Bendigo Shafter (1979) by Louis L'amour Page A

homeward journey. They had need to return at once, and no time was lost. Rockwell was watching Webb with narrow eyes. That one. I seem to know him.
    He came west with our train, as we all did, I said. He's a good man with a gun.
    Rockwell turned and looked straight at me. You will have need of him, he said bluntly, when spring comes.
    Porter Rockwell swung into the saddle. He had a magnificent horse, and was noted for the horses he owned and bred. He gathered the reins. There will be more of our people over this road. Do you help them if there is need.
    Of course, Cain said.
    Trask emerged from Stuart's house, and they rode off after the wagon. We watched them until they were out of sight. I never knew any Mormons before, I said. Cain shrugged. They are people, he said. Then he turned to me. Have you given thought to Christmas, Bendigo? The younger children will be wanting toys.
    I hadn't done anything about it, I confessed.
    I know. There was a shade of wistfulness in his voice. You've been reading Ruth Macken's books. I always wanted more of an education, and you can learn much. Read as many as you can.
    He looked at me thoughtfully. I am expecting great things of you, Bendigo.
    I blushed. Of me? Then I said, I will try, Cain. But I do not know what I wish to do.
    Give it thought. There is time. He hesitated a moment. Ethan Sackett told me about the Indian you hit. He said you were very quick. He had never seen anyone so quick with a gun. It is a thing to value, but it wants care, Bendigo. When one acts quickly, sometimes one acts too quickly.
    I will remember that.
    Neely and Tom had built a cabin together in order to build faster when snow began to tall, so now Tom Croft began to build his own. He was a good workman, and he worked swiftly and well. Twice he went to the forest with me and looked thoughtful when I told him how I cropped the trees.
    But there are plenty of them, he objected. The mountains are covered with forest.
    They are now, I agreed, but more people come west with each season. Also, the mountains need their trees. Without them the water runs off, and there is no game.
    Ethan Sackett rode up the hill to us. They're gone, he said, pulled out lock, stock, and barrel.
    You found their camp?
    It was east of here. Over on the Sweetwater, and there must have been thirty or forty, judging by the number of fires and what I could make of their sleeping places.
    They'll come back, Croft said.
    They've gone off on a big raid, I think, Ethan said.
    Mae Stuart was at the house when I returned, making paper decorations for the dance, helping Lorna. Lenny Sampson was there, too.
    Cain was sitting by the fire, making nails. He pushed a nail-rod and a header toward me, and I looked around for a steel wedge, trying not to look at Mae.
    Mae was wishful of being looked at, and a pretty girl is hard to ignore. On the wagon train there had been so many folks it was easy to fight shy of any particular one, and Mae had seemed flighty and man-crazy. Now being man-crazy can be a bad thing unless you're the man she's crazy about.
    Yet even as I thought that, a warning voice told me that Mae's swishing skirts were a trap. She could be mighty pretty and enticing, but supposing something came of it?
    What Mae had in mind, I didn't know. Maybe she just wanted attention, and maybe she wanted a man, and maybe she was thinking of a wedding, but a wedding for me at eighteen would be no good thing.
    A wife and family don't go along with dreams. They hamper a man's movements, they restrict the risks he can afford to take to get ahead, and even the most helpful of women is usually more expense than a very young man can bear.
    No doubt Mae wasn't thinking of that. Seemed to me she was hearing the mating call and wasn't thinking of anything else. Well, I was. And besides, Mae was no girl for me. Yet no doubt she had her dreams, too. Trouble was, I don't think they had much to do with mine.
    So I kept my eyes away from her and tried to close my