Bowdrie by Louis L'Amour

Author:Louis L'Amour [L'Amour, Louis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Usenet, C429, Kat, Exratorrents
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 1983-12-01T08:00:00+00:00

JIM CANE WAS in the Caprock Saloon with Hadley when they walked in. He was a rangy young man with dark red hair and a hard jaw. He looked more like a rider than a banker. Cane turned as they entered and his eyes slanted quickly from one to the other. Bowdrie felt his pulse skip a beat as he saw Cane. A few years had changed him a lot.

“Find anything?” Hadley asked. The sheriff was a stalwart man, a leather-hard face and cool, careful eyes. A good man to have on your side, a bad man to have on your trail.

“Not much.” Bowdrie explained about the campfire and the visitor. He did not mention the unseen watcher, nor what he had found near the campfire.

“All right to get back to business at the bank?” Cane asked. There was a shade of belligerence in his tone. “I’ve ranchers coming in for their payroll money.”

“Will you have the money they need?”

“I’ve sent to Maravillas for it. We lost eight thousand dollars,” he added.

“Payroll money? Somebody must have known it would be there.”

“Everybody knew. We’ve been supplying ranchers with payroll money for years.”

“Eight thousand? That could hurt to lose. Can you make out?”

“You mean, will it break the bank? No, it won’t. That bank belongs to Mary Jane now, and I won’t let it break.” He spoke with cool determination, yet there was something more in his tone. A warning?

“You should make out,” Friede commented, “as long as no rumors get started. What if there was a run on the bank?”

Jim Cane turned his eyes to Friede. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You’d like to see Mary Jane broke and me thrown out.”

Bowdrie watched the two men. Hadley had tightened up, ready to avert trouble if it began. Out of such a quarrel might come something revealing.

Friede put down his glass. “I’ve no trouble with either of you. If Hayes wanted to take in a saddle tramp, that was his business, and if Mary Jane wants to marry a drifter, that’s hers.”

Cane balled his fists. “Why, you—!”

“Easy does it!” Hadley interrupted. “Kent, you watch your tongue. I’ve seen men killed for no more than that.”

Friede shrugged contemptuously. His face was white and drawn, but not with fear. This man when cornered could be deadly. “Don’t start anything, Cane, or I’ll have my say. Some people don’t like wet stock.”

Jim Cane looked as if he had been slapped, but before he could reply Kent Friede turned away, an ugly triumph in his expression. Cane stared after him and his hand shook as it lifted to the bar as if to steady himself. Then without a word he walked out.

Hadley stared after them. “Now, what did he mean by that?” Hadley glanced at Bowdrie. “Friede seems to know more than he lets on.”

Bowdrie made no comment, but behind his dark, Indian-like features his mind was working swiftly. The deep, dimplelike scar beneath his cheekbone seemed deeper, and his face had grown colder. Leaving Hadley in the saloon, he crossed to the bank.

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