The Floating Outfit 42 by J.T. Edson

Author:J.T. Edson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: buffalo, louis lamour, plains indians, action heroes, comanche indians, piccadilly publishing, jt edson, the floating outfit, westerns ebook
Publisher: Piccadilly

‘Johnny!’

Hearing his name, the red head halted the tall story he was telling to the young Easterners he was guiding to a general store which held a sufficiently large stock of cowhand style clothing to fill their needs. One glance at the speaker—a small, close to buxom and pretty young woman with fiery red hair and the attire of a saloon worker—told him something more serious than a merely friendly greeting was causing her to hurry in his direction.

‘What’s up, Ginger?’ the Texan inquired, as he and his companions came to a halt.

‘You’d best come to the Buffalo House real fast!’ the saloon-girl replied. ‘There’s going to be trouble!’

‘What kind of trouble?’ Johnny asked, setting off straight away.

‘Silent, Peaceful and Rusty are there,’ Ginger explained, after having darted a puzzled look at the party with the red head, but restraining her curiosity about them and falling into step by his side. ‘Bunch of gandy dancers’ve come in with a railroad lamp they say they’re going to hang on the front door.’

‘I’ve a feeling that could have some special significance, Johnny,’ Crayne remarked, following with his companions close on the heels of the Texan and the girl.

‘It has,’ the Texan confirmed. ‘When rust eaters from a construction crew hang out a lamp that ways, it means they claim the place for the railroad and nobody else can drink there.’

‘That strikes me as a somewhat selfish attitude,’ the Bostonian claimed, his tone and manner apparently no more than mildly disapproving.

‘Knowing those three knob-heads of our’n who’re there, that’s how they’re like’ to see it,’ Johnny drawled, giving no indication of being perturbed. ‘Who-all’s with ’em, Ginger-gal?’

‘Nobody but the morning staff,’ the young woman replied. ‘And there’s close to twenty gandy dancers.’

‘That means your friends are outnumbered,’ commented the second tallest of the Easterners.

‘You try telling them that,’ Johnny answered.

Even as he was speaking, the red head reached the front entrance of the Buffalo House Saloon. One glance over the batwing doors confirmed his suppositions. Despite the clearly hostile attitude of the railroad construction workers who formed a rough half circle around them, his three companions were leaning against the bar. Although two displayed open defiance, none were armed. Johnny had no need to wonder how the lack of weapons had come about.

‘Well now, gents,’ Herbert ‘Peaceful’ Gunn was saying, his heavily mustached face doleful and his tone seemingly apologetic. About five foot nine, looking older than his twenty-nine years, he was well made without being bulky. ‘Being a man’s wants only to live peaceable with everybody, I’d admire to get out like you say we’ve got to. But, seeing as we didn’t have our chaps with us, Silent, Rusty ’n’ me’ve put our gunbelts behind the bar and it’d be a mortal sin to ask for ’em back so soon.’

‘Was we too,’ Festus ‘Silent’ Churchman went on, producing a volume of sound out of keeping with his size and nickname. While small, he had the stocky build of a pocket-sized Hercules. ‘These

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