Sky-Liners by Louis L'amour

Author:Louis L'amour [L'amour, Louis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-07-19T16:44:37+00:00

"That's a fine-looking young lady," he said after we were seated. "I'd want no harm to come to her, but there's talk of trouble over there, and Costello is right in the midst of it."

We waited, and there was no sound in the room. Finally he spoke again, his face oddly lighted by the light from the coal-oil lamp with the reflector behind it. "There's something wrong up there - I don't know what it is. Costello used to come down here once in a while ... the last time was a year ago. I was over that way, but he wouldn't see me. Ordered me off the place."

"Why?"

"Well, it was his place. I suppose he had his reasons." The bartender refilled the glasses from the bottle. "Nevertheless it worried me, because it wasn't like him ... He lives alone, you know, back over on the ridge."

He paused again, then went on, "He fired his hands, all of them."

"He's alone up there now?"

"I don't think so. A few days back there were some men came riding up here, asked where Costello's layout was."

"Like we did," I said.

"I told them. I had no reason not to, although I didn't like their looks, but I also warned them they wouldn't be welcome. They laughed at me. One of them spoke up and said that they'd be welcome, all right, that Costello was expecting them."

"They beat us to it, Flagan," Galloway said. "They're here."

The bartender glanced from one to the other of us. "You know those men?"

"We know them, and if any of them show up again, be careful. They'll kill you as soon as look at you ... maybe sooner."

"What are you two going to do?"

"Go up there. We gave a fair promise to see the young lady to her pa. So we'll go up there."

"And those men?"

Galloway grinned at him, then at me. "Why, they'd better light a shuck for Texas before we tie cans to their tails."

"Those men, now," I said, "did they have any cattle?"

"Not with them. But they said they had a herd following." He paused. "Is there anything I can do? There's good folks in this country, and Costello was a good neighbor, although a man who kept to himself except when needed. If it comes to that, we could round up a goodly lot who would ride to help him."

"You leave it to us. We Sacketts favor skinning our own cats."

The old man seated alone at the table spoke up then. "I knowed it. I knowed you two was Sacketts. I'm Cap Rountree, an' I was with Tyrel and them down on the Mogollon that time."

"Heard you spoken of," Galloway said. "Come on over and set."

"If you boys are ridin' into trouble," Rountree said, "I'd admire to ride along. I been sharin' Sackett trouble a good few years now, and I don't feel comfortable without it."

We talked a spell, watching the night hours pass, and listening for the sounds of riders who did not come.

Black Fetchen must have sent riders on ahead, and those riders must have moved in fast and hard.

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