Chapter 27

The next few weeks went by purty quick. Me and Lisa figger’d out a plan where she’d go out on the road in the daytime, and I’d take over about four in the afternoon.

I quickly found out this lawman business were highly over-rated. There weren’t much to do. This time of year, the only people on the road were locals and it got down right borin’.

Hell! The highlight of the week were when I stopped Jim Bridger’s oldest boy John. He were acting like a fool, tryin’ to see if’n he could get hisself kilt.

I were sittin’ just outside of Hahn’s Peak, watchin’ a herd of cows across the road. They were all parked up against a snow break. All of a sudden, a pickup came whizzin’ by. There were a little snow on the ground and the damn kid who were a drivin’ almost lost control of the truck when he came around the curve were I were a sittin’.

I put the light on top of my truck, turned on the siren and run ‘im down about a mile later.

When I walked up to the truck, I could see it were Jim Bridger’s boy John. He were kind a surprised to see me.

“Amos, what the hell you doin’ here,” He said, as I reached his door.

“What I’m a doin’ is tryin’ to keep y’all from killin’ yourself. Now get yourself outta the truck.”

The boy put a pissy look on his face and in a sassy voice said, “You ain’t no cop. Besides, I weren’t goin’ all that fast in the first place.”

Now I ain’t the most patient person in the world, and I don’t particularly like takin’ lip from some smart-ass kid. I snatched open the door, and drug the boy out of his truck.

Once I had him out, I pointed to my shiny new badge and said, “You see this! That makes me the law! Do you understand?”

The boy started to piss an’ moan, and I’d had enough. I grabbed him by the collar and hauled him over to my truck, opened the passenger door and shoved him in.

“What you doin’,” he asked.

“What I’m doin’, is takin’ you to have a li’l talk with your dad. Maybe he can put some sense into yah.”

I closed the door, walked over to his pickup, and took out the keys that were still in the ignition. I put his keys in my pocket, shut his truck door, walked back to my truck, and got in.

John didn’t say nothin’ all the way to his dad’s place, but he sure weren’t smilin’ either.

When I got out a the truck in Jim’s yard, the boy were still sittin’ in the passenger’s seat.

I just shook my head, and thought, “Damn kids, they ain’t got sense enough to pour piss out of a boot, even with the instructions written on the heel.”

I walked around and opened the door and drug him out by his collar and marched ‘im up to the front door.

It weren’t all that late, maybe eight or so, and the lights were on in the house. I rapped on the door, and purty soon Jim turned the outside light on and opened the door.

Jim looked at me, then at his boy, and then back where I were a standin’.

“Amos, what the hell’s goin’ on?” He asked, with a puzzled expression on his face.

I answered, “Well, I pro’lly saved yah from buying a new truck. Seems your boy were tryin’ to see if’n he could wreck it.”

I could see that Jim were still confused, so I said, “Jim open the door, its colder ‘n hell out here. I’ll explain all about Parnelli Jones here inside, where it’s warm.”