The First Mountain Man Read Online Free PDF

we don’t want. We can’t let ’em get in amongst us. I know you two think of yourselves as highly principled men, but you just remember this: there ain’t no law out here except the gun, the knife, and the war axe. And if they’re renegades, missionaries or not, they’ll kill you both and do it without blinkin’ an eye. You got the women to think about. They got to come first.”
    â€œNeither one of us has ever used violence against another human being,” Edmond pointed out.
    â€œWell, you’re about to do so,” Preacher said, “unless you want to die. Make up your minds. I don’t think we got a lot of time to ponder it.”
    â€œWe should warn the women,” Richard said. “I feel they have a right to know about this.”
    â€œIt’s only a suspicion,” Edmond said. “Why alarm them unduly?”
    Preacher walked away, leaving the two men arguing. When Melody and Penelope stepped out of the bushes, he walked up to them. “You ladies stay put with the men. Rest awhile. No fires. You understand me?” They nodded. “Good. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
    He took his Hawken and set out at a ground-covering lope. Preacher could run all day, and had done so several times during his time in the mountains. He’d had more than one horse shot out from under him, by both white men and Injuns, by bullet and arrow, and been forced to run for his life.
    He ran for a couple of miles, then scrambled up on a ledge. He squatted down, studying their back trail. Far below and behind them, he could pick out tiny doll-figures moving toward them on horseback. He counted eight riders, and they were not Indians. They had only two pack horses, so they were not trappers. They were not dressed in uniform, so they were not military. That left government explorers or renegades. Preacher had him a strong suspicion they were the latter.
    â€œDamn!” he said. As if he didn’t have enough problems without this being added. If that was Bum Kelley’s bunch, they were in real serious trouble.
    Bum had come out back around ’28 or ’29 and immediately started making trouble wherever he happened to be. He always had anywhere from ten to fourteen thieves and killers and toughs hanging around him, and the gang ranged from the Utah Territory up into the British-held lands. There wasn’t nothing Bum and his bunch wouldn’t do, and precious little they hadn’t done—and all of it bad.
    He wished he had him a spyglass, but then figured as long as he was wishing he might as well wish for a detachment of soldier boys and about half a dozen of his good friends, like Thumbs Carroll, Nighthawk, Tenneysee, and some others. They’d probably all be ’way south of his position, though.
    â€œMight as well wish for the moon,” Preacher muttered, and then picked up his rifle. He paused as four more riders caught his eye, one of them leading a pack horse.
    â€œThat’s about right,” he muttered. “Twelve bad ones and me with a one-eared gospel shouter, a smart-aleck missionary, and two faithful female followers. Lord have mercy on a poor mountain boy.”
    He picked up his Hawken and loped back to where he had left them. “Mount up,” he told them, bending over to catch his breath. “We got big troubles about five miles behind us.”
    â€œYou ran five miles?” Penelope asked.
    â€œI’ve run all day, lady, and half into the night ’fore. I’ll tell you about it sometime. But not now. Let’s go!”
    Preacher pushed the group. He knew where he wanted to go. It wasn’t no more than a day’s ride, and he set a hard pace. They had crossed the Shoshone and now, instead of cutting south as he had planned, Preacher rode straight west, toward a place he’d once wintered. He figured the hidden cave was still there. He had no idea what it would take to make it disappear.