The Drifter, A Man From Tennessee

By D.L. Hunter

Josh Colton’s dream of drifting west to the far mountains did not include fighting Indians, bears, bank robbers, or land grabbers. The reality of the hardships that awaited Josh made him doubt his decision to leave Tennessee. A naïve young man had to choose between right and wrong, good and evil, and then make a stand for his choice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: D.L. Hunter
• Release date: Feb 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301366590

Book preview

Josh Colton’s dream of drifting west to the far mountains did not include fighting Indians, bears, bank robbers, or land grabbers. The reality of the hardships that awaited Josh made him doubt his decision to leave Tennessee. A naïve young man had to choose between right and wrong, good and evil, and then make a stand for his choice.

THE DRIFTER

(A Man from Tennessee)

By

D.L. Hunter

Published by D.L. Hunter at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 D.L.Hunter

Cover Copyright Vencav-Fotolia.com

Each copy of this ebook is sold separately and may not be re-sold, given away, or shared with others. You may purchase each copy for your enjoyment alone. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

CHAPTER 1

Josh Colton’s back was up against the face of the cliff, and the toes of his boots were pointing out over space as he inched along the small ledge high up on a mountain. He had lost his horse the day before to an Indian arrow, and had barely escaped with his life. He was considering throwing his saddlebag and canteen over the edge because they were about to make him too bulky, and cause him to lose his balance. Why he wanted to leave the warmth and comfort of home in the hills of Tennessee, and travel into the wild untamed west was beyond him. He must have been crazy to think it would be a great adventure. Pa tried to tell him he was better off staying home and marrying one of the Jessup girls who lived over the ridge. Those girls were always coming over and bringing jelly and pies they had made. Especially, after Ma got sick and died. Pa said they were after Josh and his brothers, but Josh thought that maybe the oldest girl had her eye on Pa. He was a right good-looking man for his age. He had been smart and hadn’t wasted money on drinking or gambling. Instead, he’d put it back into the homestead. They had a pretty place in the Tennessee hills. The house was snug and warm. Pa kept it neat, and he made the boys learn how to clean and cook. Josh could cook about as good as a woman by the time he was ‘knee high to a grasshopper’. After he became a grown man, he figured he could take care of himself well enough to strike out on his own and go west.

He had traveled six weeks to get to Saint Louie, and then another eight and a half weeks to the foothills. After that, he had lost count. Josh ran into Indians up high in the mountains when they snuck up on him in the night. His horse heard them and he barely had time to get out of there before they were on him. They got his horse, and that made him mad. Ranger was a good horse. He had been with Josh since he was a kid. Josh had saddle broke him and trained him. Someone was going to pay dearly for killing that horse.

Josh kept inching along the ledge. His shoulders were sore from reaching out on either side and trying to find rocks to hold onto, while he carefully slid first his right foot, and then his left, along the ledge. He wasn’t getting anywhere very fast. If this ledge stopped suddenly, he’d be in big trouble. He had jumped onto it from above thinking it was a wide ledge. He didn’t know it was going to become a tiny one. He heard them searching for him for hours. They probably knew this ledge went nowhere, and didn’t think he would be stupid enough to try hiding on it. Guess he fooled them. He was a lot stupider than they thought. At least they quit searching and left. He just hoped they weren’t waiting for him where the ledge ended.

Josh continued his inchworm progress, and looking around,realized it was getting along toward night. The sun was setting and it was getting cooler. He carefully glanced down. The toes of his boots were no longer hanging off the edge. The ledge had become a little wider. That, at least, was a relief. He could still see pine tree on top of pine tree below, and had to look up quickly before he started to get dizzy. Josh stared straight out across miles and miles of mountains. It was summer, but he could still see snow on the tops of a couple of them. That was amazing. Josh had never before seen snow on a mountain in the summer months.

Feeling further along the cliff for another handhold, Josh found an edge of rock. He couldn’t see around behind it, but it felt like it was a sharp corner. He kept feeling and edging closer. He managed to withdraw his gun with his right hand, and hold it loosely by his side, as he carefully kept his back to the wall and inched closer to the corner. His boots had made it to the edge and taking off his hat, he peeked around. He was at a mouth of a cave. He had made it to solid ground. As far as he could see, it was uninhabited. Anywhere was better than trying to spend the night on an eighteen-inch rock ledge. He stepped around the corner, and keeping his back to the wall, carefully slid into the opening of the cave. He couldn’t see beyond the entrance on the other side of the cave. He didn’t know if there was a trail on west from there or not. He decided to get his feet on solid ground, and then see if this cave was a place where he could spend the night. He was hoping, if he made a fire in the cave, he would be able rest awhile. It would be good to have some food and coffee since he had managed to hold onto his saddlebag and canteen.

Josh carefully stepped along the side of the cave. He didn’t walk in the middle. From his experience in exploring caves in Tennessee he knew if the floor was going to cave in, it would be more likely to do so out in the center. He didn’t have his rope with him, so he wasn’t going to rely on being able to haul himself out of a hole. He tested each step before putting his full weight on it. The floor seemed solid. It was rock with a dust coating on top. The walls were rock, as was the ceiling. It appeared to be a natural cave. As he peered into the darkness ahead, he heard the flutter of wings and dropped to his knees. Suddenly, the air filled with the sound of thousands of bats flying around. He knew he had not walked far enough back to disturb them, so he must have disturbed something else back there that had disturbed the bats. When they settled down again, he knew what it was. He smelled the unmistakable smell of a bear, which would mean the end of having a good night’s sleep. Josh turned around and rushed out the entrance and to the right of the cave, hoping to find a trail instead of a ledge. Sure enough, there was a faint trail from the cave. Josh took off on that path, but he could hear the bear roaring behind him. He knew he was in trouble. That bear was mad and could outrun him. It must have been a mama bear with cubs in the cave, and she thought he was after them. He didn’t have time to explain to her that he wasn’t interested in harming her babies. She wouldn’t have listened if he had tried. He had killed a few bears in the past, but he had not had to do any hand to hand combat with an angry she bear. He had always had a rifle and shot them from a distance. This one was going to be a little different because he knew she was gaining on him, and he couldn’t see anything else to do but to turn around and fight. He grabbed his knife out of its scabbard and whirling around, took a stance. He had his pistol in his right hand and the knife in his left. The bear pulled up her lumbering run when she saw him stop. She sniffed the air and stood on two legs. She was a black bear and when she reared up, she was much bigger than Josh. He looked up at her with his Colt 44 pistol pointed at her head. She gave a roar and in the midst of that roar, Josh pulled the trigger. That .451 bullet entered her brain at the place just between her eyes and at the bridge of her nose. She didn’t finish the roar. The bear crumpled to the ground in a heap. The bullet must have done the work it was cut out to do. A forty-four slug can cause a lot of brain damage. Evidently, that one did the trick. Josh waited for some movement from her, but after about fifteen minutes, he cautiously moved up to her. She was dead for sure. He was more than relieved, but he needed to skin her quick and get back to the cave before that shot brought the Indians back looking for him.

Josh made quick work of gutting and skinning the bear. He quartered and took all the meat he could carry, putting the rest up high in a tree away from varmints. That was the best he could do. It was dark and he would be lucky to find his way back to the cave.

After about an hour of searching, Josh spotted an extra dark area that would be just about the right spot for the mouth of the cave. He made his way to it, and then carefully entered. Not being sure the bear was alone with her cubs, he was prepared for another fight. Keeping his gun and knife ready, he walked further back into the depth. He was no longer afraid of falling through the floor. If it could take the weight of that large bear, it could surely hold him up. He walked toward the back of the cave trying to be as quiet as possible. He could hear something a little farther back making a snuffling sound. His eyes had adjusted to the dark enough that he could make out shapes, but could not see clearly, so he took his time, creeping along and listening. As he got closer to it, it sounded like something between the bawling of a calf, and the meowing of a cat. He could see a small round shape on the ground in front of him. It must be the bear cub. There appeared to be only one. He realized he was carrying the pelt of this little guy’s mother and wondered if that was a problem. Maybe the cub could smell her. He laid the bear skin down on the floor, and the cub immediately ran over to it. It wasn’t as young as he had first thought. He was a still a youngster, but old enough to be weaned, and he probably had been outside the cave a few times. He came to about Josh’s knees when on all fours. Lying down on his mother’s fur, he totally ignored Josh and promptly went to sleep. Josh left him there and began exploring the cave farther back. It had narrowed somewhat, but was still twice as high as he was tall. He had grown to be a tall man, about the tallest in the Colson family according to Pa, and Pa was six foot. That would make this ceiling about twelve feet high or so. After he had travelled another twenty feet, the passage split and he had to decide which angle to take. Since Josh did not have a light, it would be hard to make out anything in the dark, so he put off further exploration of the cave for another time. He needed to get back to the bear cub and take his bear skin away from it. It was time to get to work, and Josh wanted to make that skin into a warm fur coat for winter.

CHAPTER 2

Josh finished cleaning and scraping the pelt after making a fire and having his fill of food and coffee. The cub stayed away from the fire and made crying noises back in the dark. Josh felt sorry for him, but there wasn’t much he could do about the situation. He tried talking to the little fellow, but that seemed to scare him more. Finally, when Josh had finished cleaning the pelt, he took it back and again let the cub lay down on it. That seemed to make the little cub happy, and he was quiet. Josh shook his head and made out his bedroll, which consisted of a ground sheet he carried in his saddlebag, and his jacket. He wasn’t sure how safe he was from the cub, but kept his knife and gun handy and covered himself up with his coat and one side of the ground sheet. It was still a little cool back in the cave, but he would be fine for one night. Tomorrow, he planned to take that pelt away from the bear.

When dawn broke, Josh was up and having coffee. He couldn’t say he had slept well, but he had rested anyway. The cub seemed content all curled up on its mama’s fur. When Josh got up it opened its eyes but didn’t bother to stir around.

Hey lazy boy, you gotta get up, Josh spoke to him in a quiet tone. I need to get out of here.

The cub opened his eyes again and looked Josh over. He gave his mewling cry and licked his mother’s fur. Josh shook his head and wondered what to do with the orphan. He felt responsible, but not responsible enough to say, ‘you’re right, I should have died so you could have kept your mother’. Laughing at his own sentimental nature, Josh packed up his saddlebags and shoved the little cub off the pelt. He folded it into a manageable shape and tied it with a leather string. Holding it under his arm, he carefully started out of the cave. When he got to the opening, he moved over to the right side of the entrance and peeked around the corner. All appeared normal. The birds were singing and there did not seem to be anything out of the ordinary around the cave. Josh sure wished for his old rifle. He liked the six-guns he carried, but there was nothing like a rifle for distance shooting. You could not depend on a pistol for accuracy if you were shooting any distance away. He stayed where he was for a good thirty minutes. He was looking everything over, waiting, and listening. He wanted to see if the sounds of the forest changed from time to time. If a man got in a hurry, he might miss those little things that made the difference in life and death. The sound of a rush of birds taking off because something spooked them, a rabbit running through the brush out of fear. The whisper of vines and twigs brushing against the legs of a man as he walked through them. Even the sound of a stone as it slightly turned in the dirt. Most things can be discerned, if one can stay still long enough and separate the sounds. It takes patience, but his pa had taught them these things a long time ago when he was teaching the boys to trap rabbits. They would lie in wait for hours until the rabbit would hop by and then pull the string. It had to be done at just the right moment, and many a time would be off only by half a second and the rabbit would get away. There were easier ways of doing it, but Pa wanted them to learn patience by lying in wait and catching the rabbits the hard way.

Josh was just about to step out when a flush of birds made him draw back. He waited a while longer. The birds had flown up about one hundred yards to the southeast in a large grove of trees. The land leveled out on a small hill where the grove of trees stood. Josh watched and waited, not staring directly at the trees, but looking all around. Sometimes, one could catch movement out of their peripheral vision when there was no possibility of seeing any movement looking straight at it. He caught the forward movement of what appeared to be a bush. It was not far from the entrance to the cave. The bush moved forward about a foot. Without thinking, he lifted his gun and shot right into the midst of it. A cry sounded and two brown legs sprawled out behind it. Josh drew back farther into the cave. He didn’t think he could be seen from outside because of a pile of rocks he was behind. He couldn’t see very well if he stayed back there, but he was safer than if he stepped out where he could see the whole area. He soon tired of waiting and chanced getting out from behind the rocks. As he stepped to the edge of the entrance, an arrow nicked a rock about an inch from his right arm. He again ducked back behind the rocks. He wished he knew how many were waiting for him. He didn’t like sitting there. He had