Outlaw Marshal by Ray Hogan

Author:Ray Hogan [Hogan, Ray]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4405-4935-9
Publisher: Prologue Books
Published: 2012-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

10

Riding the horses bareback, and wet as they were, they pushed on. Traveling was less arduous but no more comfortable. The wind was cold, knifing through the storm that was passing now on to the dark prairie. The arroyos were beginning to flow, shouldering their surging loads of roily, silted water down from the mountain peaks and crevasses. Several times they had to stop and check the power and depth of some foaming current before continuing.

It was well after midnight when the squat, rambling shape of the way station loomed up in the darkness. They stopped behind the outlying, crumbling stables and Santell, not underestimating Harry Decket for a moment, went on foot to investigate. The huge, single room of the abandoned structure was empty, as was the barn. He returned to Melissa much relieved.

They put the horses in the stable, finding a small amount of old hay in one corner of a stall. Then they made their way to the main building. The rain had all but stopped. The wind, however, offset that relief by settling down to a wild, stiff bluster that bit deeply and cut like a muleskinner’s whip, magnifying their chill. They hurried into the doorless station, grateful to be out of the blow.

It was pitch black. Leaving Melissa in one corner out of the wind’s reach, Santell prowled the room. He located a lantern but discovered at once it contained no oil and was therefore useless. Near it he found a stub of candle. Most of his matches were wet but one finally caught flame and he set the candle to going.

It was a square room, rough-beamed and low-ceilinged. All of the windows were without glass and had been curtained with gunny sacks, which flapped and bulged now in the gale. There was no door. Sand had drifted in through the opening and lay in a thick, conical dune on the threshold. Against one wall straw had been matted to form a bed and upon this lay a ragged, gray woolen blanket. The fireplace was a large rock oblong, half-filled with powdery ashes that lifted and fell restlessly as each succeeding gust of wind swirled down the chimney or lashed across the floor.

Santell placed the candle on the mantle, throwing a yellow light upon a faded picture of a stagecoach rounding a mountain turn while a small party of feathered Indians looked on from their spotted ponies. He studied the cheap print for a moment and then said, “I’ll locate some wood for a fire. You better shed those wet clothes. Use that old blanket It’s dusty but dry.”

Melissa glanced at the tattered rag. “I can dry out in front of the fire.”

“Suit yourself,” Santell replied, too weary to argue the question. He walked outside into the wild night.

He located some lengths of lumber, dry and rotting, in the barn. Gathering up a full arm’s load, he returned to the station. Melissa was standing in the corner where he had left her, the blanket drawn about her.

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.