MARCH 19, 1861
Ike reread the letter again. He couldn't believe it. Could this lady be telling the truth? His sister alive? He just couldn't believe it. He had never seen her after that horrible day. People had told him that they must have killed her and thrown her body in the river or taken the girl with them.
Afterwards Ike was taken to an orphanage. When he got older he tried to search for his sister. He found every man that he believed was involved with the massacre of his family. None of them had his sister or would tell him anything about her, so he started believing that they had killed her. It had been two years since he had let himself believe that she was still alive.
This girl named Tyler said in the letter that she and Jennifer had a fallen out. She didn't go in to detail just that she had used Jennifer to get a Wanted Man to the law. He just really didn't understand that part. Did she mean that Jennifer liked a Wanted Man? Well for right now that part didn't matter. Tyler went on to say that she had tried to befriend Jennifer again, and tell her that she had seen Ike in Virginia City, Nevada. She had seen him there and had asked around about him. That's how she had known Ike.
She didn't go in to details as to why she had been asking about him, but she did say that it was good that she had, so that she could tell Jen about him. She hoped that Jen would some day believe what she had said and go and look for him. She also said that she had went to Nevada to see if Jen had listened to her, and that she heard that Ike and his Indian friend had moved on. Unfortunately, she hadn't seen Jen there.
Someone had mentioned that they might be going to Nebraska, so she had just addressed the envelope to Nebraska in hopes that Ike would get it. She had to return to Texas immediately, so she couldn't search for him at this time. But when she got some free time, she would look for him that is if he hadn't already found her.
The part that really mattered was that Tyler was heading for Texas to meet up with her kinfolk. She had told Ike that he could seek her out there if he needed to. She had also told him what towns that she and Jennifer had stayed in together on their way to Nevada, and also about a town called Four Corners that Jennifer had been living and working in.
Ike was determined to find his sister, but Buck didn't want him to go looking alone, and Caly didn't want Buck to go, so Buck had agreed to Caly that he would stay until the rodeo was over, and then he would go with Ike. So that meant either Ike could head out and start looking on his own or he could wait a little while longer until Buck could go with him. He was undecided. He wanted to start off right away. He knew that Buck could find him because he's such a great tracker, but he didn't want Buck to have to find him. But then again he didn't want the trail to find his sister to get cold. He finally made up his mind and went in search of Teaspoon. After finding and telling Teaspoon that he was leaving, he packed his things, mounted Shyster and headed out. He left Buck a note on his bunk telling him that he was heading for Texas to find Tyler and then to search for his sister.