The Mill Book 2

About the Book

It was hot and humid, sweat trickled down my face, back and arms. My palms were so wet from the sweat that I could barely keep hold of the paddle. My arms ached and with each stroke of the paddle left the aching more! We had been paddling since an hour before sunup and we dare not stop now. We had been jumped in that town back there and left several men with busted jaws, broken noses or worse. Some one had yelled, “They killed old Jake turner,” others were calling to string us up, because we were murderers. Maw and Paw didn’t raise any foolish children that I knew of, and if they did, I knew Joshua and I weren’t them. We had taken off running and seen this canoe had been pulled up on the bank, well it wasn’t tied off and it had two paddles so I just figured it was divine intervention. Well we both had a real bad hankering to be on the other bank, so we jumped in and took off. It was pitch black dark, so dark you couldn’t see much, there was no moon, and stars to help. So we just kept paddling away from the lanterns that were bobbin up and down in the darkness. We must have gotten into a faster running channel as they kept getting farther behind. Then finally there was no light at all. But I know they were still back there. We kept paddling fast. I can see the muscles on Joshua’s arms and back work as he paddles. He’s not quite as tall or big as I am; but was meaner than a wildcat when riled or cornered.

He stands just shy of 6 feet tall and weights about 190 pounds with sandy brown hair hanging past his shoulders but with the prettiest blue green eyes. I am an inch taller and weigh about 5 lbs more with hair of a more reddish brown than sandy like wise I wear mine shoulder length. Joshua was like a wildcat when riled he would scramble claw bite he was a scraper. All us Stalworth men were broad shouldered and narrow at the waist it came from a lot of hard work. We had been following this Claude De Cuir from New Orleans to the Sabine River. Where we ran into this mess the only weapons we had was our belt knives except there was a small war axe lying in the bottom of the canoe. The water was real muddy but hardly any current we were in among some huge trees they had big trunks and lived in the water. Where there’s land the big sprawling oaks are the main tree; both are covered in what they call Spanish moss it’s a gray colored mass that grew hanging on the trees. Suddenly Joshua just stopped paddling; I eased mine in the water to steer. I’ve seen snakes hanging on the limbs waiting to fall on their victims, the black ones with the white mouths are called cotton mouths which they say if bitten you could be a goner. Some folks have survived but not many. I know I wasn’t hankering on finding out. Joshua motioned to come forward slowly and then directed me to steer past a huge old Cyprus tree and into a small area of thick brush. There was a little piece of land we eased in and got out of the canoe. I was glad for a break from squatting on my knees for so long, not to mention my muscles were plumb wore out we pulled the canoe onto the land and squatted down in the brush. We could hear them coming, they were a nosey bunch, it took them almost an hour before we seen them. They stopped right in front of the Cyprus tree where we were hidden behind, or I hoped we were hidden. There was 3 canoes each had 2 men, they were joined by 2 more which came from the direction we were had started to go before we stopped. They were arguing whether to turn back or continue looking. They were talking and I could make out some of what they were saying, but not much. Something about Texas shore. being close, another disagreed saying, “there still in here, this current will keep you going in circles if you don’t hit it right and them fellows they didn’t know nothing about these currents.” Another said, DeCuir said to hold them off his trail, it’s been nearly 4 days since he left, let’s go back, we’ve done what he paid us to do. “No its my canoe,

About the Author

I was born in September 1944, in rural Gallia County Ohio. I graduated from high school in 1962 and joined the Marine Corps. Having served twenty three years in the corps I retired in 1984, and attended Arizona Western college, as a Education major. Married Ellen on December 19 1975. We have three children and seven grandchildren and one great- granddaughter, I have finally retired, and live in Biloxi MS where I am pursuing a career as an author of fiction, and historical fiction novels!