on your shoulders that was one smart move, he couldn't shoot you to get what he wanted and needed the dog to track you" Beacon said sitting down beside her tree.
"Then yesterday I found a dead man with this gun and I started cleaning the pistol so I could kill him. I took out the bullets and then started getting the rust out of the barrel with twigs and sticks."
"Sounds like you came up with a good plan, you almost got me."
"Oh I wouldn't have shot you! I was going to let you pass, but then you disappeared and I didn't know what to do."
"No plan survives first contact." Beacon intoned.
"What?"
"It's an old military maxim. It means no matter how carefully you plan and prepare people are going to do something unexpected and unplanned for. In this case Bobo sensed me and almost kept Lothario from walking right into your ambush."
Gail seemed surprised he answered her question but held her ground, "Maxim smacksome my plan worked in spite of your interference!"
"If you want to come out from under that tree we can walk back to the fort and see if they'll accept you into the group."
"Why should they?"
"Good question, got any skills, tools or talents?"
"Uh, no," then suspiciously, "what kind of talents?"
"Well you obviously don't have any horses, cows, pigs, furs or food to trade so it would have to be something they don't already have enough of like weaving if you had a loom or being a doctor or nurse or something like that."
"No, nothing like that, I haven't eaten in three days." She said coming out and handing him the empty pemmican bag as she sat beside him. But he noticed she kept her pistol in the hand away from him and pointed in his direction.
Beacon replaced the empty bag in his coat pocket and pulling another bag from a different pocket he gave her a bag of jerky to chew on while he wrapped a rabbit skin he used as an Ascot on cold nights, fur side in, around her foot and tied it up around her ankle with a strip of rawhide.
"I'm a country girl. I can fish my shoe out of your creek and go home. I'll be safe there alone, I don't need anybody!"
"Want'a trade guns for a minute?"
She hesitated, "Why?"
"I want to see what kind of cannon you have there it just about blew my ears off."
He held out the S&W "Bodyguard AirWeight" in .38 Special that Lothario had dropped butt first.
She took it and handed him a huge revolver. It was a .44 magnum "Dirty Harry" revolver with a six inch barrel covered in rust. It didn't look safe to shoot.
Even in the moonlight she could see the look on his face. "He'd been dead a long time."
Beacon unloaded five live rounds and the empty hull from the cylinder. With a lot of oil, steel wool and elbow grease the gun could probably be salvaged.
He stood up and held out his hand hoping she wouldn't notice he hadn't given her gun back, "Let's go get warm."
She stood up on her own grabbing Bobo's rope as she stepped out onto the trail. He figured she would be all of five feet tall in cowboy boots, but she had on just one sneaker.
"Why should I go with you?"
"To get some hot food and maybe a shoe or two, then we'll see if we can talk Maggie into letting you stay."
"I lost my shoe in that stream below your fort. Why wouldn't she want me to stay?"
"Well for one thing you're with me and Maggie doesn't like me. For another unless you have a talent, skill or resource The Settlement needs she'd have good reason to reject you as just another mouth to feed and we're gunn'a be short on food until spring."
"It's almost spring now and …"
"Still, unless you have something The Settlement needs there's no reason to let you stay. Heck, being with me is the only way you'll get in the gate, but we're going to have to find something you can do to justify feeding
"Then yesterday I found a dead man with this gun and I started cleaning the pistol so I could kill him. I took out the bullets and then started getting the rust out of the barrel with twigs and sticks."
"Sounds like you came up with a good plan, you almost got me."
"Oh I wouldn't have shot you! I was going to let you pass, but then you disappeared and I didn't know what to do."
"No plan survives first contact." Beacon intoned.
"What?"
"It's an old military maxim. It means no matter how carefully you plan and prepare people are going to do something unexpected and unplanned for. In this case Bobo sensed me and almost kept Lothario from walking right into your ambush."
Gail seemed surprised he answered her question but held her ground, "Maxim smacksome my plan worked in spite of your interference!"
"If you want to come out from under that tree we can walk back to the fort and see if they'll accept you into the group."
"Why should they?"
"Good question, got any skills, tools or talents?"
"Uh, no," then suspiciously, "what kind of talents?"
"Well you obviously don't have any horses, cows, pigs, furs or food to trade so it would have to be something they don't already have enough of like weaving if you had a loom or being a doctor or nurse or something like that."
"No, nothing like that, I haven't eaten in three days." She said coming out and handing him the empty pemmican bag as she sat beside him. But he noticed she kept her pistol in the hand away from him and pointed in his direction.
Beacon replaced the empty bag in his coat pocket and pulling another bag from a different pocket he gave her a bag of jerky to chew on while he wrapped a rabbit skin he used as an Ascot on cold nights, fur side in, around her foot and tied it up around her ankle with a strip of rawhide.
"I'm a country girl. I can fish my shoe out of your creek and go home. I'll be safe there alone, I don't need anybody!"
"Want'a trade guns for a minute?"
She hesitated, "Why?"
"I want to see what kind of cannon you have there it just about blew my ears off."
He held out the S&W "Bodyguard AirWeight" in .38 Special that Lothario had dropped butt first.
She took it and handed him a huge revolver. It was a .44 magnum "Dirty Harry" revolver with a six inch barrel covered in rust. It didn't look safe to shoot.
Even in the moonlight she could see the look on his face. "He'd been dead a long time."
Beacon unloaded five live rounds and the empty hull from the cylinder. With a lot of oil, steel wool and elbow grease the gun could probably be salvaged.
He stood up and held out his hand hoping she wouldn't notice he hadn't given her gun back, "Let's go get warm."
She stood up on her own grabbing Bobo's rope as she stepped out onto the trail. He figured she would be all of five feet tall in cowboy boots, but she had on just one sneaker.
"Why should I go with you?"
"To get some hot food and maybe a shoe or two, then we'll see if we can talk Maggie into letting you stay."
"I lost my shoe in that stream below your fort. Why wouldn't she want me to stay?"
"Well for one thing you're with me and Maggie doesn't like me. For another unless you have a talent, skill or resource The Settlement needs she'd have good reason to reject you as just another mouth to feed and we're gunn'a be short on food until spring."
"It's almost spring now and …"
"Still, unless you have something The Settlement needs there's no reason to let you stay. Heck, being with me is the only way you'll get in the gate, but we're going to have to find something you can do to justify feeding
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