Free Showdown On the Hogback (1991) by Louis L'amour Page B

his table. "You know, you're the one bright spot in this place! I'm so tired of that old stone house and seeing that dirty old man around that I can scarcely stand it. I'll be glad when this is all over."
    He studied her. "What will you do then?"
    "You know, I've not really thought of that. What I want to do is to get a ranch somewhere, a place with trees, grass, and some running water. It doesn't have to be a big place."
    "Cattle?"
    "A few, but horses are what I want.
    Horses like that one of yours, I think."
    "Good idea. It takes less land for horses, and there's always a market for good stock." He studied the beauty of her mouth, the quietness and humor of her eyes. "Somehow I'm glad to think you're staying.
    It wouldn't be the same without you. Not now."
    She looked at him quickly, her eyes dancing with laughter, but with the hint of a question in their depths. "Why, Tom! That sounds almost like gallantry! Like you were trying to make love to me, like all the cowboys!"
    "No, Connie," he said quietly, "when I make love to you there won't be any doubt about it. You'll know, and I won't be fooling."
    "Somehow I think you're right. You wouldn't be fooling."
    "Over west of here," he said, "west and south, there's a great rim that stretches for miles across the country, and a splendid pine forest atop it. There's trees, water, game, and some of the finest mountain meadows a man ever saw.
    I know a place over there where I camped once, a good spring, some tall trees, graceful in the wind, and a long sweep of land clear to the rim's edge, and beyond it miles upon miles of rolling, sweeping range and forest."
    "It sounds fascinating, like what I've been wanting ever since I came west."
    He pushed back his chair. "Maybe when this is over, you'd ride over that way with me? I'd like to show it to you."
    She looked up at him. "All right, Tom.
    We'll look at it together."
    He paused, hat in hand, staring out the door.
    "Together," he mused. Then he glanced down at her.
    "You know, Connie, that's the most beautiful word in the language his He walked away then, pausing to pay his check and hers and then stepping outside into the warmth of the street.
    A buckboard had stopped and a man was getting out of it, a man who moved warily and looked half frightened. He glanced around swiftly and then ducked through the door into the store.

    Chapter 8
    Two men crossed the street suddenly. One of them was a man Kedrick had never seen before; the other was the sly looking loafer he had seen hanging around the back door in the saloon at Yellow Butte.
    The loafer, a sour-faced man called Singer, was talking. They stopped, and he indicated the buckboard to the man with him. "That's him, Abe,"
    Singer was saying. "He's one of that crowd from across the way. He's brother-in-law to McLennon."
    "This is a good place to start," Abe replied shortly, low voiced. "Let's go!"
    Tom Kedrick turned on his heel and followed them. As they stepped into the door, he stepped after and caught it before it slammed shut. Neither man seemed to be aware of his presence, for they were intent on the man at the counter.
    "Hello, Sloan!" Singer said softly.
    "Meet Abe Mixus!"
    The name must have meant something to Sloan, for he turned, his face gray. He held a baby's bottle, which he was in the act of buying, in his right hand. His eyes, quick and terror stricken, went from one to the other. He was frightened, but puzzled, and he seemed to be fighting for self-control . "You in this squabble, Singer? I figured you to be outside of it."
    Singer chuckled. "That's what I aim for folks to think."
    Mixus, a lean, stooped man with yellow eyeballs and a thin-cheeked face drew a paper from his pocket. "That's a quitclaim deed, Sloan," he said. "You can sign it an' save yourself trouble."
    Sloan's face was gray. His eyes went to the deed and seemed to hold there. Then, slowly, they lifted. "I can't do that. My wife's havin' a child in the next couple of days. I worked too hard on that