Thunder On the Sea: A Tim Phillips novel (War at Sea Book 11) Read Online Free Page A

I’d know her track anywhere. I saw it last night, and recognized it right away. Last night, while you were asleep, I rode out to his place. He said she was taken a week ago. Thing is, she has not been on grain. Grass fed, and at her age, she won’t last long in a horse race.”
    Once at the scene of the attempt on the coach, the judge asked Phillips to show him where the mounted man had sat his horse before fleeing. The magistrate ordered the men to remain at a distance, while he and Phillips located the tracks of the bandit’s mount. Opening a sack behind his saddle, he shook out the contents, a worn and faded saddle blanket. Calling his hound, the animal came loping over along with some of the other dogs that were running free.
    The judge shook the blanket out at the dog’s feet and ordered “Find!’ The other dogs were slow to evince any interest, but the big hound took his time sniffing at the blanket, then began searching. Catching the faint scent of the horse on the ground, he began slowly to puzzle out the trail.
    The judge explained, while waiting for the dog. “This blanket was used on the mare just before she was taken. It is full of the animal’s scent. The dog will attempt to follow the scent on the ground. As long as our fellow stays with the horse, we have a good chance of catching him.”
    The dog, finally finding a strong scent on the ground, set out on a lope, occasionally circling to locate the lost trail. Once after the dog temporarily lost the scent, one of the riders found the hoof prints of the racing mare. After the tracks crossed a stream, the magistrate’s dog suddenly began running, with the rest of the pack baying behind,
    The judge kept his men under control, not wanting any headlong pursuit. Stopping once to rest their mounts, the magistrate explained.
    “We have better horses, and as long as we can stay on the trail, we are bound to catch him. The tracks we are following now are the ones he made last night, and you can see his animal is exhausted. He will have found a spot to hide last night, but now hears the dogs behind him. With no grain for his horse, he must know he will be caught if he cannot find a better one.”
     
    As the men crested a rise, they saw ahead of them, another small hill, on the summit a grove of trees. The dogs were racing across the intervening valley baying at full cry. As they reached the trees, the dogs found their quarry, an old, tired mare. Some of the dogs would have savaged the animal but the magistrate’s hound knew this horse. In years past, the hound had accompanied this very mare on many a fox hunt, with the magistrate’s friends. A daring young hound leaped for the horse, but the big leader of the pack put himself in his path and took a chunk out of a big, floppy ear.
    With the scene seeming tranquil now, several dogs began collecting at the base of a big, sprawling oak, yapping and barking. The big hound remained impervious to their excitement. He had been ordered to find the mare, and he had done so. Now it was time for a nap.
    The judge was not so inclined. He had led these men on a man hunt, and a man was what he wished to find. Careful peering into the canopy revealed a person huddled in the top, where a branch came off from the main trunk. Phillips was asked over to the tree and tasked with identifying the person. He tried to abstain, since he had caught only the briefest glance at the horseman before he galloped off.
    “Nevertheless, is there no distinctive clothing the man wore?”
    Racking his brain, Phillips recalled the bandit had been wearing a dark cloak when he rode off. He could clearly remember the garment flapping in the wind. This fellow had no garment, but one of the magistrate’s friends spotted just such a robe caught in the branches, partway up the tree. The horseman rode over to the tree and by standing in his stirrups was able to reach the fabric and pull it loose. The man’s horse did not like this strange garment