A Lesson Learned: Red: Book 3 by Maloney Darrell

Author:Maloney, Darrell [Maloney, Darrell]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2016-03-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

John Stance’s plan was simple. He’d scour the countryside looking for men who could shoot and follow orders. Men who were too afraid of him to tell him no.

He’d tell the men they were working for nothing. But that within a year, after Stance had assembled the greatest empire the west had ever known, they each would be cut in for a big slice of the pie.

Whether he ever followed through with that promise didn’t really matter much. He might reward those of his men who were most trustworthy, who fought hardest for his cause. He might slight the weaker ones, might even kill them so they couldn’t bitch about being short-changed.

That was all later. It was going to take some months to achieve his ultimate goal. And his ultimate goal, after taking control of all the smaller ranches in the area, was to declare war with his army.

Upon the Rocking RJ ranch and all its occupants.

Now, half a year into his campaign, things were progressing more or less as he’d planned them. He was hoping to be able to sweep into the Rocking RJ within a few more months and to wipe out its entire population.

Except for Sally Davis and a few other young women for his men to share.

There was only one serious glitch in his plan.

It seemed there was a very serious shortage of horses in the area.

He had more men than mounts, and that presented a major problem.

For while his army could attack and take over a ranch with limited acreage while mostly afoot, the logistics of a ranch the size of the Rocking RJ made that tactic fairly impossible.

So for the time being Stance and his eighty man army were in horse gathering mode.

He’d given his men a standing order. The men who already had horses were scouring the countryside looking for more. They were to shoot the riders on sight, collect their ponies and to bring them back to Stance’s armed camp.

Stance himself would select the most worthy of his foot soldiers and present them with their new mounts.

Those so awarded would then be dispatched with the same instructions.

A tiny snowball rolling downhill gains momentum and turns into a huge ball in no time at all. In the same manner, Stance’s horse gathering operation quickly garnered every available horse in Lynn County.

And he was desperately seeking more.

By chance, it was Stance himself who discovered Red and Jacob’s tracks. He was riding with four of his lieutenants to the southern corner of the county to survey what was left of a ranch house his raiders had burned to the ground. The ranch owners wouldn’t willingly cooperate by handing over their horses. They made the mistake of gathering together in the ranch house and made it their Alamo, defending it against the aggressors.

But the ranchers couldn’t stop night from falling.

And they couldn’t stop the raiders from sneaking up in the darkness and setting the house ablaze.

The raiders retreated while the flames took hold. Then they

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