Montana Abbott 3 by Al Cody

Author:Al Cody
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: western ebooks, piccadilly publishing, western action adventure, gunfighters of the old west, lawmen and outlaws, adventures in the old west, cowboy series
Publisher: Piccadilly

Chapter Ten

BADGER SIME, SOMEWHAT surprisingly, was his original name. He had never yet found it necessary to adopt another, despite several brushes with the law and attempts at lawlessness. Somehow he was a failure, with a way of bungling even the simplest operations. Such wayward intentions as he entertained usually proved to be just that, going astray with no profit to himself or advantage to his reputation. Such luck he found distressing, though recently it had been mitigated by the fact he was still alive, when by all the odds he should have been among the missing.

Somewhere in the vastness of Texas he had attempted to rob a bank. Chance had sent a rival pair with similar ambitions to the same place at the same time, and they had gotten in each other’s way. The others had been captured, and Badger Sime had been commended for helping to foil a holdup.

There being no eating money in being a local hero, he had signed on with Casey McConnery for the long drive north. Again it had been luck, or chance, which had sent him scouting well away from the herd at the time of Seamus O’Dowd’s attack. Because of that he was alive, and it had occurred to him that he had at least as good a right to the herd as did the rustlers. How to exercise that right was the problem.

For the time being he was keeping out of sight, but within view of the herd, hopefully seeking an opportunity. He was not actuated by motives of revenge, or the hope of avenging his fellows on the trail. He saw no reason for heroics, or conduct which might bring some of their bad luck upon himself.

He pulled up on a rise where brush and trees afforded good cover. In the distance, moving slowly, was the herd, controlled by the crew who had displaced McConnery’s. He studied them hopelessly, receiving no inspiration. A coyote might pull down a straggler at the edge of the herd and get away with it, but he was not even a coyote.

Turning from that discouraging survey, he saw something else in the distance and stared unbelievingly. There were buildings off there, a house and barn and corrals, the first he had beheld in weeks. The homesteader himself apparently was at work, driving a team and guiding a plow. Then, recalling certain remarks of McConnery, he understood. This must have been their destination, and the herd was still headed the same way.

O’Dowd’s approach, and what it would almost certainly mean to the homesteader, excited no sympathy for Talley, but it suggested possibilities. He might side the sodbuster, which would double their force. But two against twenty would still be impossible odds.

Then Sime’s roving glance saw more. On the far side, beyond the buildings, another rider was coming up. Badger’s wary contemplation stirred to a lively expectancy flavored with surprise. The newcomer was a woman. At that distance it was impossible to tell more, but that a woman should be there at all suggested that she was probably the wife of the homesteader.

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.