Blood Bond 5 Read Online Free PDF

won. Take the money.”
    Matt pocketed the coins.
    â€œYour brother’s got nerve, Bodine. I hate to see good men get killed needlessly.”
    Matt started to remind him that he was ever so anxious to see a gunfight, but he held his tongue on that. “Neither of us intend to get killed, Bull.”
    Bull finished his whiskey and placed the shot glass on the bar. He turned to leave, then paused and looked back at Matt. “No man ever does, Bodine.”
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    The Flying BS crew had left, with Chuckie tied in the saddle. The man was still too addled to ride alone. He was babbling and cussing. “I sure showed that damn Injun,” he mouthed.
    â€œYeah, you sure did,” a friend told him. “You showed your butt is what you done.”
    Sam and Matt went walking. This time, the men of the town were just a bit friendlier when meeting the brothers. But no one was friendly enough to invite them to supper.
    They stopped in at one of the two large general stores, both owned by the same man, but on opposite sides of the street.
    â€œIsn’t this rather inconvenient?” Sam asked the proprietor.
    â€œYeah, it is. But if I didn’t do it this way, only one of the ranches would do business with me. Then pretty soon neither of them would, and then nobody at all would. There are little ranches all around here that side with one or the other of the big two. Bull and John would spread the word, and I’d soon be out of business. Don’t you see?”
    Matt and Sam both blinked at that explanation. Matt said, “If . . . yeah, right. We see. Two boxes of .44’s, please.”
    â€œWhich side are you on?”
    â€œNeither one!” Sam said, exasperated with the whole silly thing.
    â€œThen I can’t serve you, boys. I just can’t risk it. Go across the street to the other store. Maybe my old woman will wait on you.”
    Matt and Sam looked at each other, shook their heads, and then trooped out of the store and walked across the street to the other general store. Owned by the same man who had just refused to serve them.
    â€œI’m getting fed up to the neck with this,” Matt said. The brothers stood on the boardwalk after leaving the second general store. The lady had refused to serve them.
    A citizen passing by stopped and took in their disgusted looks. “There’s an old trading post up yonder on the river, boys. It’s only a few miles out of town. North of here. Right pleasant ride, it is. The trading post is run by a cantankerous old mountain man name of Ladue. Ladue don’t kowtow to nobody, and he’ll serve anybody.”
    â€œThat’s the best suggestion we’ve heard so far,” Sam said. “Let’s go.”
    Matt nixed that. “In the morning. It’s too late now. And something tells me that night isn’t the safest time to be riding around in this part of the country.”
    Sam smiled. “There are occasions when you do make sense, brother.”
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    â€œDamnest mess I ever did see,” Ladue told the brothers the next morning. “Growed-up men actin’ like children.”
    Ladue’s place was long and low, was dimly lit, and was packed to overflowing with every conceivable item one might name. And in the rough bar part of the post, you either drank rye whiskey or nothing.
    â€œSutton and Carlin don’t bother me none, though,” the old mountain man continued. “I told both of ’em I’d serve whoever I damn well pleased to serve, and if that stuck in their craw, they could just live with it. I also told the pair of ’em that if they tried to throw their weight around and scare off my regular customers, I still got my Sharps that I killed many a warrin’ Injun with and not no small number of white men. And I would get lead in both of them. I ain’t seen hide nor hair of either of ’em since then.”
    Matt and Sam both smiled at the man who