Canyon Song Read Online Free PDF Page B

tell you ‘bout your sheriff. Thought you’d want to know you got to get a new one. Maybe a blind one what won’t stick his nose in where it ain’t wanted. Ever since he took that horse off me in town that time, he’s been forgettin’ what you told him.”
    Ward shook his head . “Ryan minded my warnings for five years. Until you provoked him. Jesus wept, man! Did you think he wouldn’t recognize his own horse when you rode it into town?”
    “Hell, I didn’t even know the horse was his . I took it off that beanpole blond slut, as I ‘spect you remember.”
    “You were lucky I was in town to smooth things over . That’s the second time I saved your neck, as I expect that you’ll remember too.”  Every now and then Cameron felt the need to remind his people not to bite the hand that banged the gavel, the hand that stayed the noose.
    But Ned only looked resentful, so Ward sighed his exasperation and grumbled, “What’d you boys do this time to provoke him?”
    Hamby shrugged. “Just a squaw too dried up to be much entertainment and a couple of Indian brats. Nothin’ special. Just them ones that live too close to our claim, like you said.”
    “ My claim. Never thought he’d be the type to worry about the Navajo,” Ward said. But maybe after six years on the job, Ryan had fancied himself a real lawman instead of a hard-luck gambler who owed his job to Judge Cameron’s influence. Now the damned fool had gone and gotten himself killed, just when Ward especially needed Copper Ridge’s lawmen to turn their backs. By God, Miss Lucy Worthington would be arriving in a matter of a few days, and he needed to convince her he was the man of substance he had claimed to be.
    He thought about the lies he’d told the Senator, her father . Though he’d acquired a number of items extravagant by territorial standards, his efforts would look laughable to a bride from such a prominent family. He had to do more to prove himself an up and comer if he wanted to convince the Senator to recommend him for the position he deserved. His future depended on her letters home.
    Hamby licked his lips.
    Ward, distracted from his worries, poured each of them three fingers of the whiskey. He sipped his and watched, revolted, while Ned gulped his glassful like the swine he was.
    Instead, he took a deep breath . “Have you run them all off yet?”
    Hamby shook his head . “Them Injuns? It ain’t that easy, and you know it. ‘Specially since they got nowhere else to go. There’s still a mess of ‘em living around that canyon.”
    “Run ‘em off or kill ‘em . Either way.”  No one would worry about some missing Navajo.
    Hamby shook his head . “They’re watchin’ for us now. Desperate folk’s dangerous, ‘specially Injuns. It ain’t hardly worth the risk to keep goin’ back to that one area.”
    Again, Cameron sipped at his whiskey . Hamby stared at him and licked his lips.
    “What’s the matter . You boys lose your taste for the killing and the women? You get whatever you can haul off from your raids.”
    “Damn Navajo got nothin’ . We’re tired of eatin’ goddam mutton and sick of pokin’ Injun snatch. Them white settlers east of there got better . . . not that we would eve r ”
    “  Save your protestations of innocence. If you were in my court, I’d string up your whole lot on hearsay.”
    As Hamby turned his cockeyed gaze on Ward, Cameron felt a twinge of apprehension in his gut . A certain coldness in his expression seemed to hunger for the warmth of flowing blood. Cameron wondered how long he could play on promises to keep the beast at bay.
    Hamby narrowed his dark and crooked eyes and grimaced, showing teeth no straighter or less brown . Years of frustration and hard living shook his voice. “I want you to know I could add your hair to my collection. I want you to know that I could kill you anytime I want. You’re nothin’ to me, Cameron, nothin’ but a greedy bastard no better than the boys I