Dead Trouble Read Online Free PDF

company we’ve got, we shouldn’t be behind at all! I sent you half my pay regular .’
    ‘And damn glad of every cent – till it stopped after you were shot and we thought you were dead.’ Spain sighed. ‘That’s it, Deke. Bringing in feed for the cows, setting up that windmill you see … all takes dollars.’
    Cutler started to speak but held back. He had seen the new-looking piano in the parlour – he knew Karen played a little. There were the Eastern rugs covering half the parlour floor. A damn good dining-table with upholstered chairs with what Karen had told him were ‘spade’ backs. He had seen furniture stores in the bigger towns and cities, some of the Gulf ports, and he’d seen over-stuffed sofas and matching chairs like Spain had, and rolltop desks, too, and knew they cost plenty – especially if they had to be shipped out here with enough care to avoid damage. And there was glass in all the windows – practically unheard of on the frontier – which were trimmed with good quality curtains….
    He didn’t grudge Karen some comfort: hell, most frontier marriages foundered because of lack of everyday comfort, but when repayments of the bank loan were falling behind …
    ‘We better go over the books when you have time, Durango.’
    Spain didn’t like that. His face looked very handsome  and strong, but it was plain he was riled.
    ‘Maybe Karen can show me if you’re too busy,’ Deke suggested.
    ‘We’ll sort something out,’ Spain told him gruffly. ‘Look, Deke, I’ve worked a butt and a half off keeping this place running, looking forward to your arrival – with your pension or without. Too bad it’s without, but we’ll figure something. But what I’m saying is: I been out here a long time now, watching Karen do without all the things she was used to before she married me, and I know the river now and how things are here – it’s no good you riding in figuring to be a new broom and start sweeping out things you don’t like or understand. Just leave it be a spell longer and we’ll be squared away with the bank – and everyone else.’
    Everyone else! Judas, Cutler wondered, who the hell else do we owe!
    At least it would give him something to think about until he was strong enough to add some real weight to running this place.
    Maybe the name they had chosen for the spread was just a little too appropriate.
    The Shoestring spread …
     
    He was feeling pretty good one bright morning ten days later, where the sun blazed in a cloudless blue sky, and he figured to ride out along the river and look at the boundaries.
    He was forking a grey these days, a good strong horse, with an easy-going nature, but packed with muscle and knowing when to use it without waiting for the urging of rowelling spurs. He had his rifle and hissix-gun. He hadn’t yet done any practice with this latter. He felt kind of ashamed to admit to Spain that he had lost a good deal of his old gun speed and accuracy. But the guns were a comfort to him and he watched the country across the Red River, looking for shadows that would tell him some of the men who rode the Territory were keeping an eye on him.
    He thought he saw riders topping-out on a rise but the trees were moving too much with a strong breeze over there to allow him a clear view. Could be Indians – Spain had warned they were often hostile lately. He would need to stay alert. After he’d watered the grey at the river and then ridden back south-east, following the bank, he stopped suddenly, sliding the rifle clear of leather. Deke listened, patting the horse’s neck to keep it still and quiet. Yeah! He had heard right – a human voice, calling something, then running footsteps and a sudden snarling and squealing that set the hairs standing on the back of his neck.
    He slipped out of the saddle, leaving the grey with trailing reins, crouched a little and made his way up the slope, gasping some at a sharp pain in the lung that had been nicked by Kid