Slocum #395 : Slocum and the Trail to Yellowstone (9781101553640) by Jake Logan Read Free Book Online Page B

another to get back,” she said. “I’d ride your good horse and be faster, but someone might notice him.”
    â€œHey, I’ll be fine. Nothing’s going to eat me.”
    She made a soft smile. “You can’t tell.”
    â€œIf it’s not storming, why don’t you go tomorrow?”
    â€œFine.”
    They strung the deer up and began to skin it. Taking care, because he didn’t like his venison tasting like hair, he used a sharp knife, then slipped his blade under the hide and made his cuts from the inside. She nodded in approval at his style. “That will sure make for less hair on the meat. Never saw it done that way. Who showed you that?”
    â€œA Cheyenne woman.”
    â€œYou’ve had some good teachers,” she teased.
    â€œOh, yes, some good ones.”
    The deer’s body was finally free of hide and he gutted it, saving the heart, liver, and kidneys. When they were laid out, he took the carcass up to wash it below Wilma’s spring.
    â€œWe can hang it under a wet canvas and keep it cool enough not to spoil,” she said, walking along beside him carrying the rifle—just in case.
    There was plenty of liver to fry, so they used her meat keeper to store the doe on a hook overhead. The log building, she told him, had repelled bears in the past, and he agreed it was well constructed. Door closed and latched, they went to the cabin.
    After supper, they kissed and played on her bed. He was getting used to her thicker body and enjoying her more. At last they undressed like starving people at their first meal and tested the bed ropes under the mattress to find some relief from their cravings.
    Sprawled on her back in the flickering light of the candle afterward, Wilma gave a sigh. “I waited twenty years for this to happen to me. I’d hitch up with some guy and think, ‘This is going to be like heaven.’ But until you came, I had always misjudged it.”
    â€œWhat was wrong with ’em?”
    She shrugged. “There were some who thought they were pigs and made it go quick. Others who mauled me like I was some sow. Some couldn’t get it up and some couldn’t get it down. I’ve been in the hands of losers too long.”
    He got up on his knees, and hoisted his half-stiff dick up into his right hand. “Ready for more, princess?”
    â€œGod, yes.”
    Â 
    The next morning she was ready to ride for the nearest store with ten dollars from his cache.
    â€œI’m going to shock the shit out of that old man,” she said. “You tell me how a stranded woman like me could ever have earned ten dollars.”
    â€œLet him think you boarded some outlaws who passed on through coming from a robbery. He don’t need to know more.”
    Seated on her horse, she slit her eyes against the bright sun. With a smile, she nodded. “That’s all he needs to know. Rest up while I’m gone. I’ll be needing you badly by the time I get back.”
    He laughed and waved her off. With the leather string holding her hat on in the gusty south wind, she rode east and down the slope. Wilma was all right.
    With her gone, Slocum sawed off wood blocks all morning and busted them up in the afternoon. The sharp one-man saw dug deep in the dead pinewood. Later, the double-bitted axe swung high over his head and sliced the wood into clean-looking pie-shaped pieces. It was good work for his tender shoulder and should build him back up. Stacking all the firewood under the roof of the firewood shelter, he had soon had enough of the labor and walked up on the hill above her place to look around.
    She’d soon have enough wood, but it was always possible it could be a bad winter and the snow could stay on long. A person had to be sure the wood would last; cutting and busting wood in a blizzard was no fun.
    From the high spot where he stopped, he could see the tall, threatening thunderheads coming fast in his