Chance Encounter (Paperback)

Captain Conrad had been a member of the Union Army and served them proudly into the Civil War when he had been severely injured and left the military. He had suffered severe damage to his left leg, and had a lot of damage to the muscles of his left arm. He still had some use of his left arm but most of the strength had disappeared. Nonetheless he was grateful to still have use of both of his limbs. After leaving the Army he returned to the farm that he had purchased many years before and to the girl that he had left there until he returned. When he returned to the farm, the girl he had left behind had disappeared, and the farm had fallen into a state of total disrepair. He decided to sell the farm and head west, until he found a place that suited him better. During the next few years he continued traveling west, stopping occasionally, but never found anything to his liking until he found Colorado. He fell in love with Colorado and filed a claim on some land where he planned on raising cattle to sell to the stockyards of the larger cities like Colorado Springs and Denver. It had been several years since he had settled in Colorado and his ranch was growing in size and so was his herd of cattle. It had been hard work starting from nothing, but he had built a small cabin overlooking a valley with a sparkling stream running through it, and his herd was growing to the point that he would be able to start selling beef to the stockyards in the next year. He had developed an interest in panning for gold, and managed to pan some from the stream that flowed out of the mountains and across his land in his spare time. There was enough in the jar in his cabin that he could sell whenever he went to town and purchase additional supplies. Conrad was content with his new life in Colorado, and except for an occasional miner going past in the distance, he had no neighbors, and no company unless he wanted to go look for some. He picked up a dog along the way west, or maybe the dog picked him up, and just began following him. They had been companions ever since. The dog had become excellent at tracking the wild game in the area and even retrieving birds that Conrad had shot, so he had named the dog Tracker. There were deer and grouse in the fields, and during the spring and fall, geese and some ducks would set down in the fields during their migration. There were elk in the high country, and all of these supplied him with meat which he kept in the root cellar next to the cabin or in the smokehouse. The small lean to he had added on to the cabin served to keep the wood dry for the stove and fireplace, and kept his two horses out of the weather. There were several chickens that wandered around and kept him supplied with enough fresh eggs for just himself. It was during one of his infrequent trips to Colorado Springs for supplies that his life was going to be changed forever.