John Denney

The Mill Book 2 John Denney

It was hot and humid, sweat trickled down my face, back and arms. My palms were so wet from the sweat that I could barely keep hold of the paddle. My arms ached and with each stroke of the paddle left the aching more! We had been paddling since an hour before sunup and we dare not stop now. We had been jumped in that town back there and left several men with busted jaws, broken noses or worse. Some one had yelled, "They killed old Jake turner," others were calling to string us up, because we were murderers. Maw and Paw didn't raise any foolish children that I knew of, and if they did, I knew Joshua and I weren't them. We had taken off running and seen this canoe had been pulled up on the bank, well it wasn't tied off and it had two paddles so I just figured it was divine intervention. Well we both had a real bad hankering to be on the other bank, so we jumped in and took off. It was pitch black dark, so dark you couldn't see much, there was no moon, and stars to help. So we just kept paddling away from the lanterns that were bobbin up and down in the darkness. We must have gotten into a faster running channel as they kept getting farther behind. Then finally there was no light at all. But I know they were still back there. We kept paddling fast. I can see the muscles on Joshua's arms and back work as he paddles. He's not quite as tall or big as I am; but was meaner than a wildcat when riled or cornered.

He stands just shy of 6 feet tall and weights about 190 pounds with sandy brown hair hanging past his shoulders but with the prettiest blue green eyes. I am an inch taller and weigh about 5 lbs more with hair of a more reddish brown than sandy like wise I wear mine shoulder length. Joshua was like a wildcat when riled he would scramble claw bite he was a scraper. All us Stalworth men were broad shouldered and narrow at the waist it came from a lot of hard work. We had been following this Claude De Cuir from New Orleans to the Sabine River. Where