Mad River by Donald Hamilton

Author:Donald Hamilton [Hamilton, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, Western
ISBN: 9781440650918
Google: 8GUNvAEACAAJ
Amazon: 1440650918
Publisher: Fawcett
Published: 1956-04-15T08:00:00+00:00

15

COLONEL PARADINE set down his coffee cup, dried his pale mustache carefully on his napkin, and looked at his daughter over the breakfast table. He broke the silence.

"How is your mother this morning, my dear?"

"A little better," Claire said, "now that the wind has let up some. It makes her terribly nervous when it blows so hard."

"I know." If it wasn't the wind, it was the heat, and if it wasn't the heat, it was the dust and dirt of this dreadful, barren country to which he had condemned them all. Colonel Paradine knew the litany by heart; and he had a moment of impatient anger. How much punishment was the woman going to exact for a single mistake—if indeed it had been a mistake? He saw his daughter note his anger and disapprove; he composed his face, took notice of her costume, and said, "You're riding this morning?"

"I thought I would. It seemed like an opportunity to get a little fresh air free of sand for a change."

"Why don't you take Capitan? He hasn't been exercised for a week."

"That great brute?" Claire laughed. "Get Francis to exercise him, Dad. He likes a horse he can beat with a club; and it might get some of the liquor fumes out of his head."

She rose, and the Colonel got politely to his feet. The girl looked very handsome in her blue riding habit, he reflected; it seemed that she had gained in poise and assurance the past few days. Well, becoming engaged often did that to a girl. It was a pity this miserable country had offered her so little choice—not that she was doing badly, not at all—— but back 'home she would have had her pick of a score of suitors. Or perhaps not. The war had not left the Paradines much, back there; certainly not enough to live in a manner befitting their station. If he could only make his family understand that; if he could only make them realize that he had throughout acted wholly in their behalf and with no thought of himself at all. . .

Claire had paused by the door. She was speaking. "What did Boyd mean by what he said last night, Dad? Where did he get your gun? He was wounded. Surely you didn't—"

The Colonel brought himself back to the present, and said stiffly, "I gave my gun to no one, I assure you, my dear. I was not even aware that it had left the house."

Claire glanced upward in the direction of her brother's room. "I see. So it was young Master Paradine up to his sneaking tricks! I declare, Dad, you've simply got to talk to him. It's bad enough that he spends his nights on Creek Lane and comes home drunk at all hours, or not at all—that looks fine for the family and the bank, doesn't it? But to plot against the man to whom we owe—"

Colonel Paradine said quickly, "Claire, I consider that debt paid! If Cohoon chooses to throw my money to a dance-hall girl, that's his business.

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