FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110  
111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   >>   >|  
" "No; he's Nick's brother. I don't suppose you ever met him." "I never heard of him." "He's only been back from Wyoming a week or two. He was over there some time--several years, I believe." "In the pen over there?" Wood took a careful survey of the door before replying, working his cigar over to the other side of his mouth in the way that a one-armed man acquires the trick. "I--they say he got mixed up in a cattle deal down there." Lambert smoked in silence a little while, his head bent, his face thoughtful. Wood shifted a little nearer, standing straight and alert behind his counter as if prepared to act in some sudden emergency. "Does he live around here?" Lambert asked. "He's workin' for Berry Kerr, foreman over there. That's the job he used to have before he--left." Lambert grunted, expressing that he understood the situation. He stood in his leaning, careless posture, arm on the show case, thumb hooked in his belt near his gun. "I thought I'd tell you," said Wood uneasily. "Thanks." Wood came a step nearer along the counter, leaned his good arm on it, watching the door without a break. "He's one of the old gang that used to give Philbrook so much trouble--he's carryin' lead that Philbrook shot into him now. So he's got it in for that ranch, and everybody on it. I thought I'd tell you." "I'm much obliged to you, Mr. Wood," said Lambert heartily. "He's one of these kind of men you want to watch out for when your back's turned, Duke." "Thanks, old feller; I'll keep in mind what you say." "I don't want it to look like I was on one side or the other, you understand, Duke; but I thought I'd tell you. Sim Hargus is one of them kind of men that a woman don't dare to show her face around where he is without the risk of bein' insulted. He's a foul-mouthed, foul-minded man, the kind of a feller that ought to be treated like a rattlesnake in the road." Lambert thanked him again for his friendly information, understanding at once his watchful uneasiness and the absence of Alta from the front of the house. He was familiar with that type of man such as Wood had described Hargus as being; he had met some of them in the Bad Lands. There was nothing holy to them in the heavens or the earth. They did not believe there was any such thing as a virtuous woman, and honor was a word they never had heard defined. "I'll go out and look him up," Lambert said. "If he happens to come in here ask
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110  
111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Lambert

 

thought

 

Hargus

 

counter

 

nearer

 
feller
 

Philbrook

 

Thanks

 

heartily

 
obliged

turned

 
understand
 

watchful

 

heavens

 

defined

 

virtuous

 

rattlesnake

 

thanked

 

treated

 

insulted


mouthed

 

minded

 

friendly

 

information

 

familiar

 

absence

 

uneasiness

 

understanding

 

cattle

 

smoked


acquires

 
silence
 

straight

 

standing

 

shifted

 
thoughtful
 

Wyoming

 

suppose

 

brother

 

careful


survey

 

replying

 

working

 

prepared

 

uneasily

 

hooked

 
leaned
 

trouble

 

carryin

 

watching