Free Kilkenny 03 - Kilkenny (v5.0) by Louis L’Amour Page B

came near her of whom he approved. More than fifty years of age, the Yaqui possessed the strength of a gorilla, the devotion of a dog, and the cunning of a wolf.
    “All right,” Nita decided. “Tell him I need to see him.”
    Doc Blaine got up from the table. Curiously he wondered how she had met the man who called himself Trent. Obviously the man had used the name before, but who was he?

    A S HE STARTED back toward town in his buckboard he could see cattle darkening the range where once Carpenter’s few cattle had grazed. How could a woman with so few hands hope to stand against Tetlow’s vast herds? There was no way to fight masses of cattle, for now Jared Tetlow had found the method that seemingly could not be stopped. He himself need attack nobody, for those cattle, bunched upon range too small to feed them, would break any man.
    Nearing Whiskers Draw a man got up from the rocks. He had a field glass and a rifle. It was Cain Brockman.
    “Howdy,” he grinned, slouching down to the trail. “Reckon we got a fight comin’.”
    “You may get help.” Brockman had been with Nita a long time and might know. “Miss Riordan has asked me to get in touch with a man named Trent.”
    Excitement broke over Brockman’s face. “You mean—” He broke off sharply. “Trent? Nobody I’d rather see right now.”
    Blaine had gone no more than two miles further when another movement stopped him. A woman, bloody and half her clothing torn, stumbled down the draw, then fell. She was struggling to rise as he reached her side. She was not a young woman and she was obviously exhausted as well as badly hurt. It was Mrs. Carpenter.
    “My God! What’s happened? Where’s Free?”
    “Dead.” She was half dazed with grief and weariness. “Killed.”
    “Shot?”
    “They stampeded cattle through the yard. He’d gone for water to the well. He broke for the house but he didn’t get halfway before they ran him down.”
    “And you?”
    “Tried to help him. Steer knocked me down. I…I was going for the sheriff.”
    He helped her into the buckboard and gave her a drink from his canteen. He wiped her face clean and gave her the best first aid treatment he could manage. “He was all I had,” she mumbled, only half conscious. “Without him it ain’t…it ain’t…”
    He put a hand on her shoulder. “Think what Free would have done. He was a brave, good man.”
    After that she sat quietly until they reached town. He turned off at the outskirts and drove to Bob Early’s home.
    Laurie Webster was watering flowers and when she saw the woman she hurried to help. Blaine explained quickly.
    “Is Bob home?”
    “He’s at the Diamond. He was to meet Leal Macy there.”
    There would be action now. They would not take this. Yet even as the thought came to him, he began to doubt. Some would think only of the added profit they were making from the big, new outfit. They would remember the painfully few dollars spent by Carpenter and Carson, and would not allow themselves to think of what might happen when the Forty was in complete control.
    There was Macy, however, and Bob Early. And there was Dolan and his men, perhaps a few others. His spirits sagged as he realized how few they were. Yet it had been always so. The many are afraid to act, hoping for the best until it is too late.
    A dozen men sat at the table when he entered. Briefly, he explained. Macy leaned on the table, looking around at the faces of the others. “What did I tell you? Carson first, now Carpenter. Nobody is safe.”
    “We don’t know what happened.” Wolrich owned the Emporium. “We don’t know Carpenter was run down a-purpose. We only got a hysterical woman’s word for it.”
    Happy Jack Harrow of the Pinenut Saloon agreed. “My sentiments. Tetlow’s bringing prosperity. My take’s doubled since he came. This here’s hard country. If a man ain’t fit, he can’t last.”
    “Who are we to fight a rancher’s battles?” Savory agreed. “There’s always