KANSAS 1878
The blue norther hit like a thunderclap.
The rapid gusts of wind instantly turned the temperature from cool to
freezing. One minute Luke Dawson was
riding north to retrieve some drifting cattle, the next he was unlashing his
sheepskin coat from the back of his saddle and rapidly shrugging it on. He tightened the string on his Stetson before
wrapping a scarf around his face. He
pulled on leather gloves while guiding his horse with his knees. The cattle he was moving began bawling at the
sudden 40 degree drop in temperature.
“I know just how you feel,” Luke thought.
The icy wind wailed and stabbed like a
needle going through cloth. In the
frozen air Luke felt like he had no
clothes on at all. Then the snow
started. “It’s as cold now,” Luke said
to himself, “as it was in Yankton for the trial of Jack McCall.”
Luke was just over 20 but had the
experience of men twice his age.
Standing just over six feet and weighing 190 pounds he was a man “full
growed.” He’d killed his first man at
age 15 while saving his future friend, Sing Loo. Now the sudden cold reminded him of events
two years before.
***
CHAPTER 2
1876 LARAMIE
Wild Bill Hickok, Luke’s friend and mentor
had been murdered on August 2nd in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. Luke had just renewed his old acquaintance
with “Wild Bill” when he heard the shocking news. Jack McCall was acquitted of murder by a
phony “Miners Court.” A few days later
Luke confronted McCall in his ramshackle shanty just outside town and ordered
him to leave. McCall departed, the next
day.
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