LITMIR.BIZ

      Nine

      Cole stayed right where he was until the trio had passed him. Then he snapped into action. He went back inside Parker’s Emporium and told Pete Parker he had changed his mind, that he needed the supplies right away.

      “Toss in some beef jerky, a tin of crackers and a couple of cans of beans,” Cole said to Pete. “I’ll take the saddle and bridle with me now and be back for the rest of the things in the next half hour.”

      Pete nodded, then asked, “You want some help carrying that saddle?”

      “I can manage,” Cole said as he hoisted it up onto a shoulder.

      He stepped outside, looked both ways and walked directly down to Pollock’s Livery Stable. At the stables he dropped the saddle and went into the stall where his newly purchased black was penned.

      Cole carefully examined the stallion and the big black neighed a greeting and playfully bit at Cole’s shoulder. Cole stroked the stallion’s sleek neck and murmured soothingly into a pricked ear.

      Turning to the stable boy, he said, “I’ll be taking the black tonight. Have him saddled and ready to go by nine o’clock. I’ll be back to get him.”

      “He’ll be ready, sir,” said the lad with a toothy grin.

      Cole ruffled the boy’s hair, then peeled off a bill and handed it to him. He was heading back to Parker’s Emporium, when he passed Lilly’s Ladies Apparel. Cole stopped abruptly, snapped his fingers and turned back. He had, until this minute, forgotten about the lacy blue satin nightgown he had purchased yesterday afternoon.

      Cole glanced about, then went inside.

      Lilly looked up and smiled warmly at him. “You have come for the beautiful blue nightgown?”

      “I have,” Cole said decisively.

      Lilly hurried into the back room and returned shortly with a neatly wrapped package. Cole left the shop carrying the package under his arm, feeling foolish, wondering what on earth had possessed him to buy the nightgown in the first place. And why he had bothered to go back and pick it up.

      Cole returned to Parker’s, gathered his supplies and headed back to the hotel. As twilight blanketed Central City, Cole began preparing for the difficult journey ahead. After a long relaxing bath, he had dinner in his room, then dressed in riding clothes—dark trousers, gray chambray shirt, gray and black bandanna. And finally he put on the soft moccasins that would afford him not only comfort but the quiet step of an Indian as well.