Part 29 (2/2)
Tad joined him, then Emma and Barbara.
”Why don't you fix it, Pa?” Tad asked.
”I can't.” He looked levelly at Emma. ”Are you afraid to stay with the youngsters for a while?”
She looked at him, unable to answer.
”I'll leave the rifle with Tad.”
”What are you going to do, Joe?”
”The only thing I can do, ride back to that abandoned wagon we saw and take a wheel from it. The mules won't be hauling a wagon and I should be able to make time. If I leave now, I can get a long way before dark.”
She gritted her teeth. What must be, must be.
”I'll fix you some lunch.”
”Thank you, darling. Tad, walk with me, will you?”
”Sure, Pa.”
Tad beside him, Joe walked up the river bank. He swallowed hard. If there were a fort, or even a house--But there wasn't any and he couldn't build any. Joe turned to his son. He looked down in the wide, trusting eyes, and he felt both proud and fearful.
”Tad, you must take over.”
”Sure, Pa.” His face was eager.
”I don't think you'll have any trouble. But if you do, if anyone at all comes, don't try to defend the wagon. Walk away and let them have it.”
”Suppose they come after us?”
”Then,” Joe said grimly, ”shoot and shoot to kill!”
Tad blinked once, and then he said soberly, ”Yes, Pa.”
Joe took from his box the tools he needed, and strapped them to the horse mule's harness. Emma pressed a parcel into his hands.
”Here's food.” Suddenly her eyes misted over, and her mouth trembled, and then stopped. ”You--you watch yourself, Joe. Be careful.” She managed a smile.
”I'll be all right,” he called as he rode away. ”I'll be back before you know it.”
They watched him ride away, the younger children merely staring. But Barbara and Emma had a sudden sense of weakness, as though their strength were going with him. Tad set his jaw and clutched the rifle.
Joe turned once to wave.
As soon as he was out of sight, the loneliness and desolation, the terrible emptiness of this wild place, struck Emma Tower like a solid blow. She s.h.i.+vered and kept her face averted because she did not want her children to see what was written there. Gazing down the Trail, she thought she saw Joe again and knew she had not. He had gone on a lonely, dangerous ride, and for a moment she entertained the soul-chilling notion that she would never see him again.
Then she banished such thoughts from her mind. She was here, halfway between Missouri and G.o.d only knew where, because she had confidence in Joe's ability to take care of his family and himself. She loved Missouri and she would have been perfectly contented to stay there. But she loved Joe more, and she knew all about the desperate longings and wild undercurrents which were within him and which he must constantly battle.
She knew about the opportunities he had always sought but never had, and of his hopes for his children. If Oregon was the answer to that, then Oregon it would be.
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