Beyond the Crimson Skies by Paul Lederer

Author:Paul Lederer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480487840
Publisher: Open Road Media

SEVEN

‘I’m going too,’ Nita said to Carla Link. ‘If you’re brave enough to try it, so am I.’

The frown that had been deepening on Kendo’s face since Carla Link had appeared out of the night now became set and stony. Now he was expected to escort two crazy women to Ambrose – which was far off his intended course anyway.

‘Do either of you two know what you are up to?’ Kendo asked grumpily.

‘Yes, we do,’ Nita said, turning her dark eyes up to him. ‘And it is best if we do it quickly, isn’t it?’

Kendo hesitated, started to answer and then grasped the gray mare’s mane. Nita interrupted his movements. ‘I know where your horse is, Kendo.’

‘My horse?’

‘A steel gray gelding with a white blaze, is it not? When it was collected up, it was still wearing a saddle. Isn’t that your horse?’

‘Yes,’ Kendo said, ‘it is.’

‘I saw it over in the new corral. Someone said that you asked Thad Connely to keep an eye out for it. It’s there, and the last time I saw it, your saddle was there as well, thrown over a corral bar.’

‘Show me,’ Kendo said. ‘Is anyone standing watch?’

‘I don’t think so. There isn’t normally. It would speed us up, wouldn’t it – if we can get your horse?’

‘It would,’ he replied. The relative luxury of a saddle compared to sitting on the mare’s spine for days was an irresistible magnet.

‘What about this old girl?’ Carla Link asked with unexpected sympathy.

‘She’ll follow along – at her own speed. If she can’t keep up, well, the graze in this part of the country will be plenty to keep her.’

They started along the path, Nita leading the way, Kendo walking beside Carla’s horse. A few minutes later, Carla asked, ‘Have you had that pistol on your hip the whole time you were here?’

‘Why do you ask? Of course I have. Except for when I left it in Thad’s room to visit your father.’

‘I’d check my loads if I were you,’ Carla said meaningfully.

‘You don’t mean.…’ Kendo stopped dead, snaked his Colt from its holster and cursed softly. ‘Empty. How did you know?’

‘It’s not a new trick. Not around here.’

Shaking his head, Kendo removed fresh cartridges from his belt loops and thumbed them into the cylinder of the Colt.

‘If you’d made trouble,’ Carla said as they started one, ‘someone would have goaded you into a shooting match.’

Kendo shook his head in disbelief. Apparently there was still much he did not know about the DL. Much he did not wish to know. But he understood Nita’s assessment now. The DL was a bad place indeed for strangers.

The moon glossed the backs of half a hundred horses in a long, broad corral. Standing on a middle rail, Kendo looked for and eventually spotted his gray horse. His saddle and bridle he had already seen thrown over a top rung of the log enclosure.

‘I’ll get him,’ Kendo said. ‘Keep watch, will you?’

‘Do you need a rope?’ Nita asked.

‘No, not for him,’ Kendo told her.

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.