T
HE INDIAN APPEARED IN the middle of the trail. At this distance, Jedediah couldn’t be sure, but to him, he looked to be no more than seven or eight summers old. He sat slouched on a pretty paint pony just watching Jed. Mountain man instincts sent out their alarms, and Jed drew up staring back at him. Cheyenne kid for sure, he thought, noticing the beadwork patterns by habit. Jed raised his hand palm outward in the sign of peace. The kid made no move but continued to stare. Jed nudged Hoss into a walk. The kid whirled his pony and rode off up the ridge, where he disappeared in the woods and snow. Jed fingered the beading on his buckskin rifle cover thoughtfully. Now, why would that kid show himself like that and then young wouldn’t be allowed to stray far from camp. That means there’s more Cheyenne close by. Jed pulled the buckskin cover back enough to get his gloved finger on the trigger. By the time Jed reached the part of the trail where he saw the kid, snow already covered the tracks. He looked hard up the ridge where the kid went but saw
nothing. He knew this country too well to try following an Indian in this weather. “I reckon the others will know we’re here now, old hoss. We better keep an eye out and look for a place to fort up if they come for us.” He moved on down the trail. Jed’s keen eyesight set his instincts to quivering like a rattlesnake’s tail when he saw movement in a clump of aspen up ahead. He pretended not to notice but wished hard for a cluster of dead-fall or a pile of rocks to crawl into. He didn’t like moving out in the open like this with hostiles about. Whoever it was had already seen him. No point in doing anything about it now. He held Hoss to a slow walk. If my time is up, it sure is a pretty day to die. A paint pony walked out of the aspen with a kid on its back. near to death to be that far ahead of me. Jed held Hoss to a walk, searching all the while for a place to make a stand. When he glanced back, he saw the paint pony’s rump disappearing up the ridge. Like sunlight breaking through clouds, it dawned on him. “Damn,” he said as he jerked his horse off the trail
