The long ride for Rebecca!

The trail wound on and the rain bounced off the once dusty earth. Joe sat slumped in his saddle and he moved with the rollercoaster hips of his black and white horse. Joe Mused  ‘Snake Rise’ must be anytime now! Christ I need to get off this horse as much as I love him a week on his back is enough!’

Joe subconsciously reached down his right thigh and felt the cold blue steel of his ‘Colt .45 Peacemaker’ he checked the leather strap held the nearly new Colt firmly in the holster. His left hand ran around his waist and felt the cold of the .45 calibre bullets neatly held in the holes around his thick leather belt. The Stallion stumbled slightly over a wet rock. The jolt brought Joe back from his deep thoughts.

Ahead faint lights glowed; the oil lamps seemed to flicker as the rain pounded the outside of the wooden buildings. Joe sat high in his saddle as his horse descended the incline into the main street of  ‘Snake Rise’ Joe guided his horse to the rail outside the biggest building the  ‘Crystal Saloon’ His horse drank greedily from the horse trough outside the saloon. Joe dismounted and tied the leather reins over the knurled wooden rail and walked into the saloon.

The saloon was held in a Smokey blue hue. The bar was long perhaps 30 feet. Joe took off his leather wax doped rain coat and stood at the bar,

“What can I get you stranger? You drinking and eating? You know I have some real fine steaks courtesy of a Cowboy who couldn’t pay for his entertainment! He paid with a big Steer!”

The bar-lady leaned back against the huge mirror behind the bar and weighed up Joe and waited for his answer? Joe took off his soaking wet hat and placed it on the polished bar and ran his hand through his Blonde unruly hair and said,

“Yes Ma’am I’ll have a Whiskey; a whole bottle, I may eat later but my throat is powerful dry considering the rain!”

The bar-lady smiled and bent under the counter and brought out a thick glass Whiskey bottle with no labels on it. She blew into a shot glass and slid both down the bar to Joe and said,