Chapter 6

Winter came back with a vengeance after Jess and Slim returned to Laramie. The storm settled in and snowed for better than a week, not a heavy snow like the last storm, but steady day and night. By the time the storm moved on there were better than two feet of snow in the low hills and they could only guess that the high mountains probably received better than three or four feet, with more in the drifts.

Jess was angry … angry at the weather, angry at Slim and angry with himself. He should have stayed at Ft. Laramie instead of coming back to Laramie. He could have gotten a week or better of searching done, now it would be at least a week or two, maybe more before the snow settled enough so he could travel.

Daisy and Slim had been walking on eggs around him and were relieved when he left the house to shovel the path to the outhouse.

"What can we do to help him Slim? He is a powder keg waiting to explode."

"Unfortunately, there is only one thing that will settle him down and ease his mind and to be honest with you, I don't think it's going to happen."

Daisy was surprised that Slim had given up. "You really don't think that Mort will be found alive, do you? What gives you that opinion?"

"Knowing Mort as I do. If he had been delayed, he would have wired us or Johnny as soon as he could and the fact that no one has seen or heard from him could only mean one thing. I don't want to believe it, but I'm afraid that's the case."

Daisy wasn't so sure. Obviously something had happened to Mort, but was he really dead? She had been praying daily for his safety and welfare, she just didn't feel like she could give up on him so easily, even if everything pointed towards it.

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As soon as Jess could get into Laramie, he went directly to the newspaper office. He walked in to find the editor writing a story for the next edition.

"Good morning Jess, what can I do for you today?"

"I hope you can help me Mark, I want you to write something up for the paper asking for help in finding out what happened to Mort. Someone must have seen him after he left here and we need to try and get the word out to them. Can you help me?"

Giving Jess a sad look he thought carefully of what to say. "Jess, I'll be glad to write something for you, but it's been over a month since Mort left and you and I both know it shouldn't have taken him more than a week to get to Fort Laramie, even with the bad weather. So what would he be doing during that time when all he wanted was to be at the fort as soon as possible? He was so excited about being the Godfather to Johnny's little boy that he wouldn't have let anything stop him short of an accident, or worse. I guess what I'm saying is, what would an article accomplish?"

Jess' anger, topped with his worry, had him near the breaking point … taking a deep breath to control that anger, he continued, "Mark, you have hunches, premonitions, whatever you want to call them don't you? Well, my gut is telling me that Mort is alive and probably needing help. I can't say why, I have no evidence, but I know my gut and it's telling me to do everything I can to find him. Now are you going to write something or not? If you don't want to do it for me, then do it for Mort. Please."

Mark stared at him for so long that Jess was getting nervous. Finally he nodded his head and told him, "All right Jess. I'll write the article, I think it's a lost cause, but I will do it … for Mort."

"Thanks Mark, I really appreciate it. How much do I owe you?"

Smiling, Mark replied, "I'm doing it for Mort, there'll be no charge. I hope it works Jess."

The headline of the next edition of the Laramie Sentinel read: LARAMIE SHERIFF MISSING. The story related all the information that was available as to his destination and the dates, along with a picture. All they could do now was wait and hope that someone saw it.

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Two strangers rode up to the saloon in Hartville. They had been on the trail for weeks looking for work, having no luck they decided to stop and see if someone here knew of any ranches or one of the mines that were looking for workers.

Tom Mason watched them swing down and come through the door. "Hi boys, you look kinda thirsty, what can I get for you?"

"Well mister, we would love a drink, but what we're really looking for is some work. It's been a long spell since we've had any spending money. Ya don't know anyone around looking for a couple of good workers, do you?"

Tom had been hungry many times in his life and he felt sorry for these young fellows, they looked like good men that were just down on their luck for the moment. "Take a seat over there and I'll be right with you." With that he headed into the back room.

"Pat, you don't suppose he's going to kick us out, do you? He really didn't look too favorable on us." Before Pat could answer, Tom came back in with a plate of cheese, some hard boiled eggs and some slices of ham and yesterday's bread.

"You boys dig into that while I bring you something to drink."

"Mister, we sure would like to take you up on that, but we just told you we ain't got no money and we don't want charity."

The bartender brought a pot of coffee and poured them each a cup, "Oh don't worry, I'll find something for you to do to work it off. Now eat up."

Tom knew that cowhands didn't much like doing menial labor, but he had some work that needed done that would more than pay for the meal.

The men dug right into the food and after they finished their meal, they rolled a cigarette and relaxed while reading an old newspaper they had picked up back down the trail a ways. They didn't know anyone mentioned in it, but it was something to read and reading material was hard to find on the frontier.

After a half hour, Tom rousted them out and showed them what he wanted done, telling them that when they were finished he would provide a drink before they went on their way.

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Doc Gregory had just arrived from making his southern rounds, having just left the Blake ranch. The saloon was his first stop as he was thirsty and he knew Tom would have all the latest news for him. He walked into the dimly lit room only to find it empty, but that was all right as he knew his way around the place pretty good, so he walked down to the end of the bar and helped himself to one of the bottles off the back bar. Grabbing a glass he sauntered over to a table, poured himself a drink and waited for Tom.

It was about fifteen minutes later that Tom returned to the saloon to find his friend, Doctor Gregory drinking up all his profits. "Doc, dag gone it, when did you get back to town?"

"Hello Tom, I just arrived and needed a little drink to warm up. It's beginning to look like spring is here, but it's still pretty dang chilly. What's been going on while I was gone?" He poured another drink and waited for Tom to join him.

The bartender snagged a glass on his way by the bar and joined his friend. "There hasn't been much of anything going on. The snow has kept people in for the most part. How about you, did you find everyone in good health?"

"Yep, at least all the regulars, but I did run onto a strange thing at the Blake ranch. They have a stranger there that got caught in a snow slide, hurt his head real bad and can't remember anything. Poor guy, he's pretty shook up about it and I'm not sure if he'll recover his memory or not."

"Damn, I can only imagine how that would affect a person, I hope he recovers. And how about Jenny, isn't she about ready to have that baby?"

"Yes she is, about another two months if I'm not mistaken. Well, I better find a room and get cleaned up. I'm going to head out again in the morning, so I will see you on the next trip through. Thanks for the drink!"

After the doc left Tom cleared the table of their dirty glasses and grabbed the plates off of the other table. As he wiped the table off he saw the newspaper that the cowboys had left on the table. Like everyone else, he hungered for news from out of the area, so he sat down and opened it up. It was dated nearly three weeks earlier and had been read and re-read, folded and unfolded so that a lot of the print was unreadable, but it was the front page story that caught his attention … Laramie Sheriff Missing

He immediately remembered back to the two young strangers that were inquiring about their sheriff friend. He was pretty certain this was him, so he headed to the telegraph office to tell them about the stranger at the Blake ranch.