Slocum #396 : Slocum and the Scavenger Trail (9781101554371) by Jake Logan Read Free Book Online Page B

close to a full day after the ambush. That was the only explanation he had for the position of the sun. There had been only an hour or so of daylight remaining when he had found the meadow. Now there were three.
    His belly growled from lack of food, and his mouth felt stuffed with cotton wool. Determining the passage of time from these clues proved elusive, but he had to think only one day had passed. If he had been out in the open for two days, creatures would have come and begun nipping away at his flesh.
    Dusting off his hat, he walked back to where he had left the mule grazing peacefully. The hoofprints led toward the trail he had followed. Slocum considered trying to track on foot since it was a considerable distance back down the hill to the town. Instead, he found the faint traces of what he thought were Baransky’s toes in the dirt and began following them again. He went back in the direction he had already taken, then pushed into thick undergrowth. Traces of cloth clung to thorn bushes, giving him an easy trail to follow. He detoured when he heard a brook gurgling across rocks some distance into the woods.
    When he found the water, he drank his fill. The cold, clear runoff from higher on the mountain turned to ice in his belly. He didn’t care. His backbone rubbed up against his stomach. Filling up even on water eased the hunger. Then he thrust his head into the stream and winced as the woundreopened. He laved off the dried blood and then kept his head underwater until the flesh tightened and the bleeding stopped. When he came up for air, he shook like a wet dog, sending droplets in all directions.
    He felt better than he had since getting shot. And he was even more determined not to let the sons of bitches who had shot him and taken Clem Baransky get away with it.
    The determination became more frustration when he got after their trail once more. In less than ten yards he found a small clearing where horses had been tethered. The outlaws had ridden away, probably with Baransky as their prisoner.
    Slocum realized it wasn’t going to avail him anything following the trail. He did anyway. Just as the sun dipped low and night turned chilly, he realized that he had taken a circuitous route back to the main track leading eventually up and over the mountain pass.
    At the road, he looked in both directions, then decided. To return to Almost There a second time would be admitting failure. He had lost three men in his party. Although he couldn’t say for certain, he believed Clem Baransky to be alive. Finding him would go a ways toward validating his sense of duty. Dead or alive didn’t matter, but finding the would‑be prospector did.
    Barely had he gone a hundred yards when the lack of daylight began to work against him. Like it or not, he had to camp for the night. Shivering, he scooped out some dirt from around the roots of a piñon pine and worked his shoulders down so the wood protected him. The ground was cool but wouldn’t get much colder. He wasn’t likely to freeze, but it would be a long night.
    Sleep came in short stretches, and when he did fall into deeper sleep, it was populated with nightmarish figures. Slocum thrashed about, once thinking he had been buried alive. It took a few seconds after his eyes popped open to realize he was still in the pine’s wooden embrace. After that,he slept well enough to only feel cranky when he awoke around sunrise. He knew the time was late in the day since Desolation Mountain blocked the morning sun, but he wanted to know the exact time—and couldn’t because the road agents had stolen his watch.
    His brother Robert’s watch. The only legacy he had of him.
    Slocum pushed free of the roots and let the anger warm him. He got to his feet and started back on the trail, his belly grumbling at the lack of breakfast. There would be time later to forage. The mountainside was covered with growth at this altitude, and bitter early spring berries and other plants might be had