The Lawless by John Jakes

Author:John Jakes [Jakes, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sagas, General, Westerns, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9780451214522
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Published: 2005-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

"Why, I been hearin" tales for two or three years. Wild Bill told me about the drinking. He said Kane downs a glass of spirits with his morning eggs." "I see. Hickok told you. That explains a good deal." Fowler missed the sarcasm. "I think they used to be pals, don't you see. But I kinda get the impression they fell out at one time. Kane may fool you with his smile- his If what Fowler said was true, the young man had done exactly that. "comb he's killed plenty of men. Plenty." He shook the lines over the four-horse hitch. "Hahl Come on, you slowpokes! Let's hurry on home!" "Goddamn right, I'm in danger of expiring from so-briery," the coarse-faced Calamity yelled, quirting her horse. She too went racing down the narrow road ahead of the coach, hallooing to announce the caravan's arrival. Deadwood Gulch was a long, rock-walled canyon bordered by a noisy stream. Several mining camps had been established along the stream. Julia's destination, Deadwood City, was the largest. As the coach pulled in behind those who'd ridden ahead, she quickly surveyed the camp.* Her face fell. She'd seen many a raw new town between the Mississippi and the Pacific. But she'd never set eyes on any place as appallingly primitive as this. Deadwood City was a hodgepodge of lean-tos and tents with a few unpainted pine buildings mixed in, the whole straggling out in the trampled mud without observable plan or pattern. The camp's winter population had been a few hundred. Fowler claimed there would be twenty or thirty thousand present by summer's end. Her first look at the Miner's Rest Hotel showed her 462 why the coach driver had been sarcastic. The hotel was not one of the camp's four or five wooden structures, but a huge canvas tent. A secondary sign advertised Upstairs Rooms. Evidently a second floor had been built into the tent's upper portion. The Concord creaked to a halt in the mud, right in the center of the camp. Grubbily dressed men swarmed around the coach from all sides. They divided their attention between Hickok, who stayed in the saddle and basked in his celebrity status, and Julia, whom the miners apparently presumed to be a new addition to one of the Gulch brothels. Jason Kane couldn't protect her; he'd disappeared. A bearded fellow reached up to squeeze her leg through her skirt. She boxed his ear. From the left side of the coach. Calamity shouted: "Here, mister. You want to feel somethin', make an arrangement to buy me a drink. That there's the lady who come in to give a speech tonight." "The suffrage lady?" yelled another man in the boisterous crowd. "Oh, boy. Lute Sims has a real fine reception waitin' for you, woman." "Who's Lute Sims?" Julia called, but the man wouldn't answer. She uttered a short, impatient sigh, hoisted her skirts and climbed down the wheel with an assist from Charlie Utter. Pistols visible beneath his frock coat kept merriment over his curls at a minimum.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.