Novel 1978 - The Proving Trail (v5.0) Read Free Page A

He had never been given to talk. I was just beginning to realize how little pa had told me about himself, his early life, or his family. I’d not paid it much mind because pa was always there to ask in case I wanted to know, but now he was gone. His death not only left me alone but it cut me off from whatever past there was, and whatever family we might have had somewhere.
    When I got to the cabin, all was quiet and I went in. It was ice-cold, so I taken the time to put a fire together. Then with the flames crackling, I went to putting grub into a burlap sack. I worked fast, all the time thinking maybe I should just spend the night where I was instead of heading out across that mountain country in the cold and the dark.
    I packed my sack of grub down and tied it behind the saddle, still thinking I should unsaddle and give us both a rest. The roan was tuckered and so was I, but I recalled the mean look in Blazer’s eye and I knowed he’d be comin’ after me, cold or no. Be a long time before he had a chance at that much cash money again.
    There was a small paper sack with some .44s in it lyin’ on the floor in the cabin, and I decided I’d better take them with me, so I walked back to the cabin and pushed open the door.
    Something loomed in front of me, big as a grizzly, it seemed, and my hand went for my gun, but then I remembered I’d hung the gun belt over the saddle horn and the spare gun with it whilst I was working around.
    What hit me was a fist, but it felt like the butt end of an axe. I staggered, and something fetched me a clout from behind, knocking me through the door into the lighted cabin. I sprawled on the floor, my head buzzing, but I wasn’t let lay. A big hand grabbed the scruff of my neck and flung me into a chair.
    “Where is it, kid? Where’s the money?”
    Dazed, I looked up at Judge Blazer. There were three other men in the cabin. The only one I knew by sight was Tobin Wacker, a teamster who drove freight wagons and was said to be the meanest man anywhere around. He was a brawler and a bully, outweighed me by fifty pounds, and he was three, four inches taller. I don’t know why they had the other two, because with Wacker they surely didn’t need anybody else.
    Blazer grabbed me by the shirtfront and half lifted me out of my chair. “Where is it? Where’d you hide that money you stole off me?”
    “It was took,” I lied. “I figured it was you.”
    “Took?” He stared at me.
    “Two fellers with guns. They taken the money and told me to get gone. That if they ever seen me around town they’d blow my head off. One of them had a shotgun.”
    “You expect me to swallow that?” Blazer had a mighty unpleasant look to him, and I was scared. All the same I had sense enough to know that once they had that money, I was dead. They’d never leave me alive to protest or make trouble for them.
    “I figured you sent ’em,” I said. “They taken everything. My guns, my horse…they cleaned me out.”
    “Kid,” and Blazer’s voice got real quiet, “you’re a liar, and I know you’re a liar. You can tell us where it is or we’ll beat it out of you.”
    “Look,” I said, “I don’t know—”
    He hit me in the mouth. I tasted blood and came off that chair, and that Wacker, he just grabbed me, grabbed my arms while Blazer went to work on me. He slugged me in the belly, then kneed me in the face when I bent over. He straightened me up and slapped me back and forth across the face until my head rung like a bell. Then he stepped back and kicked me in the groin, and they dropped me on the floor.
    They set down then, and one of them added fuel to the fire. “Gettin’ cold,” he commented.
    Wacker, he kicked me in the ribs. “Better tell us, boy,” he said. “We got all night.”
    “Maybe you got all spring,” I said, spluttering it out between split lips.
    Blazer stared at me. “We have. We got all spring. We can beat you until you tell us, so make it easier on yourself.”
    He