The Gun Tamer by Max Brand

Author:Max Brand [Brand, Max]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Western
Publisher: Roy Glashan's Library
Published: 2020-10-29T23:00:00+00:00

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CHAPTER 23

IN some natures mental excitement drives people into social intercourse. In others it sends them into the wilderness, and Mrs. Mackay was of the second order. She went hurriedly down to the stable and there found her husband, talking over the merits of a newly broken three-year-old which was wandering around the small pasture near the corral. The colonel took her aside.

“I see that you’ve taken a better view of things, my dear,” said he. “Mary tells me that you’ve let yourself be persuaded to be sensible. I’ve had a long talk with both of ‘em. The attitude of Felipe is ideal. He seems to have a great respect for me—for us, I mean. And he appreciates what it means to ally himself to the Mackays. There will be no foolishness. I put my foot down at once and let him see, for future reference, so to speak, that there is to be only one head to this house. He has the delightful attitude of the well-bred Mexican. The oldest man in the family carries the undisputed authority. He at once asked my advice. Should he take out citizenship papers? Would his faulty knowledge of English permit that? Of course I told him it was the one thing to do. Everything is to be arranged. Everything! The affair is going to be perfectly handled!”

She could not help saying: “What a romantic adventure it is, after all! He started out to find his golden treasure, and even if he hasn’t located the Seven Lost Cities, he’s found his pot of gold, hasn’t he!”

“In a manner of speaking, yes,” said the colonel. “And when I consider the youth and the good looks and the grace of Felipe, my dear, I imagine that he’s just the sort of a Prince Charming who might have stepped out of the fairy tale. And—”

Here he stopped short, stabbed by an uncomfortable suspicion.

“Lydia, was there something ugly in that remark of yours?”

“In mine, dear?” echoed Lydia naïvely. “Why, how should there be?”

The colonel sighed, with suspicion still in the corner of his eye; but, after all, he was much interested in the colt which was under examination, and he turned reluctantly from his wife. But there was a shadow upon his brow.

Mrs. Mackay continued the affable smile which made her beloved on the ranch until she had mounted a horse and ridden out of view among the trees. After that, sternly she set the head of her mount into the wind and galloped hard across country, jumping fence and ditch, until she had turned up the valley into the ravine in which it ended.

And all the time that that ride was in progress, she was turning her thoughts swiftly in her mind, trying to find a starting point, a sort of purchase from which she could exert lifting power in the direction which she wanted.

The best thing that occurred to her was to make some sort of a search into the actual past of

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