Man from the Desert by Luke Short

Author:Luke Short [Short, Luke]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Canning tossed the paper onto his desk and swore bitterly. Placing his elbows on the arms of his swivel chair, he steepled his fingers against his shelving chin and regarded the calendar on the wall, not even seeing it. What a damn fool Judge Benson had been to order Hanaway freed on bond. He had, of course, made the bond so high that all of them considered it the equivalent of holding Hanaway in jail. Who could have guessed that the Kit-trick girls would bail out the man who shot their brother?

He rose now, took his hat off the hook, put it on and locked the office, then went out the rear corridor door and headed for the wagon shed where his horse was stalled. At Ben's funeral yesterday he had told Harry Hall to tell Carrie that he wanted to see her today. There was no use putting it off longer.

At the hotel corner he turned his horse up Main Street, rode up it a block, then took the next street, heading toward the Kittricks' house. There was a good reason for this detour. He didn't want to pass Hall's office, for if Hall saw him headed for the Kittricks', he could flag him down and come along. Canning wanted to see Carrie alone.

Santa answered the door, said Carrie was home, and led him into the library where she left him to find Carrie. Canning, hat in hand, looked around him at the bookshelves. He could not understand why anybody would want so many books, let alone read them. The very sight of a book depressed him, reminding him of the school he had run away from as soon as he could draw puncher's wages.

He heard Carrie come in and turned to her. She looked pale, and her blue eyes seemed overlarge, her face thinned a little.

"Morning, Wes. Harry said you'd call on me today. Sit down, won't you?"

The dress she was wearing was not black, but light blue, and this somehow offended Canning. It was as if Ben, once underground, was no longer mourned, was even forgotten. Canning had already extended his sympathy at the funeral, so that was out of the way.

He walked over to the sofa, waited until Carrie seated herself in the armchair, then sat down, placing his Stetson beside him.

"Yes, I told Harry I'd like to talk with you." He hesitated, then added coldly, "About Hanaway."

"Just what about him?"

"I know where he's from. I've already wrote the sheriff up there to be on the lookout for him. You reckon he's headed for there?"

"I think he's headed for Dave Reeves," Carrie said flatly but softly.

"Is that what you'd like to believe or do believe?"

"Oh, both," Carrie said drily.

Canning's pale brown eyes regarded her with open derision. "You don't really believe he'll come back here, do you? To face a murder charge, when he's on the high lonesome already?"

"He'll be back, and with Reeves," Carrie said with conviction.

"Well, you've already bet twenty-five thousand on that and lost.

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.