Showdown On the Hogback (1991) Read Free Page A

would read, and three months are before anything is noticed, and by accident only. So now the, come to force us off, to be sure the land is unoccupied an)"' ready. As for swamp, 'tis desert now, and always desert Crops can only be grown where the water is, an" little enough of that."
    Dai shook his head and knocked out his short-stemmed pipe. "Money we've none to fight them, no lawyers among us, although one who's as likely to help. A newspaper man he is. But what good without money to send him to Washing ton?"
    The Welshman's face was gloomy. "They'll beat us, that we know. They've money to fight us with, and tough men but some of them will die on the ground and pay for it with their red blood. And those among us there are who plan t less-than see "tis not only the hired gunners who die, but the high an mighty.
    You, too, lad, if among them you stay."
    Kedrick was thoughtful. "Dar, this story is different from the one I've had. I'll have to think about it, and tomorrow we ride out to look the land over and show ourselves."
    Reid looked up sharply. "Don't you be one of them, boy We've plans made to see no man gets off" alive if we can hell it. his "Look, man!" Kedrick leaned forward.
    "You've got to change that! I mean, for now. Tomorrow it's mainly a show o. force, a threat.
    There will be no shooting, I promise you We'll ride out, look around, and then ride back. If there': shooting, your men will start it. Now you go back to them and stop it. Let them hold off; and let me look around."
    Dai Reid got slowly to his feet. "Ah, lad! "tis good to set you again, but under happier circumstances I wish it were I'd have you to the house for supper and a game , as in the old days! You'd like the wife I have!" "You? Married?" Kedrick was incredulous. "I'd never believe it!" Dai grinned sheepishly. "Married it is, all right, and happy, Tom." His face darkened. "Happy if I can keep my ground. But one promise I make! If your bloody riders take my ground, my body will be there when they ride past, and it will be not alone, but with dead men around!"
    Long after the Welshman had gone, Tom Kedrick sat silently and studied the street beyond the window. Was this what Consuelo Duane had meant? Whose side was she on? First , he must ride over the land and see it for himself, and hen he must have another talk with Gunter.
    Uneasily, he looked again at the faces of the men in his mind. The cold, wolflike face of Keith, the fat, slobby face of Burwick, under lined with harsh, domineering power, and the face of Gunter, friendlv , affable, but was it not a little . . . sly?
    From outside came the noise of a tinny piano and a trident female voice, singing. Chips rattled, and there was he constant rustle of movement and of booted feet. Somewhere a spur jingled, and Tom Kedrick got to his feet and slipped into a shirt. When he was dressed again, with his lulls belted oil, he left his room and walked down the hall to he lobby.
    From a room beside his, a man stepped and stared after him. It was Dornie Shaw.

    Chapter 3
    Only the dweller in the deserts can know such mornings, greater-than s uch silences, drowsy with warmth and the song of the cicacclas. Nowhere but in the desert shall the far miles stand out s o clearly, the mesas, towers, and cliffs so boldly outlined. Nowhere will the cloud shadows island themselves upon the Desert, offering their brief respite from the sun.
    Six riders, their saddles creaking, six hard men, each lost in the twisted arroyos of his own thoughts, were emerging upon the broad desert. They were men who rode with guns, men who had used their guns to kill and would use them so again. Some of them were already doomed by the relentless and ruthless tide of events, and to the others their time, too, would come. Each of them was alone, as men who live by the gun are always alone, each man a potential enemy, each shadow a danger. They rode jealously, their gestures marked by restraint, their eves by watchfulness.
    A horse blew