Read Under the Sweetwater Rim (1971) for Free Online

the last direction their pursuers would expect. Also, it would be easier to cover their trail, and there was a route over the mountains and down the western slope.
    If worse came to worst, he would turn back, find Kelsey, and kill him. With Kelsey dead, the others might scatter, for none of them had his will, his drive.
    Turpenning rode back to the column, and Major Devereaux halted the troops and dismounted them for a few minutes rest before going on. "Suh"-7urpenning squatted on the ground so that he could draw in the dirt-"I picked up their sign. The Lieutenant, suh, he's a foxy one. He figures he's followed, suh, an' he's doin' his level best to leave no trail. With an ambulance that's hard . . . almighty hard. "Them renygades, they're a-huntin' him-men scattered out to all sides, cuttin' for sign."
    Turpenning chuckled. "A couple of times they cut right acrost his trail without findin' hide nor hair."
    "How far behind them are the renegades?"
    "An hour . . . mebbe two. The Lieutenant, suh, he's uncommon shrewd.
    They'll have themselves a time comin' up to him."
    Turpenning paused, chewing on a blade of grass.
    "Major, suh, a body a-readin' sign sometimes figures things beyond a few scratches in the sand. A body surmises, suh." "And what do you surmise?"
    "The Lieutenant, suh, he's scared."
    "Frightened? Lieutenant BtianThat"
    "No, suh. Not scared thataway, but scared wary, suh, if you get what I mean.
    Lieutenant Brian, suh, is worried about who's on his trail. He ain't just tryin' to leave no sign; he's doin' partic'lar things.
    He's actin' like he knows somebody's on his trail who ain't about to give up. "Suh, if you-all don't mind, I figure to be an uncommon good tracker. I growed up with Injuns, an' you let me follow a man's trail long enough an'
    I'll read you his life story, like. There's nothin' like a trail to show character in a body. Well, suh, Lieutenant Brian rve tracked before this-was "For what reason?"
    Turpenning shrugged. "Nature, I s'pect.
    You all give a beaver some sticks an" water an' he'll build hisself a dam. You give me a trail, an' I'll follow it. Also?-he spat "if'n I'm to trust my life to a man, I'm wishful to know what manner of man he is.
    "Well, suh, Lieutenant Brian, suh, just naturally he gives you nothin' to take hold of.
    Even with troops, suh. He don't just ride off acrost the country, suh, he knows the lay of land like he'd shaped it with his own hands . . . no Injun is ever goin' to ambush him. And they know it, suh." He paused, spat again. "Ive heerd "em talkie, suh. He's a most admired man, a big warrior. You ever want anybody to make palaver with Injuns, you send him. They know him an" they respect him."
    "Let's get back to the trail," Devereaux said. He had known that Brian was a good soldier, but that the Indians knew him so well and respected him so much he had not suspected.
    "Ain't much more I can tell, except what I figure. Brian's headed for Bridger, sure as shootin', an' he knows somebody's on his trail that wants him almighty bad, somebody he knows or knows about."
    Devereaux studied the marks in the sand, considered the country before him and the time he had left, mea suring hours of travel against rations, and he was dismayed. There was so little time. He discounted Tur penning's ideas about Brian fearing a known enemy, but he knew too much about scouting to discount much else Turpenning said. "What do you think he will do?" he asked Turpenning. "Ain't no doubt, knowin' the Lieutenant. He's goin' to leave that ambulance, mount "em all a-horseback, an" head for wild country." "You think he won't run for it?"
    "No, suh. He'd get ketched, and he knows it. Anyway, suh, the Lieutenant's a man who'll use savvy before he uses fightin' or runnin'. He'll run if need be, and fight if he's ketched, but he'll try to lose "em. rd guess, suh, that he'll head into the Wind River Mountains."
    "Wild country, suh. Hidin" places. He can travel for miles under cover of canyons or brush. You