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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