The Mother Lode Read Online Free PDF Page B

lumber is scattered all down that steep mountainside. Some of the men in Genoa wanted to try and retrieve it for themselves, but the Mormon elders said that would be thievery unless you gave ’em permission.”
    â€œI won’t do that,” Joe said, his head and mind clearing fast. “That lumber is valuable. What about . . .”
    â€œYour money, weapons, and personal belongings?”
    â€œYes.” Joe braced himself for a big loss. He’d had a lot of cash and that would be a powerful temptation to anyone.
    â€œI have it here hidden under my flooring. I collected it while the men got you and the stock that could climb out off the mountainside. Don’t worry, nothing was stolen.”
    Joe was almost overcome with gratitude. With his cash he could make a rapid recovery and all was not yet lost. “Ma’am, I am much beholden to you and I’ll pay you well for your kindness.”
    She smiled without joy. “I did not do this for payment, sir. I did it as a Christian. And I’ll take no repayment, except for maybe to replenish what you and your stock have eaten. But that will be a small amount, I promise.”
    Joe nodded with appreciation, and then he remembered the mule skinner that had pushed him and his outfit over the edge. “There was a mule skinner that did this to me, ma’am.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œI mean that I was run off the edge of the mountain by a murderin’ mule skinner.”
    Her eyes widened and she shook her head. “Surely it must have been an accident.”
    â€œIt wasn’t, ma’am. And if I ever . . . .”
    She gently but firmly placed a forefinger over his lips. “Sir, please do not tell me that you have vengeance in your heart. That is a very dangerous and treacherous road you were coming down and you are not the first person to have gone over the edge . . . although you are the first one to have lived to tell about it. But more to the point, you are alive because of God’s miracle. And to swear vengeance against someone after being saved . . . well, it would be a travesty against the Lord. So forgive and forget. You have your money, which is considerable, and some livestock still as well as your life. Surely you must feel a huge debt of gratitude and understand it would be wrong to have revenge in your heart.”
    Joe Moss could see that she was upset and completely sincere. She was also about the closest thing he’d ever seen to being a living saint. And because of what she’d done for him, he knew that there was no good purpose to be gained by telling her about that dirty, sonofabitchin’ mule skinner who’d done him so wrong. But if the day ever came when he met that man, well, it would be the day that one of them died.
    â€œYou are right, ma’am. It is a miracle that I’m alive. And I won’t speak of that foul act again.”
    â€œGood,” she said with relief. “There is far too much anger and hurt in this world. It poisons the heart and the spirit. Forgive and forget is always the best thing to do.”
    â€œI would like to get up and get dressed,” he told her, not even sure if he could sit up, but determined to make a stab at it. “Where are my clothes?”
    She again shook her head. “Sadly, your buckskins were torn from your body and were rendered useless.”
    â€œI got no clothes to wear?” He was crestfallen because it was not an easy thing to replace buckskins in this day and part of the country.
    â€œI appreciate your loss,” she told him. “However, the good news is that you’re about the size of my late husband and you can wear his clothes . . . if it suits you. If not, you can pay to have clothing made by a good seamstress in our Genoa. Or I can make you clothing, although I am not as clever with needle and thread as our seamstress.”
    Joe wasn’t real happy with any of those alternatives, but