Free Blood Trail by J. R. Roberts

closed.”
    â€œThat may be, but he thinks it’s his job to find the killer.”
    â€œIt is my destiny,” Talbot said. “That comes before his job.”
    â€œAnd me?” Clint asked.
    â€œYou know what your destiny is,” Talbot said. “But you will help me, because that is the kind of man you are.”
    â€œAre you sure?”
    â€œI am very sure.”
    â€œWell,” Clint said, sipping his coffee, “I guess we’ll see.”
    * * *
    The killer watched as the wagon train began to bed down—except for two of them.
    The first was his foe, the hunter. The other man was even more of a danger.
    More watching . . .
    * * *
    Talbot walked to the other end of the train, leaving Clint by the fire. He drank coffee and looked out into the darkness. Was there something there? Not that he could see anything, but he had a feeling . . . and he always put great stock in his feelings. They had kept him alive this long.
    â€œI have that feeling, too, I’m afraid,” Sarah said from behind him.
    Clint turned and saw her standing there.
    â€œYour father will be back any minute,” he said.
    â€œYou feel it, too, don’t you?” she asked. “It’s watching us.”
    â€œDo you think so?”
    â€œI know so.” She hugged her upper arms.
    Clint walked up to her.
    â€œYou’d better go to bed,” he said. “You need your rest.”
    â€œDon’t let it kill my father,” she whispered. “Don’t let it.”
    â€œI won’t,” he promised, wondering if that was a promise he’d be able to keep.

TWENTY-SIX
    Clint woke up in the morning before most of the train’s people. He rolled out from where he’d been sleeping beneath a wagon and stood up. It was Talbot’s wagon, the one he had walked Sarah to the night before. Talbot had also been asleep underneath it, but he was gone already.
    Soon other people began to rise. Women went to the fires to prepare the morning meal.
    As Clint walked to one of the fires, Gerhardt turned to him and said, “He’s gone. Left during the night.”
    â€œWho? Talbot?”
    â€œNo,” Gerhardt said, “Captain Parker. He left, took his horse and some supplies. The coward has run.”
    â€œAnd the guide?”
    â€œHim, too,” Gerhardt said. “We are on our own.”
    â€œDon’t worry,” Clint said. “You’ll get where you’re going. Where is Talbot? And the sheriff?”
    â€œThey are around somewhere,” Gerhardt said.
    â€œAnd Sarah?”
    â€œShe has not come out of her wagon yet.”
    But at that moment she did, and came running to the fire.
    â€œI am sorry,” she said. “I overslept. I will start the morning meal.”
    â€œDon’t worry about it,” Clint said.
    â€œWhere’s my father?” she asked.
    Clint was about to say he didn’t know when Talbot came walking up to the fire.
    â€œHere he is.”
    â€œGood morning, Papa.”
    â€œGood morning, Sarah. Where is breakfast?”
    â€œI am about to start it,” she said. “Are you hungry?”
    â€œStarving.”
    She smiled and set about preparing the meal.
    Talbot took Clint’s elbow and walked him a few feet away.
    â€œWhat is it?”
    â€œI had the feeling last night that we were being watched,” Talbot said.
    â€œSo did I,” Clint said. “Sarah felt the same way.”
    â€œYes,” Talbot said, nodding, “she has what you and I have.”
    â€œAnd what’s that?” Clint asked.
    â€œThe instinct.”
    â€œAnd what does the instinct tell you?”
    â€œJust so much,” Talbot said. “For the rest I had to go and have a look.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œI found tracks out there in the brush,” he said. “He was watching us, possibly all night.”
    â€œAnd now?”
    â€œNo,” Talbot