Fiddlefoot Read Online Free PDF Page B

Rhino’d pay for one. He’d get money from me and bring in the horses. I knew about where he was going, and that’s all.” He repeated then, more demandingly, “What’s this all about, anyway, We just got in town.”
    Frank saw the chagrin mount in Hannan’s eyes. “In other words,” Hannan said grimly, “you didn’t pay any attention. You didn’t know where he was.”
    â€œWhy should I?” Nunnally demanded innocently.
    Hannan didn’t answer him; he looked speculatively at Frank and said grimly, “Ask Frank,” and turned on his heel and walked off.
    Now the anger came, and there was a wicked rage in Frank’s eyes as he looked at Hugh.
    â€œTell us, Frank,” Nunnally said slyly.
    Frank said thinly, “Let’s go where we can talk, Hugh.”
    Nunnally laughed soundlessly. “I’ve got something to say to you, but let’s wait till you cool off.”
    â€œYou’ll come or I’ll drag you out,” Frank said with an ominous quietness.
    Nunnally’s eyes changed faintly, hardening, narrowing. “You couldn’t drag me out of a deep sleep,” he said flatly. He looked searchingly at Frank for a moment. “Maybe I will, at that.”
    Pete Faraday, the Ute half-breed, started to rise. Frank put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him down in his chair. “You stay out of this,” he said. He looked at the others now, and said, “You, too,” and turned and tramped toward the rear of the room. Passing the two small cubbyholes which were private card rooms, he stepped out the back door onto the loading platform that ran across the rear of the building and which was stacked with empty beer barrels at its far end.
    He moved away from the door and halted, and Nunnally came up and halted too. His hands were on his hips, and every line of his blocky form was arrogant and pugnacious.
    A hard recklessness was in Frank now that he didn’t try to check. “You could have pulled Hannan off my neck in there, Hugh. Why didn’t you?”
    â€œWe want you back in your soldier suit,” Nunnally said slowly. “We’ll lose money without you.”
    â€œI told Rhino I’d quit.”
    â€œMaybe you’ll change your mind, now.” Nunnally laughed quietly. “You’re licked, Chess. Hannan hasn’t dropped this because I left it open—purposely. He’ll be at me and the boys again and again. You come back to Rhino and I’ll account to Hannan for every day you were gone. Get stubborn about it, and we can start remembering the days nobody saw you.” He paused. “Or you can tell him what you were really doing.”
    â€œWho was I working for?”
    â€œAnd who wore the uniform?” Hugh asked dryly.
    A gray hopelessness touched Frank then. In breaking with Rhino and his whole shabby crew, he had counted on Rhino’s silence about the uniform, because if it became known they would both be in trouble. But Rhino had sidestepped that problem, working his blackmail in a more subtle way. Rob’s death and Hannan’s suspicion had given him the opening, and Hugh had summed up the result. The alternative was to tell Hannan the truth, and when that became known he would lose Carrie as surely as if he had died. If I lost her, I wouldn’t want to live , he thought. But a black and savage stubbornness would not let him return to Rhino. He had turned that corner, never to go back.
    He was silent so long Nunnally said dryly, “Figured it out?”
    â€œI’ve figured it,” Frank said grimly. “I told Rhino I’ve quit. I have.”
    â€œI hate a fool,” Nunnally said contemptuously. “Listen to me. Do you want to be tried by Tavister and hung in front of Carrie?”
    â€œFor killing you,” Frank said softly.
    It took Nunnally several seconds to read into those three words what Frank had intended should be read.