I remember,” King said. “But I don’t know that this is such a good time now.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œAlice, you know what just happened. Do you have to ask why not?”
    â€œWell, Papa, it didn’t happen in Austin,” Alice said.
    Kleberg tried to hold back a laugh. “She’s got you there, Richard,” he said.
    Despite himself, King laughed as well. “All right,” he said, giving in. “You can go to Austin. How long will you be up there? Remember, we’re starting the cattle drive north, and I would like for you to be back before then.”
    â€œBut neither you nor Bob will actually be going on the drive, will you?”
    â€œNo, but I’d like you home before the drive starts.”
    â€œAll right, Papa,” Alice agreed. “I’ll be visiting Loretta Dixon, and I won’t stay longer than a week, I promise.”
    â€œThen, if it is all right with your mama, it’s all right with me,” King said.
    â€œOh, thank you, Papa,” Alice said, kissing him on the cheek. “If you say it’s all right, then Mama is a cinch.”
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    After Kleberg put Alice on the train headed for Austin, it took only one exchange of telegrams for him to learn that Jack Brandt and Wiley Stone had been released from prison. That meant that King wasn’t imagining things. It probably was Brandt who’d raided the ranch, particularly given his penchant for beheading his victims. The question was, why? Was it some sort of twisted revenge for what happened to him during the war? Since none of the cattle were stolen, Kleberg had to believe that it was something like that.
    So, what now? Should Kleberg ride the forty miles back to the ranch to ask King for permission to call in the Texas Rangers? No, that would just be a waste of time. King had already made it clear that he did not want the Texas Rangers involved.
    But something had to be done. The only question was, what?
    Suddenly, Kleberg knew what it was, and he took it upon himself to send the next telegram. In the telegram, he asked an old friend for help.

C HAPTER F OUR
    Kirby Jensen never really knew his mother, and when he was barely in his teens, he went with his father into the mountains to follow the fur trade. The pair teamed up with a legendary mountain man called Preacher. For some reason unknown even to Preacher, the mountain man took to the boy and began to teach him the ways of the mountains: how to live when others would die, how to be a man of your word, and how to fear no other living creature. On the first day they met, Preacher, whose real name was Art, gave Kirby a new name that, over the years, would become a legend in the West. After a while, even Kirby thought of himself as Smoke Jensen.
    Preacher was with Smoke when he killed his first man during an Indian attack, and he took the boy in when his dying father left him in Preacher’s care. 1
    Now Smoke was in his thirties, a happily married landowner whose ranch, Sugarloaf, was said to be one of the finest in the whole state. He was in the kitchen of his house, drinking coffee and leaning back against the counter, when he laughed so hard that he sprayed coffee from his nostrils.
    It was a funny sight, since Smoke stood just over six feet tall and had shoulders as wide as an ax handle and biceps as thick as most men’s thighs.
    â€œI wish I had been there,” Pearlie said. Pearlie was a shade under six feet tall; he was as lean as a willow branch, with a