Day of Independence Read Online Free PDF

parson, sober gray suit, collarless white shirt, and flat crowned hat.
    His somber garb was modeled on that of his late foster father, a fire-and-brimstone preacher named Esau Stern who’d tried to whip the fear of God into young Mickey every single day of his life.
    When he was fourteen, Mickey bashed in Esau’s skull with a posthole auger. When Mrs. Stern saw her husband weltering in his blood, the gory auger in her foster child’s hands, she screamed, “Murder!” and Mickey promptly did for her.
    Since then Mickey Pauleen had never looked back, and his reputation as a man-killer was well established, as a dozen hard cases buried in Boot Hills across Texas could testify.
    â€œThere’s no gold, Mickey,” Hacker said. “There’s no gold mine.”
    â€œYou woke me up this early to tell me something I already know?” Pauleen said.
    â€œI want to make Last Chance pay,” Hacker said.
    Pauleen’s smile never reached his eyes. “For what? For having no gold or for being run by a bunch of dung-smelling rubes?”
    â€œI don’t mean it that way,” Hacker said. “There’s money to be made here, Mickey, and I want it.”
    â€œYou planning to be a sodbuster?”
    â€œSomething like that. The rubes are growing wheat, corn, oats, and soon, cotton. On top of that, cattle ranches are prospering up and down the river, and the cows are fat.”
    Pauleen shook his head. His yellow hair was thin and lank, growing over his narrow shoulders. “I’m not catching your drift,” he said. “I ain’t a damned farmer.”
    â€œYou don’t have to be,” Hacker said. “I’m taking this place over, all legal and aboveboard, like. I’ll get title to this land and my associates in government will call in favors and get the Katy to lay a railroad spur right to our doorstep.”
    The morning brightened and sunlight angled into the room and Hacker’s bald head glistened with sweat. Released by heat, the musky odor of the cologne that doused his body hung heavy in the air.
    â€œNow do you see, Mickey?” he said. “Tell me you share in my vision.”
    Pauleen smiled. “Boss, you won’t get these people to work for you. They’re an independent bunch.”
    â€œI don’t want them to work for me, Mickey,” Hacker said. “That’s the beauty of my plan, see?”
    â€œNo, I don’t see,” Pauleen said. His high, narrow shoulders and small, sharp-featured head gave him the look of a bird of prey.
    â€œMexicans!” Hacker said. “I’m going to make a lot of money out of this place, and I’ll do it off the sweat of Mexicans.”
    Pauleen said nothing, and Nora looked baffled. She poured herself another bourbon.
    â€œI’ll bring Mexicans across the river and put them to work in the fields,” Hacker said. “Hell, a Mex will work all day for a couple of pesos and a bowl of corn mush.”
    He slapped a beefy fist into the palm of the other.
    â€œDamn it, the profits will be enormous,” he said. “By Christ—”
    â€œDon’t take the Lord’s name in vain, boss,” Pauleen said. “I don’t like it.”
    Hacker smiled. “Mickey, you don’t smoke, you don’t drink, and you don’t cuss. But I know what you like, huh?”
    Pauleen’s pinched face was like stone.
    â€œYou like women, don’t you?” Hacker said. He stared hard into the little gunman’s eyes. “Yeah, that’s it, you like women.”
    He waved in Nora’s direction.
    â€œStick with me until this thing is done, and I’ll give you that as a bonus. I’ll conclude my business here real quick, because Nora isn’t getting any younger.” Hacker grinned at the woman. “More than a shade past your prime, ain’t you, gal?”
    The woman looked at Hacker with wounded eyes.
    â€œSometimes you