At first, he wasn't certain if Moe had picked up a trail or a scent, but he followed willingly, knowing in the back of his mind that somehow Moe Jedd's tracking skills were as other worldly as the prey that they were tracking. In the short time span that Preacher had known him, Moe Jedd had gained his unwavering confidence. Blood Rock Canyon was now a full five days ride behind them as they followed the trail of the Harvesters across the wide expanse of the Desolation Sands. The wind at their backs had become a constant to them although blowing much softer than the hellscape from before that they had left behind them, when all at once Moe Jedd once again pulled rein on his animal and lowered himself from the saddle. Unsheathing the field glasses, Preacher watched him curiously as he walked up to the peak of the rock and sand hill in front of them, he looked through the glasses slowly panning from left to right until something in the far distance caught his eye. He turned to look up at the lowering sun, and then returned his attention to Preacher.
"We have some bodies ahead of us, not sure who they are though or how many. We should probably go take a look see, and then we'd best be finding cover for tonight, before this wind starts picking up again." He told Preacher.
He pulled himself back up in the saddle and led them down the other side of the rocky peak, they strayed slightly west as Moe drew his attention on where he saw the bodies lying on the desert floor, they rode around a small cluster of barrel cactus through a dried out creek bed and up the side of another hill until they came upon the bodies of three men, both Moe and Preacher got off their horses to inspect the bodies, until something in the distance had caught his eye pulling Preacher's attention some fifty yards away at the base of another group of cacti. The three men had been dead for a few days, their bodies dried out by the baking sun, Moe recognized one as a wanted outlaw named Jedediah Clay his brother Otis lay twenty feet away, the hole in Otis's forehead spoke to him of Slackjaw Hatton's handy work, Slackjaw wasn't much for face to face confrontations, but put a rifle in his hands from long distance and he was deadly accurate. He rose to his feet turning toward Preacher who was walking back toward him, Preacher jerked his thumb in the direction he came from.
"There's one more over there Moe Jedd, only that one's a female."
"Blonde? kinda short?"
He nodded.
"Yep, Emma Clay, more than likely, these two here are her brothers Jed and Otis, not right sure who that third feller is though. I ain't never seen him before."
For all the bad deeds that the Clay family had left in their wake, Emma Clay was known to be far more bloodthirsty than her two brothers ever could hope to have been. They had cut a bloody trail of death and plunder within a five hundred-mile radius, that is, until they got the attention of the three Hell Harvesters. Moe Jedd took off his hat for a minute wiping the sweat from his forehead, Preacher and he both were surveying the area and sizing up the situation, against Preachers better judgement they decided that there wasn't going to be enough time to bury the bodies before the wind came at them again, so they opted to find shelter in the direction of a small deserted settlement that had a water well behind the buildings that lie at the base of rocky hills that was known as Devils Forge. Moe had been to the broken down deserted settlement of Long Tooth on many occasions and the buildings were still strong enough to withstand a pretty strong wind and there would even be cover for the horses.
They rode over hills and rocks and found themselves riding into Long Tooth just before the wind picked up and began to whip through the rocky walls of Devil's Forge, they bedded down the horses in the small covered stable beside the largest structure still standing in Long Tooth. They closed the shutters on the outside of the building and went inside to find some wood stacked near a wood stove there was one table and the rest of the room was empty. In the morning Preacher stirred just before dawn, he looked over to find Moe Jedd wasn't sleeping on his blanket, he stepped out the front door the sun still had not yet risen, at the end of the street he could make out a figure walking toward him. At first, he held his breath thinking that perhaps Slackjaw Hatton and his two accomplices had caught up with them, but upon closer inspection the closer they got he could see that it was Moe Jedd, and he was carrying two by animals by their rear legs. He was going to the back of the building to see if there was indeed fresh water in the well, when Moe Jedd stopped him and for the first time Preacher saw him smile.
"Already filled up the trough for the horses and got us a fresh bucket next to the stove. there are some matches next to my bedroll, if you build us a fire in that there wood stove, and I'll clean these two rabbits, and we can have ourselves some breakfast before we get on our way."
Preacher went back inside and shaved some kindling and lit it in the stove slowly adding wood to build the fire, he retrieved a frying pan from his saddlebag and Moe had a half a jar of lard in his gunnysack attached to his saddlebags, moments later Moe Jedd appeared in the door with the two cleaned rabbits, he gave them to Preacher and went back down to the end of the street to an old barn that still had some things in it that they could use, most notably there was a prairie chicken nest with eggs in it, and in a wooden barrel he found some oats that he scooped into a wooden bucket to carry back for the horses. he fed the oats to the animals and took the eggs back inside to where Preacher fried them with the rabbit. After breakfast, they loaded the rested horses back up and prepared to get back on the trail, the wind once again slowed to a soft breeze that lapped at their backs as they headed out across the rocky passes back out into the Desolation Sands. it wouldn't take Moe long to pick up the trail of the Harvesters.
The morning part of the ride was slow and tedious the terrain became rocky and treacherous even for seasoned animals such as the ones they were riding, finally just before mid-morning the rocks returned to hard packed sand, much easier terrain for the horses. the morning air still an autumn coolness to it, but the higher the sun rose in the sky the hotter it was going to get so they picked up the pace and made it all the way to the bottom of Ruby Ridge by noon, the area was a steep incline straight up into the rocks the trail itself was still sandy, but they were surrounded on all sides by Cactus, sagebrush, and small patches of dry desert grass. the rocky tops of Ruby Ridge towered above them as they made their way up to the shade. Something tugged at Moe Jedd's mind, once at the top of the ridge he dismounted and grabbed the field glasses case and pulled them from the leather sheath, mindful to stay out of sight in the rocks, he surveyed the valley below them and when he saw the three figures on horse back two miles ahead of them he drew in a deep breath. They had found the Harvesters.
Scratch/Rant/ A.B.T. copyright © 2022
No comments:
Post a Comment