Beartooth Incident Read Online Free PDF Page B

to admit it was a strange thing to be embarrassed about.
    “It’s not as if you planned it.”
    “Lost horse,” Fargo tried to explained. “Fell off mountain. . . . so much snow . . . couldn’t stop.”
    “Hush. Don’t waste yourself. You can tell me all about it later, after we have you warm and bandaged and fed.”
    “Don’t want . . . to be a burden.”
    “There you go again,” Mary Harper said, kindly. “Please. Don’t think anything of it. I would do the same for anyone in the shape you are. Indians included.”
    Fargo believed she would. An awkward silence fell—awkward to him, at any rate—and he said to fill it, “Can’t believe you’re here.”
    “My children were gone too long and I came looking for them.”
    “No. I mean, I can’t believe you’re here .” Fargo tried to motion to encompass the valley and the mountains but couldn’t move his arm far enough.
    “Oh. To tell you the truth, there are days when I can’t believe it, either. When I wonder what I was thinking when I let my Frank talk me into it. But, God, I loved that man.”
    “I heard about the griz.”
    Mary’s features clouded. “The bear comes back from time to time. I shot at it once but don’t think I hit it. Mark my words, though. I’ll make it pay for what it did to my Frank.”
    Fargo had more he wanted to say, but a great weariness came over him and he closed his eyes and was out. Movement brought him around. He was being jostled, but gently.
    “Careful now, Jayce. Don’t drop him.”
    “I won’t, Ma.”
    “Nelly, lift his legs higher if you can.”
    “I’m trying. He’s so big, Ma. Bigger than Pa.”
    “There. That should do it. Now, Nelly, you spread the blanket, and all three of us will pull.”
    Fargo was on his back, a hard surface under him, his arms folded across his chest. He felt himself being covered. Blinking, he tried to raise his head.
    “Lie still,” Mary said. “We just got you on the sled. It will be a while before we get you to the cabin.”
    Two ropes had been tied to the runners, high up at the front. Mary took hold of one and her children took hold of the other. Bent at the waist, the ropes across their shoulders, they put their whole bodies into it. The sled moved a few inches, and stopped.
    “It’s hard, Ma,” Jayce said.
    “I know. But if we don’t get him to our cabin, he’ll die, son. Let’s try again.”
    The sled jerked forward, stopped, and jerked again. This time it kept going. The crunch of the runners through the snow and the heavy breathing of the three pulling the sled soon lulled Fargo into limbo. He didn’t fight it. He was so weak from blood loss, he didn’t have the energy.
    When Fargo woke up they were still huffing and puffing and the sled was still crunching. But instead of blue sky above him, there were tree branches. They were in the woods. He licked his lips and got an elbow under him so he could try to sit up.
    “Don’t even think it,” Mary Harper warned. To her children she said, “Let’s stop and rest again.”
    “Fine by me, Ma,” Jayce said. “My shoulder is about rubbed raw.”
    “With me it’s my hands,” Nelly said. “My blisters have blisters.”
    “We’re almost there. Another few minutes.”
    Fargo said, “If you’ll help me up, I’ll try to walk.”
    “Nothing doing,” Mary responded. “You wouldn’t make it, and we’d have to go to all the trouble of putting you back on the sled.”
    Her face floated above him. She placed her palm to his brow, probed for a pulse in his wrist, and scowled.
    “What is it, Ma?” Jayce asked.
    “Nothing.”
    “You’re fibbing. And you always told us not to ever fib. Is he dying, Ma? Is that it?”
    Mary Harper looked sadly down at Fargo and didn’t say anything. Her expression was more eloquent than words could be.
    Fargo forced a chuckle. “I’m that bad off, am I?”
    “Do you want the truth?”
    “Nothing but.”
    Mary’s throat bobbed, and she touched the back of her hand