Free Westward the Tide (1950) by Louis L'amour Page A

train on.
    Logan Deane was a killer, but as he had admitted, he had killed men himself. On Deane he could reserve an opinion. For Batsell Hammer there was no need nor room for reservation. He was a renegade who stopped at nothing. He was a thief and a murderer, and known by all the frontier as such.
    Abel Bain was worse. The huge, surly Bain was a wolf where Hammer was a coyote. He was violent, treacherous, brutal. However, Massey was new to the frontier, apparently, and he might not know about Bain.
    That Spinner Johns had tried to kill him shortly after a talk with Massey, might be a coincidence. Johns was the sort who might try to kill anyone, and with slight provocation. If that fight had been an effort of Massey's, the dark, handsome Clive had been grievously disappointed.
    He was, he decided, building fantastic suspicion upon nothing at all. There was no way in which Massey could hope to gain. The warning in the stable might have come from someone who had tried for a place in the train and been refused.
    At the next stop the situation might reveal itself more clearly, for then the elections would be held to determine the captains of the four companies.
    In his own group, aside from his two wagons driven by Shedd and Tolliver, there were the wagons of Murphy and Ban Hardy, Aaron Stark with one wagon, Rabun Kline with one, and the three wagons of Lute Harless. Each of the latter was driven by a son of Aaron Stark.
    Still another wagon had joined them when they moved out that morning. Curiously, he dropped back alongside to see who was the driver. A big, wide shouldered man hunched on the wagon seat, a man with a wide smile and a ready laugh. But as he looked at Matt his eyes were shrewd, intense.
    He waved to Bardoul. "You in command?"
    "Nobody is. The election is tonight."
    Matt touched the dun with a spur and cantered ahead until he drew alongside Murphy's wagon. The big mountain man grinned at him. "Reckon this route will take us by the Stone Cup? Never forget the place. Holed up there three days once, standin' off some thievin' Crows."
    "Be good to get back," Bardoul agreed, "I like the Big Horns."
    "Wonder where at that gold is? I've been runnin' it over in my mind, an' I can't seem to figure it out. I never seen none, my own self."
    "You weren't looking for gold, Buff. It could be there, all right. Personally, I don't care. I've an idea of finding myself a ranch over in the basin and runnin' a few cows."
    "Who does know where we're goin', I wonder?"
    "Coyle, probably. Certainly Pearson an' Massey. Then Lyon has been there, and Portugee Phillips will have been told. We'll get the lowdown tonight, but until then nobody is supposed to know. Frankly, I haven't even tried to guess."
    Murphy glanced at him. "Seen that girl of Coyle's a few minutes ago. She was ridin' a mighty pretty spotted pony. Said Clive Massey gave it to her."
    Matt offered no comment, and Murphy lighted his pipe and settled to driving. All morning Matt had avoided thinking of the girl, feeling that whatever consideration she might have given him had been erased by last night's discussion at the hotel. Clive Massey, much in her father's favour, would have all the advantage, nor was he a man likely to lose any time in making the most of the opportunity.
    Studying his own position, Matt Bardoul could see that it was scarcely enviable. Colonel Pearson had studiously avoided him, which was understandable, for Matt alone knew of the man's fearful incompetence. Brian Coyle, who had been Mart's one friend among the leaders could be considered a friend no longer. As for Massey, he knew the man would like nothing so well as to see Bardoul out of the wagon train.
    When they pulled up for a brief lunch, Bardoul loped the dun down to the fire. It had been Stark's suggestion, eagerly accepted by the others, that his girls do the cooking for all, and that they have a community cooking, with each bringing a share.
    Stark was sitting on a log near the fire when Matt