Above the Law by Max Brand

Author:Max Brand [Brand, Max]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Western
Publisher: Roy Glashan's Library
Published: 2014-07-21T22:00:00+00:00

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VII. — JERRY TAKES LESSONS

SHE was still smiling when she slipped down among the blankets. For some time she lay there wondering. By all the laws of Nature she should not have closed an eye for anxiety. She pictured all the dangers of her position one by one, and then—smiled again! She could not be afraid of this man. The very terror he inspired in others was a warm sense of protection around her. The weary muscles of her body relaxed by slow degrees. The wind hummed like a muted violin through the trees outside. She slept.

When she woke, a fire burned on the hearth brightly again, and the room filled with the savor of fried bacon and steaming coffee. Black Jim sat at the table draining his tin cup. Jerry sat up with a yawn.

“Hello, Jim!” she called. “Say, this mountain air is all the dope for hard sleeping; what?”

He lowered the cup and smiled back at her.

“I’m glad you-all slept well,” he drawled, and rose from the table.

“I’m goin’ off on a bit of a trip today,” he said, “but before I go I want to tell you—”

“My name’s Geraldine,” she answered, “but most people shorten it up to Jerry.”

“Which I’d tell a man jest about hits you off,” he answered. “You ain’t seen much of the valley. I suppose you’ll want Jo explore around a lot, an’ you can go as far as you like; but jest pack that shootin’-iron with you by way of a friend. Come here to the door and I’ll show you how far you can go.”

She followed him obediently, and standing at the entrance to the shack looked out over the silver-misted valley. Four guardian peaks surrounded a gorge about a mile and a half long and half a mile wide, narrowing toward the farther end, where the entrance gap could not have been more than a hundred yards in width. The shack of Black Jim huddled against the precipitous wall of rock at the opposite extremity of the valley and stood upon ground higher than the rest of the floor. Great trees rose on all sides, and what she saw was made out through the spaces between these monsters.

“Where are the others?” she asked.

He waved his hand in a generous circle.

“All around. Maybe you could wander about for a month and never find where they stay. But if you meet ‘em they’ll be gladder to see you than you’ll be to see them.”

“And if I stay right here,” she asked him, “would I be in danger from them here?”

“They came last night,” he said grimly, “but I got an idea they won’t be in no hurry to come again. At the edge of those trees is a deadline. They know if they come beyond that they’re takin’ their own chances. If you see ‘em come, make your gun talk for you.”

He stepped through the door and she followed him a pace into the open air. The big roan horse, lean of neck and powerful of shoulder, stood near, his bridle-reins hanging over his head.

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