FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   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   >>   >|  
st names, "Buck" or "Pete" or "Bill" as the case might be, mere cowmen employed at a salary. Elbow to elbow they leaned upon the supporting bar, awaiting with interest the something they knew Kennedy had to say. Kennedy did not ask a single man what he would have. It was needless. Silently he placed a glass before each, and starting a bottle of red liquor at one end of the line, he watched it, as, steadily emptying, it passed on down to the end. "I never use it, you know," he explained, as, the preparation complete, they looked at him expectantly. "Take something else, then," pressed McFadden. Mick poured out a glass of water and set it on the bar before him; but not an observer smiled. They knew the man they were dealing with. "All right, boys,"--McFadden's glass went up on a level with his eye, and one and all the others followed the motion,--"all right, boys! Here's to you, Kennedy!"--mouthing the last word as though it were a hot pebble, and in unison the dozen odd hands led the way to their respective owners' mouths. There was a momentary pause; then a musical clinking, as the empty glasses returned to the board. Silence, expectant silence, returned. "Boys,"--Mick looked from face to face intimately,--"we've got work ahead. Hoyt here reported this morning that two of the best horses on the Big B were missing. He's made a forty-mile circuit to-day, and no one has seen anything of them. You all know what that means." Stetson turned to the foreman. "What time did you see them last, Hoyt?" "About nine last evening." "Sure?" Bob's long head nodded emphatically. "Yes, one of the boys had the team out mending fence in the afternoon, and when he was through he turned them into the corral with the broncos. I'm sure they were there." "I'm not surprised," commented Thompson, swinging on his single elbow to face the others. "It's been some time now since we've had a necktie party and it's bound to come. The wonder is it hasn't come before." Gilbert and Grover, comparatively elderly men, said nothing, looked nothing; but upon the faces of the half-dozen cowboys there appeared distinct anticipation. The hunt of a "rustler" appealed to them as a circus does to a small boy, as the prospect of a football game does to a college student. Meanwhile, McFadden had been thinking. One could always tell when this process was taking place with the Scotchman, from his habit of tapping his chest with his middle fi
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
looked
 

Kennedy

 

McFadden

 
returned
 
turned
 
single
 

corral

 

broncos

 

afternoon

 

Stetson


foreman
 
circuit
 

nodded

 

emphatically

 

evening

 

mending

 

college

 

student

 

Meanwhile

 

thinking


football
 

prospect

 

appealed

 
rustler
 

circus

 
tapping
 
middle
 

Scotchman

 

process

 

taking


anticipation

 

necktie

 
commented
 
Thompson
 

swinging

 
missing
 

cowboys

 

appeared

 

distinct

 

Gilbert


Grover

 

comparatively

 
elderly
 

surprised

 
momentary
 
emptying
 

steadily

 

passed

 
watched
 

starting