“You work hard and learn everything I can teach you, you’ll be a free man in seven years,” Ernest Coats said as he and Wallace McCracken led the heavily-packed trade mules north toward Augusta Landing.
Wallace marveled at his almost new clothes that nearly fit and said, “I get that, but why’d did ya save me? I was goin to hang, sure as the sun comes up.”
Ernest smiled at the young, strapping lad. “It’s a sin to waste a life.”
“Seen a lot wasted,” Wallace said. “But maybe my luck’s changed for once. It’s hard to believe it’s real.”