The Gila Wars (29 page)

EPILOGUE

There was very little furniture to load up, but the
wagon was full of all the belongings that Josiah had brought with him to Austin. He sat with the reins in his hands, with Lyle next to him, and Ofelia, happily on the other side of the little boy.

Clipper had been relegated to the rear of the wagon again and remained aloof, and annoyed, at the prospect of being pulled somewhere else—instead of having the lead, and the freedom of his head going whichever direction he wanted.

A crate full of chickens sat in the back of the wagon, and they clucked nervously, as Josiah prepared to leave.

Scrap stood next to the wagon, staring at the ground. “You really think this is a good idea, Wolfe?”

“I told you after Juan Carlos's funeral that this was what I thought was best, not just for me, but for Lyle and Ofelia. We need to go home, to Seerville, where we belong. This city is only going to get bigger and louder. It sets my teeth astride now. I can never relax. I miss the piney woods, the places I know. I came here looking for a new life, but I was running away from the pain of my old life, too. None of that seems to matter now. It would just be too hard to live here for the rest of my life. Seems there's bad memories everywhere I turn, and I might as well be in the comfort of familiarity and a slower pace, if that's truly the case. Besides, I want to know my family's safe from the likes of Cortina and his men. It'll be easier in Seerville than here to see to that.”

“I understand,” Scrap said. “But we got orders to return to the company once we're all healed up. McNelly needs us to fight on against Cortina.”

“I said nothing about leaving the Rangers, Scrap. Where'd you get that fool idea?”

“I don't know. I just figured you was done with everything.”

“No, I'm going home and get settled. Once this shoulder is better, then I'll ride back south and join up with McNelly. He's a fine captain. You'll be fine here with Darkson, I 'spect.”

Scrap scrunched his shoulders. “He's not actin' like them broken ribs hurt him much. He's carousin' around like a tomcat, and that just leads to trouble, if you ask me. At least it did for me.”

Josiah smiled as Lyle squirmed next to him. “Let's go, Papa,” the little boy said.

Josiah peered around Lyle and said to Ofelia, “We have everything, right?”

She nodded. “
Sí
, Señor Josiah. I have double-checked and double-checked. I do not believe I have even left one speck of dust for the next peoples to come.”

“Well, that's it then,” Josiah said. “You know, Elliot, you can always come with us. There's a tack room in the barn. We can put a bed in it. There's room for you in Seerville. There's not much to carouse there.”

“I don't want to be a bother,” Scrap said.

“Where else are you going to go? Your Aunt Callie's in Dallas? It's almost as far a ride to Seerville.”

“No, I don't want to impose on you. I'll stay here, and figure things out for myself.”

“All right, suit yourself, but you're always welcome.”

“Thanks, Wolfe, that means a lot.”

Josiah nodded. “Well, we're going to go. I'll see you down the trail, I suppose.”

“I hope so,” Scrap said. “I sure hope so.”

With that, Josiah flipped the reins, and the horse that had brought them from the Arroyo Colorado headed out, kicking up a bit of dust, pulling the wagon down the street in no hurry, but obviously glad, like Josiah, to be leaving the city.

Lyle stood up and started waving to Scrap. “Bye-bye, Mr. Scrap. Bye-bye, Mr. Scrap,” he yelled.

Josiah was tempted to look back, hoping all along that Scrap had changed his mind and was trailing after them, but he didn't. He just kept his eyes forward, looking straight ahead, watching happily, as Austin slowly disappeared behind him.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Larry D. Sweazy
(www.larrydsweazy.com) won the WWA Spur Award for Best Short Fiction in 2005, and the 2011 and the 2012 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction for novels in the Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series—
The Scorpion Trail
(Berkley, 2010) and
The Cougar's Prey
(Berkley, 2011). He was nominated for a Derringer Award by the Short Mystery Fiction Society in 2007 and was a finalist in the Best Books of Indiana literary competition in 2010 for
The Rattlesnake Season
(Berkley, 2009). Larry won the Best Books of Indiana literary competition in 2011 with
The Scorpion Trail
(Berkley, 2010), making the novel the first Western to ever win the award. Larry is also the author of a modern-day thriller,
The Devil's Bone
(Five Star, 2012). He has also written, and published, more than fifty nonfiction articles and short stories, which have appeared in
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine;
The Adventure of the Missing Detective: And 25 of the Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories
;
Boys' Life
;
Hardboiled
; Amazon Shorts; and several other publications and anthologies. He is member of MWA (Mystery Writers of America), WWA (Western Writers of America), and WF (Western Fictioneers).

He lives in Indiana, with his wife, Rose; two dogs, Rhodesian ridgebacks, Brodi and Sunny; and a black cat, Nigel.