It had been a while since I had Star on the trail; it was all I could do to hold him back, he wanted to run so badly. I would have taken Hawk as he was a better horse when I had to trail somebody simply for this reason. Star, being partly thoroughbred, wanted to run and I needed to move slowly so I didn’t lose Martin’s tracks. The last time I had Hawk out he was sort of sluggish, plus he was still recovering from that nasty brand put on him.
I had thought about going over Wolf Creek for it would save a day on the trail, but this was mid-October and I could get caught in a storm up on the pass. Mainly I went the way I did because I hoped to catch up to Martin on the trail. It was nigh on to a week’s travel to Taos, and the ranch was south of the town. I reckoned that Martin would be in a hurry and the road was fairly well traveled from Farmington on over to Taos with few places that would be feasible to cut off. He would have to spend two nights camped out, but if I didn’t catch up to him he might stay the night in Dulce. Between Durango and Dulce there wouldn’t be any hotels, but he might find some generous soul who would put him up for the night.
With that thought I had to chuckle. As bigoted as Martin was I doubt he would sleep in the house of a Mexican or an Apache wickiup. Speaking of Apaches, I was riding into Jicarilla country. Though mostly peaceful they still had a big mistrust of Americans and it would not be past them to attack a single rider. I had only dealt with them one other time, but they were like most Indians, peaceful unless riled. They believed they were people who came from below the earth. We would call it the underworld. They had been hit hard by disease, especially consumption, but as of this day they were not confined on a reservation, which made them somewhat more dangerous.
If Martin had not had any dealings with them, he could be in for a world of hurt. Some young buck, or a small group, might just decide that he was easy pickings. With that thought I pulled my rifle from the scabbard, checked the load, and carried it across my saddle. They might think this lone rider was easy pickings as well.
With the decent road, and since I knew where Martin was going, I decided to let Star trot. He could follow the road whilst I kept my eyes out for anything that might be unseemly. That night I stopped to make camp just this side of the San Juan River. The next morning we would cross it, and then head into higher elevation.
Molly had put together a rather large bag of vittles. I ate a ham sandwich for lunch, but tonight I will be dining on cold chicken. I could heat it, but I rather like a cold drumstick, but I did make a fire if for no other reason to make coffee. Sitting there munching on that chicken and eating biscuits, I thought of the many, many nights I spent like this. Molly had put in half a chicken so I ate a drumstick and thigh planning on eating the other half for breakfast. I smiled when I saw that she had put in half a dozen hand pies. I’d eat one, well, maybe two, tonight and save the others for tomorrow. I wasn’t worrying about running out of supplies, and Dulce was only two days away.
Eating the last of my apricot pie and sipping my coffee, I smiled. This was the life I had been used to, and it was a life that I enjoyed. The ground would get hard along come morning as I had gotten tame sleeping in a bed with a soft mattress. I went ahead and put more wood on the fire, and had several pieces I could add to it should I waken during the night. I knew it would be quite a bit cooler in the morning. “Lord,” I whispered, not really knowing why since I was the only one there, “I sure do want to thank you for findin’ this ol’ broken down cowboy those many years ago.” I chuckled to myself. “We’ve been through some times, ain’t we. Thanks for seein’ me through them, and helpin’ me along the way.”
It was sometime early morning that I woke up. I didn’t move, but laid there and listened. There was a slight breeze and I could hear it moving through the tops of the trees. The night was clear with thousands of stars appearing, but there was something. Star snorted, then tramped his hooves, that’s when I moved quickly to the shadows near him. I stood motionless near Star and he calmed down with my presence. It could have been some varmint, wolf, even a bear or lion…it could have been an Apache as well. I stayed with Star for maybe half an hour before going back to my bedroll. Since I was awake, I decided to go ahead and stay up.
Picking up the pan that I made coffee in I went down to the stream to rinse it out and fill it with water. After rinsing it I filled it with that cool mountain water and took a long drink. While it was at my mouth, there was noise in the brush across the stream and to my right. Dummy me, I left the rifle in camp. Then…