Bad Grrlz' Guide to Reality: The Complete Novels Wild Angel and Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell Read Online Free Page B

last Friday,” Jasper said. “I must have seen them just before the Injuns got them.” He frowned down at the quilt-wrapped body, his jaw set in a grim line. “I talked to her husband; I didn’t talk to her, didn’t see the girl. If I’d been a little later, maybe I could have helped.”
    Henry Johnson, a beardless youngster of eighteen, awkwardly patted Jasper’s shoulder. “We’ll do what we can for them now.”
    Jasper shook his head, as if shaking off his sorrowful thoughts, then glanced up at the hills, down at the valley. “We can divide into teams,” he suggested. “Each team can take an area and search for the girl.”
    “Her body, more likely,” murmured Johnny Barker. “Or what’s left of it.” He’d been a trapper in the Rockies before corning to California, and he had no illusions about the child’s chances.
    “If we find her body, we’ll give her a Christian burial, along with her mama and papa,” Jasper said solemnly.
    “If it was Injuns, they might have taken her captive,” suggested Henry. “I’ve read about that.” Henry had arrived in Selby Flat just a month before, having come to California by ship from Boston. Before taking that voyage, he had bought every book about California and the West that he could find, compiling a library that included scholarly accounts of exploratory expeditions, practical advice for travelers, matter-of-fact descriptions of military campaigns, and lurid novels that abounded with Indian captives and beauteous Indian maidens. On the ship, he read them all, amassing a storehouse of information and misinformation. “Many Western tribes take captives and raise them as slaves.”
    “Never heard of the Diggers doing that,” Barker observed. Like most of the miners, he held the tribes native to California in contempt, regarding them as dirty beggars and savages. “If they didn’t kill her, then the weather and the wolves did.”
    “Enough jawing,” Jasper said. “I’ll search that way.” He waved a hand up the trail. “Max, why don’t you give me a hand? We can rendezvous back here.”
    The men split up, each taking a different area to search. Max followed Jasper up Grizzly Hill, on the trail that led to the town of Humbug. Where the slope leveled off a bit, Jasper stopped and let Max catch up.
    “I just couldn’t keep talking about the little girl like that,” Jasper said. He was looking out over the valley. “I keep thinking about her being lost out here, all by herself.” He shook his head. “By the sound of her mama’s letter, she’s too young to get far. Too young to talk, most likely.”
    “Probably knows a few words,” Max said. “She can walk, so it’s likely she can talk some.”
    Jasper shot him a curious look. “You have children?” Max shook his head, denying the past.
    Jasper shrugged. “She’ll know her name, then.”
    Max nodded. “She’ll know her name.”
    From some reason, Max did not like this man. It was nothing he could put his finger on; the man had done nothing wrong. In fact, he had done many admirable things—rallying the miners to form a search party, encouraging the men as they made their way on the muddy trail, insisting that they search the area carefully, though the odds that the child had survived were slim. But there was something shifty about Jasper—he stared into space rather than meeting Max’s eyes.
    But perhaps it was nothing. Max was a short man, small-boned and wiry, and Jasper was tall and broad-shouldered. Max felt ill at ease in crowds and Jasper seemed to be a natural leader. He was younger and stronger than Max. Perhaps it was a touch of envy, Max thought, the simple jealousy that the weak feel for the strong, the timid feel for the confident.
    “Let’s call her name as we look,” Jasper suggested, turning to continue up the trail. “Maybe she’ll hear us and come out.”
    Max followed the big man up the mountain. “Sarah,” Jasper called as he walked. “Sarah, come