01 Railroad Schemes by Cecelia Holland

Author:Cecelia Holland [Holland, Cecelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History - American
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

King had watched Brand go into the Crystal Palace; knowing where Brand was made him feel a lot easier. He let Jewell’s old red mare sidewheel down the street, pulling a little at the bit. She needed to be ridden more; she was out of shape, popping a sweat already. He reined her into First Street, heading down across a dried-up arm of the zanja toward the train yard.

The old water ditch was full of sage and here and there a sprouting cottonwood. On the side street, dark and quiet, he drew the mare down to a walk, glad to get out from under the spotty glare of the streetlamps.

He let the mare pick her way across the dry zanja and up the short incline. On the far side she broke into her ambling pace again, her neck extended. Ahead, pocked with light, surrounded by a fence, a big house stood beside the street. As he approached he saw a little group of people walking up the front path to the door, and the door opened to meet them and light flooded the porch. He heard the rising chatter of voices. Quickly the big house gathered all these people in.

He eased the mare down to a walk. He wondered what it was like to live like that, in a house where you could walk right in the front door, with people who knew your right name.

The lit windows were veiled in some kind of lacy white cloth; he could see shadows moving behind them, but he could not tell what was going on. Suddenly the urge seized him to draw his guns, to blast through those windows, to let in the dark.

The idea faded. He nudged the mare forward again, down the street, past two other big wooden houses where lawbiding people lived. If he lived like that, he could stay here, settle down with Serafa and Lily.

When he thought that, as he had now a couple of times, the idea leaped away from him, drew him on through pictures and dreams. Settle down, yes, but not here, not in town. Get a little ranch, up some draw in the hills where there was water, trees, good hunting in the back country. Raise some horses, run a few head of cattle. Grow corn and tomatoes, chilies, squash. Send Lily to school. Eat Serafa’s tortillas and colorado, lie in her arms every night. For a moment, as it always did, it looked so good, that dream.

But he could not stay King Callahan and do that; he’d have to get some other name. And it couldn’t be here, where too many people knew him. And it would take a lot of money. He only knew one way to make money. As soon as he stopped to think it over, the dream collapsed.

He didn’t think he’d much like himself that way, anyway. Sitting on a porch somewhere in the sun, smoking a pipe, reading a newspaper.

He shifted in the saddle, uneasy. He already spent a lot of time sitting around reading newspapers.

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