The Floating Outfit 62 by J.T. Edson

Author:J.T. Edson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cowboys, range wars, western stories, western ebooks, the wild west, jt edson, pulp fiction westerns, the floating outfit westerns, piccadilly pubishing, best western ebooks
Publisher: Piccadilly

Chapter Ten – I Know It, You Know It, But Does Mr. Eardle?

“SO THAT SCRAWNY hombre reckoned you were trying to wide-loop AW beef, did he?” Stone Hart inquired.

“That’s what he reckoned,” Silent Churchman agreed, having reported what had taken place during the latest run-in with Skinny McBride after rejoining the herd with the C Over M cattle he and Thorny Bush had gathered. “Could be it was more ’cause he was riled up over what came off when we was like’ to lock horns on the trail count, and was hunting for evens.”

“’Cepting he wouldn’t’ve figured on finding you where you was,” Waggles Harrison pointed out. He had received a signal to leave the point of the herd and join his boss to hear what the stocky cowhand had to say. “Not unless he’d been scouting the herd and seen you light out with Thorny. Which being, he’d have to’ve been smarter’n he struck me as being to have done the scouting. I’d say even Johnny’d’ve been real lucky to pull off a scout and Kiowa not find him. Fact being, I only know one feller who could, and I wouldn’t say that skinny hombre’s another Ysabel Kid.”

“There’s them’s’ve said just one of the Kid’s four at least too many,” Silent drawled, unable to stop the kind of comment by which a cowhand indicated he had the greatest admiration for the man about whom he was speaking. “And, at the risk of being thought an apple polisher, which everybody knows I am, I go along with you about that knob head not being one of ’em.”

“Seeing as how he almost certainly wasn’t hunting you special for evens,” Stone remarked, “why’d he reckon you was after wide-looping AW cattle?”

“Could reckon everybody’s mean, dishonest, ’n’ sneaky, as he knows he is,” Silent offered. “And, which I wouldn’t put past him no more’n I would hearing he votes Republican, being the sort he is, he’s likely done a fair amount of wide-looping ’n’ concludes everybody else’s the same.”

“Except, unless that map Counselor Sutherland sent along is wrong,” Stone countered, “we’re just about off AW range, and that puts us on our own. Sure, I know them goddamned cows you hate so much don’t have a lick of enough good sense to know where they should be. Only, I wouldn’t’ve thought a yahoo like him would be so all-fired keen to earn his pay that he’d be riding on speculation looking for some of us fixing to wide-loop some of his boss’s beef.”

“Could’ve been told to go out ’n’ do it,” Silent suggested, and closed both eyes before continuing. “Present company not counted as such, way I see it, there’s some segundos’re real mean like that.”

“Whyn’t you go look in on that little ole calf who saved you from all them fine critters?” Waggles growled. Then he went on in a less annoyed-sounding manner, “Like I said this morning, boss, nothing I saw of Jimmy Conlin makes me think he’d pull a game like sending somebody to make fuss with us.

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