The Saga of Harlan Waugh (The Mountain Men) by Terry Grosz Read Free Book Online Page A

all five Hawkens, Harlan, with a proud heart, and his two boys walked back to their horses and mules, which were tethered in the creek bottom behind them. Over the soft crunching sounds of their moccasins in the snow, they could hear excited talking and laughing from the Snake hunters. Soon the tribe had descended on the fallen buffalo for its first taste in a long time of fresh, hot buffalo liver, soon to be sprayed by salts from the gall bladder.
    Walking their horses and mules back to the top of the small hill, they were amazed at what they saw. Dark brown blotches of dead buffalo dotted the snow-covered prairie and sagebrush for a square mile. Scattered throughout the area were thirty mounted riders whooping it up, with another fifty tribal members scattered about, voicing their delight over the harvest lying before them.
    Walking over the rim of the hill, Harlan and the boys began skinning and gutting the five buffalo they had dropped in the face of the stampede. Soon their mules were braying loudly over the weighty loads of steaming meat and hides they were being made to carry. That which they couldn’t carry was left to the tribe or the scavengers. As was often the case, too many buffalo had been killed even for the Snakes to utilize all the meat, so many prairie creatures happily ate their fill for a few days.
    Joe Meek rode up to Harlan and the boys and dismounted. Walking over to Harlan, he said, “The chief is extremely happy over your help on this hunt. He says his people will have much meat for at least another month, and then maybe the deep snow will leave and the hunting will become easier. He asked me to let you know that you and the boys are welcome in his land. Even though the boys are from the hated horse-stealing Crow Nation, they will be welcome as long as he is the chief.”
    Harlan smiled, wiped his bloody, tallow-covered hands, and said, “It was good to meet one of our own and provide some assistance. Maybe we can meet at the rendezvous this coming summer and tip a jug or two.”
    “I would like that,” Meek said with a grin. “See you there, and bring them sharpshooting boys. I bet they can win some goods from those trappers who think they can shoot better than those young men.”
    With that and a wave of the hand, he mounted his horse and rode off to mingle with the people whom he called his friends and hosts. Little did Harlan realize that the chance meeting with Joe Meek would later bear fruit of the richest kind...
    Loaded with all their groaning pack animals could carry, Harlan and the boys headed back to their cabin and some damn good eating for the next few weeks. Because it was so cold the meat would freeze and keep in their now almost empty cache house high in the trees next to their cabin.
     
     
     

Chapter Eight
     
    The Great White Bear
     
    It seemed like forever, but finally spring came to the land in a rush like a charging mountain lion. The wind howled constantly, streams overflowed their banks, the ice went out, and wet spring storms blasted the lands as if Mother Nature had an angry point to prove.
    Exposed to the weather in all its moods, the three worked their trap-lines like there was no tomorrow. They had only a few months before the beaver went out of their prime, and this year a trip to the rendezvous would be needed for many essential supplies such as spices, gunpowder, horse and mule shoes, and the like.
    Beaver after beaver fell to Harlan and his trainees until little difference existed among the three of them when it came to trapping skills. The boys’ prowess with the big Hawkens was also a wonder to behold. If an animal was observed and wanted, they had become accomplished offhand shooters out to two hundred yards. At that range, the big Hawkens saw to it that there was meat in the pot come sundown.
    In addition, Big Eagle and Winter Hawk were developing into two very strong and healthy young men. If they had still been living with their tribe, they might have