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He’d left the wolf for dead, and then he and his friends had hightailed it outta there quicklike in case the wolf ran with a pack that might attack them.
The last time he had looked back at that wolf, it was lying in its life blood, but Sam had noticed that it was still breathing, its golden eyes following Sam’s every move. Sam had thought to go back and put it out of its misery by shooting it. But instead, he had laughingly gone on his way, leaving the wolf half alive.
Damn it, how on earth had that wolf stayed alive?
He grabbed for the rifle in his gun boot, but the wolf was gone in a flash, like a ghost that might materialize and then disappear just as quickly.
A chill rode his spine. What if that had been the ghost of a wolf, come back to haunt Sam?
“What’re you staring at?” Ace asked as he came up beside Sam’s horse. “Why, Sam, you’re as pale as a spook. What scared you?”
“It’s the damnedest thing,” Sam said, idly scratching his brow. “You know that wolf I told you about while we were on our way to Tyler City? The one I left to die?”
“Yeah, what about it?” Ace asked, lifting an eyebrow.
“Well, if’n I didn’t know better, I’d believe I just saw that same damn wolf peering out at me from those bushes over yonder,” he said, pointing with the barrel of his rifle to where he was sure that he had seen the animal. “It has to be the same one. The deep scar, where no fur grows, shows where I cut that damn wolf. I just know it. It is the same critter.”
“So it lived—” Ace shrugged. “What of it? When you get the chance, shoot it and this time make certain it’s dead. I don’t like the idea of being st
alked by a damn, angry wolf.”
“Me neither,” Tom said as he came to Sam’s other side. “In fact, gents, let’s hunt that rascal down and make sure it’s dead this time.”
“That’s a good idea,” Sam growled. He slid his rifle back into his gun boot. The three men took off at a fast clip on their horses in the direction Sam had last seen the wolf running.
But no matter how far they rode, or in which direction, they didn’t find the wolf.
“Well, that’s that,” Sam said, disgruntled. “It’s given us the slip. But keep an eye out for it. I can’t imagine that thing leaving me alive after what I done to it.”
“Another reason we should turn back and hightail it to St. Louis,” Ace said, glaring at Sam. “Sam, I’m tired of this. I’m leavin’ you now. I’ve had it. The thought of that wolf out there is enough to spook me into sayin’ good-bye until we meet again in St. Louis.”
He looked over at Tom. “Joining me?” he asked. “Had enough?”
“Yep, I’d say so,” Tom said, swinging his horse around and heading it back down the mountain. He looked over his shoulder at Sam. “See ya in hell, Sam, for sure enough, if that wolf has anything to do with it, that’s where you’re gonna wind up. It’s just waitin’ for the right moment to jump out at ya.”
Sam stared disbelievingly at Ace as he joined Tom on the trek downward. “You’re both cowards!” he shouted as he waved a fist at them. “I ought to shoot you for deserting me.”
“I wouldn’t fire that gun if I wuz you,” Ace said. “That would sure enough let the Navaho know they were no longer alone on their mountain.”
“The mountain don’t belong to the Navaho,” Sam shouted angrily at him. “It’s everyone’s.”
“Including the wolf’s,” Ace said, then rode away from Sam with Tom alongside him.
Sam felt bewildered by what had just happened. First he saw what he knew was that same wolf that he had left to die, and then the rest of his friends deserted him?
He heard a rustling behind him.
He turned with a start and gasped. He felt the color drain from his face when he saw the wolf step out from behind the bushes, its golden eyes intent on him.
Sam’s fingers trembled as he yanked his rifle from the gun boot again, and took aim. But just as quickly as before, the wolf was gone again, as though it knew the art of disappearing into thin air.
“You gol’darn animal,” Sam said, breathing hard.
He glanced over his shoulder in the direction his friends were going. He then looked again where he had seen the wolf.
“No wolf is going to get the best of me,” he whispered to himself.
He held on to his rifle as he rode onward. He kept watching for the wolf on all sides, but still he didn’t see it.
