Texas Vendetta by Elmer Kelton

Author:Elmer Kelton [Kelton, Elmer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Texas Rangers, Western stories, Vendetta, Texas, Fiction
ISBN: 9780765344809
Google: FO3QygXknjoC
Amazon: 0765344807
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2003-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Lige Tennyson surveyed the small town from a bend in the road a quarter mile away. He looked as if he had ordered whiskey and been given milk. “I’m disappointed. I thought Hopper’s Crossing would be a lot bigger than this.”

Scooter echoed his misgivings. “Don’t look like enough of a place for people to fight a feud over.”

“They ain’t fightin’ it over just the town. Once there’s been blood spilt, a feud don’t have to be over anything else in particular, just blood. Other reasons don’t count anymore.”

“You really think they’ll pay you to fight for one side or the other?”

“It’s been nothin’ but amateurs so far. I figured somebody’d be willin’ to hire a professional. At least I thought so till I saw how puny a town they’ve got. Well, I’ll ride on in and look things over. Worst come to worst, I can always visit the bank, if they’ve got one. But there may not be twenty dollars of real money in the whole shebang.”

“Want me to come with you, Pa?”

“No, you shade up in them trees yonder and wait for me. The laws are still lookin’ for a man and a boy travelin’ together. It’s better if you stay out here where it’s safe and don’t cause no notice.”

Scooter accepted without argument. His father had demonstrated early on this trip how suddenly he could explode into a rage, though his temper usually cooled as rapidly as it flared.

Lige removed his feet from the stirrups and stretched his legs without dismounting. The long ride had stiffened him. “Be a good boy and maybe I can bring you some candy.”

“I’d be tickled, Pa.”

Lige looked back once and was pleased to see that Scooter had ridden that paddle-footed old horse into the shade and had dismounted to rest and wait, as he had been told. He smiled and thought how lucky he was to have such a good and obedient son. During his years of incarceration he had worried a lot about what would become of the motherless boy. He had not left him in the best of hands, letting him fall in with the no-accounts Arliss and Brewster, but he had had little choice. He had feared that the authorities would put Scooter into some bleak orphan’s home if he stayed around where they would notice him.

That was the way with government, always messing in where nobody had invited it, he thought. Life would be a lot less complicated if there wasn’t some law to get in a man’s way every time he tried to turn a dollar or do something that pleasured him.

A good boy deserved a better horse. Lige had it in mind that when they left here and started up toward Indian territory he would watch for a better mount and do a little quiet trading. It was a father’s duty to provide for his son. Nobody was apt to think enough of one horse to trail them all the way to Red River and beyond.

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