The Traveler

Jedidiah Isaiah Jenkins, an 18-20-year-old redheaded, left-handed fast draw, travels the states and territories of the old west of the late 1800s with his two friends, rooting out and destroying evil whenever and wherever he finds it. Jed is easy going until pushed too far, then it is kill or be killed. Jed is a true Christian at heart, and believes he has been ordained to carry out God's will. But does Jed have what it takes to rid these places of the evil that is wreaking havoc?

After two days of traveling, I pulled up on Sugar's reins, stared at the trail ahead, turned in the saddle and looked at the dusty trail behind. It looked like silver water running off a duck's back, and the land in front of us seemed to sizzle, like a burning flame. Some of the terrain looked vaguely familiar, but then looking a second time, it didn't look like anything I had seen before. As I took another look, the subtle rise and fall of the land all looked the same.

He pointed to a poster on the wall. "Maybe, you'd better read that poster," he said. The poster read: YOU WILL BE TRAVELING THROUGH INDIAN COUNTRY AND THE SAFETY OF YOUR PERSON CANNOT BE VOUCHSAFED BY ANYONE BUT GOD. "Interesting." I said.

We all went over to the sound, and there in the bushes was a young Indian brave. He was in pretty bad shape. The other Indians must have thought he had run off when the fighting started, or maybe they didn't care because he was so young, so they didn't bother looking for him. He was probably 10 or 11 years old, too young to be going on a raid like this.

The town was named Itching Tree because when the first settlers arrived, one of the trees was covered with poison oak and poison ivy. Anyone who got near it would itch for days, even weeks. Only one out of several trees was contaminated. The people tried everything to rid the tree of the poison, but nothing seemed to work. Then one day, almost six months later, magically the tree was clear of all signs of the poison. No one knows what happened. It seemed like a miracle had happened overnight.

While visiting with my aunt and uncle, in Itching Tree, Idaho, I received a telegram. It was from Mayor Madison of Windy Butte, New Mexico. I had taken care of a problem they had when we passed through there on our way to Velvet Sky, Arizona. It seemed they had a similar situation now. The new sheriff they hired was causing all kinds of grief and trouble.