Calder Brand - Janet Dailey Page 0,19
they would spot the horse and find him.
As they rode closer, taking their mounts at a walk, Joe could hear their conversation.
“Never seen anything like that damned storm,” Jesse was saying. “Poor Spanish never saw that lightning bolt coming. Hell to see a man die that way.”
Spanish Bill was dead? Struck by lightning? Joe thought of his friend, so wise and so fearless. He wouldn’t believe the man was gone. Not until he could see the proof of it.
“Well, at least Wooly’s broken leg will mend,” Benteen Calder said. “Though he won’t be much use till he can ride. It’s young Dollarhide’s death that’s hardest to take. Just a kid, gone without a trace. Those damned cattle didn’t even leave enough of him to find and bury.”
Joe’s breath stopped. Did the men think he’d been trampled in the stampede? That was pretty much what the boss was saying.
“You’d think we’d have found his spurs, at least, or his gun,” Jesse said.
“With all the lightning out there, he probably took them off, like most of the men did.”
“Well, at least we could’ve found his horse.”
“Hell, the horse probably ran off when Joe went down,” Calder said. “It could still be out there. Maybe one of the men will catch it and bring it in. Shame to lose a good horse.”
“No. By God, look! ” Jesse exclaimed. “There’s Joe’s horse down there by that big snag, dead as a doornail. It must’ve panicked and gone over the edge here after Joe fell off.” Jesse had stopped his mount above the place where Joe was trapped. Joe could hear the man’s voice clearly.
“Help! Somebody help me!” Joe tried to shout, but his voice emerged as something between a gasp and a groan. With cattle bawling around them, there was no way the two men could hear him. Still, he tried again.
“Help! I’m down here!”
There was no reaction from either of the men.
“Come on. Let’s go,” Calder growled, losing patience. “We’ve got cattle to round up.”
“It wouldn’t take me long to go down there,” Jesse said. “I could look around for any sign of the kid’s body, even get the saddle and gear off the horse if you want.”
Joe tried to shout again, but he knew he was wasting his breath. The men couldn’t hear his weak voice over the bawling of the cattle. Jesse’s offer to climb down into the wash was his only hope. But the cowhand wouldn’t do it without Calder’s permission.
Time seemed to stand still as Joe waited for his boss’s reply.
“Don’t bother,” Calder said. “That old saddle was junk when I gave it to him. And if we don’t get those cows rounded up, they’ll be all the hell over Kansas by the end of the day. The buzzards can have what’s left of that dead horse. Come on. Let’s get moving.”
Turning their horses, the two men rode away.
Feeling as if he’d been kicked in the gut, Joe lay still. Nobody was going to find him. Nobody was going to help him. If he couldn’t get free by himself, he was going to die a slow, miserable death right here. The buzzards and coyotes would finish off what was left of him. And all his dreams—his own brand, his own ranch, and Sarah, or a woman like her, as his wife—would be nothing more than dust.
And Benteen Calder didn’t give a damn. Don’t bother, he’d said. All he cared about was those cattle and the God-cursed money they would make him.
As Joe lay there, battling self-pity, a new emotion took root in him and began to grow. It was hot and bitter, searing his soul like iron fresh out of the branding fire.
It was rage.
From their first meeting Joe had worshipped Benteen Calder. He had wanted nothing more than to be like him, to have the kind of things he had. But Calder had betrayed him. The soulless bastard had ridden away without a second thought and left him to die.
Fury surged through Joe’s veins, fueling his determination. Whatever it took, he would get free of this hellish trap and move on.
Whatever it took, he would survive to face Benteen Calder and make the man pay for what he’d done.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE LAST SOUNDS OF MEN, HORSES, AND CATTLE DIED AWAY IN THE distance, leaving nothing to hear but the wind. Utterly alone now, Joe took stock of his situation.
The ground beneath him was muddy from the storm. His clothes were damp as well. He remembered hearing the rush of