Larry and Stretch 4 by Marshall Grover

Author:Marshall Grover
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: piccadilly publishing, best western ebook, old west ebook, marshall grover, gunfighters and cowboys of the american west, larry stretch western, texas gunfighters
Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing

Seven – Storm Warnings

In the hour before dawn, Stretch Emerson rolled over, scratched his chest, yawned and blinked at the small glow in the gloom. The bedroom was almost pitch dark. Larry was obviously awake. The glowing cigarette proved it.

He yawned again, and complained, “You sure sleep loud, runt.”

“What the hell,” Larry sourly enquired, “are you gabbin’ about?”

“Did they ever come out into the open?” grinned Stretch. “That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? ‘Come out where I can see you,’ you hollered. ‘Come shootin’, you sneakin’ sidewinders.’ Who were you hollerin’ at, runt?”

“You’re loco,” growled Larry. “I scarce ever dream.”

“Well,” said Stretch, “you sure as hell dreamed last night—and loud. Couple times, I was afeared you’d get your paw to your iron and go to shootin’.”

“The hell with it,” muttered Larry.

“What’s eatin’ you, anyway?” demanded Stretch.

“You need to ask?” challenged Larry.

“Nope.” Stretch heaved a sigh. “I don’t need to ask.” Only too well, he understood the workings of his saddlepard’s mind. When it came to the unraveling of mysteries, Larry was the expert of this partnership. At the business of fighting, the mental activity, these were Larry’s specialty.

The one thing calculated to fray Larry’s nerves was an unsolved mystery. He was a hard-headed realist, a man with no trust in the inexplicable. As Stretch had often remarked, “Ol’ Larry has to know the whys and wherefores. If he don’t, he turns leery. Ain’t nothin’ he hates worse’n a mystery.”

“There has to be a reason,” Larry asserted now. “Damned if I’ll believe these renegades started fazin’ the Utes just to pass the time of day. They knew what they were doin’. They knew they could maybe start a shootin’ war in this territory.”

“So they did it a’purpose,” shrugged Stretch, “and you can’t figure the reason.”

“I hanker for coffee,” announced Larry, “and I’m powerful hungry.”

“Who ain't?” grinned Stretch, as he swung his legs to the floor.

Clad in naught but their Long Johns, they padded back and forth, lighting the lamp, pouring water into the washbowl, breaking out their razors, bathing and shaving.

“Sadie’s big mornin’,” Larry suddenly recalled, while drawing his blade over his stubbled jowls.

“Yup,” grunted Stretch. “She spread the word last night. Anybody wants breakfast this mornin’, they gotta help ’emselves.”

They finished their ablutions, donned their clothes and strapped on their hardware, then descended to the kitchen. Despite the early hour, Sadie was already there. Coffee bubbled on the stove. Garbed in crisp checked gingham and humming cheerfully, she packed cold food into a basket. Larry yawned, grinned at her and declared:

“If he don’t propose, he’s blind and stupid, and you’d be better off without him.”

“If I’m willing to listen to all that poetry,” she chuckled, “the least he can do is propose.”

Long before her escort was due to arrive, she was packed and ready, seated in the surrey out front of the house, the early sun catching the glints of her glowing auburn hair. Harnessed to the surrey were her matched charcoals, sturdy-looking animals itching to be on their way.

In

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