the Proving Trail (1979) by L'amour Louis

Author:L'amour, Louis [L'amour, Louis]
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-12-12T06:26:36.031000+00:00

Chapter VI When he came through the door, the first thin g Tobin Wacker laid eyes on was me.

He stopped right in the door, looking like he'd seen death. If ever I saw a man scared, it was him.

Whatever he expected when he came in, I wasn't an y part of it. Maybe he figured me for dead. I don't kno w what was in his mind, but whatever it was, he had n o idea of fighting.

"Howdy, Wacker," I said. "You had enough or ar e you huntin' some more?"

Rightly, I should have been over there where I coul d nail him before he got out of that doorway, and befor e his partner could make it through.

They came on into the room, and when Dick see n who was there, his face turned white. Puzzled me , what they were so scared about. From behind me, fro m the entrance to the hotel lobby came a low, quiet voice.

"Need some help, McRaven?"

It was Yant.

"Thanks." I was irritated. Was it him they was . . . w ere scared of? How long had he been there, anyway?

"I can skin anything I can catch."

"We ain't huntin' trouble," Wacker said, rubbing hi s big meat-hooks on his pants. "We just come for som e grub."

Recalling my talk about cannibalism, I said kind o f wryly, "What's the matter? Didn't Blazer last you?"

You'd of thought I lashed them with a whip. The y just turned and busted out of that door and went aflyin'.

Yant walked up beside me, still watching the door . L "Now what was that all about?"

"Nothing," I said, "we had trouble awhile back. I t hought they'd come for more."

"So did I," he said.

"Thanks," I said.

"Thanks? For what?"

"Offering to help," I said.

He pulled back a chair and sat down opposite me , and for once that poker face showed something. He was puzzled and angry, but with himself, I thought.

"Think nothing of it," he muttered, and I began t o wonder if that offer to help hadn't come naturally , without him thinking of it at all. If that was true, I f elt better about him, but still, why should he help me?

This was a country where a man was supposed to saddle his own broncs and fight his own battles. Yet h e had offered to help.

"Have something," I said. "I was fixing to eat."

He didn't say anything, but he did order when Teres a came in. He was in what some folks call a brown study , I mean he was figuring something out and he didn't like it. If it was true that he figured on killing me, an d I surely believed it, he had missed a good chance o f having it done for him. He had offered to step in whe n all he needed to do was stand aside and let it happen , whatever it was. I was going to barrel right into them , but I'd no idea I could whip them both, the shape I w as in.

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