Monument Rock: Stories by Louis L'Amour

Author:Louis L'Amour [L'Amour, Louis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Westerns, Action & Adventure, Historical
ISBN: 9780553899504
Google: QYlJxrrnfTQC
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2005-05-31T04:00:00+00:00

MONUMENT ROCK

Chapter I

Lona was afraid of him. She was afraid of Frank Mailer, the man whom she was to marry.

She realized that it was not size alone that made her afraid of him, but something else, something she saw in his blue, slightly glassy eyes, and the harshness of his thin-lipped mouth.

He was big, the biggest man she had ever seen, and she knew his contempt for smaller men, men of lesser strength and lesser will. He was five inches over six feet and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds. Whenever he stood near her, the sheer mass of him frightened her and the way he looked at her made her uneasy.

Her father looked up at him as he came in. "Did you get that north herd moved before the rain set in?"

"Yeah." Mailer did not look up, helping himself to two huge slabs of beef, a mound of mashed potatoes, and liberal helpings of everything else. He commenced his supper by slapping butter on a thick slice of homemade bread and taking an enormous bite, then holding the rest of it in his left hand, he began to shovel food into his mouth with his right.

Between bites he looked up at Poke Markham. "I saw the Black Rider."

"On our range?"

"Uh-huh. Just like they were sayin' in town, he was ridin' the high country, alone.

Over toward Chimney Rock."

"Did you get close to him? See what he looks like?"

"Not a chance. Just caught a glimpse of him over against the rocks, and then he was gone, like a shadow. That horse of his is fast." Mailer looked up and Lona was puzzled by the slyness in his eyes as he looked at her father. "You know what the Mexican boys say? That he's the ghost of a murdered man?"

The comment angered Markham. "That's foolishness! He's real enough, all right! What I want to know is who he is and what he thinks he's doin'."

"Maybe the Mex boys are right. You ever see any tracks? I never did, an' nobody else that I ever heard of. Nobody ever sees him unless it is almost dark or rainin', an' then never more than a glimpse."

"He's real enough!" Markham glared from under his shaggy brows, his craggy face set in angry lines. "Some outlaw on the dodge, that's who he is, hangin' out in the high peaks so he won't be seen. Who's he ever bothered?"

Mailer shrugged. "That's the point. He ain't bothered anybody yet, but maybe he wants one certain man." Mailer looked up at Poke, in his malicious way. "Maybe he's the ghost of a murdered man, like they say, an' maybe he's tryin' to lure his murderer back into the hills."

"That's nonsense!" Markham repeated irritably. "You'll have Lona scared out of her wits, ridin' all over like she does."

Frank Mailer looked at her, his eyes meeting hers, then running down over her breast.

He always made her uncomfortable. How had she ever agreed to marry him? She knew that when he drank he became fiercely belligerent.

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