Collection 1988 - Lonigan (v5.0) Read Online Free PDF Page B

added.
    â€œExcellent idea,” Hoey Ives said quietly. He had come up unobserved. “In fact, that was what I planned to do…and what I’ll still do.”
    Four men were ranged behind him, four men with rifles. Two more stood by the wagon, facing toward the herd. While the riders had watched for horsemen they had slipped up on foot, working their way through the brush like Indians.
    Lonigan’s eyes went to the rifles, then the riflemen. “You’re tryin’ to get yourself killed, Hoey. Now take your boys and light a shuck.”
    Ives chuckled. “Oh, no! We’ve got our herd. When your boys hear us call, they’ll come in. They’ll never know what hit ’em!”
    â€œYou mean,” Danny Lonigan’s voice was casual, “like this?” His hands flashed for his guns, and for one startled instant, every man froze. Then as one person, Ruth dropped to the ground and Ives, Calkins, and Lee grabbed iron.
    It was Lonigan’s sudden move that decided it. His first two shots knocked Casselman staggering and his third dropped Shain dead in his tracks. “Drop it, Short!” Lonigan yelled, and switched both guns to Papago Brown.
    Then, suddenly, it was all over and where the cannonade of guns had sounded there was stillness, and somewhere down the valley, a quail called plaintively in the late dusk. Gunpowder left an acrid smell that mingled with the wood smoke of the freshly built fire.

----
    D ANNY LONIGAN LOOKED down at Hoey Ives. Caught in the crossfire of Calkins’s and Lee’s guns, he had been riddled with bullets before he could more than fire his first shot.
    Ruth, lying on her face, had a rifle on the two startled men near the wagon. The cook held an old muzzle-loading Civil War rifle on them, too.
    Calkins swore softly. “You oughta give a man warnin’, Lonigan,” he objected. “That was too sudden. They might have got us all!”
    â€œNuh-uh,” Lonigan said quietly. “You see, I noticed that they were depending on the warning of the rifles. They didn’t really expect anybody to take a chance. You see,” he grinned grimly, “I noticed that none of their rifles were cocked! I knew I could get off several shots before they could cock and aim again.”
    â€œYeah,” Laredo said, “and what about Ives? What did you think he’d be doin’?”
    â€œWhat he is doin’,” Lonigan said quietly. “You see, I’ve rode the trail with you hombres before. Nobody needed to tell me what would happen. I knew.”
    He turned his head and looked at Olin Short. “You,” he said, “would have sided me to help Miss Gurney in the cabin that night. I didn’t want to kill you. Get your horse and slope. Take those others with you. And don’t let ’em cross the trail again. As for you, Short, at heart you’re too good a man for an outlaw. If you’re down in Texas, stop by the G.”
    When he was gone, Lonigan turned to Ruth, who had got shakily to her feet, keeping her eyes averted from the fallen men. Taking her arm, he led her away from them, and away from the fire.
    â€œWe’ll do what you said,” Ruth said finally. “We’ll drive to Nebraska and feed the stock there. Would you,” she hesitated, “would you consider the foreman’s job? I mean, in Calkins’s place?”
    â€œWhy, no, I wouldn’t.” She turned toward him, half in surprise, half in regret. “No, I like Calkins, and he’ll make a good foreman. The men like him, too. Besides, I’ve other plans.”
    â€œOh.” The word sounded empty and alone. “I…I hoped we’d see more of each other. You see, Dad…”
    â€œWe’ll see more of each other, a lot more. When you put Hoey out as foreman and Calkins in, and again when you hit ground and grabbed that rifle, you showed what I said was right, that the old man bred true.