Driftin' (Shad Cain Book 3) Page 15

  That big fella bled a plenty and his body continued to squirm and coil for a while. It wasn’t getting any directions from the head, and the head was at least four or five feet out of position to give directions.

  Dog was waiting for me when I got back; he had that relieved look in his eyes and started the tail wagging again. He was a happy fella, and he was happier when I tossed the two chipmunks to him. I went ahead and started a fire to cook the snake. I just split it and gutted it then cut it in six inch chunks. I didn’t even bother skinning it. Dog didn’t know he liked rattler…yet.

  After a breakfast the following morning of overcooked leftover rattler, we started up the ravine. Dog was still gimpy, but he was game. I was feeling much better, so I pushed him when he needed help. At the top we both needed a rest, but we were soon walking along the narrow valley toward the mine. I didn’t need the walking stick any longer, so I discarded it along the way. It never did make sense to me to tote something that you didn’t need.

  Chapter 22

  We reached the mine late that afternoon. I didn’t know what to expect, so we came in behind the second shack. I moved over to the window of the first shack or office and looked inside. The whole thing was a wreck, there wasn’t a piece of unbusted furniture anywhere. There hadn’t been much in there to begin with but it was all in splinters then. The mattress on the cot had been slashed to shreds, and floor boards had been ripped up. The other shack was pretty much in the same shape. All three cots and mattresses were broken and slashed.

  We walked out into the compound, and I could see where some of the ore piles had been worked on. There were no signs of any kind of life, except some wagon and mule tracks criss crossing across the open area. Then a Chinaman stepped out and then another became visible. Soon there were at least thirty or more out in the open. I finally saw Fan Whong come from behind the corner of one of the large sheds. There were two men with him, and each was armed. They walked toward me with little or no expression on the faces of the two siding Whong. But he was smiling.

  “It is good to see you again Mister Cain, although it means we will have to return your horse. He came in after the others left, so we kept him. We regretted that you had probably been killed, but we rejoiced at the thought of another horse.”

  “Thank you… I think. But I’m afraid I’m going to need that animal… What’s going on here?”

  “As you may have guessed, most of us are from peasant stock. And in China, peasants are very poor. It is often joked that a peasant will even find a use for the duck’s quack… We waste nothing. There is much value in the unprocessed ore left here. We plan to start moving it up to Fresno or beyond to sell it or have it processed. Then my friends can come back for more… I must return to San Francisco.”

  I told him that was a right smart move and he had their medicine man take a look at my scalp. He told me it would be sore for a while, but not to worry. He even looked Dog over and declared him on the mend as well.

  Then he said, “A dog that big would feed a Chinese family for a week.” I threatened to cut off his pigtail if he even thought about it.

  Whong told me they had watched Glazer and Lacy from the brush. “They had been like mad men searching for the gold.” But they finally gave up and left. He showed me which direction they had gone. I went back to the office and picked up what must have been Harvey’s hat, made sure I had plenty of cartridges, and bid them good bye and good luck.

  The walk to the mine seemed to have taken some of the soreness out of Dogs leg, his limp was barely noticeable. But I was sure his ribs were still pretty sore. My head was still aching, but it was nothing I couldn’t deal with, so we pushed on. The direction they had taken was to the southwest. Unless they changed course, they would come down behind Dee Wells’ ranch. It would be in their best interest to keep on going.

  They moved on into the wilderness as fast as the terrain would allow. My guess was they had cut their losses and were looking for new fields to plow. I found their first night’s camp. It was a poorly set up camp, to be sure, but one thing made no sense. One of them left with both horses, and the other followed on foot. It was the man with the smaller feet and shorter stride who was walking.

  Lacy must have dumped Glazer in the woods and left him afoot. In this wild country a city fella afoot doesn’t stand much of a chance. I’d look for him in the morning. It was getting late and Dog and I both had walked a far piece this day, and we were still a mite banged up. So I found a little better campsite and built a fire. My supplies were still in the saddlebag, so there would be coffee and bacon. The dried apples and raisins were long gone, but we should be down in the valley in a day or two, if all went well.

  We held off on breakfast till I came back from an early morning hunt with a young doe. There was enough meat to last us a while till Dog could hunt for himself. Hopefully by that time we’d be out of these hills and on our way to Los Angeles. After we ate I wrapped the rest of the meat in the hide and tied it on behind my bedroll.

  Following Gazer’s tracks was like following a drunk. He roamed all over creation, but in general he was moving due west, and there weren’t no way down there. His best bet was southwest where the slope was much gentler. But I didn’t reckon he knew anything about that. I found his camp, and there was no sign of a fire or that he’d had anything to eat. He’d be getting desperate soon, and a desperate man is likely to get killed in the forest. He could eat something that would kill him, or even try to take a kill away from a cougar. I’ve seen the result of that.

  So I stepped up my pace and put an all out effort to find him before he did something stupid. It was almost mid day, when I topped a rise coming out of a fine growth of fir and saw his tracks through the tall grass below. My blood ran cold when I saw him rise up from behind a deadfall and point his pistol at a black bear cub. I yelled, but the smoke came from his weapon while I was still trying to warn him. Then I heard the pop from his pistol. The cub crashed into the grass bawling for its mama.

  He was on top of the wailing cub trying to finish it off with a knife, when mama came crashing out of the thick brush nearby. There wasn’t a thing I could do for him. She hit him with power that I’m sure he never believed possible. It didn’t last long, and I doubted if he even knew what had hit him. What that old sow did to his body was almost beyond belief. She battered him with those powerful forelegs, raking him with her claws and tearing big chunks of his body with bone crushing teeth. It reminded me of a large dog ripping a rag doll apart. At long last she had spent her rage and started tending her still bawling baby.

  A lot of folks don’t give the black bear enough credit for being a dangerous animal. They’re not as aggressive as a grizzly but they’re still a powerful beast. And they can climb trees, so if you get one mad, you’re gonna have to kill it, cause you’re not likely to get away from it. She was finally able to get the little one up and helped it move away.

  I had no reason to go down there and look at his body. There wasn’t enough left to bury, so I turned southwest and tried to pick up Lacy’s trail. I found it later in the day, and by twilight, I was overlooking the slide area behind Aunt Dee Wells’ ranch. I saw no need in going down that slope in uncertain light, so we talked it over and decided to go down in the morning for breakfast.

  We weren’t the only ones who went down that slope in the past few days. I found fresh marks and ruts in the gravel and sand where several horses had slid down. I picked up the tracks at the bottom and they seemed to be skirting the Wells ranch and heading for Bakersfield or points south and west.

  I didn’t follow them. He would show up somewhere down the line. I figure he cleaned out all the cash Glazer had with him, when he left him afoot and helpless. Right then, I was just happy to get down that slope in one piece and riding toward some friendlier faces.

  As I rode into the ranch yard, I knew that all was well because Aunt Dee Wells was handing poor old Earl some kind of thunder and lightning for something or another. He didn’t
seem to be upset and about it and she wasn’t really angry…it was all for style. And she had a lot of style.

  Sitting there on the dead gunman’s horse, I watched them from the corner of the house for a full half minute before either saw me. Dog finally got impatient and gave them a Woof. They both turned to Dog and then to me. Both stared for a second or two.

  “Lord… Have Mercy! He’s ALIVE! Or that’s the best lookin’ ghost ever.” She yelled as she started running across the ranch yard. “Earl, you saddle up and ride to the Bellem and tell ‘em that Shad Cain is alive and well.” She was yelling at his back because he was already throwing a saddle on a bronc.

  When I hit the ground, she was already squeezing the livers out of me. Stepping back she just looked at me and finally said, “Shadrac Cain, forgive me for being so brazen and forward, but we were all so worried. Splitting those raiders up did ‘em in. They got caught in the crossfire and it broke ‘em.”

  “A few days later, men showed up from the state militia, and started movin’ the rest of them out, without a shot fired. They tell me, that Glazer’s disappeared up into the mountains and that gunman Lacy’s with him. They’re probably holed up at that mine.”

  “No, ma’am, Glazer’s dead along with the mine boss, his three overseers, and about five of them that followed me. The mine’s busted, and the Chinamen are haulin’ off everything that ain’t nailed down to cover their wages…. They’s a good bunch of men. Oh, and I sent two of Glazer’s men packin’ and headin’ to Oregon… They was kinda good boys that learned a bunch by some bad experiences.”

  I told her that all those men weren’t by my hand but some were. Then I told her how Glazer died. “Mercy!” was all she said.

  “Lacy run off and left him stranded and without a horse… He never stood a chance out there by himself. I was trackin’ him to bring him in when he shot the cub. It was over quick… I picked up Lacy’s tracks back against the hills. It looks like he’s headin’ for Bakersfield.”

  About that time, a youngster of about five or six years came running out of the barn, with something important that he needed to show Aunt Dee. He slid to a sliding stop when he saw me and Dog there.

  “Shadrac Cain, I want you to meet Tim Smith. Timmy is going to live here with Earl and me. And I think between the two of us, we can make a first rate cattleman out of him.”

  “How do, Tim. It’s a fine pleasure to meet you.” As I extended my hand and he shook it vigorously.

  “Are you Cain the mountain man that everybody’s been talkin’ about?”

  “Well that all depends on what they been sayin’. But I reckon I would be him, no matter what their sayin’.” I chuckled and said, “Yes sir, if I ain’t nothin’ else, I’m a sure ‘nuff mountain man.”

  “They been sayin’ all good stuff. They call you a hero.”

  “Don’t reckon I’m any kind of a hero, But your daddy was a real hero… He worked hard to build a ranch and a home for you… I ain’t never raised me a youngen’ as fine as you… and that’s what makes a man a hero.”

  He beamed and said, “Can I pet your dog, Mister Cain?”

  “Sure, but be careful with his sides, he’s got some sore ribs.”

  I led the horse to water and put him in the corral while Aunt Dee went inside to get some coffee going. I was just finishing off my second slice of apple pie when Earl and Max Bell came riding into the yard. We went out to meet them.

  Earl was leading my buckskin, and I was sure happy to see that horse… and Max. He told me pretty much the same thing Aunt Dee had told me but with a little better description of the final battle. When the raiders saw they were whipped they made a run for it, but support from the Murchison ranch cut them off and made prisoners of all that survived. Eight raiders were disarmed, bound and marched to the river with the threat of hanging if they ever came back. Their horses were taken to the south crossing and turned loose. If they ever got ‘em back, nobody knew or cared.

  He also told me that Charlie Collins was still sore and complaining, but he was alive and would likely stay that way for a while. It seemed that peace had come to the valley. He asked about the mine and I told him that the Chinese workers had taken over and were hauling the ore out in Glazers own wagons.

  “The mine went cold. The vein ran out and they hadn’t taken any ore for three or four weeks, but Glazer didn’t know it. I paid the workers off with what was in the strongbox. It was enough to cover their wages and a bit more, I suppose. But they’d earned it.”

  Then I remembered the tobacco sack of gold I taken from the strongbox to give Smith’s little boy a start in life. I pulled it out of my money belt and gave it to Aunt Dee to keep for him, or to use to cover his expenses.

  “Well, Shadrac Cain, if you ain’t somethin’…. I’ll put it aside for him and someday he may want to go to college or open a business or somethin’.”

  She excused herself and went to another room, but we both heard her blow her nose. When she came back we didn’t act like we knew she’d been crying. We just barged one with our man talking.

  “Although I’m happy you’re not dead, Cain. I sure regret having to give that buckskin back to you… And I’m sure I would’ve looked right handsome in that dude suit of yours, but I’m still happy you came back… cause Frank Murchison owes me five dollars.”

  “He was just sure you were dead in the mountains. But I knew you were in your own back yard, and it would take some killin’ to put you under. So I bet him five dollars… He should know better than to bet with a former gambler.”

  Chapter 23

  When we came out, Earl had my saddle switched to the buckskin, and asked me what he should do with the one I rode in on.

  “Well he’s too good a horse to shoot, and the fella that rode him last won’t be comin’ to get him. And since I’ve never seen a ranch that couldn’t use another horse, I’d suggest you just put him in that corral and give him a name.”

  I told them I’d be coming back on my way out of the valley, and I’d stop by then to say good bye.

  I stayed at the Bellem for three days letting Dog rest his aches and pains, and let my skinned head heal a little. A number of the ranchers came by to pay their respects and offer their thanks, which was awful nice of them, but it was a little embarrassing to me. So on the third day I was ready to move on.

  “Where to now, Shad?” Bell asked.

  “Well sir, I think I’d kinda like to take a ride down to Los Angeles… you know the one they call the City of Angels, before I head on back towards Colorado.”

  “Los Angeles…. Why Los Angeles? I didn’t think you cared much for cities.”

  “Oh I don’t particularly like big towns… but I ain’t never seen an Angel, and I’d kinda like to get a look at one.”

  Bell nearly choked on his coffee and said, “You want to be careful down there, Cain, some of those Angels got a little tarnish on their halos.”

  Dori slipped her hand into the crook of my arm and we walked to the door, where Dog and my horse were waiting.

  “Shad,” she purred, “don’t you pay any attention to him. There are some lovely Angels in Los Angeles. And I know you’re smart enough to tell the difference between a real Angel and a tarnished Angel. You just enjoy yourself, and the next time you find yourself on a holiday in California, you come see us.”

  I said I would, but if she’d have said, “Shad go jump over the barn,” I’d have said I would. She had that kind of affect on a fella.

  Our good byes were said, and I rode out. My last stop was to say good bye to Aunt Dee Wells before I rode on out. She gave me a good sized sack of dried apples, a smaller sack of raisins, and told me to eat more vegetables. I swore that I would and pointed my gelding’s nose toward Bakersfield.

  The way I figured it, Lacy would head for a good size town to spend whatever he took off of Glazer. And Bakersfield was the closest town around to match that description, so it just made sense.

  It was a two day easy ride, and I did
n’t see any reason to wear out either my horse or my dog to get there any quicker than that. The buckskin had been living the life of luxury for the past week, but Dog had put a lot of rough miles on his legs during that time. So we just took our time.

  We made camp just short of town on the second night, so I could go about the business of stocking up on supplies for the trip on south. I figured to spend a little time looking at Angels, and then head across the desert into Arizona for the winter.

  My clothes were pretty much shot. And I didn’t want to wear my city clothes traveling. My old buckskin shirt was cut up pretty bad after I kept cutting pieces off it for one thing or another. So I bought myself a couple of new outfits. They weren’t exactly range clothes, and they wouldn’t stand up to what a cowhand puts his clothes through, but they were suitable for what I’d need ‘em for. I’d be back in buckskins as soon as I got back to Colorado.

  I’d just come out of the Emporium with several packages of clothing to add to my other supply goods. I planned on staying around town for a few days to get a scent of Lacy’s trail. My next step was to go find a hotel with a stable so I could get cleaned up and go find a beer and a meal.

  My horse had been stepping a little funny on the way into town, so I wanted to check for stones in his hooves. He seemed to be favoring his right front, so that’s where I would start. Sure enough there it was, and it only took a second to get it out. I’d just started to straighten up, when I heard Dog start to growl real low. I knew that growl from long experience, so I moved slow and easy the rest of the way up.