Free Trigger Fast by J. T. Edson Page B

knew for sure, with the note from Mallick and the presence of one of the Double K’s toughs, he stood in the clear. If it came out later that Freda managed to trick the paper from Mallick in some way all the blame could be laid on the deputy who accepted the note as genuine.
    ‘How long’ve you been with Double K?’ asked the gunhand, giving Dusty a long and curious stare.
    ‘Not long,’ Dusty answered truthfully. ‘You always this nosey?’
    The gunman grunted and relapsed into silence once more, except for the crunching of the cracker he took out of the barrel. He did not know all the men out at the Double K but knew Mallick hired efficient men when he could find them, and this small Texan looked and acted efficient. One thing the deputy knew for sure. The Texan wouldn’t take to having his word doubted and could likely deal harshly with any man who doubted it.
    Freda felt tension rising inside her with every minute. She watched Roylan collecting the goods from the shelves. He seemed to be taking his time and she wanted to beg him to hurry. At any moment Mallick would be found and the alarm given. Then Dusty and Mark would need to face a hostile town, or at least such a part of the town as felt under obligation to Double K.
    At last the order had been gathered and she paid for it. Then Roylan began to box it and carry it to her buckboard. Dusty watched this. The load did not look much after seeing the OD Connected’s cook collect a chuckwagon full at a time, but the Lasalle family did not need such quantities of food and what they now had would be the difference between survival and being driven out.
    Freda left the store, wanting to be outside so that she might see what happened around town. The gathering of supplies had taken some time and she thought Mark might be making his way towards her, but at first she saw no sign. Then Mark and another man left the Jackieboy Saloon. She saw Elben the town marshal and others she recognized as his deputies surround the pair in a menacing half-circle. A pair of riders came slowly along the street into town, beyond the Jackieboy Saloon but Freda gave them no second glance. She stared at the men before the saloon for another moment. Then she turned and darted back into the store.
    ‘Dusty!’ she gasped. ‘Mark’s in trouble.’
    oooOooo
    * Told in QUIET TOWN

CHAPTER SIX

THE YSABEL KID MEETS A LADY
    HOLDING his big white stallion to a mile devouring trot the Ysabel Kid rode north. He found and now followed the signs of last year’s drives with no difficulty for the sign lay plain for a man to see.
    Ahead lay the fence. The Kid saw it and a frown came to his brow. Like Dusty and Mark he hated fences of any kind, probably more so than his friends for they would grudgingly admit some fences had their uses. To the Kid any kind of fence was an anathema. The free-ranging blood of his forefathers, all breeds which never took to being fettered and walled in, revolted against the sight of anything which might bring an end to the open range.
    Touching the white’s flanks the Kid swung to one side, heading down the stream which marked the boundary of Double K and which carried the barbed wire on the bank he rode along. Likely Double K had men watching the fence and he did not want to be delayed in obeying Dusty’s orders while he made war.
    The wire ended at a point where the stream made a sharp curve and formed the end of the narrows. After scanning the area the Kid allowed Nigger to wade into and through the water. At the other side he set his course across the narrows, in the correct direction, with the ease of a sailor using a compass to navigate his ship. All the range ahead of him looked good, plenty of grass, enough water, and dotted with small woods in which the cattle might shelter during bad weather. A man who owned such a spread should have no need to jump his neighbours’ land for more grazing.
    Caution had always been a by-word for the Kid. A man didn’t live as