Silver Canyon by Louis L'amour

Silver Canyon by Louis L'amour

Author:Louis L'amour
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-07-19T16:44:48+00:00


THIRTEEN

Moira got up quickly, tendrils of dark hair curled against her neck, and there were tiny beads of perspiration on her upper lip, for the day was very hot.

"Matt, that's father. You'd better go."

She had stepped toward me and I took her elbows and drew her to me. She started to draw away, but I took her chin and turned her face toward me. She was frightened and tried to draw back, but not very hard. Her eyes were suddenly wide and dark ... and then I kissed her.

For an instant we clung together, and then she pulled violently away from me. She stood like that, not saying anything, and then moved quickly to kiss me again. We were like that when we heard footsteps outside.

We stepped apart just as Rud Maclaren and Morgan Park came through the door.

Park saw us, and something in Moira's manner must have given him an idea of what had taken place. His face went dark with anger and he started toward me, his voice hoarse with fury. "Get out! Get out, I say!"

My eyes went past him to Maclaren. "Is this your home, Maclaren, or his?"

"That'll do, Morgan!" Maclaren did not like my being there, but he liked Morgan Park's usurping of authority even less. "I'll order people from my own home."

Morgan Park's face was ugly. He wanted trouble, but before he could speak Canaval appeared in the door behind them.

"Boss, Brennan said he was just visitin', not huntin', trouble. He said he would go when I asked him and that he would make no trouble for Park.

Moira interrupted quickly. "Father, Mr. Brennan is my guest. When the time comes he will leave. Until then, I wish him to stay."

"I won't have him in my house!" Maclaren declared angrily. "Damn you, Brennan! You've got a gall to come here after shootin' my men, stealin' range that rightly belongs to me, and runnin' my cows out of Cottonwood!"

"We've no differences we can't settle peaceably," I told him quietly. "I never wanted trouble with you, and I think we can reach an agreement."

It took the fire out of him. He was still truculent, still ready to throw his weight around, but mollified. Right then I sensed the truth about Rud Maclaren. It was not land and property he wanted so much as to be known as the biggest man in the country. He simply knew of no way of winning respect and admiration other than through wealth and power.

Realizing that gave me the opening I wanted. Peace I had to have, but peace with Maclaren especially. And here it was, if I made the right moves.

"Today I had a talk with Chapin. This fighting can only be stopped through the leadership of the right man. I think you are that man, Maclaren."

He was listening, and he liked what he heard. He could see himself acting in the role of peacemaker. And he was a shrewd man who could not but realize that every day of this war was costing him men, cattle, and money.



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