Longarm #401 by Tabor Evans

Author:Tabor Evans [Evans, Tabor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101561195
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2012-03-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

It turned out to be biscuits instead of pancakes, but the side meat was there and so was coffee, hot and black and very welcome on a cold, high country morning.

“Well?” Carter asked when Longarm came up to the cabin.

“I found plenty o’ blood, but they carried off whoever it was as got hit. At least the one, maybe two o’ them. I ain’t for sure. Couldn’t see a damn thing on a dark night in that timber, especially after I fired that first one. The muzzle flash had me blinkin’ until I got tears in my eyes, but they was in just as bad a shape.”

“I stood ready up here, but of course none of them got this far. You did a good job, Short.”

“Good enough to deserve a cup o’ that coffee I’m smelling?”

Carter laughed and grabbed a tin cup off the shelf. He even poured the coffee for Longarm and set it on the table. “Sit. I’ll have our breakfast ready in a minute.”

Longarm sighed. “Bastard has declared open warfare now, Boss. So what d’you figure to do next?”

“I’ve done nothing wrong and I’m not going anywhere,” Carter said. “That said, we have about a wagonload of high-grade ore ready to ship. I suppose I need to figure out what to do with the stuff now that I have it.”

Longarm smiled. “Don’t expect much in the way of sympathy for your problem of how to dispose of all that gold.”

“I suppose that would be a lot to ask for, wouldn’t it?” Carter said with a chuckle.

“You have to leave the place deserted while you take the load down to wherever it’s goin’. Could be there won’t be anything to come back to. They could come up here an’ burn it down while there’s nobody to defend it.”

“If the cabin is gone, no matter. If it comes to that, I can rebuild. The land will still be here.”

“An’ the mine,” Longarm put in.

“Yes. It would be hard to steal a hole in the ground.”

“Unless you go about it the way Burgen wants to. Either kill you or…What would be his next step?”

“Legal challenges to my ownership, but he has already tried that. I filed papers with the county and, more importantly, with the territorial government. My claim is rock-solid. Which he has already learned. That is why he is trying force now. First guile. Now gunfire.” Carter opened the stove and pulled out a pan of biscuits, then set them onto the table where Longarm could reach them. He took the skillet off the top of the stove and speared the slabs of fatback one by one. The first four he put onto Longarm’s plate. The rest he gave to himself.

“Dig in,” he said. “You earned it last night.”

“I’ll go out again tonight if you don’t mind,” Longarm said. “I doubt they’ll come back again any time soon, but it’s always better to be prepared.”

“But you aren’t getting any sleep, sitting out there night after night,” Carter protested.

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.