Read Novel 1968 - Down The Long Hills (v5.0) for Free Online Page A

only a few hundred yards beyond the stream, but in some places the distance narrowed down to only a few feet, but there was brush along the stream and on some of the hillsides near the water.
    Once he started a rabbit, but it was gone before he could notch an arrow. He would have to try for them at sundown, when they were more apt to sit still and look around; even if startled they would usually stop at the edge of a hiding place to look back.
    He had been gone for almost an hour and was about to turn back when he saw a clump of bushes about four feet high…hazelnuts!
    He went to them quickly. Many of the nuts had fallen, but he found dozens still clinging to the branches and he picked his hat full.
    By the time he went back to the shelter the rain had stopped and there were breaks in the clouds. Betty Sue was there waiting for him; she seemed to have hardly moved. Huddled over the fire, they cracked open the hazelnuts with a small rock and ate them.
    After that Hardy put out the fire and scattered earth over it to smother any remaining coals. Then, putting Betty Sue on Red’s back, he led the horse down into the stream. On the bank he found a place where he could climb to the stallion’s back, and he walked the horse upstream until near the hazelnut bushes.
    The sun shone bright, and it felt good on his back and shoulders. He had almost forgotten what it meant not to be wet, cold, and hungry. When they reached the hazelnuts he rode out of the stream, found a place where he would be able to remount, and picketed Red on the hillside grass. Then he proceeded to pick nuts until his hat was full again, and the front of his shirt too. By that time there were few nuts left.
    He mounted again, and walked the horse along a winding trail, made by buffalo, no doubt, that followed the stream along the opposite side from that he had traveled thus far. In case the Indian was behind him the rain might have wiped out Hardy’s tracks, leaving no sign for the Indian to find. By crossing the stream, wading in it for a short time, and then following the opposite bank, he might lose the Indian completely.
    The day was warm and clear, but they made slow time because the track led along a steep slope above the river. Trees on the banks masked their movements. About midday they halted and Hardy staked out the horse on good grass; he and Betty Sue ate more of the nuts. He was about to start on again when he saw the chokecherries. Only a few were left, but the taste of them, even though they puckered the mouth, was somehow refreshing after the nuts.
    After a while they went on, and the sun was pleasant after the chilling rain. It had only taken a few of the nuts to fill them up, and he carried those that were left inside his shirt.
    Presently Betty Sue fell asleep, and he cradled her head against him until his arm was so stiff he could scarcely move it, but he did not want to wake her. When she slept, she was at least not afraid.
    He was trying to think. What was it his pa had said so often? “Remember, son, the only thing that makes a man able to get along in this world is his brain. A man doesn’t have the claws a bear has, nor the strength of a bull. He doesn’t have the nose of a wolf, nor the wings of a hawk, but he has a brain. You’re going to get along in this world as long as you use it.”
    He couldn’t count on it that pa would be hunting for him. Scarey as it was even to think of it, he knew he had to think of what he would do if pa didn’t come.
    They had to keep on to Fort Bridger. There were people there, and there he and Betty Sue would be safe. There were womenfolks who would tend to her, and it was a place where he could sleep without being scared what he’d wake up to.
    But Fort Bridger was a long way ahead, and the country was getting higher. Last night it had been almost cold enough for frost, and any night it might really freeze. It had snowed this early, too, a time or two.
    Maybe he had lost that Indian who was