Ride The Dark Trail by Louis L'amour

Author:Louis L'amour [L'amour, Louis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-07-19T16:44:43+00:00

11

Pennywell was on the lookout when I came in, and when I got inside she brought me a cup of coffee. “Em’s asleep,” she said, “catching up on some of that lost time.”

She studied me critically. I looked beat. After I’d caught my horse I’d had to hightail it for the MT, careful to leave no sign they could use, so I’d come right down the trail and through the main gate. “Looks like you been out among ‘em,” she commented. “I frown on that as Em would say.”

Explaining what happened, I added, “The way I figure it, Duckett spotted me when I came in and laid for me near my horse. Meanwhile some other of Planner’s men saw me in town, saw me go into or come out of the store, and got ahead of me, planning to get my horse and then me.”

“But you shot Duckett?”

“Shot at him. From the sound I must have hit his rifle or a tree near him. I doubt if I did him any harm, but he came within an inch or less of nailing me. That man can shoot, an’ Lordy, is he quick!”

“Teach you to go gallivanting around in the middle of the night. Wait for them to come to you.”

“I’m a poor hand at waitin’. My style is to carry it to them, show them a fight has two sides.”

“Do you think this will do it?”

“Well,” I commented, “I’ve an idea they’ll think twice before they open a door.

They know I’m huntin’ them, too, and that can be a worrisome thing.” Two slow days went by while I worked around the place. One day I rode to the hills and shot an elk, bringing the meat down to the place. I also taken my iron out to the meadows, roped and branded a couple of yearlings. No work had been done around there for some time and it would be a rustler’s dream to get back in there and find all that fine stock wearing no brands. After that I decided to carry an iron with me wherever I went on MT range. Johannes Duckett didn’t shape up like the kind of man who would sit by and let me get away with shooting at him. I knew I’d be hearing from him, with or without Planner, and I also figured Duckett would go a-prowling for me. He was the kind who would be apt to shoot from anywhere, so I kept off the skyline, rode through the edge of the trees, kept myself out of range as well as I could when I’d no idea where the attack would come from or when. Nonetheless I still had an idea of riding into Siwash and making myself known.

Em was on the lookout when she seen a rider coming. She turned to me. “Logan?

What do you make of him?”

He was coming down the road at a walk, heading for the main gate. Through the glasses I could see he was riding a beat-up buckskin.

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