Longarm and the Railroad War by Tabor Evans

Author:Tabor Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-08-03T00:00:00+00:00

“Take my word for it. I intend to get full value received.” Earlier, they had driven all the horses back into the corral. When they were finished with breakfast and ready to start toward Rimfire, Jessie, Ki, and Adam mounted up and cut out the ones that Adam intended to take back to the settlement with him, leaving the fresher animals here to use as stagecoach teams for the next few weeks.

“They hold up better that way over the long run, when they get an occasional period of extended rest.”

Jessie accepted Adam’s explanation. She didn’t know much about running a stagecoach company, so she was more than willing to take his word on such things.

The three of them were able to handle the small horse herd easily. They pushed the animals northward at a steady pace, not getting in any hurry. By midday, they’d reached another way station, where a lanky old-timer named Bert Moss had lunch ready for them. Bert was a better cook than Horace—although it was hard to mess up beans—but his coffee wasn’t as good.

After they had eaten, they resumed the trip to Rimfire. Adam kept looking around as if he expected bushwhackers to jump them at any second. Jessie and Ki were in the habit of staying alert at all times, so such caution was nothing new to them.

As they approached a gap between two steep bluffs, Adam pointed it out to Jessie. “That’s Fielder’s Cut. Day before yesterday, my sister Rose was driving the stagecoach through there when somebody opened fire on her from the bluffs. She said it sounded like there were several gunmen. That’s when the team stampeded and got away from her.”

“But this man Parker helped her, you said?”

Adam nodded. “That’s right. He was able to stop the team, but not before the front axle cracked from all the bouncing around the coach was doing. He repaired it well enough for Rose to turn around and go back to Rimfire. We replaced the axle there. It’s been a problem, keeping the coaches in good enough shape to use them. I did some work on the other one yesterday morning, before I brought those fresh horses out.”

“You only have two stagecoaches?”

“We had four, but we’ve had to sell a couple of them to keep enough money in the bank for operating expenses. Anyway, our business has fallen off so much that two coaches are enough to meet the demand.”

“We’ll have to see what we can do about that.”

Adam gave her a doubtful look. “You can’t just manufacture demand out of thin air.”

Jessie smiled. “You’d be surprised. If you cut fares enough, people who have been postponing traveling might decide to go ahead and make their trips.”

“But if you don’t charge enough, you’ll lose money.”

“It’s better to lose a little money in hopes of making more later.”

Adam shook his head. “You’re the tycoon, not me.”

Ki laughed. “Tycoon. It’s hard to think of you that way, Jessie, especially when you’re dressed like a cowboy and packing iron.

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.