The Long Trail (The McCabes Book 1) by Brad Dennison (microsoft ebook reader .TXT) 📗

now gone. He said, “Good thing it wasn’t my right shoulder that took that bullet. It could never have taken the kick this rifle has.”

Beyond Johnson was Josh. And beside him was the girl, Temperance. Dusty was about to ask what she was doing here, but then he decided he didn’t need to. The answer was obvious.

Zack jacked open the action and pulled out the empty cartridge, then inserted a fresh one and closed the action. He brought the rifle to his shoulder, and began sighting in on Falcone. Vic, whose survival instinct was one of the greatest Dusty had ever seen, turned and ran back into the trees as Zack squeezed the trigger. The bullet tore away a chunk of bark from the trunk of a pine.

“Damn,” Zack said.

“Should we hunt him down?” Josh asked.

Dusty shook his head. “We’ll never catch him. He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen at finding a way to stay alive. By the time we can get back down and into that canyon, he’ll be long gone. But I have a feeling we’ll see him again, one of these days.”

Dusty turned to Hunter. “I have to admit, I’m sure glad to see you too. But, a little surprised too.”

Hunter said, “Aunt Ginny told us where you had gone. We saddled up and followed. The way we see it, we’re all family, and we couldn’t let you ride after them alone. We’ve been a day behind you all the way, and camped out up here since yesterday, trying to figure a way to get the two of you out of that canyon.”

Zack rose to his feet. “Come on, let’s ride. Fred’s waiting back there with the horses.”

“Hunter,” Dusty said, extending his hand. “Thank you.”

Hunter’s huge hand wrapped around Dusty’s. “Don’t mention it.”

“If there’s every anything..,”

“Like I said, don’t mention it.”

“I don’t suppose you’re going to let me start paying for my beer now?”

With a big smile, Hunter said, “Not a chance.”

EPILOGUE

Dusty stepped into the kitchen. His destination - the coffee pot.

He wore a blue shirt he had bought at Franklin’s, tucked into a new pair of levis. He and Josh and the others had gone back down into the canyon to retrieve the horses, and Josh and Dusty’s guns. Dusty’s Peacemaker was once again strapped down to his right leg.

He had also pulled the knife from the corpse of Stew. The knife that had the initials V.T.F. engraved in the side of the blade. A memento, he supposed. It was in his room upstairs.

Aunt Ginny had cleaned the knife wound on Dusty’s forearm, following Pa’s old method of washing the wound with whiskey. It was a pain worse than anything Dusty had experienced fighting Kiowa. The wound was now wrapped in strips torn from a bedsheet to form a makeshift bandage, and was healing nicely.

Josh was leaning against the counter, a cup in one hand. His gun was also buckled on.

The sky outside was light with early morning gray. It wouldn’t be long before Aunt Ginny and Bree would be fixing breakfast. And then, Dusty and Josh would have a full day of work ahead of them. Fifteen hours, which was normal for a working day on the McCabe ranch. And it wouldn’t be long before Pa would be joining them again, Dusty figured.

Temperance was also helping with the household chores. She was staying with the family, at least for a while, finding a sort of comfort in settling into the duties of maintaining a household, working alongside Aunt Ginny and Bree. Josh had raised no complaint at all about this, or the inconvenience of having to give up his room and share one with Dusty, sleeping in bunk beds he and Dusty had been called upon to fashion out of two-by-fours.

Dusty believed Josh was falling in love with Temperance. Even though Josh wouldn’t talk about what was going on in his heart, Dusty could see in the way Josh looked at Temperance that the concern he had shown her back at the canyon was much more genuine than Josh would admit. And there was something in the way she looked back at Josh that told Dusty what her heart held, also.

Josh was a good man, Dusty had come to realize. A little head strong, and a little hampered by feeling he lived so much in Pa’s shadow. But a man to ride the river with, as Sam Patterson would have said.

Josh said, “Aunt Ginny told me you’re thinking about riding on.”

Dusty nodded, as he filled a cup with coffee. “I’ll be staying for a while, to help out until Pa is recovered enough to go back to work. But then, I’ve got to be going. I’ve got some unfinished business in Oregon.”

Josh knitted his brow. “Oregon? What’s there?”

“A girl. Named Haley. Last I knew, she and her father were heading there. I might take a little ride and make sure they arrived all right.”

“And then, what’s after that?”

Dusty shrugged. “I don’t really know.”

Josh dropped his gaze. “Dusty, I don’t quite know how to say this. But..,”

Dusty shrugged. “I’ve always thought the best way to say something is just to say it.”

“Well, it’s just that Pa and Aunt Ginny and Bree have grown awfully fond of you, and don’t want you to leave.”

“Is that it?”

Josh nodded. “And..,”

He looked Dusty in the eye. “It’s hard for me to say this, but..,”

He paused. Dusty gave him the time he needed.

“Oh, hell. I don’t want you to leave. I’ve gained a brother I never knew I had. I’ve just started getting to know him, and I don’t want to lose him now. Once you’ve finished in Oregon, whether you find this Haley or not, I hope you come back. And Jack hasn’t met you yet.”

“I don’t know if I belong here, Josh. A place in a family isn’t given to you. You have to earn it. I know that, now. Families are built over time, with love that develops over years. That’s one thing I learned