Devil's Den by Jon Sharpe

Author:Jon Sharpe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

7

By the time Fargo got to the livery stable, Alma had picked out a mount and made arrangements with the liveryman to rent it. The horse was a mostly brown gelding with white stockings and a white blaze on its nose. The liveryman threw a saddle on the gelding and told Alma to return the animal the next time she was in Tahlequah. Evidently, the man was an old friend of her grandfather’s.

“Thank you, Sam,” Alma told him with a smile.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sam said. “Jefferson don’t need to be stayin’ out there by himself. That old codger needs somebody to look after him.”

Alma laughed. “I won’t tell him you said so.”

“Oh, no. He’d get his back up about me callin’ him old, and I’d never hear the end of it.”

Fargo took care of saddling the Ovaro himself. When he was done, he and Alma led their horses out onto the street. “I’ll pick up a few more supplies,” he told her, “and then we’ll be ready to ride.”

“All right. I still have to settle my bill at the hotel, so I’ll do that while you’re getting the supplies.”

Fargo took out a coin and gave it to her. “My hotel bill needs to be paid, too. Appreciate it if you’d take care of that for me.”

“Of course,” she said as he handed her the coin.

Fargo headed down the street after tying the two horses to the hitching post outside the stable. Since Dupree’s Emporium was the only store in Tahlequah he knew anything about, he decided to get the supplies there. He figured the store would have everything he and Alma would need.

Business was at a lull when Fargo went inside. He didn’t see any customers in the aisles between the shelves, nor was anyone waiting at the counter in the rear of the big room. No clerks were in sight, either. The only person behind the counter was Eva Dupree.

She greeted Fargo with a smile. “Good morning. What can I do for you?” The slow, sensuous way she spoke made the question sound like more than it really was.

Or maybe it didn’t, Fargo thought, as he took note of the way Eva’s eyes played over his buckskin-clad body.

He pretended not to notice, though. He figured he didn’t have time for any complications like that. “I need some flour and salt, and a box of forty-four-caliber shells if you have them.”

“Of course. How much flour and salt?”

Fargo thought about it for a second and then said, “Two pounds of flour, half a pound of salt.”

Eva nodded. “I’ll get it right away. Anything else I can do for you?”

Again Fargo thought the words might have more than one meaning. “No, that’ll do it.” As Eva began to gather the supplies, he looked around the store and added, “You’re not very busy this morning.”

“It’s late enough so that the morning rush is over,” she explained. “Things will pick up again later.” She put the sacks of flour and salt on the counter and then turned to get the box of cartridges from a high shelf behind the counter.

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