Lucky Billy by John Vernon Read Free Book Online Page A

rolled & kicked at her stomach. McSween said "My poor Molly! Oh, Tunstall, I believe she is going to die right here." I went up & looked at the poor faithful beast, struggling in agony, & commenced calculating how we were ever going to get straightened out, for it necessitated that one of us should go back for help & the other remain (at the shortest) 18 hours alone on the prairie. We sat down & watched her, & the carrion crows came around & watched her, & soon many came, to wait for their promised orgie. The sun was high & hot & we stayed in this spot from 11 in the morning to late in the evening when a mighty rumbling reached our ears & an ox wagon came rolling down the hill. "
There you are, Mac!
" I said, "
I
told you that
I was not going to be left in the lurch, I told you my people believed that Providence had a special commission out to protect me & you see, there it is, come just in the nick of time." (I really had told him that before & I reminded him of it.) The Mexicans (for such they were) had a little scrub pony behind the wagon, which we hitched by the side of our sound animal.
We reached the house of our friends Livingstone and Winters, but 40 long miles had to be travelled first. The next clay we reached Lincoln at about 5 pm where I received a number of your letters. You will be able to judge from my previous anxiety how much these letters relieved my mind. My friend Widenmann has come clown to this country. I was very pleased to see him as he is a man I can depend upon & whom I like
very
much. I introduced him to Mr. & Mrs. McSween & he left for his room about 9 pm.
Oh, did I mention Molly recovered and a Mex brought her to us.
We have traveled over 700 miles, looking for the best ranch land. I don't like this Rio Grande country atall, it is a complete waste land & in my opinion one long den of thieves & cut throats, at the present time they are getting somewhat scourged with smallpox & by that means a number of the young male fry are being prevented from developing into horse thieves & the female fry from developing into fit mates for the same. The situation in this interminable wilderness is the same everywhere: a few lone white men in control of trade, legitimate and otherwise (mostly the latter)—an immensity of desert & canyons & mountains—and fitful little pockets of brown-skinned natives, both Mexican and Indian, whose intentions are inscrutable.
Placita (or Lincoln) seemed
welcoming
this time even if it is in miner's parlance about the "toughest" little spot in America, which means about the lawless. You'd never know this from its peaceful demeanor, a small collection of adobe (or mud) homes scattered up a pretty creek called the Rio Bonito (which means Pretty River). The single dirt street is either dust or mud, depending on the weather, and a haze of wood and charcoal smoke hangs above the town. I must be growing fond at the advanced age of 23 because the clang of the blacksmith shop, the sound of children at play & the barking of dogs & grunting of pigs not to mention a fellow playing piano in a saloon (if that's what you can call it, it sounded more like banging the keys with his elbows) made me feel as though I'd arrived home again. I have to remind myself (as I remind you) that a man can commit murder here with impunity. All countries more or less thickly populated with a
needy, ignorant
population are unsafe in a measure. A look may, if it have sufficient malice in it, justify resort to firearms in the minds of people here.
Of course, you aren't to worry. As regards my getting shot, well this is a fine country & people sometimes use others as targets, but I am not going to get shot so don't be uneasy about that. If formerly I had not the knack of making friends, I seem to possess it now to a sufficiently useful extent; & then again I have a presentiment that I shall
not
get killed but that
I shall live
to accomplish my schemes & will give those three Pets my sisters (whom you must read