Colorado Sam Read Online Free Page A

Colt six-gun for the jacket in the carpetbag, rolled the jacket into a pillow, and lay back on the leather-padded bench. A whistle blew and the 903 jerked forward. Despite the rough motion of the train as it chugged onto the main line, he was asleep almost instantly. 

Four
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   The monstrous animal charged without growling or barking. At first Nathan thought a huge bear was attacking him. As the onrushing mass of fur drew nearer, he realized it was the biggest dog he’d ever seen. He knew he must flee for his life, but for some crazy reason he couldn’t fathom, his feet refused to move. 
    The giant dog crouched and lunged at his throat. Its mouth sprung open, exposing white, glistening fangs as long as a man’s thumb. Nathan managed to throw himself to one side and raise an arm in front of his face. 
    Â Â  Snapping fangs clamped onto his forearm. Nathan screamed and shook with all his might to free his arm, but failed to dislodge those horrible fangs and the giant dog landed atop him, driving his shoulder into the ground.
    Â Â  “Wake up, lad, wake up before you do yourself serious harm!”
    Â Â  Nathan’s eyes popped open. There were no fangs tearing at his forearm. No beast of a dog was to be seen anywhere. Freight Conductor Rueben Bean of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, not Sam Darling of the Missouri Pacific stood at Nathan’s feet, genuine concern showing on his ruddy face. “Gosh, that must’ve been one hellacious nightmare.”
    Â Â  Nathan grinned sheepishly. He lay on the floor, his arm caught between the end of the bench he’d been sleeping upon and the forward wall of the caboose. What had landed atop him was his own carpetbag. 
    Â Â  “Lacey, if he’s the nephew of Seth Tanner, I’ll suck a rotten egg.” The speaker, a D&RG brakeman named Jake, hung upside down from the cupola. “Ain’t no nightmare gonna scare a true blood relative of Seth Tanner.” 
    Â Â  Lacey, lounging at the foot of the storage cabinets beneath the cupola giggled and pounded his knee. “Just wait till he and Heft Thomas meet up at Placer Tank. Old Heft hates wet-nursing young calves. He ain’t gonna take kindly to tending one who falls out of bed easy as he slips off the teat.”  
    Conductor Bean found that prediction particularly hilarious. He broke into a braying hee-haw, which in turn sparked a fit of prolonged laughter on the part of the two brakemen. 
    Â Â  Nathan freed his arm and regained his seat on the bench. His cheeks and the nape of his neck were burning hot, and he was certain the trainmen could see his skin getting redder and redder. He could never remember being so embarrassed in front of adults, not even during his childhood.
    Â Â  Lacey stopped laughing, wiped his streaming eyes, and said, “Wonder if old Heft will brand him or shake his hand?”
    Â Â  This clever query produced another round of braying and giggling, which was enough laughter at his expense to last Nathan a month of Sundays. Though the train crew would later tell it differently about the roundhouse, the sight of the six-gun emerging from Nathan’s carpetbag silenced the caboose. Eyes widened and bodies flinched as Nathan leveled the barrel of the six-gun and cocked it. 
    Â Â  “Since everyone knows more about my travel arrangements than I do,” Nathan said, struggling to keep his voice from cracking, “I’d appreciate it if you gentlemen would answer a few questions. That is, if you don’t mind?”
    Â Â  “No, sir, we don’t mind,” Conductor Bean stated. “We’ll gladly answer your questions, won’t we, men? Ask away, Mr. Tanner, ask away.”
    Â Â  Nathan sat the six-gun on his knee to steady it. “Who’s Heft Thomas?”
    Â Â  A surprised look passed among the trainmen. Jake, down from the cupola and standing next to