Page 42 of Return to Telegraph Creek

“Yep.”

I crossed my arms and looked him up and down.

“And now you’re drunk off your tree—or are you only pretendin’?”

He grinned.“Well, I only wanted you to catch me, you see,” Oscar said, sidling up to me and leaning in.

“I see.”

Then his eyes went wide, and he jerked back, gripping my arms with excitement.

“Oh, but Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy!”

I tried not to laugh at his sudden urgency.

“Somebody saw Cal!”

All tendency toward laughter fled as my chin dropped, and I glanced at Trick for confirmation of this.

“’Tis true.We got a lead, finally,” she said.

She walked o’er to us, pointedly ignoring some interest from a few of the men in the parlor, and sat down, crossing one trousered leg atop the other.

“If we hadn’t been at the saloon, we might not have heard about it.We was talkin’ about Cal and how we needed to find her, and some rough-lookin’ fella said he’d been in Agnes Hill the week before and met a woman named Cal, who was buyin’ some bread and milk.”

“How far away is that?”I asked.

“Not far,” Trick said.“But ’tis in the other direction from where we were lookin’, so ’tis a good thing we heard of it.”

“If itisCal and not somebody else,” I said, ever the steady observer.

Oscar gave me a look.“It is.I know ’tis.”

“How do you know?”

“Just a feelin’ in my heart.”

We gazed at each other, and I knew he felt it and mayhap he was right.I sure hoped so.

I gave a quick nod.

“Miss June says I can ride out with you and Trick tomorrow, if I’m careful of my injury.”

Oscar’s face lit up.“Truly?Then you can come with us to Agnes Hill, and we’ll see if we can find her!”

I gazed at my beautiful boy, considering.“Did you really kill a mad dog with one shot?”

Oscar shifted his shoulders back and straightened up, like a soldier.“I did.You taught me real well.”

Trick uncrossed her legs and leaned forward, placing her elbows on her knees like a regular cowpoke.“You shoulda seen it, Jimmy.He was like some kinda sharpshooter or somethin’.I had my gun at the ready, fully expectin’ him to miss.But he didn’t.”She smiled.“The townsfolk were pure amazed.”

“I reckon,” I said, smiling at Oscar and imagining the scene.

I often had to remind myself that Oscar was a full-grown man and could take care of himself, e’en though I liked to take care of him, and he liked me to, at least in some ways.

“I’m sure glad you’re back.I worry when I’m not with you.”

“I know you do.I ain’t never had someone like that.My parents never cared much when I’d go out on my own, then they weren’t there to care at all.”