Chapter 5

As we walked out of Mabel’s, Paul said, “Why don’t we walk. It’s not far, and I spend so much time in my car, I walk as much as I can to avoid patrol car spread.”

“Sure, thing, Sheriff, just let me check my stock first.”

“Call me, Paul. All the locals do. You figuring on sticking around for a while?”

“Please call me, Matt,” I replied. “Could be Paul. I’ve been drifting since the army cut me loose.”

As we approached my rig, Shadow came out from under the trailer. When he saw the Sheriff, or rather his sidearm, he stopped and crouched down. A low growl started. “Shadow, down. Heel boy.” At his down order, Shadow’s ears came back up, and the growl stopped. The heel order brought him over to my side.

“Well trained dog there,” Paul observed.

Leaning down, I gave Shadow a rough pet and told him he was a good boy. “He was originally trained as a working military dog. We got together at the VA in Tacoma. The rest is history.” After checking Shadow’s food and water, I checked Margarite and Jughead. Adding hay and water as needed.

“That’s a right pretty appaloosa, Matt,” Paul observed.

“Yeah, I picked Margarite up from an old Indian horse trainer in Nevada. She was trained up as a cutting horse. She’s about the best I seen around cattle.” I wanted to get a better feel for the area, so I changed the subject. “How do you like living way up here in the middle of nowhere.”

“Better than the big city. Everyone hereabouts knows each other. Not much trouble to speak of, except for drunk tourists. Just a typical small town. I should warn you, though. The gossip mill has already gotten cranked up over you. I know that right now, Mabel’s getting the third degree from the old-timers in the diner.”

I chuckled, “Yeah, I saw a couple of turned heads when I mentioned Jake’s place.”

“That would be the prospectors. I know when I get home later, the wife’s going to be bugging me for every detail. She’ll probably have some of her coffee buddies there too.”

By this time, we were approaching the forestry office. Paul changed the subject. “I should let you know. Percy Wilcox is the forestry agent here. He’s a bit of odd duck, but nice. During the summer season, he rents space behind his office for the back-country folks. Alongside the temp help. The money he collects goes to some of the local groups like the library and little league.”

“An odd duck?” I asked

“Don’t get me wrong. Percy’s a nice enough fellow. It’s more like a square peg, round hole thing. Percy was transferred here about ten years ago. He’s done a good job. But he doesn’t seem to like it very much. Most folks around here are outdoor type folks. Not Percy, He sticks to town mostly. Unless the job requires it. Then he’s back as quick as possible.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad. Almost like a city boy stuck in the country.”

“Yeah, I’d agree with you. And there have been others like that. But they generally don’t last through the first winter.”

“The winters are that hard up here?”