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Western Adventure
Amazon
Lulu
Category:
Western
Publisher: Ken Coleman
Type: Fiction
Pages: 348
Copyright: April 2015
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
A tough drifter reluctantly finds himself having to take care of a twelve year old girl as they make their way from Kansas to South Dakota. A journey fraught with danger and violence.
After nearly forty years, Jake Madrid thought he had coped pretty well with all that life had thrown at him during his violent and troubled existence.
A rough, tough drifter, cowhand, brawler and gunfighter, he had endured many tests and come through countless battles, some as a soldier during the Civil War and some as a gunfighter facing up to others just like him. So after stealing a horse and pack mule when he found himself broke and friendless in a Texas cow town, he headed for pastures new determined to build himself a better future. But all his grand plans as well as his life, began to do somersaults across the plains when he found himself having to take care of a twelve year old child whose parents had been killed, leaving her an orphan and alone.
That was when his problems really began for she was no ordinary girl, she turned out to be the orneriest, bad tempered, resilient and toughest kid it had ever been his misfortune to meet. She could also cuss better than any mule skinner, shoot as well as any gunman and come out with expletives that the toughest buffalo hunter would be proud of.
However, as their journey to Deadwood across Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota progressed, he found himself saddled with more troubled females who all needed his protection. It was a situation that was completely alien to him, especially as the girl constantly got under his skin with her insolence and bad tempered cussing and he found himself in a constant battle with her as well as having to fight off outlaws, Indians and bushwhackers. On top of that, he realizes that he is falling in love with a woman he had rescued from violent ruffians. But, as was usual in those violent times, trouble had a way of finding them and tragedy was never far away.
Excerpt
After a couple of hours her dress had dried as well as her hair and they prepared to set off across the vast prairie towards Kansas.
‘Can you sit a horse kid?’ Jake asked.
The girl regarded him as though he were a simpleton.
‘You have a low opinion of girls,’ she sneered. ‘I can ride a horse better than you ever will.’
‘Well I hope you can ride bareback and use an Indian hackamore,’ he growled, clearly annoyed at her jibe. ‘Cos I only have one saddle and I’ll be using that.’
‘Don’t worry about me mister, just concern yourself with your own shortcomings.’
With that she caught up the Indian pony that had been picketed with the other animals and despite her small size, easily, sprung up and threw her legs astride the animal's back. The mustang skittered a little but she easily brought it under control with the single rein hackamore and walked it in a circle until it had become accustomed to her.
Despite his annoyance at the girl’s insolence, Jake could not help but admire her horsemanship for she controlled the saddle-less horse as easily as an Indian would and he wondered where she had acquired her skills.
By the time they were underway, the sun had become high in the sky and he figured it must be approaching noon as he led the way with the mule trailing and the girl following behind the mule. As was usual during long treks on horseback, he fell into his own little world and began daydreaming of the money he would one day acquire and the luxurious travel he would undergo and the beautiful, exotic ladies he would meet. His hat was pulled down to shade his eyes and he rode with his chin slumped on his chest to all intents and purposes, fast asleep. However, a part of his mind was always on the alert for possible danger, especially after the way he had walked straight into those Indians and got himself lumbered with the kid.
Occasionally, he turned his head to glance back at her, but despite the hot sun that beat down incessantly onto her bare head, legs and feet, she rode silently on with no complaints and though he would never admit it, he felt a grudging respect for her courage and will power. However, his opinion changed a little when, after around three hours, she rode alongside him and announced that she needed to pee.
‘Can’t you hold it for another hour?’ he growled. ‘I want to find somewhere suitable to stop, not here on the open plains.’
‘No, I need to go now.’
‘Goddam it!’ he yelled. ‘Go on then but don’t take all day.’
They stopped their horses and she dismounted before walking a short distance into the long grass.
‘Don’t look,’ she called as she squatted in grass.
‘Why the hell would I want to watch some scrawny kid taking a piss,’ he muttered to nobody in-particular.
While he sat waiting he found the makings in his vest pocket and rolled a cigarette, then hooked his leg around the saddle horn while he enjoyed his smoke and the animals grazed.
Eventually she returned and without a word mounted her horse and they re-commenced their journey.
It took two more hours before they came across another stream with cottonwoods and plenty of vegetation lining the bank where the weary travellers dismounted and allowed the animals to drink their fill before Jake unsaddled his sorrel and remove the supplies from the mule and the animals were then allowed to graze on the lush grass.
‘We might as well stop here overnight,’ Jake said. ‘It’s already late afternoon and there’s no telling how far we have to travel before we find another spot as good as this to make camp.’
The girl didn’t answer, instead she began to gather wood and twigs to build a fire while he disappeared behind some bushes, returning a few minutes later to find that she had already gotten a small blaze going and was placing thicker deadfall branches onto the flames to build up the fire. Then she found several small rocks and boulders which she placed in a circle around the fire to catch falling embers and upon which to place the coffee can and cooking utensils.
Jake watched in admiration for a short time before turning to rummage through the supplies and emerging with the coffee can. He placed it on the ground and looked in the supplies for coffee and sugar before turning his attention back to the can just in time to see the girl pick it up and head for the stream where she filled it with water and without a word, came back and set it on the embers at the edge of the fire.
They hadn’t eaten since early morning so Jake decided that after they had drunk their coffee, they would eat early, meanwhile they sat in silence with their backs against adjacent trees holding their mugs and staring into the flames until presently, the girl spoke.
‘So what we having to eat then?’ She asked out of the blue.
He turned his head and regarded her.
‘We?’ He asked. ‘I don’t know what you are having, but no doubt I can find something in my supplies for me to eat.’
‘Fine,’ she said. ‘Two can play at that game.’
Without another word she clambered to her bare feet and walked over to his saddle which lay close to the supplies then stooped and drew his Spencer rifle from its scabbard.
‘Hey,’ he yelled. ‘Careful what you are doing with that rifle, it aint a toy and if you don’t handle it right you’ll shoot a toe off or worse.’
‘I just want to borrow it,’ she said lightly.
‘What the hell you gonna do with my rifle?’
‘I’m gonna get something to eat.’
He grinned condescendingly.
‘I was just teasing you kid, you are welcome to share what I’ve got.’
‘Ok, but some fresh meat will surely help.’
‘Look kid, I appreciate the gesture but even if you had the strength to handle that gun, I don’t fancy skinning a squirrel and even if I did, there wouldn’t be more than a mouthful of meat on it.’
‘Well maybe I can bag two squirrels, that’ll be a mouthful apiece.’
He laughed.
‘Ok, it’s your funeral, just be careful where you point that thing and don’t expect me to patch you up if you shoot yourself.’
She grinned then turned and walked off into the trees and bushes and he became uneasy about letting a child walk away with something as lethal as a repeating rifle.
After nearly forty minutes, he became more uneasy but told himself it wasn’t because he cared about the welfare of the kid, it was because he didn’t want to lose a damned good gun.
Ten minutes later he decided to go look for her and was just clambering to his feet when a shot rang out somewhere in the trees. He placed his hand on the butt of his gun and hurried toward the direction of the sound. There were quite a few bushes and trees to traverse and he didn’t want to make a noise in case there was danger, so he carefully made his way towards where he thought the gunshot had rung out. But as he stealthily made his way between two bushes, he suddenly felt the barrel of a gun jab him in the back and he froze with his arms spread out away from his gun.
‘Don’t move a muscle mister,’ said a tiny sweet voice behind him. ‘Or I will blow you to kingdom come.’
She giggled and stepped back.
‘Goddam it,’ he cried angrily, as he whirled round. ‘You could have gotten your fool head shot off if I had gone for my gun.’
‘You wouldn’t have gone for your gun as long as you weren’t sure who was standing behind you, otherwise you could well have got yourself shot in the back and it wasn’t until you heard my voice, you knew there was no danger.’
‘I’ve a mind to shoot you anyway and get you out of my hair,’ he growled angrily. ‘Don’t you know you never point a gun at somebody unless you intend to use it?’
She still had the Spencer levelled and the muzzle pointing at his belly.
‘Right,’ she said with a grin. ‘Then maybe I shoot you so that I don’t break your rules.’
‘Lower that goddamned gun before it goes off,’ he snapped. ‘I knew I shouldn’t have let you take the damned thing.’
‘Don’t worry so much,’ she replied. ‘It aint cocked, I aint levered it since I shot this turkey.’
‘Well lower it anyway, it’s still dangerous.’
Then it dawned on him what she had said and he noticed for the first time, a big wild turkey lying at her feet.
‘Jesus,’ he gasped. ‘Did you shoot that?’
‘Nope,’ she replied sardonically. ‘It walked right up to me, took the gun from my hands and shot its own goddamned head off.’
He stared in disbelief at the turkey as he realised she had not only killed it, but had shot it clean in the head leaving its body intact and lead free.
‘That must have been a lucky shot,’ he growled. ‘A little kid like you couldn’t shoot a rifle that accurately, Christ the damned gun is nearly as big as you.’
She didn’t bother arguing knowing that if she did, his manly pride wouldn’t allow him to believe her.
‘Well,’ she replied. ‘I don’t care what you think, I know what I can and cannot do and I have bagged us some fresh meat so let’s make the most of it.’
She turned on her naked heel and still holding the rifle, headed off in the direction of their camp. He glared at her departing back as she walked away bare footed, unable to shake the feeling that he had just been made to look foolish and put to shame by a tiny girl more than a third his age. After she had gone just a few yards, she yelled over her shoulder to the hesitant man.
‘Bring the turkey.’
‘Goddamn it,’ he growled as he picked up the bird and followed in her wake feeling like a demeaned schoolboy.
When they arrived back at the fire, she took the turkey from his hands and began to pluck it and he marvelled at her skill as she quickly reduced it to a carcass ready to cook.
Not to be outdone by a kid, he fashioned a spit out of green wood and took the turkey from her before removing its innards and skewering it with one of the branches which he had stripped of leaves and sharpened to a point at one end.
Pretty soon the turkey was browning nicely and emitting a delicious smell as she occasionally basted it with goose fat which she had found in a jar amongst the supplies and despite his enmity towards her, his respect was growing enormously.
Neither of them had spoken since they had returned to the camp after the incident with the rifle and even after they had shared the meat, they ate in silence with both of them too stubborn to speak first.
When they were both satiated, the man and the girl rested their backs against their respective trees and sipped sweet black coffee. In his mind, Jake grudgingly applauded the child for managing, whether accidently, or purposely, to shoot the turkey for it had been the best meal he had tasted in a long time especially since the only meat he had eaten for the past few months apart from the bacon he had found in the supplies, had been beef, which he had had more than his fill of during the cattle drive.
After around an hour, the girl finally, spoke.
‘I need to go,’ she announced as she clambered to her feet.
He glanced up into her pretty face and then down at her naked feet and realised she had never once complained about any kind of discomfort since he had hauled her out of the water back aways. She wore nothing else but a thin cotton dress that, because it rode up when she sat astride the mustang, had the effect of exposing her legs and thighs to the burning sun. Furthermore, she had nothing to protect her head, and even though, he could see by her tanned skin, that she was used to being outdoors, even girls wore a hat or a bonnet of some kind if they are to spend long hours under the sun.
‘Take the rifle if you intend to go into the trees,’ he said sullenly. ‘And try not to shoot yourself.’
She sighed, but held her peace. Instead she walked silently, on her bare feet towards the trees picking up the Spencer on the way.
She picked her way between the trees and around bushes until she felt she was far enough from the camp for her dignity to be intact. Then after finding a suitable place, she placed the rifle on the ground and squatted in the shelter of a bush.
When she had finished and wiped herself with some leaves, she picked up the rifle and was about to make her way back to the fire when she heard a sound like the snickering of a horse off to her right. Sensing danger, she decided to hold her position until she could be sure whether or not it would be safe to move. After a few moments, she heard a voice speaking in low tones farther on towards the camp and she realised that whoever it was, they were not openly approaching the camp as travellers often did and announcing their presence. Rather, they were sneaking up and using stealth to approach, which meant they were less than friendly in their intentions.
Although it wasn’t fully dark, the sun had gone down far enough to diminish the light somewhat and afford her some camouflage amongst the trees and undergrowth, so she carefully made her way in the opposite direction from whence the sound had come hoping that she would not be seen or heard until she had gotten far enough away from whoever it was to be able to feel safe.
After the delicious meal and coffee, Jake felt relaxed and comfortable in the warmth that came from the glow of the flames and began to doze so that pretty soon, his chin slumped onto his chest and he slept more soundly than was usual for him and his normally sharp senses and alertness dulled somewhat. So it was with some surprise that he found himself rudely awakened, by the muzzle of a pistol pressing into the skin of his temple.
‘Not again,’ he growled. ‘What have I told you about pointing guns at folks?’
He opened his eyes and looked up into the grinning, bearded face of a man who held the six shooter that was pressed to his head. His eyes widened when he realised his predicament, but he sat still waiting for the man to state his intentions.
‘We been tracking you for a long way mister,’ growled a voice off to the side. ‘You are a goddamned horse thief and we are gonna hang you from one of them there cottonwoods.’
‘Yeah,’ grinned the man holding the gun. ‘But it aint all bad news, by way of compensation for our trouble, we are gonna take the girl off your hands, but you don’t need to worry, she will be well taken care of after we hang you.’
‘She’s just a kid,’ said Jake hoarsely. ‘She had nothing to do with stealing your horse.’
‘Maybe not, but she is gonna provide some comfort to make up for all the miles we been chasing you from Fort Worth.’
Jake couldn’t conceal his anger and disgust at the man’s obvious intentions toward the kid.
‘If you think horse thieves are bad,’ he growled angrily. ‘I can show you a couple of child molesters who are downright inhuman and repulsive and deserve to hang a whole lot more than a common horse thief does.’
The man with pistol suddenly brought his arm back and hit him with the gun at the side of his head knocking him sprawling onto his side.
‘I don’t give a damn what you think hombre,’ he yelled. ‘I want compensating for having to trail you all this way after you stole my horse and supplies and that little gal is gonna be a half of the compensation. The other half is watching you swing in the breeze as you dangle from a cottonwood.’
‘Where’s the kid?’ barked the other man as Jake’s head began to clear.
He raised himself onto his elbow and fearful that the child would unwittingly walk into camp unaware of the danger, he did the only thing he could to alert her.
‘Run kid,’ he yelled as loud as he was able. ‘Run like hell, you are in danger.’
The man holding the gun pistol whipped Jake again and he slumped on the ground dazed.
‘You horse thieving bastard,’ he bellowed. ‘You just lost any chance you had of getting outa this alive.’
‘Don’t worry Ike,’ spoke the other man. ‘She’s afoot, she won’t get far and when she finds herself alone in the dark, she’ll be begging us to take her in.’
‘Yeah, I guess you’re right Jim, and even if she don’t she won’t get far in the dark.’
‘Ok,’ said Jim. ‘Let’s get this done while we still have enough light to see what we doing.’
Between them they dragged Jake to his feet and tied his hands behind his back with rawhide. Then Ike brought a rope with a hangman’s noose he had already fashioned, in the expectation of a hanging, which he slipped over Jake’s head and pulled taught around his neck.
‘You gonna die slow mister,’ he said gleefully and when we have finished with that kid, she’s gonna wish she had died with you.’
With Ike’s gun held to his head, the pair of them frog marched Jake to a cottonwood that had a low, sturdy branch protruding straight out from the tree around ten feet high. Jim tossed the rope over the branch and brought the end of the rope under a much lower branch and looped it over one time before wrapping it around the saddle horn of his horse. Then with Ike giggling uncontrollably he walked the horse forwards until Jake felt the rope go slightly taught but not enough that he couldn’t breathe or move his head.
‘Anything you want to say before you go to hell?’ He asked gleefully.
Strangely and despite the knowledge that he was about to die, the only thing on Jake’s mind was the girl and his concern for her safety, for there was no doubt that if they caught her, she would go through hell before, knowing the type of vermin they were, they would likely kill her once they had finished with her so that there would be no witness to implicate them in their vile act.
‘Let the kid go,’ was all he could think to say. ‘Find yourselves a real woman not a little girl.’
He heard Jim laugh and Ike giggled some more before answering him.
‘Would you like me to go into detail what we gonna do to her hombre?’
‘Go to hell.’
‘That’s where you are headed hoss thief,’ he replied gleefully.
Then he proceeded to talk into Jakes ear, telling him in explicit detail all the disgusting things they had planned for the girl.
Jake turned his head and smashed his forehead into Ike’s face causing him to stagger back with blood pouring from his nose. Jakes sudden act of violence towards his partner was all the incentive Jim needed to walk the horse forward and raise Jake by his neck until he was dangling free and the rope was slowly tightening around his neck. At the same time, Ike, who had regained his composure, angrily approached the dangling man and punched him a very hard blow in the stomach, which had the effect of tightening the noose even further.
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