The Wildcats by J. T. Edson

Author:J. T. Edson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: C429, Fiction, Westerns, Extratorrents, Kat
ISBN: 9781557731968
Publisher: Charter Books
Published: 1945-01-02T06:00:00+00:00

PART TWO

The Gamblers

DUSTY FOG, THE Ysabel Kid and Waco had agreed unanimously that Mark Counter was the best man for the job although Mark objected most strenuously to getting it. They ruled out his objections on several counts. In the first place Mark's satorial elegance exceeded any of their own, which he could not truthfully deny. Secondly, Mark owned all the necessary items of clothing for such an occasion; so did both Dusty and the Kid, but they claimed Mark looked so much better in his. Waco said he did not own any such fancy low-necked clothes and hoped he never would, so that let him out of it. Thirdly, and perhaps most important, Dusty and the Kid had already sampled Brenton Humboldt's hospitality and thought Mark ought to take his fair turn.

"It looks to me like you've caught it then, Mark," said Ole Devil Hardin when the members of his floating outfit stopped their talking. "I'm sorry to land it on you and I never expected any of it when I put my money into Humboldt's meat-packing plant. I hoped that finished me with it, apart from drawing in my share of the profits and never thought he'd write and ask me to send my representative along to his daughter's wedding."

"Maybe he wants backing in some other idea," drawled the Kid who suffered no illusions about Brenton Humboldt's true nature.

"You be sure to apologize for Lon and me, Mark," grinned Dusty. "Tell Humboldt we're both suffering the miseries through having a touch of the grippe."

"It'll be bad enough going there for you without telling your lies as well," Mark answered. "I'll pull out in the morning."

"For a feller as doesn't want to go up there, amigo," the Kid put in dryly, "you're sure in a tolerable hurry to get started."

"Why sure," agreed Mark. "I could make it in maybe four days' hard riding. But I don't aim to try. I've been sent out on this chore against my will so I aim to travel easy and sleep under a roof every night as I go."

The others laughed. They knew all too well that Mark hated sleeping out of doors. Even the fact that he spent much of his life using the ground for a mattress and the sky for a roof did not make him like it any the more. So he planned to make a leisurely journey of it and spend each night in a town, ranch house or line cabin. To do so would need careful arranging and involve swinging and swerving instead of riding in a near enough straight line.

At dawn the following morning Mark rode away from the OD Connected house. In his war-bag, packed neatly and rolled in the protection of his blanket's suggans and tarp, Mark carried his cutaway coat, white frilly bosomed shirt, town style trousers and shoes. If he must attend the wedding he intended to be dressed at his best.

Three days later, shortly after the sun went down, Mark hung

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