Now Playing: The Robin Hood of the Range
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Episode Eight concluded with:
“Girl, what’s takin’ so much fool time?!”
“Who’s that?” Cates asked.
“My pa. He…he drinks some.”
There was another shout. Dencel Runyan was
getting closer to the barn.
Cissy looked at the open door. “Pa will come in.
He’ll see your horse. He’ll start lookin’ around and find you.”
Episode Nine:
Cates
started to say something, but the girl hurried toward the front of the barn.
She looked near the door. Her hopes were realized: her father had left it there
that afternoon, as he occasionally did.
Cissy
picked up the jug and moved quickly out of the barn. She reached her father as
he passed by the corral and handed him the prize. “Here it is, Pa. Knowed you’d
be lookin’ for it.”
Dencel
had forgotten about the jug but accepted it gratefully. “Thanks.”
“A
man needs to whet his whistle at the end of the day.”
Dencel
was confused. His wife and daughter had never shown much good humor when it
came to his drinking. He returned to the question that had brought him out in
the first place. “Whadda you been doin’ in the barn?”
“Lookin’
after that buckskin. He don’t look all that good.”
“What’s
wrong with him?”
“Don’t
rightly know. I’m gonna spend the night in the barn. I’ll have him lookin’ fine
by tommorra, pa. You’ll be able to get a good price for him.”
Dencel
glanced over his daughter’s shoulders. He thought he saw movement inside the
barn. One of the nags seemed to be out of its stall. The horse might even have
a saddle.
The
man’s vision began to go fuzzy, as it often did. He uncorked the jug and took a
drink.
“First
thing in the morning, I’ll pretty up, Pa. I’ll be ready for that buyer when he
comes.”
“You
do that.” Dencel turned and began to slowly weave his way back to the house.
Cissy
stood and watched her father until he made it inside the house. What would she
have done if her lies had failed? The girl didn’t know, but she did know this
much. She would never have let her pa get past her and find Ricky Cates.
Tomorrow:
Episode Ten of The Robin Hood of the Range
