The Trail to Seven Pines by Louis L'Amour

Author:Louis L'Amour
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780553900095
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2004-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

IT WAS LONG after dark before Hopalong rode into the ranch yard. The Chinese cook looked up irritably as Hopalong started for the cookhouse. “Supper, he cold,” he grumbled. “Why you not come on time?”

“Busy, China,” Hopalong said, grinning. “Come on with the coffee. Forget the rest of it.”

“Forget nothin’,” the Chinese cook replied shortly. “You work, you got to eat.”

The door opened, and Hopalong glanced up into the eyes of Lenny Ronson. “Oh? It’s you.” She seemed disappointed. “I hear you have been quite busy.” Her voice was cold. “You seem to have a faculty for creating trouble.”

“Some folks do,” Cassidy admitted. “Personally, I don’t care for it.”

“Well, for a man who doesn’t care for it, you seem to be in the middle all the time !” she flashed. “Now I hear you’ve had trouble over at Corn Patch!”

Hopalong was instantly alert. He shook his head wonderingly. “Now what trouble did I have over there? I don’t recall any.”

“You killed a man. You killed Bud Frazer!”

Hopalong waited for a full minute, his attention on her statement. He had told only Dan Dusark, and Dan had come in late. He doubted very much if she had talked to the big cowhand. Furthermore, that killing had taken place at the hideout with only Bale as a witness, and if he had told anybody, then he must also have revealed the hideout. Sure that he had struck a new lead, Hopalong tried to draw her out.

“You heard that? Now what do you know? Just goes to show you how folks talk about things they know nothing about!”

“I do know about it!” she protested. “You picked an argument with him and then killed him.”

“Everybody in town talkin’ about it, I suppose?”

“I haven’t been to town. But certainly they all will be hearing about it! And they will all be saying that we hired a killer!”

“Could be.” Cassidy filled his cup once more. “But I thought you wanted your brother to hire Clarry Jacks. Isn’t he a killer?”

Her face flushed with anger. “He is not!” she protested. “He has shot men, but he’s not a—” She hesitated, flushed and Angry, yet suddenly realizing the absurdity of what she was saying. An essentially honest person, she had to admit to herself that Clarry had killed men. Moreover, some of his reasons had been very flimsy. She had accused him of it herself, and he had laughed at her. It had been a pleasant laugh, but one that seemed to express tolerance rather than respect for her.

“Anyway,” she said, “even if he has, that is no excuse; I don’t believe in a lot of heedless killing.”

“Neither do I, Lenny,” Hopalong replied quietly. “But there’s no sense in the good people layin’ down weapons when the others won’t. Peace talk has to come from both sides.

“Your dad built him a fine ranch. He kept peace here, sometimes the hard way, but he kept it and other folks lived comfortably because of it. He didn’t bother anybody except those who took the law into their own hands.

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