Free Novel 1981 - Comstock Lode (v5.0) by Louis L’Amour Page B

was back away from the crowd. Nearer the fire he prepared some boughs and grass for Melissa’s bed.
    “You mustn’t blame Alfie,” she said suddenly. “Mousel was armed. He might have killed him.”
    “Alfie had a gun. He had a pocket-pistol and it was double-barreled. He had two shots to Mousel’s one; he ran like a rabbit.”
    He glanced around at her. “Learn to judge men. His kind will always run.”
    “Wouldn’t you ever?”
    “Nobody knows what he will do. I never have, except from Indians, when outnumbered. But I might. It all depends on the situation. All Alfie needed was nerve. If he’d have pulled that gun, Mousel would have quit cold, although he might try to shoot him in the back, later.”
    Ledbetter fried bacon. Several of the men went down to Strawberry to eat. Trevallion brought a loaf of bread from his pack. The three ate without much talk.
    Suddenly Trevallion looked around. Tapley was back under the trees, nearly out of sight. “Pull up a chair,” Trevallion suggested. “There’s plenty.”
    “I got nothing to offer.”
    “You’re company. Come on.”
    Slowly he walked down and squatted on his heels. He accepted some bread and bacon and ate, obviously hungry. “Thank you,” he said when finished. “I’m beholden.”
    “You can put your feet under my table any time,” Ledbetter said.
    “Goes for me,” Trevallion added.
    The Arkansawyer squatted again and took up a burning twig to light his pipe. “Lost my outfit,” he puffed a moment. “Caught in a flash flood away down yonder in the desert. Had us two cows. Injuns got ’em.”
    “‘Us’?”
    “Had me a wife.” He dropped his eyes to the fire. “She was a good woman. Died out yonder…fever. My girl, she’s goin’ to school. She’s in Benecia.”
    “Hard,” Ledbetter muttered. “A man comes on hard times.”
    “I seen no others,” Tapley replied. “Worked hard all my years but can’t seem to come up winners. Grasshoppers ate me out of two crops back in the States, hail done for another. Injuns burned me out a couple of times. I worked Rich Bar, come up empty. Made the rush to the Frazier,” he turned to glance at Trevallion, “you know how that was.”
    “A bust. Gold too fine and too little of it.”
    “Aye.” He added sticks to the fire. “Got to make it this time. I got that girl,” he looked up proudly, “and she’s beautiful. I don’t know how come it, me bein’ a homely sort of man and her ma just passin’ pretty, but she’s
beautiful
. A girl like that, with nothing, she’ll have only trouble.”
    The morning dawned clear and cold, but there was no wind. The pines edged themselves black against the sullen sky, and the mules were restless when they saddled up.
    Nobody talked. Once in the saddle, Ledbetter started off at a good pace. Only a few were on the trail when they reached it, and Ledbetter forged right into the column. Some drew aside, others cursed him, but he ignored the curses, lifting a hand to those who stepped aside and broke into a trot.
    There was an odd feeling to the wind. Melissa caught up with Trevallion as today she had fallen behind him. “What’s wrong?”
    “Snow. There’s snow on that wind.”
    “But it’s clear!”
    “You’ll see. Jim wants to get us off the mountain before it strikes. Woodford’s is next, but it’s down off the hill.”
    Clouds piled up over the peaks and ridges behind them. A small wind fiddled among the pines. The mules quickened their step. Ledbetter glanced back at the sky.
    The trail dipped down into a thicker stand of pines, and the sky was no longer visible except directly overhead. Occasionally, through the trees ahead and much lower, they caught glimpses of a valley and some grassland.
    Trevallion knew where he was and what was coming and did not think of it. He was thinking of himself now. He was changing. The sullen fury that had burned within him for so long was gone or seemed to be gone, dissipated by time and the killing of