A Tale Out of Luck Read Online Free PDF Page A

hooves, the squeal of a strange stallion. But there were so many different kinds of snores in this bunkhouse that they could sound like almost anything. That wheezing noise in Long Tom’s nose must have been what had sounded like a stallion, and Tonkawa Jones’s teeth popping together could have easily passed for hoofbeats in his sleep. Skeeter pulled his pillow over his head and went right back to sleep.

5
    J AY BLUE still felt the percussion of the heavy door she had slammed in his face.
    “Good night!” he yelled. He stood there awkwardly, as if he might hear a reply through the thick wooden slabs. He put on his coat. It smelled like her. It was warm. His chest ached. He fought an urge to knock on the door, deciding he had done enough damage. He turned, trudged to his horse, and mounted for the long ride home.
    “Stupid,” he said to himself. “You don’t
meet
a dog.”
    He could have offered to carry some firewood in for her, but
let me meet your dog
?
“Some sweet-talker you are, Jay Blue.”
    Maybe his skull was fractured from the beating he had taken. Maybe that’s why he had made such an idiot of himself. It was hard to see the road in the moonlight because his left eye was beginning to swell shut. His lip was already as swollen as a snake-bit pup. His ribs were hurting like hell where one of those bastards had kicked him. He should have just taken his ass-kicking and left town.
    But, he
had
stood up for her honor. That had to impress her, even if she didn’t show it. And that bit about Helen of Troy was inspired. He smiled a little, but it hurt his split lip. He felt as if
his
face had launched a thousand ships.
    What if the worst was yet to come? What if his father had found out that he had slipped off to town. You didn’t want to see Captain Hank Tomlinson mad. He touched his bleeding lip.
Oh, shit.
Now the dread really sank into his stomach. His father would want to know what had happened to his face. He could lie about it—make up some wild story about falling out of the loft or something—but sooner or later somebody in town would mention the beating he had taken in the saloon at the hands of the Double Horn boys. Then he would be in trouble for lying on top of the unauthorized trip to town.
    “You’re in for it, Jay Blue. You stupid . . .”
    His father was going to . . . He didn’t even want to think about it. There was nothing worse than that old Ranger’s wrath. Five hundred stampeding cattle didn’t spook him as much. Maybe it was time to leave home. Go off on his own. He could write a note and leave it on the door.
    But leave the ranch? Miss Flora was right. He would have to earn that ranch, and he couldn’t do that by running off to avoid his father’s rancor.
    Jay Blue resorted to prayer. “I’m sorry, God. I’m so . . . gosh darn sorry. Help me out of this one, will you? I’ll go to church someday. I’d give my left nut. . . . Let me retract that, Lord. I forgot who I was talkin’ to. I’ll clean up my act, if you’d just get me out of this one with my hide.”
    He had no idea whether or not God was listening.
    What’s he gonna do
?
Is he gonna take the ranch from me? Like old Gotch said, my ass is gonna be exactly in a crack when my daddy finds out.
    When he finally rode under the Broken Arrow Ranch sign, he was tired, and his head hurt, and he just wanted to go to sleep, more so to forget the trouble he was in than to catch up on his rest. He would lie down awhile and wait for the beginning of the worst day of his life.
    As he rode among the outbuildings, he didn’t see Skeeter anywhere. He left his horse in the barn and trudged to the bunkhouse, where he usually stayed after guard duty. Entering quietly, he saw Skeeter fast asleep on top of his covers. Jay Blue could only shake his head. He pulled the latch string in so no one could enter from the outside. He went to the spare bunk and, like Skeeter, collapsed fully dressed. The snores sounded like the growls of a