Bad Grrlz' Guide to Reality: The Complete Novels Wild Angel and Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell Read Online Free PDF Page A

out.”
    After an hour of searching, they stopped to rest in a small clearing, where a lightning-struck pine raised its blasted branches to the sky. The sun was low in the west, and Max was weary. For two days, he had been traveling without much rest.
    “She couldn’t have come this far,” Jasper said. “We’d best head back.”
    From the clearing, the main trail continued to the northeast, but a small trail, worn by deer, most likely, branched off to the east. “We should check down there,” Max said.
    “You’re tired. I’ll take a look, while you rest a spell,” Jasper suggested.
    Max leaned back against the trunk of the pine, closing his eyes for a moment. He listened to Jasper’s footsteps as the man made his way down the trail. “Sarah,” Jasper called. “Sarah. Are you there?” Jasper’s voice faded in the distance.
    Out of Max’s sight, Jasper Davis smiled, happy to leave the other man behind. “Sarah,” he called. “Come here, Sarah.”
    He had been hard-hit when Max had read Rachel’s letter. What bad luck that he had missed the child.
    He reached the wolf den where he had hidden the gold. “Sarah,” he called again, just in case Max could still hear him. “Where are you, Sarah?”
    He glanced behind him to make sure that Max had not followed him, then lay on the rocky ledge in front of the den and reached inside to feel a corner of the strongbox. He stood and dusted himself off, glancing at the bushes where he had hidden Arno’s body. The bodies of the wolf pups and the wolf that had been guarding them still lay by the den. Everything was just as it should be.
    Jasper smiled, thinking of how cleverly he had set up the stagecoach robbery. Over a bottle of whiskey, he had made a deal with the stagecoach guard, a man who was unhappy with his job and his salary. The bargain was simple: When Arno and Jasper appeared in the stage road, demanding the gold shipment, the guard would make sure that his shots went wild. In return, he’d get a fifth of the loot and Arno and Jasper would split the remainder.
    The guard had kept his part of the bargain. Arno and Jasper appeared in the stagecoach road, blocking the way with their horses and demanding the gold shipment. The guard’s shot missed the two of them—just as they had agreed. But Jasper’s aim was accurate: He hit the guard in the heart and killed him instantly. And he and Arno got away clean with fifty thousand dollars in gold.
    Jasper smiled down at the bushes that hid Arno’s body. Not a very bright man, Arno.
    “You nailed that guard good and proper,” Arno had said cheerfully as they rode away. “He sure looked surprised.” “He certainly did,” Jasper agreed. “That he did.”
    Together, they rode into the mountains, to the wolf den that Jasper had located earlier. Jasper shot the wolf that guarded the den, pulled the squirming pups from the safety of the den and slit their throats. Arno helped Jasper lift the strongbox of gold from his horse.
    “I’ll be hiding my share of the gold here,” Jasper had said. Arno had laughed at that. All the way up the trail he’d been talking about how he would spend his share of the money, about the fine whiskey he would drink and the fancy women he would buy.
    Jasper had known all along that he couldn’t let Arno have any of the money. Arno was a fool at the best of times, and a drunken fool more often than not. Arno would lead the law back to Jasper, just as surely as he’d squander his share of the gold. He would start bragging to the first bartender who poured him a drink, to the first dance-hall girl he slept with.
    Jasper was squatting beside the strongbox when Arno said, “I reckon I’ll take my share now.” Without a word of warning, Jasper had lifted his pistol and shot Arno through the heart. Arno barely had time to look surprised before he tumbled over dead.
    Then Jasper had opened the box and transferred a few handfuls of gold dust from one of the big bags into his own