Free Taggart (1959) by Louis L'amour Page B

Adam, he is good man, but he was afrai d of Tom Sanifer.
    "Adam talks of tomorrow, but how do I know if tomorrow comes? How do I know wha t happen? I want to wear pretty dresses I do not make. I want to eat meals I do no t cook. I want to get out of bed and not have to think of making the bed. I do no t want to think about tomorrow."
    "Tomorrow comes whether you think about it or not."
    "I am fool. I know tomorrow comes, but if today I have what I want ... I do not care."
    . "Do you think Tom Sanifer could have given you anything? Or would even have tried?"
    "Tom Sanifer told Adam he will come for me, and Adam does nothing. What kind of a husband is that?"
    Should she tell her? Miriam hesitated, wanting nothing so much as to tell her, bu t more important, she realized suddenly, was for Consuelo to discover for herself wha t kind of man she had married. Yet Miriam could not leave the subject entirely. "Wh y did Adam go to Fort Bowie, that time?"
    Consuelo turned, her dark eyes flashing. "Because he was afraid! He was afriad To m Sanifer come back!"
    "Maybe not," Miriam replied.
    "I do not care," Consuelo replied, "I want to go. I am 'fraid. Every day I am afraid , and every night. If Adam will not take me, I will go alone. Or," her eyes flashed , "I get Senor Taggart to take me!"
    Miriam felt her spine stiffen with a sharp anger, but she did not turn around. He r back was to Consuelo and she kept it that way, but deep inside her there was a terribl e sinking feeling. She knew what effect Consuelo had on men, for she had seen it, an d none of them were indifferent to her, or could be indifferent. She had a fine body , and those magnificent eyes, and she knew how to appeal to men.
    "Why do you think he stayed?" Consuelo said. "You think it was because of you?"
    Miriam remembered the quiet talk in the darkness and suddenly she knew she love d Swante Taggart. It was nonsense ... how could she love a man she scarcely knew? Bu t out there in the night there had been something, some meeting between them. Yet ho w could that be, when he had not even seen her then?
    "I think he stayed because he wanted to stay," Miriam replied evenly. "I think h e will go when he wishes to go, but I do not believe he will take another man's wife."
    "Hah!" Consuelo snorted. "You think so? You fool, you."
    Swante Taggart walked away from the house. He carried a rifle, field glasses, an d canteen and he went up the canyon back of the chapel where the canyon walls seeme d to shoot straight up toward the sky. Then he began to climb over boulders, and twic e had to pull himself up sheer faces eight or ten feet high. Presently he left th e canyon and climbed out on the side.
    He was well up, southeast of Rockinstraw, and with a good view of the country excep t where it was cut off by the bulk of Rockinstraw itself. Seating himself in the shad e of a thick cedar, he put his rifle across his lap and got out the glasses. For a n hour he studied the terrain.
    It was a good place to hide.
    Swante pushed his hat back on his head and rolled a smoke, his eyes squinting a s he looked around. North of him lay the country he had crossed to get here, and sout h of him he believed he could almost detect a thin trail of smoke that might be Glob e ... in this clear air a man could see a long way.
    Nowhere was there any sign of Adam Stark or his workings. Probably he was deep i n a canyon some place, and well out of sight.
    His thoughts returned to the two girls. That Mexican girl now ... that was a lo t of woman. There was something going on he did not understand, and apparently Star k had told neither of them that he had killed this Sanifer. Could be why he had rushe d them away into the desert, so they would not hear.
    Miriam had not seemed upset over it ... she had even seemed pleased, so she couldn' t have been the woman.
    But she wouldn't have been. Miriam was the kind of girl who would go with a man i f she wanted to, and not be ashamed of it, but he'd have to be quite