Cowpokes and Desperadoes Read Online Free PDF Page B

It’s a good thing Juan found your note telling us where you were, or we might not have been able to get the sheriff here in time. Grimes was ready to ship the cattle out.”
    Nearby, the deputies were escorting Banker Grimes to the patrol car. Billy Ray and Bubba were taking turns telling the sheriffeverything they had done wrong since they were born. It took a while, but they eventually got around to this particular crime.
    Grimes had hired them to help put Uncle Woody out of business by stealing his cows, convincing his help to quit, and reporting every move he made.
    Grimes had stumbled onto a preliminary report prepared years ago by a small mining company suggesting the strong possibility of a uranium strike on the ranch, near Ghost Canyon. To investigate it, he had hired Charlie Cookson over the phone, pretending to be the owner of the ranch, Woody Culpepper.
    Dunc beamed. “We’re glad we could help.” He looked at Amos. “Right, Amos?”
    Amos glared at him.
    Dunc elbowed him. “
Right
, Amos?”
    “I guess so.”
    Charlie Cookson walked over and shook hands with Uncle Woody. “I’d like to apologize, Mr. Culpepper. I had no idea I wasn’t dealing with you. I should have been suspicious, I suppose, but a lot of my clients demand strict confidentiality, so it didn’t seem all that unusual.”
    “It worked out okay,” Woody said. “Tell me, just how big is this strike, anyway?”
    “It’s big. Maybe even the biggest in history. You could be a very rich man, Mr. Culpepper.”
    The word
rich
caught Amos’s ear. He moved closer to Uncle Woody. “You don’t have any children, do you?”
    “Amos.” Dunc elbowed him again.
    “I only wanted to let him know I’m available.”
    “That’s great, Amos.” Uncle Woody smiled. “I’ll keep you in mind.”
    Juan rode up, leading their horses. “Sure, Amos, you could come out here to live. That way you could ride old Gomer every day.”
    Amos spun around and started walking toward the truck. “On second thought,” he yelled over his shoulder, “my parents would probably be heartbroken. I know my sister would miss me terribly. And my dog—well, he loves me so much.”
    Dunc grinned and started after him. “And the moon is made of green cheese, Santa Claus is real, Elvis is alive.…”

Be sure to join Dunc and Amos in these other Culpepper Adventures:
The Case of the Dirty Bird
    When Dunc Culpepper and his best friend, Amos, first see the parrot in a pet store, they’re not impressed—it’s smelly, scruffy, and missing half its feathers. They’re only slightly impressed when they learn that the parrot speaks four languages, has outlived ten of its owners, and is probably 150 years old. But when the bird starts mouthing off about buried treasure, Dunc and Amos get pretty excited—let the amateur sleuthing begin!
Dunc’s Doll
    Dunc and his accident-prone friend, Amos, are up to their old sleuthing habits once again. This time they’re after a band of doll thieves! When a doll that once belonged to Charles Dickens’s daughter is stolen from an exhibition at the local mall, the two boys put on their detective gear and do some serious snooping. Will a vicious watchdog keep them from retrieving the valuable missing doll?
Culpepper’s Cannon
    Dunc and Amos are researching the Civil War cannon that stands in the town square when they find a note inside telling them about a time portal. Entering it through the dressing room of La Petite, a women’s clothing store, the boys find themselves in downtown Chatham on March 8, 1862—the day before the historic clash between the
Monitor
and the
Merrimac
. But the Confederate soldiers they meet mistake them for Yankee spies. Will they make it back to the future in one piece?
Dunc Gets Tweaked
    Dunc and Amos meet up with a new buddy named Lash when they enter the radical world of skateboard competition. When somebody “cops”—steals—Lash’s prototype skateboard, the boys are determined to get it back.