The Diary of Jerrod Bently - J.W. Osborn (mobi ebook reader TXT) 📗

At first Trouble looked stunned as he realized someone other than Sam was on his back. Ned jerked the reins, wrenching him around for a quick get away. Sam heard her stallion’s scream of rage and flew out of the back of the wagon, her long hair down on her shoulders. Suddenly she froze amid step toward her stallion. The man on her horse glared and aimed his rifle at her. She shouted something in Blackfoot and Trouble whirled around, bucking and throwing his heels high into the air. The carefully aimed rifle went flying , hitting the ground and discharging harmlessly. The man was still hanging on as Trouble bucked and reared wildly. Sam ran to get Scrub Pot’s shot gun.. But it was gone from it’s place. That was the moment she heard the roar that gun always made when her Grandfather fired it. It all happened so fast. She heard the man howling in pain, and saw him trying to run as he hit the ground, holding onto his behind, and tattered dungarees.. She saw her grandfather about fifty yards to her left, the shot gun still smoking. Terrified, Trouble ran off riderless into the gathering dusk. Ned was trying to crawl away. His rear was on fire from the blast of rock salt he had taken. As he attempted to continue crawling away, a pair of black soled Indian boots appeared in his line of vision. . Fearfully he looked up and saw the murderous rage on Scrub Pot’s face. “We found your hiding place,” he said “Bently saw you skulking around, horse thief. Now you try to kill my grand daughter and take her horse. Why?”
I grabbed the man by his arm and yanking him to his feet. “You better answer him,” I said as I watched Scrub Pot draw his hunting knife.
“I have to kill her”, Ned ground out “and you too, old man.” I watched the old warrior’s eyes go black as he grabbed Ned by the hair. “I have taken many scalps in my time, horse thief,” he hissed “One more will not matter.”
The outlaw yelped in pain. “You shot me, you red devil!,” he cried “Isn’t that enough??”
“Yes, I shot you,” Scrub Pot replied “With rock salt. Hurt’s doesn’t it. Should sting and burn for quite a while.” He then yanked Ned’s head backward. “Who sent you?”, he demanded.
“Hinkley,” Ned cried, terrified by the sharp blade of the knife the old Indian held.
“I thought so,” Scrub Pot replied. looking up at me as I held the struggling man. “You ever see a man scalped, Jerrod Bently”, he asked, that strange and evil look burning in his dark eyes.
“No, “ I replied and I was not anxious to see it either. I wanted the outlaw to pay for what he had done. I had seen him with the rifle aimed at Sam, and in the act of stealing her horse. But not this way. Murder was murder to my way to thinking. Scrub Pot turned to Sam who was already up on Wakeeze’s back and had a lead rope on the mare. “Are you alright, Samantha,” Scrub Pot asked.
“Yes, Grandfather,” she replied. I could tell she was shaken by this turn of events.
“Go get your horse, Sam,” he said “He will not stray far once he realizes the mare is close by. I watched her ride off in silence, leading Desert Rose behind her and leaving Scrub Pot and me to deal with this would be murderer and horse thief. “Scrub Pot,” I said “We need to get Mr. Watson. He is the boss and he will have to handle this. We do not want to do murder just because this fool tried.”
“Watson is gone, Jerrod Bently,” Scrub Pot replied “I doubt he will be back any time soon. Sam is the law here until we get to Portersville and then we’ll turn this son of a snake over to the sherif . Hopefully they will hang him right away.”
“You mean you ain’t going to scalp me?,” Ned interjected.
“Indian law is harsh for dealing with a horse thief and worse for one who plots the murder of another, “ Scrub Pot said “But I have lived in the white-man’s world for too many years. Tie him up, Jerrod Bently, and make sure he can not escape.”
I did what Scrub Pot has asked me to do and I was very sure that the bad guy , Ned Travis, was not at all comfortable when I got done. His butt was burning like fire from the rock salt blast Scrub Pot had hit him with. Well, a man like that, who would attempt murder and horse stealing didn’t deserve to be comfortable in my book so I left him with Scrub Pot to guard him. As I walked back to where I’d left Mud , I found Sam’s hat lying on the ground. When I saw that rifle trained on her I thought I would die right there in the bushes next to Scrub Pot. I could not imagine what it would be like without seeing her every day and... Well, I guess I had feelings for Sam, now that I knew she was a girl. But as I said, I was gun shy and Sam was nothing like any girl I’d ever known before. I picked up her hat.
“Go find her, Jerrod Bently.,” I heard Scrub Pot say as I rode passed him. I set my spurs to my horse’s sides and rode off at a gallop in the direction I’d seen Sam take.
I caught up with her not too far from camp. She was sitting cross legged , as Indian’s do on the ground under a tree. Wakeeze was about a hundred yards away grazing while Trouble stood proudly beside the new mare as she grazed. I sat on Mud’s back just looking at them for a few minutes. Those two horses made a striking pair.
“He came right too me,” Sam said quietly “As soon as he knew it was me and Wakeeze, he wasn’t scared anymore.” Then she looked up at me “Please tell me that my grandfather did not kill that man.”
“No,” I answered “But he sure wanted to. Are you all right, Sam? He had a gun on you. I was scared that he was going to shoot you.”
When she did not answer I got off my horse and sat down next to her. “You are all right, aren’t you?” I asked again.
“Yes,” she said quietly “He never got a chance to fire. I told Trouble to get him off his back, and he heard me.”
“ I found your hat,” I said as I handed it to her. “ It was at the back of the wagon.”
“Thanks Bently,” she said, trying to smile at me.
“I didn’t think the rest of the boys needed to see you with your hair down,” I added. She began to braid those shiny dark tresses of hers . “What do you think?”, she asked as she worked. “Should I tell the crew who I really am?
“That is up to you Sam,” I said “I think you are a capable, hard working and very beautiful woman. I gave you my word the other day that I would not give up your secret.”
“I believe that you are becoming a real cowboy, Jerrod,” she replied “Now, help me collect my horses and let’s go back.” She started to get up, but I caught her by the hand. She looked at me like I’d never seen her look before. First there was anger in her eyes, than something else, something soft and sweet. That was the first time I ever kissed her...Something I had been wanting to do for a while. I figured she’d slap me or worse, but instead she kissed me back and suddenly, I knew all the way down to my boot heels that one day I’d marry that feisty cow girl. I think Scrub Pot knew it too because when we came back to camp with all the horses, he had a smile on his face. As we passed him on the way to the picket line, that smile turned into a grin.
Around the fire that night, the drovers told their stories and speculated about what was to be done with the horse thief Scrub Pot and I caught. Sam sat down on one of the wooden crates near the wagon. She was going over some old maps and smiled when she saw that by tomorrow night, we would cross over into the Oklahoma territory. No one had seen Angus Watson all day. His horse was still in its place and had not been moved. It seemed that our Scottish trail boss had vanished into thin air. I think Scrub Pot knew far more about Watson’s disappearance than he was letting on. But the time for him to tell us about what had become of Watson had not come yet. We would soon be in vastness of the Oklahoma Territory and Scrub Pot, Sam and I would deliver Ned Travis to the sherrif of a border town called Portersville.

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“Elliot Stevens.,” Nathan Travis declared as he walked through the door of the Portersville Sherif’s Office ,”I thought you were back in Grants Creek, lookin’ after that ranch.” He and Doc shook hands in a friendly greeting. “Good to see you again, Nate,” Doc replied “I decided to come along with the drive and keep an eye on Sam and the