Durango: A Novel - Softcover

Hart, Gary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1555916708 ISBN 13: 9781555916701

Verlag: FULCRUM PUB, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

With a contemporary Western flavor and plenty of intrigue and suspense, Gary Hart's latest novel Durango brings readers into the world of the small southwest Colorado town as the close-knit community is rocked by scandal and controversy. As a drawn-out battle for water rights looms over the town, one of Durango's most eminent citizens, stoic former politician Daniel Sheridan, is implicated in a shocking transgression, forcing him to clear his name and resolve the contention that has weighed upon his hometown for decades. Drawing on the classic themes of loyalty, honor, redemption, and the land, Durango presents an unforgettable saga of the American west.

Gary Hart has been and continues to be one of America's great public servants for almost four decades, from his role in the 1972 McGovern campaign to his years as a visionary senator, from his leadership on national security matters before and after 9/11 to his contributions as a respected statesman on various issues. He is the author of several books, including The Thunder and the Sunshine: Four Seasons in a Burnished Life, as well as two novels published under the pseudonym John Blackthorn. Hart lives in Denver, Colorado.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Gary Hart has been and continues to be one of America's great public servants for almost four decades, from his role in the 1972 McGovern campaign to his years as a visionary senator, from his leadership on national security matters before and after 9/11 to his contributions as a respected statesman on various issues. He is the author of several books, including The Thunder and the Sunshine: Four Seasons in a Burnished Life, as well as two novels published under the pseudonym John Blackthorn. Hart lives in Denver, Colorado.

Gary Hart has been and continues to be one of America's great public servants for almost four decades, from his role in the 1972 McGovern campaign to his years as a visionary senator, from his leadership on national security matters before and after 9/11 to his contributions as a respected statesman on various issues. He is the author of several books, including The Thunder and the Sunshine: Four Seasons in a Burnished Life, as well as two novels published under the pseudonym John Blackthorn. Hart lives in Denver, Colorado.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Durango

By Gary Hart

Fulcrum Publishing

Copyright © 2012 Gary Hart
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-55591-670-1

CHAPTER 1

PART ONE

1.

Rescuing lost things would be easier if God would cooperate. Every time somebody's cow or calf, or both, or some dumb flatlander got themselves stranded up there in the high country, it seems that there's a storm of some kind.

Now here was Harv saying, Say, Dan, I know it looks kind of bad out there. But I got a good old cow and a spring calf up above there. He had paused and coughed apologetically. I was wonderin' if you could give me a hand bringin' 'em down.

Sheridan had figured what it was when the phone rang. Every spring, Harv let his cows go up too high too soon and then, just about this time every spring, one or two got lost or stranded. And every spring the call came. Same words. Same cough.

But hell, he thought, pulling on the boots that had even more creases than his face, Harv was a good decade older than he was, and he wasn't getting around too well. Besides, situation reversed, Harv would do the same for him. But Harv had never had to and, he thought wryly, never would have to. The few cattle he did run would never be allowed to graze up high this early in the cantankerous spring storm season.

He pulled on the flannel-lined denim jacket, turned up the wool collar, and pulled on his worn-out work gloves. He told Toby, his border collie, he'd be back. Outdoors he bent against the rising wind to get to the barn. Glancing to the northwest, he guessed fifteen minutes for the snow. Depending where the cow had got herself and her calf to, it would take the better part of an hour to find them and most of another hour to bring them down.

He hefted the saddle, soft from a recent oiling, down from its mounting, and the horse, noisily munching his supper oats, gave him the sad eye. Not tonight, the look said. Not while I'm having my supper. Sheridan patted the solid rump and said, The oats'll be here when we get back. For himself, he was glad he had remembered to get a fresh bottle of Jameson. He led the horse out of the barn, swung up, and the horse shook his head vigorously as he felt the heel tap.

Sheridan said, Okay Red, let's go.

Harvey Waldron had been a neighbor, had been his father's neighbor, so long he couldn't remember since when. A hogback ridge separated their properties up the tail end of the old Florida Road. Harv tried to run thirty or forty head of Herefords all by himself long after he should. Dan, he'd say, what else I got to do? Just me and the cows, he'd say. I figure, he'd always say, when the cows go, I go.

That being the situation, what else could he do than help Harv bring down a cow or two every spring?

He made good time in the dimming light, going up the diminishing dirt road that tailed off into a trail in the draw leading to the upper reaches of his property. He knew Harv would meet him where his horse trail met a similar one rising above the Waldron meadow to the east. Now the snow came. And with it, the wind. And it didn't start slowly. It arrived full force. The electricity along Florida Road was down, yet again, and the forecast from his hand-cranked radio had predicted a foot or more of snow. He saw Harv sitting his horse just ahead in the driving snow and knew they had to find the cow and calf right quickly.

Thanks, Dan, Harv muttered through his thick mustache. I'll do the same for you one of these days. Then he chuckled, Except I know I won't have to.

Doesn't matter, Harv, Sheridan shouted back as he moved his horse out in front and followed the trail higher. It's the thought that counts, he shouted over the wind. Where do you reckon this cow of yours is?

Where they always go, Dan, Harv shouted, up in those aspen trees at the top end of my place. Maybe even over into the federal land.

Sheridan heel-tapped his big red horse and climbed more quickly. The high aspen grove was another thirty minutes at least. They climbed in silence, the horses and men blowing serious clouds of steam. Loose rocks clattered under shod hooves. He could see no more than thirty feet, probably less, ahead. The horse snorted and shook his head, thinking of oats. If a horse had a memory and could count — and for all Sheridan knew, this horse could — he would know it would be an hour or more before he got back to his oats and the barn's shelter.

Considerable time passed as the climb continued, the stiff wind blowing snow sideways from the northwest. They emerged into a small, high meadow, and he thought he could see the aspen grove a football field away. Harv shouted, She's up there. He knew Harv couldn't see that far, particularly in a spring blizzard, so he listened. Sure enough, there was a faint, far-off, buffered bellow. He suddenly remembered he hadn't holstered his rifle and hoped to God a cat hadn't gotten after the calf.

They followed the intermittent bellowing as it became less muffled. Fifty yards, then twenty-five. His horse snorted again and he knew, from certain experience, that if a cat had gotten there first, the horse wouldn't go much farther. He cursed again about the forgotten Winchester. Harv could afford to lose a calf a lot easier than he could afford to lose a horse that had taken a dozen years to become an extension of his own body.

He swung down from the horse and, grunting, Harv followed. Both carried lariat rope. Eyes wide and terror-stricken, the cow stomped and thrashed around in the thick aspen growth. The month-old calf stood still, threatened with trampling by the mother cow. Sheridan got within a dozen feet of the frantic cow and easily tossed the lariat rope over her head, and it settled around her neck. He looped the rope around the saddle pommel as Harv lassoed the calf and did likewise.

The cow now calmed and let the horse lead her out of the grove. The calf seemed satisfied to follow. Now, he thought, the hard part begins. Harv, he shouted through the wind's howl, you start down there with your calf and I'll bring the old lady down right behind you. Harv nodded and mounted up. Sheridan hoped to hell Harv wouldn't get lost going down, but he trusted him to know the trails — even those now drifting heavily with snow — on his own property deeded to the Waldrons by some Indian chief well over a century before.

Visibility was now almost totally gone. He let the reins loose on the tall horse, knowing that oats were as good a horse-compass as anything. Harv's mustache was hoary-thick with a mixture of frozen tobacco juice and snow. His own eyebrows, he imagined, looked much the same — minus the tobacco juice. The snow drove sideways at about thirty miles an hour. He brushed snow away from his horse's eyes as the sure-footed creature methodically plowed through the drifts now up to his knees. Sheridan pulled the aged Stetson lower over his forehead.

They got to the fork connecting the horse trails from the two properties, and he followed Harv down toward his outbuildings, now a quarter of a mile ahead. Harv shouted back to him, Give me that lead rope and I'll take her on in. Sheridan shook his head no. If the cow got spooked or rambunctious, Harv could well be tossed from his horse and end up frozen. He waved him forward. After another ten minutes or so, they got to the cow pasture. They both dismounted, untied their bovine wards, and turned them into the fenced pasture with their closely huddled herd. The cow lowed and bellowed, and the calf trotted to join her in the dense mass.

Come on in for a drink, Harv shouted over the wind. You've earned it.

He...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: FULCRUM PUB
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1555916708
• ISBN 13: 9781555916701
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 248
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar