[Texas Rangers 04] - Ranger's Trail Read Free Page B

not to’ve let them put that badge back on him. I’ve got a notion to try and talk him into goin’ home before somethin’ happens. That sick wife of his needs him more than anybody here does.”
    Andy had not seen enough of the town. “Gettin’ kind of late in the day. We couldn’t go far before dark.”
    “ We could get out of gunshot range.”
    Andy resigned himself to disappointment. He patted Long Red’s neck. “You better eat your oats in a hurry.” He followed Rusty out the door.
    Rusty told the liveryman, “Don’t turn our horses into the lot just yet. We’re liable to be leavin’.”
    The old man shoved his hands into his pockets. The coins jingled like tiny bells. Reluctantly he said, “I guess you’ll want your money back. You still want me to feed them some oats?”
    “ I wish you would.” Rusty was more willing to spend on the horses than on himself.
    He saw a crowd of nervous-looking men standing around the front of a hotel as if waiting for someone to assert leadership and take them somewhere … anywhere, to do something … anything. A familiar voice called his name, and a man pushed through the cluster. Len Tanner was tall and lanky, in patched trousers that hung loose around a waist thin as a slab of bacon. He always looked as if he had not eaten a square meal in a month. In truth, he could put away an alarming amount of groceries when the opportunity presented itself.
    Rusty exclaimed, “Len! Thought you were back in East Texas, visitin’ your kin.”
    “ Ain’t much excitement in seein’ kinfolks. Here’s where the fun is at.”
    Rusty had ridden with Tanner during his ranger service. Since the war, Tanner had spent much of his time at Rusty’s farm when he lacked something better to do. He was not addicted to steady employment. Tanner said, “There’s a bunch of our old ranger bunkies here ready to run the carpetbaggers out of town on a rail. But Coke keeps holdin’ back, hopin’ Davis will cave in without a fight.”
    “ What if he doesn’t?”
    “ After fightin’ the damned Comanches, this oughtn’t to make us break a sweat.” Tanner frowned at Andy. “Sorry, button, I didn’t mean nothin’ personal.”
    Andy shrugged. “I take it as a compliment to the Comanches.”
    “ They’re honest enemies, at least. They come against you face-to-face. Carpetbaggers sneak up behind you and kill you with affidavits.” Tanner’s family had lost their farm to confiscatory reconstruction taxes, though he, like Rusty, had never actively supported the Confederacy. He said, “I know why Davis wants to keep that office. There’s some of Texas that his cronies ain’t stole yet.” His momentary dark mood fell away. “Speakin’ of old friends, I’ll bet it’s been a spell since you seen Jim and Johnny Morris.”
    “ Sure has.” Rusty looked around eagerly. “Are those rascals here?”
    The Morris brothers had served in the same ranger company as Rusty and Tanner until they went into the Confederate army late in the war.
    Tanner said, “Me and them are plannin’ on a little sortie tonight. Goin’ to aggravate some Yankee soldiers.”
    That did not surprise Rusty. Like Tanner, the brothers had always gloried in a fracas. If they could not find a fight already in progress they had occasionally instigated one.
    Rusty and Andy followed Tanner through the crowd. Two men of roughly Rusty’s age shouted his name and pushed their way to him. They could be taken for twins, though Jim was a year or so the oldest. He declared, “Glad to see you’re still alive.” He gripped Rusty’s outstretched hand with a force that could crush bones. “Me and Johnny figured you’d worked yourself to death on that wore-out farm.”
    “ I’ve come awful close.”
    Jim turned to Andy, his manner jovial. “You’d be the Comanche button Len’s been tellin’ us about.”
    The brothers’ being friends of Tanner’s did not automatically assure Andy’s acceptance. He regarded them with an