Six Ways from Sunday by William W. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2009-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

What happened was, I got mad. I got so mad I couldn’t see straight. So I done what I did. I plowed into Scruples and landed one whopper on him, and saw him topple backward, but that’s the last thing I saw. Old Arnold come out of nowhere and all went black on me.

Next I knew, I was lyin’ on the grass somewheres, my head hurting bad and a few of them miners lookin’ down on me. It took me a while to get a handle on where I was. I didn’t even know why I was there at first. My head, it throbbed bad, and the rest of me hurt bad, too. I peered up at them, and they was lookin’ worried.

“You all right?” one miner asked.

I didn’t feel all right. So I just lay there.

“This your horse?” asked one.

Sure enough, there was Critter. And we were on the Swamp Creek Road outside of town. That’s where they put me.

“You got something stuck in your shirt pocket,” one said.

I reached for it, and my fingers clawed a small piece of paper. I couldn’t see well yet, with my head all fogged up, but I got the message. It was a bull’s-eye penciled in. Someone had gone to some trouble to draw them black and white circles.

“It’s a bull’s-eye,” I mumbled.

“Guess someone doesn’t like you,” the miner said.

“That’s about half of it,” I said.

I sat up, and they helped me up. I stood real shaky. Celia was nowhere in sight, and I wondered what they done with her. I almost didn’t want to know.

“Guess I fell off my nag,” I said to the miners.

I don’t think a one of them believed it, but they was being polite.

“I’m all right now,” I said, and took a step or two and landed on my ass.

“Guess I’m not quite all right yet,” I said. “But I’ll get there.”

I stood up again, and got me over to Critter, who snapped at me for being so dumb, and then Critter let me get on board.

My hat sat on a knot on my head. I lifted it and thanked the miners. “They changed my name to Target. You call me Target,” I said.

“You sure you’re all right, Target?”

“You ain’t seen a girl around here, have you?”

“No, no girl. We was just walking along the road and there you were.”

“Well, I’ll find her,” I said.

I put heels to Critter, which made my head ache, and I headed toward town. It was mid-afternoon. I had until sundown. The only thought in my head was finding Celia.

Critter sure was mean. Every time he stepped, my head hammered. Then he lifted into a trot and my head couldn’t believe it. He was gettin’ even with me for all the times he stood around waiting for me to sober up.

I got to laughin’ even though I hurt bad. I’d given old Carter Scruples a good whonk. Last I knew, he was flyin’ backward in that little railroad car parlor, lookin’ so surprised he couldn’t believe what was happenin’.

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