Free Lonely On the Mountain (1980) by Louis - Sackett's 19 L'amour Page B

sometime." "Thanks." Orrin held out his hand. "That's decent of you. If you don't see me, and you hear the name of Sackett, you just go to them and tell him you were friendly to Orrin Sackett. You won't need more than that." He returned to the street and walked back to the hotel. Baptiste was loaded and standing by his horse.
    "You ever been to British Columbia, Baptiste?" "I dream of it. But it is for young men. I am no longer young." "It is for men, Baptiste, and you are a man.
    I have another cart. Will you get it for me?" "I will. But British Columbia? He iss far off, I t'ink." "We will cross the wide plains, Baptiste, and follow strange rivers until they are no more.
    Then we shall climb mountains. It will be cold, hard, and dangerous. You know what the western lands are like, and it is never easy." Devnet Molrone came out on the street with Mary McCann. "Do we start so soon?" "It is twenty miles, they say. We will have to hurry." He glanced up the street. There was a tall man standing there, a tall man in a buckskin coat. Across the street, seated on a bench, was a man in a black coat. He smiled; it was so obvious.
    "What is it?" Devnet asked.
    "What?" He glanced at her. "Oh?
    Nothing, I was just--" "You looked so stern there for a moment, and then almost amused. Somehow--" "It is nothing," he replied. "It is just that some patterns are so familiar. The men who use them do not seem to realize the same methods have been used for centuries. Each seems to think he invented it." "I don't believe I understand." He leaned on the wagon. "Miss Molrone? Do you see those two men up the street? For some reason, they wish me harm.
    They have followed us here. When I go up the street, as they know I must, the man in the buckskin jacket will start trouble, somehow. Then, when he makes a move to draw a gun, the man across the street in the black coat will try to kill me." "You're mad!" She stared at him. "That's utterly preposterous! People don't do such things." "Not so often here as further south, nor so often where we are going. Nevertheless, it does happen.
    Trial by combat, Miss Molrone, has been a way of life sin
    e the beginning of time. A savage way, I'll admit, and dying out. But it is still with us." "But that's ridiculous! Those two men--why, I saw one of them talking to Mr. Gavin just this morning!" She turned to look at him. "You do not seem the type, somehow. You're so much the southern gentleman. I just--" He smiled again. "Southern gentleman? It's just the hat and maybe the fact that I trim my moustache. I grew up in the mountains, ma'am, a-fightin' an' a-feudin', and I cut my western teeth roundin' up wild cows. I've been up the hill and over the mountain, as we Sacketts say." "But you're a lawyer!" "Yes, ma'am, and respectful of the law, only if one is to settle difficulties in court, it must be agreeable to both parties. I suspect those gentlemen up the street have already selected their twelve jurymen, and they are in the chambers of their pistols.
    "Now," he said, "I must let them present their case, and I am wondering if they have become familiar with a new tactic the boys invented down Texas way?
    "We will have to hope they have not heard of it." He unbuttoned his coat. "Miss Molrone, ma'am, would you mind going inside?" "I will not! Besides, if what you say is true, it's not fair! There are two of them!" "Please. Do go inside. I know where my bullets are going, but I don't know about theirs." "Here--what is this?" It was Gavin. "What's going on?" "It's those men up there. Mr. Sackett believes they will try to kill him." "Two men? I see but one." "The man in the black coat. Mr.
    Sackett believes when trouble develops with the one, the other will kill him." Kyle Gavin's features showed nothing.
    "Oh? I scarcely think--" "Gavin? Will you take Miss Molrone inside? I wish to ask that man why he has been following us. If there is anything he wants, I am sure he can have it. There's no need to go skulking about in the