5Barney’s Camp House was situated right next door to Ten Mile Station, and the whistles and shouts of the wagon drivers as they negotiated the highway traffic penetrated the thin walls of Rory Mackinnon’s sparse room.
Caleb’s chest ached with sadness. This was where his childhood friend had spent his last nights on earth. A narrow single bed with a lumpy mattress; a bedside table that listed to the right, one leg dangerously at an angle; a wrinkled newspaper lying on top alongside a comb and a box of matches. Rory had always been a gentle dreamer, with a tender heart for animals. Dougal was always trying to toughen him up, Caleb recalled. He was an intuitive horseman, but not a natural-born rancher.
He’d come to Barney’s seeking clues as to Rory’s comings and goings in the days before hi
