Novel 1959 - The First Fast Draw (v5.0) by Louis L'Amour

Author:Louis L'Amour [L'Amour, Louis]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Usenet
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 1959-09-01T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

MY CORN WAS growing tall when I rode again to the house of Katy Thorne. It had become a place I could not leave alone, nor my quiet talks with her, nor the good coffee in the candlelight. There was a softness in me that I’d nigh forgotten, and I’d sit tipped back in my chair watching her move about the room, listening to the rustle of her skirts, and at times talking to Aunt Flo.

It was a strange thing for me, a hard man grown accustomed to hard ways, to talk with this maiden lady and to Katy, but the house had a warmth for me that I liked. I knew I was not the only visitor, for Katy Thorne had a way with people, and even Chance came at times, although unwelcome I knew. And there was another, a man I’d not met, named Thomas Warren, and a teacher in a school not far away.

He was a stiff young man who rode uncomfortably in the saddle and who had a high-nosed way about him that drew some joking from the boys in the swamps who had seen him about. Yet he had much talk of books that Katy hungered for, and it was something I could not give her. I read whatever came to hand, but it was little enough, and mainly old newspapers and sometimes a magazine.

It was growing faintly yellow around the trees when I came again to the house of Katy Thorne. It was early, but there was smoke from the chimney, and knowing Aunt Flo was a late riser I surmised it must be Katy herself who was up and about.

She saw me coming and opened the door. “Put your horse away. I have breakfast ready.”

It was a welcome thing, for I had worked until after dark the night before, and was too tired to prepare food for myself, so I’d dumped water over me from the well and sponged off and gone at once to bed.

These days I was staying at times in the old family house, but not often, and usually in the swamps, but I was a man wary of surprise, and not wanting to travel the same trail too often, so I shifted about and kept myself out of the way and out of sight.

There had been no trouble yet with the Reconstruction people, although there was talk of my arrest for taking the guns from Colonel Belser, in Jefferson. There’d been a note I sent him in which I protested any claim he had to the weapons, for his men taking mine from me.

There was a small shed in the orchard where I stabled my horse these days, and kept oats or corn for it, and some hay. There were two doors at opposite ends and the place was hidden in vines and behind a row of trees, and not many knew it was there. A great wisteria vine had grown over it, and the place had not been used in so many years that even those who knew the place had almost forgotten it.

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.