The Lawless West by Jon Tuska

Author:Jon Tuska [Tuska, Jon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781428503021
Publisher: Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
Published: 2007-10-01T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 1

I rode down from the high blue hills and across the brush flats into Hattan’s Point, a raw bit of spawning hell, scattered hit or miss along the rocky slope of a rust-topped mesa. Ah, it’s a grand feeling to be young and tough with a heart full of hell, strong muscles and quick, flexible hands! And the feeling that somewhere in town there’s a man who would like to tear down your meat house with hands or gun.

It was like that, Hattan’s Point was, when I swung down from my buckskin and gave him a word to wait with. A new town, a new challenge, and, if there were those who wished to take me on, let them come and be damned.

I knew the whiskey of this town would be the raw whiskey of the last town, and of the towns behind it, but I shoved through the batwing doors and downed a shot of rye and looked around, measuring the men along the bar and at the tables. None of these men did I know, yet I had seen them all before in a dozen towns. The big, hard-eyed rancher with the iron-gray hair who thought he was the bull of the woods, and the knife-like man beside him with the careful eyes who would be gun slick and fast as a striking snake. The big man turned his head toward me, as a great brown bear turns to look at something he could squeeze to nothing, if he wished.

“Who sent for you?”

There was harsh challenge in the words. The cold demand of a conqueror, and I laughed within me. “Nobody sent for me. I ride where I want and stop when I want.”

He was a man grown used to smaller men who spoke softly to him, and my answer was irritating. “Then ride on,” he said, “for you’re not wanted in Hattan’s Point.”

“Sorry, friend,” I said. “I like it here. I’m staying, and maybe in whatever game you’re playing, I’ll buy chips. I don’t like being ordered around by big frogs in such small puddles.”

His big face flamed crimson, but before he could answer, another man spoke up, a tall young man with white hair. “What he means is that there’s trouble here, and men are taking sides. Those who stand upon neither side are everybody’s enemy in Hattan’s Point.”

“So?” I smiled at them all, but my eyes held to the big bull of the woods. “Then maybe I’ll choose a side. I always did like a fight.”

“Then be sure you choose the right one”—this was from the knife-like man beside the bull—“and talk to me before you decide.”

“I’ll talk to you,” I said, “or any man. I’m reasonable enough. But get this, the side I choose will be the right one.”

The sun was bright on the street and I walked outside, feeling the warm of it, feeling the cold from my muscles. Within me I chuckled, because I knew what they were saying back there. I’d thrown my challenge at them for pure fun; I didn’t care about anyone.

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