6 Miles With Courage Read Online Free PDF Page A

out to look for him. The Sherriff found him in the early morning. Rob was digging his truck out with a shovel—he was fine. He told the Sherriff that he spent the night in the truck , eating crackers and trying to stay warm. Rob has carried the duffel bag in his truck ever since.
    The second time Rob was on his way back from scouting a job—it was dusk again—in a motor boat—when the engine quit. Several miles from the boat ramp he decides to crawl under mosquito netting and wait it out till morning—sleeping in the small boat. The duffel bag pays off. But when Sherriff Bob shuts the engine down on his boat, and pulls up alongside of Rob in the morning, he is a little annoyed.
    “Rob,” he says, “you’re going to have to stop doing this.”
    “I understand Bob , but it’s all part of the business.” He is a little embarrassed.
    “I know you and I are friends, but when it comes to using the counties resources to track you down, well sooner or later you’re going to have to foot the bill.” He had a no-nonsense look in his eye as he turned the key restarting his boat.
    “Talk to your wife Rob. Let’s get her to wait 24 hours next time, Ok?”
    “Will do Bob.” He waved sheepishly as the Sherriff motored away into the morning fog with Rob in tow.
    The third time was the worst. Rob simply left the cab light on and killed the truck battery. It was dusk. He was many miles from the nearest road, and with the comforts of the duffel bag he decided to spend the night in the truck cab. He was sleeping soundly, that is until the glaring spot light and deafening noise of the helicopter woke him up.
    “ Rob Sykes? Rob Sykes if that is you please wave your hand out the truck window,” said the blaring voice from the loud-speaker attached to the helicopter. Rob recognized the voice of Bob Mallory and rolled down the window and waved, again sheepishly.
    “I’ll send a tow truck and you will get my bill in the morning Rob,” was the last words he heard as he drifted off to sleep to the fading sound of the helicopter.
    “You want me to pay fourteen hundred dollars! Bob don’t you think this is just a little ridiculous.” Rob was upset when he got the bill, but Bob being a friend was willing to make a deal. After all he did care about him but somebody had to draw the line. Two hours for a helicopter and a pilot does not come cheap.
    “I’ll tell you what. You get me a letter down here instructing me not to come looking for you for at least 24 hours after you’re late coming home from job scouting, and I will tear up that bill. But I am not joking. You get that letter in here and on file.” Sherriff Mallory hung up.
    The letter was filed and the concerned parties understood it. Sherriff Bob was not to go looking for Rob until 24 hours after his wife (or a concerned member of his family) should call.
    Rob put it to his wife this way. “If it gets dark and I’m not home, don’t send somebody looking for me that night, or even the next day. Wait until dark the following day. If I am not home by then, I’m most likely in trouble.” Judy promised to abide.
    N ow however—as she sits folding clothes—her thoughts turn to Ryan’s plans. She wants to put a bug in Sherriff Mallory’s ear now just in case. She knows that technically Rob is not missing or even late. She knows that if she has to make “the call”, it will have to wait 24 hours. She makes a plan to call Bob now with some small talk and perhaps hint that if Rob doesn’t show up tonight, being that it’s Ryan’s birthday, he could be in trouble. She makes the call, but what she doesn’t know, is that Rob has already informed Bob that he would be out scouting today.
    “Good afternoon Sherriff Bob Mallory speaking.”
    “Good afternoon Bob, its Judy, how are you today?” she says with exaggerated cheerfulness—a dead giveaway.
    “Fine Judy, just fine, little early to be calling wouldn’t you say?” without raising his pencil from his crossword