Free Lonely On the Mountain (1980) by Louis - Sackett's 19 L'amour Page A

wanted no trouble, but if trouble was to come, he preferred it here, now.
    He walked the street, alert for a sight of the man in the buckskin jacket, but he saw him nowhere. The stores, he noticed, were well stocked, and it struck him that instead of waiting until he reached Pembina or Fort Garry, he might stock up here. There was a good chance that Riel or someone buying for the Canadian army would have bought out the stores.
    For that matter, why not try to buy the Red River cart from Baptiste? Or to hire him to drive? Usually, he had learned, in the long caravans of carts, one driver took care of three carts, and he planned to have but two.
    Transporting horses or carts on the International was no new thing, so arrangements were quickly made. In the store, he bought the staples he would need. Flour, bacon, beans, dried apples, coffee, tea, and several cases of hardtack, similar to the Bent's Hard-Water Crackers he had enjoyed as a boy.
    He purchased powder, shot and cartridges as well, and four extra rifles.
    "Better cache them good," the storekeeper advised. "Louis Riel needs all the guns he can get." "Do you think there will be a shooting war?" Orrin asked.
    The storekeeper shrugged. "Not if Riel can help it. I've done business with him, with his pa, too. They was always reasonable folks, but from what the newcomers are saying, they've got an idea back East that he's leading a rebellion, and they want to hang him." Outside on the street, Orrin took a quick look around for the buckskin-shirted man but also for anyone else who might seem too interested or too disinterested.
    He was worried, and not about what might happen here but what could happen to the north.
    Tell and Tyrel were depending on him not only for food and ammunition but for additional help, and the last thing he wanted was to get into the midst of a shooting fight in which he had no stake.
    The way to stay out of trouble was to avoid the places where trouble was.
    When a difficulty develops, unless one can help, it was far better to get away from the area and leave it to those whose business it was to handle such things.
    Despite the wisdom of staying out of trouble, his route led right through the middle of it. The best thing he could do would be to get in and out as rapidly as possible.
    He looked around the store, buying blankets, a couple of spare ground sheets, odds and ends that would be found useful on the way west where one could buy little or nothing. That was all right. All the Sacketts were used to "making do." It had been their way of life.
    "Old Barnabas would enjoy this," he thought suddenly, and said it aloud, not thinking.
    "Hey? What's that?" Orrin smiled. "Just thinking about an ancestor of mine. Came over from England many a year ago, but he was always going west." "Mine, too," the storekeeper said. "My grandpa left a mighty good farm and a comfortable business. Just sold out and pulled out. Pioneering was in the blood. I guess." Orrin agreed. "I've got it, too," he admitted. "I'm a lawyer, and I've no business even being here." "Well, luck to you." The storekeeper looked up. "You goin' west? To the gold fields, maybe?" "That's right." The storekeeper shook his head. "I'll talk to Jen about it. That there western country--well, I'd like to see it. I surely would. Wild country, they say, with mountains covered with snow, deep canyons--" "I'll send my cart around for this," Orrin said.
    "Better get you another cart. You got a load here. You got enough for two carts. I've got one I'll let you have reasonable, and a good, steady horse with it." "The way you talk," Orrin said, "you may need it yourself." "Up to Jen. I'll talk to her. But maybe--Jenny's got the feelin', too. I seen her lookin' off to the horizon now and again.
    After all, we was westerin' when we come here." He waved a hand. "Don't worry about the cart. I got a good man can build me one. I'll sell you cart, horse, and harness reasonable. When I come west--well, we may meet up