Page 25 of Heart of Stone

A loud clatter followed by a crash that came from outside startled Stone out of his morose train of thought.

“What in the hell?” Stone turned and ran for the door, yanking it open and jumping down the stairs as he ran in the direction where the noise had come from.

Luke jumped up from the table and followed close on his heels, looking around wildly for the source of the noise. There were shouts from the bunkhouse as well, and several of the hands ran out, holding lanterns.

“Over here!” Stone heard the shout from behind the stable, and he veered in that direction, skidding to a halt and staring in dismay as the lanterns revealed what had happened.

A twisted mass of broken wood and metal lay at the foot of the windmill, where the bladed head had come off and crashed to the ground below. Stone stared at this fresh catastrophe in disbelief. “Now how in the hell did that happen?”

“Maybe somethin’ came loose.” Luke looked down at the wreckage with growing dismay. “Ohhell, this is goin’ to be expensive.”

“I take it we don’t just have an extra one in the barn.”

Luke shook his head somberly, his expression letting Stone know exactly how serious the situation was. “No, we can’t even get a replacement in town. We’ll have to send someone to Reno.”

“Damn.” Stone wanted to grind his teeth in frustration. The last few days had been bad, and he hoped there were no more nasty surprises just waiting to jump out at him. The hands were all subdued, and he knew he had to act decisively to keep their spirits up, since they knew that the fortunes of the ranch could affect their livelihood. “Well, I guess that means someone’s getting’ a free trip to Reno.” He looked at the assembled men and made a quick decision, choosing two of the hands he knew could be trusted to resist the urge to drink and carouse. “Brent, Dave, I want you to take the buckboard and head to Reno tomorrow mornin’. You’ll need to stay the night, but I need you back the day after with that blade head.”

“Yes, boss,” Dave acknowledged, and Stone nodded, knowing he would do as he was told.

Stone looked at Luke. “Do you need to go with ‘em? I almost hate to let you do it, just in case any other disasters crop up here. I can’t be in two places at once.”

“I probably should,” Luke replied. “I know what to get, and it’ll be easier for me to pay for it, if we need to use credit at the bank.”

“Right.” Stone nodded and raked his fingers through his hair. “Well, no sense worryin’ about this mess tonight in the dark. In the mornin’, we’ll check to make sure nothin’ in the gearbox was damaged before you go.” He gave Luke a sour look. “If I were a suspicious man, I’d say you were goin’ just to get away from Dandy Jim for a couple of days.”

“The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind,” Luke said, admirably deadpan.

“Sure it didn’t.” Stone gave him a dubious look, and then he raised his voice. “Okay, everyone go on back inside. We had a hard day today, and looks like everyone’ll need their rest for tomorrow.”

With that, he turned and headed back toward the house. He was beginning to understand why some of the ranchers he’d worked for had looked old before their time.

CHAPTER16

After the problems of the past couple of days, Luke counted himself lucky indeed that nothing else went wrong on the trip to Reno. They didn’t get waylaid, the part was available, and neither Brent nor Dave made fools of themselves. Well, not fools enough that Luke had to bail them out of jail, at least. He let them have a night out, but he remained at the hotel; he didn’t much care what kind of entertainments the big city offered, and he didn’t want to put a damper on Dave and Brent’s good time.

The part was expensive enough, but Priss had set the example of always putting aside funds for emergency expenses, and Luke reckoned this counted as such. He was glad he’d carried on her habit and had convinced Stone it was a good idea as well, because they’d already lost cattle, and it was just the beginning of the season; there would be more inevitable losses from disease and predators before the market.

In hindsight, he supposed he ought to have knownsomethingwould happen with the way their luck had been running at the ranch lately, and he felt a growing sense of foreboding as he regarded the somber faces of the men clustered just outside of the barn as he, Dave, and Brent rode up. He dismounted quickly and handed off Mist’s reins to the nearest stable hand, and he approached Shorty, dreading whatever bad news he was about to hear.

“What happened? Did more cattle get out?”

“If only that was it!” Shorty turned to Luke, and Luke could see the anxiety in his eyes. “It’s Mr. Harrison. We was goin’ to ride out to the mine to check on the shipment due to go out, and when he went to mount Raider, that horse went plumb crazy. Mr. Harrison only had one foot in the stirrups, and Raider reared back and threw him. It weren’t Raider’s fault, neither, because I found a burr under his blanket when I unsaddled him.” Burrs were a fact of life, and one under the saddle could cause a horse a lot of pain. Shorty shook his head and swallowed hard. “It looked like a bad fall. We got him in the house, and Charlie rode to fetch Doc Wilson. The doc’s inside now, but he told us to wait out here. Can you find out what’s happenin’, Luke? We’re all worried.”

Luke felt like all of his insides were frozen, and he swallowed hard, trying not to let his rising panic show in front of the hands. For all of his grumbling about Stone revealing too much, he was on the verge of doing the same thing, and he couldn’t afford that luxury. Instead, he nodded, trying to appear calm and reassuring for the men.

“I’ll do that.” He patted Shorty’s shoulder. And he meant it. No one was going to stand in the way of him finding out what had happened and more importantly, if Stone was all right.

His jaw set, he strode toward the big house and went inside, heading straight for the stairs. No doubt they’d taken Stone up to his bedroom, and Luke took the steps two at a time on his way up. The bedroom door was open, and Luke stopped on the threshold, peering inside anxiously.

“What’s goin’ on, Doc?” he asked in a hushed voice.

Doc Wilson was a solid, grey-haired man who’d birthed or buried many of the folks in Serenity; he glanced back over his shoulder and grunted when he recognized Luke. He was blocking Luke’s view of the bed, but he moved aside and beckoned Luke to come in.

Stone was lying beneath a sheet, looking paler than Luke had ever seen him. There was a bandage wrapped around his head and another around his bare chest. His eyes were closed, and he seemed to be breathing more shallowly than Luke thought proper.

“He’s mighty lucky,” the doctor said, keeping his voice low. “I got him on laudanum right now to keep him still and dull the pain. He’s cracked a couple of ribs, but lucky for him, he’s got a head as hard as his name. That fall rang his bell pretty good, but I don’t think he’s broken his skull or scrambled his brains overly much.”

Luke swallowed hard, relieved that the news hadn’t been worse. “Mary and me will take care of him. What do we need to do?”

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