Stringer by Lou Cameron

Author:Lou Cameron [Cameron, Lou]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: AudioGO

CHAPTER

NINE

* * *

He didn’t see Gina Tancredi anywhere in the downstairs crowd. He hoped she wasn’t lying in wait for him upstairs, before he could steady down some. The ugly gal behind the bar filled a beer schooner for him without being asked and told him, “Miss Gina won’t be back tonight after all. She’s in the hospital at San Andreas. She just telephoned to say I was to tell you when you came in.”

Stringer frowned and asked, “How did she wind up in the hospital, for God’s sake?”

The barkeep said, “God didn’t do it, her horse did. Fell with her and rolled her as she was heading back from San Andreas. It don’t look too bad, though. They taped up her ribs and said if she don’t cough blood this side of noon tomorrow, they’ll let her come home, I get off in less’n an hour, if it’s a piece of ass you’re worried about.”

He didn’t answer. Even ugly innocent-looking gals seemed sort of sassy in Calaveras County these days. He said he had to call the law and asked if he could use Miss Gina’s. She shook her head and said, “I can’t let you in her room till she gets back.”

She seemed worried about her employer’s inanimate possessions, at any rate. He was wondering how he could get at that telephone without getting at such an ugly gal when young Buck Brown approached him and said, “Mom sent me in to gather up old Gramp MacSorley. Is he here, Mr. MacKail?”

“I told you you could call me Stringer, Buck. He could be here in all this confusion. I’ll help you look for him. Meanwhile, do you know anywhere else I could get to a telephone? It’s sort of important.”

The youth said, “We got one at the Double B. That’s how Mom keeps tabs on me so tedious. Oh, Lord, there the old fool is, and don’t he look drunk, even for him.”

They joined old Angus MacSorley in the corner he’d chosen to sit in, on the floor. Stringer helped the younger and lighter-muscled Buck haul the old man to his feet. Old Angus opened his eyes and insisted he hadn’t done it, damn it, whatever it might be. Stringer saw the kid needed help and he really wanted to get to that telephone, but after that it was all sort of rather-not. The last person on earth he wanted to see after a roll in pine duff with a sassy Mex gal, and a temporary lull in his affair with an Italian lady who gave French lessons, had to be Fionna MacSorley Brown, the dreamgirl of his pimple-picking days!

But a man did what he had to, and when Fionna came out to help them unload old Angus and carry him inside he saw that—cuss her hide—she was even lovelier than he’d remembered. The years and hard living had been gentle with her fine-boned features, and she made it worse by laughing with delight and kissing Stringer like he was long-lost family.

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