Brother Badman by Ben Elliott

Author:Ben Elliott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adventure, action, cowboys, gunfighters, westerns
Publisher: Piccadilly

Chapter Eight

Dawn was streaking the sky when Rae Marsh swung down off the weary bay in the cover of the great shadow cast by the decaying log fort outside Bent’s Crossing. Usually, after a night of raiding with Ford, he managed to make it back to the town itself before daylight, to ease into Crystal’s place and to bed down in the tiny closet of a room upstairs that she had allocated to his use. But he was running late this time; the argument about the captive had held him up, and he did not dare be seen riding into Bent’s Crossing on a hard-traveled horse, obviously having been up all the night himself—not after the released captive might have pinpointed to Anders exactly when and how this latest cattle-theft had taken place.

But the old fort offered cover and a chance to catch forty winks. He had watered the bay at the last stream, and it would have to do without fodder until he put it in the livery stable later in the day. There were a few rotting box stalls in the fort; he hid the bay in one of those and found a crevice behind some fallen roof joists where he could roll up in his blanket and get some sleep.

But, tired as he was, sleep was a long time coming tonight. This whole deal was souring more and more. Three hundred head, he thought as he lay there; his half of that should be enough to get court action started. And if they kept up, if they tried to rustle the entire fantastic third, a thousand cattle, somebody innocent was going to get killed in the process. He did not care about Ford’s men; he did not care about Anders or any professional gunmen Anders might hire; he did not even care about himself. But he cared about the ordinary Circle M riders who were only doing their duty to their brand—and most of all, he cared about Will. Sooner or later, if there was fighting, Will was bound to be sucked into it.

Maybe the best thing to do, the smart thing, the sensible one, would be to call off Ford. The cattle thief had made a good haul and he was smart enough to understand that their luck had been pushed about as far as it would go.

Well, he would think about it in the morning. Right now, he had to have some shuteye. He rolled over, pulled the blanket up around his ears, put his hat over his eyes, and with his head on the seat of his saddle, finally dropped into exhausted, dreamless sleep.

Daylight awakened him, lancing through gaps in the tumbled down roof above him. He sat up, as instantly alert as a waking wolf, head swiveling, hand reaching for gun, but all was still. He could hear the bay stamping in the stall, even hear the rumbling of its empty belly. Rae relaxed and slowly got to his feet, brushing chips of rotten wood from shirt and chaps.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.