Badlanders Read Free Page B

words you use,” Lice said.
    â€œBig words or little, they all mean the same. Three thousand dollars. What do you say?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Lice said. He honestly and truly didn’t want to sell. But three thousand! His mind reeled at how many bottles he could buy. To say nothing of a new rifle and some new clothes and a new pipe. His brain flooded with images of his richness.
    â€œI happen to have the money in my saddlebags,” Wells mentioned. “All you will have to do is sign several documents I’ve brought and the money is yours.”
    â€œYou have it with you?” Lice said. “You must have been awful confident I’d sell out.”
    â€œNot that so much,” Wells said, “as I believe in always being prepared. I brought the money in case you agreed.It saves me having to ride all the way back and then pay you a second visit.”
    â€œThat’s smart,” Lice had to agree.
    â€œWhat do you say?”
    â€œI still don’t know,” Lice said. “How much time do I have to think it over?”
    â€œTake all night if you have to,” Wells said. “My friends and I will make camp just a little ways off, and I’ll come over in the morning to hear your decision. Does that sound reasonable to you?”
    â€œIt does,” Lice said. He’d be the first to admit he wasn’t much of a thinker. Not a quick one, anyhow. He did his pondering nice and slow and came to his decisions only after a lot of deliberation. “I’m obliged.”
    â€œNo, Mr. McCoy,” Wells said, “we’re the ones who are grateful that you’ll consider our offer.” He stood. “I’ll leave you to get to it. It’s been a terribly long day and I would like to turn in.” Shifting, he said, “Coming, Neal?”
    â€œHold on,” Lice said. “I’d like to talk to the cowpoke alone, if you don’t mind.”
    Franklyn Wells stopped in midstep. “Whatever for?”
    â€œThat’s between him and me.”
    Wells looked at Neal Bonner and shrugged. “I don’t see why you need to, but I don’t see any reason not to, either. I’ll wait with Jericho.” He touched the brim of his bowler and went out.
    â€œIs it me or does that gent have the talkin’ talent of a patent medicine man?” Lice joked.
    â€œHe does at that,” Neal said.
    â€œWhich is why I want to talk to you,” Lice confessed. “You have an honest face. That law wrangler is too oily and that gun gent is spooky. But you’re normal, like me.”
    â€œYou can’t know how I am,” Neal said. “I haven’t hardly said a thing since I got here.”
    â€œSee? You’re even honest about that,” Lice said. “So tell me. What do you think of this here offer of theirs?”
    â€œIt’s generous,” Neal said. “The filing fee for your homestead was, what, eighteen dollars? You don’t havemore than a hundred in improvements, if that. And you haven’t done a lick of farmin’ or ranchin’, as required by the law.”
    â€œThere’s the cabin,” Lice said. But the cowboy was right. He’d done the bare minimum.
    â€œWhich they’ll likely tear down to make room for their own buildings,” Neal said.
    â€œBut I like livin’ here,” Lice said yet again.
    â€œI don’t blame you. It’s quiet and peaceful. If I had a place of my own, I’d likely live off from everybody, too. Only I’d raise cows for a livin’.” Neal gazed at the cabin’s simple furnishings. “I reckon you aimed to live out your days here. But the thing is, you can do that most anywhere. You can find another spot, build another cabin, and have enough money to last out your born days, besides.”
    â€œYou’re not sayin’ that just because you stand to be their foreman?”
    â€œYou asked my