Trail of Blood by J.A. Johnstone

Author:J.A. Johnstone [Johnstone J. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7860-2778-1
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2011-01-20T05:00:00+00:00

The soft yellow glow of lamplight through a window guided The Kid through the dark night. He rode the big black gelding he had bought that afternoon. The horse’s hoofbeats were enough to alert the dogs. They came charging out from under the farmhouse’s porch. The black shied a little, spooking as the curs clustered around and barked furiously. The Kid brought the horse under control with a firm hand on the reins and waited.

Not for long. He saw the light in the window go out abruptly, then a second later the door swung back just enough to allow the barrel of a rifle to be thrust out. “Who … who’s there?” a quavery old voice asked.

“I think you know the answer to that, Mr. Potter,” The Kid called.

He was ready for the reaction he got. Muzzle flame lanced through the darkness as the rifle cracked. The Kid didn’t know where the bullet went, but it didn’t come anywhere close to him. He had figured that accurate shooting in the darkness would be more than the old, terrified retired stationmaster could manage.

Drawing his gun—not one of the .38 caliber Lightnings but rather the Colt .45 he wore in a holster on his hip—The Kid sent the black surging forward, scattering the dogs. When he was close enough he left the saddle in a leap that carried him to the porch as the horse veered away.

By the time The Kid’s boots hit the boards of the porch, Potter had managed to work the rifle’s lever. The Kid crouched low and drove a shoulder against the door. It banged inward, crashing into Potter and knocking the old man backward. He fired again, but the shot went wild.

Normally The Kid wouldn’t be too rough with an old-timer like Potter, but the retired station-master had tried to have him killed. The Kid dropped to a knee beside Potter and grabbed the Winchester with his free hand, wrenching it out of the old man’s grip. Then he said, “You’d better be careful with that shotgun, Sara Beth. You shoot me and you’ll blow the hell out of your husband with it, too.”

He saw the pale blur of her dress on the other side of the shabby living room. He couldn’t see the greener but thought there was a good chance she was pointing it at him.

His hunch was confirmed by the way she asked, “Why shouldn’t I? The old buzzard ain’t much use to me. Most of the time he can’t even—”

A groan came from Potter, cutting across her words.

“Anyway,” Sara Beth went on, “if he’s dead, this place would belong to me.”

“Yeah, that’s what you want,” The Kid said mockingly. “A hardscrabble farm that the bank’s going to take away from you sooner or later anyway.”

“You shut up!” she snapped. “You don’t know anything about it.”

“I know more than you think I do. I know he took Pamela Tarleton’s money so he could buy this farm and ask you to marry him. I know

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.