Free the Strong Shall Live (Ss) (1980) by Louis L'amour Page B

ammunition.
    No weight of cattle could press down The Fence. It must be torn down or blasted out. Using a crowbar from the packhorse he pried loose a number of boulders and tumbled them down the steep sides of the draw to a place behind The Fence to widen and deepen the barrier.
    Further back, where the draw opened into the basin he dug another rifle pit and tumbled down more stones, but there they were more widely spaced and less of an obstruction. Not until darkness had fallen and he could see the dark mass of advancing cattle did he cease work.
    Despite the fact that he feared to leave the barricade, he went back to the house and prepareda meal. He was sitting down to eat when he heard a call from the tunnel.
    "Merrano?" The shout reached him clearly. "This is Cab Casady! I want to talk!"
    Picking up his rifle, his gun belts still hanging from his hips, he walked to the log gate. "What's the problem?" he asked.
    The big man grasped the logs. "Merrano, damn it, I'm no talker! I do claim some sense of what's right, and I ain't havin' no part of what they're tryin' to do. I got a rifle here and plenty of shells. I came to lend you a hand!"
    "You mean that?" He recalled what Candy had said of this man.
    "I sure do, boy! You've got sand, and by the Lord Harry I want to show these bullheads that at least one of us won't be stampeded by no hate-filled coyote like Joe Stangle!"
    Barry put down his rifle and unlatched the gate. "Come in, Cab! I won't tell you how good it is to see you I"
    The two men walked up to the cabin. Over coffee and side meat Barry explained his defenses. Casady chuckled. "I'll like seein' the expression on Joe Stangle's face when he gets to The Fence I" he said.
    They took turns guarding the draw but not until daylight did the cattlemen start to ride up. Barry was at the cabin and he had welcomed another visitor . .. two of them, in fact.
    Clyde Mayer, driving his old buckboard, a rifle between his knees, drove up the hill when the gate was opened. Beside him on the seat was Candy Drake. She set her lips stubbornly when she saw Barry.
    "If you won't let me shoot I can at least make coffee and get food for you. You'll have to eat."
    "All right, I'm not sorry you came. Come on, Mayer, we'd better head back for the draw."
    He turned to the girl. "Candy, watch the tunnel. If you hear anybody coming, and you can alwayshear them, tell them to go away. Fire a couple of warning shots and if they don't leave, light the fuses."
    Her features were stiff and white, her eyes large. "I'll do it, Barry. They've no business coming here."
    Day was breaking into that gray half-light that precedes the dawn. Cab Casady rose from behind a boulder and came to meet them. "Howdy, Mayer I You joined the army?"
    "I have."
    Casady was a large, broad-shouldered man with twinkling blue eyes. "They're comin' now," he said. "We better look to it."
    "Let me do the talking," Barry suggested. "Maybe we can avoid shooting."
    "I doubt it," Cab said. "Stangle wants blood."
    When the little cavalcade of riders had approached as far as he thought wise he fired a shot that brought them up standing.
    "You boys better ride home. Nobody is coming through the wire, today or ever. I don't want to kill anybody, but I'm protecting my property against armed men."
    Casady stood up. "I'm here, too, boys. The first man to touch that wire dies!"
    Clyde Mayer called out. "Hill? Is that you? I'm no fighting man, Hill, but by gravy there's going to be some justice in this country I You take my advice and ride home."
    "Mayer?"Hill's tone was incredulous. "You turned traitor, too?"
    "I'm upholding justice, and if you've half the sense I gave you credit for you'll turn around and ride home. I like you Hill, but you lay a hand on that wire and my bullet will take you right between the eyes!"
    There was a hurried conference among the riders. "They can't stop us!" Stangle protested. "They're bluffin'!"
    "Count me out," Price Taylor said.
    "You yellow?" Dulin