Beneath The Texas Sky Read Online Free PDF Page A

unceremoniously onto the bedcovers and stretched out with his hands locked behind his head. The bed bounced slowly to a creaky halt beneath his weight.
    Josh shook his head in mock irritation as he slapped at Michael’s mud-covered boots. “I doubt I’ll get any sleep tonight, but should I have the chance, a clean bed would be nice.”
    Mike crossed his boots, disinterested in Josh’s penchant for neatness. “I’d sure think twice before closing my eyes in this place. I wouldn’t be surprised if our host, Wilbur Brewer, is the boss himself.”
    Josh shook his head. “No way—he hasn’t got the brains.” He looked at the yellowed ceiling. “Speaking of Wilbur, I’ve got some bad news. He wants me to take his wife, daughter, and niece out of here with me tomorrow.Seems he’s heard some stories about a few of his business partners and doesn’t want his womenfolk around.”
    “What?” Mike yelled and sat up. “Hellfire and brimstone, Josh! We can’t have three women with us. The riding’s hard and fast once we hit open country.”
    Josh nodded. “I know, I know. But he threatened to blow my cover. I’m not real fond of being shot.”
    Mike’s face brightened. “Let’s leave tonight and avoid him. I can be ready in an hour.”
    “No,” Josh answered flatly. “We can take them as far as Ben’s ranch. He can see they get a stage from there. I gave my word to his niece and I aim to keep it.”
    “I don’t know. It’s dangerous travelin’ with women right now. More white people have been murdered by Indians in Texas in the last year than I figure were killed all together before. It’s bad enough dying, but what those savages do to the womenfolk ain’t fit to talk about in hell.”
    “I’ve made up my mind, Mike,” Josh stated. “I’ll meet you out back at six tomorrow morning.”
    “All right, ain’t no use arguing with you, I can see that. You’re probably the stubbornest man in Texas, next to your brother. Must be somethin’ in the Weston bloodline.” Mike rose from the bed, not bothering to straighten the covers. “I’ll go collect my gear and get a few hours’ sleep. You brought me a horse, didn’t you? It might look funny for a priest to be caught stealing one.”
    “Sure, I brought one,” Josh answered as he unlocked the door. “But I still need to buy another for one of the ladies.”
    “Well, good luck. I hear there ain’t a horse for sale for twenty miles,” Mike added as he touched the doorknob. “I’ll see you at six, my son.” Without another word Mike pulled his hood low and vanished from the room.Josh waited a few minutes before blowing out the candle and disappearing out the same door.
    Though it was not yet ten o’clock, the town already rested sleepily under low, brooding clouds. Spring was an unpredictable, sometimes treacherous time in Texas. Josh walked across the street toward the stables with the casual grace of a powerful animal. Most people had already retired for the evening. Many of the stores were boarded up and abandoned. The war had crippled more than just men; many businesses folded when Confederate money became worthless. Without federal troops, and with most young men gone to war, the wild, nomadic Indians had enjoyed a field day attacking poorly defended settlements. The once wide frontier line retreated east and south, allowing survivors to nurse their wounds and plead for federal troops to reopen forts from the Red River to the Rio Grande.
    Josh felt an itchiness deep within himself to leave and avoid not only nature’s coming storm but the human one as well. When Wilbur’s friends hit town, the small, sleeping settlement would feel it like sandcastles after a wave. If his brother Ben was right, the men meeting here were planning to control the cattle industry in Texas. If so, all the state might feel the ripple if these men weren’t stopped somehow.
    Josh looked about him, searching each shadowed corner for movement, but the streets were