Chapter 17
The Eye in the Sky
Axle Ford rode up the narrow road that led to Cougar Rock. He had been in Bear Valley, snooping. It had rained most of the night and the road was still wet. Puddles ran long in the tracks of the wagons that worked up and down it every day. He noticed a couple of swans eating mosquitoes in a small meadow lake that was not more than a bog most of the year. It was holding a lot of water now. Ducks swam near them and pushed their heads under the water for the new sprouts that the warm weather had started on the bottom of the pond. Mosquitoes buzzed around his head and kept him swatting at them as they landed on his face. They were almost a blanket on his horse’s face and made him keep shaking his head. The ones on the horse’s eyes were red with blood and more we
