Free the Man Called Noon (1970) by Louis L'amour Page A

worry about the law if we done it. This here Peterson had been in the Rangers at one time, and he knowed a lot of folks around about town. We taken his word for it. We'd seen him talkin' with some high-powered men around El Paso, like A. J. Fountain, the Mannings, Magoffin, and the like of that.
    "He laid it out for us, but all the time we knowed he was talkin' for somebody else and not for himself. You see, this Peterson knowed a lot of folks on both sides of the fence, and he'd been a sort of go-between before this. If a man wanted to sell stolen cattle, Peterson could always put him in the way of it.
    "Fifty dollars now, that's near two months' wages for a cowhand, so we taken him up on it. Who paid the money to him, I don't know."
    Ruble Noon considered. The man seemed to be telling the truth, and the story sounded right.
    "All right," he said. "I've got your horse outside. I'm going to load you up and take you out a-ways. When I get you within easy distance of El Paso I'll turn you loose."
    He stood for a moment thinking about Peterson. It was unlikely that he could make Peterson talk, for the man sounded like a tough one. He had served in the Rangers, and had probably gone bad after leaving them ... or been kicked out, as was often the case if they found they had a bad egg in the basket.
    When those dead men came into town tied on their horses, Peterson would be among the first to hear of it, and he would surely carry the news to the man who had hired him. By watching Peterson, Ruble Noon might locate his man.
    Now he loaded the wounded man on his horse and led the animal away from the deserted ranch. When they were well on the road to El Paso, he let the horse and rider go.
    He swung off the trail into the mesquite and circled for low ground, riding toward El Paso by the best hidden route he could find.
    Had he been here before? It seemed likely that he had. Should he let himself go, hoping that hidden memory would take him to the right places?
    But those places might now be the worst ones for him, and any man he saw might be an enemy. Or he might be wanted by the law.
    He rode on cautiously, but with foreboding. His head was aching again, and he was very tired. The sun was hot, and he wanted to lie down in the shade to rest, but there was no time.
    He was riding toward something, he did not know what. The only thing he was sure of now was that he was Ruble Noon, a man feared, a man who hired his gun to kill, a man he did not want to be.
    Whatever had made him what he was he did not know; he knew only that he wanted to be that no longer. The trouble was, he had to be. To cease to be what he was now would be to die ... and to leave that girl back there alone, and without defenses.
    He rode on in the hot afternoon, and the streets of the town opened before him.

The Man Called Noon (1970)

Chapter Eight
    As he entered the town a street on his right branched away from the main street, and he turned into it. When he had ridden only a few hundred yards he saw a large wooden stable with doors opened wide. An old Mexican sat in front of it There were a water trough and a pump close by.
    He drew up. "You got room for another horse?" he asked.
    The Mexican looked at him. "This is not a livery stable, senor," he said, "but if you wish - "
    Ruble Noon swung to the ground. "It's the first one I saw," he said, "and I'm dead beat. How much for the horse and a place to clean up?"
    "Fifty cents?"
    "That'll do." He followed the Mexican into the stable and was shown a stall. He led the roan in, then went up to the loft and forked hay down the chute into the manger.
    When he came down he gave the Mexican fifty cents, and followed him to the water trough. The Mexican handed him a tin basin, and he pumped water into it and washed his face and hands, and then combed his hair. Using his hat, he whipped the dust from his pants and his boots. When he turned to go the old man said, "You wish to sleep here, senor? There is a cot in there." He