Find Angel! (A Frank Angel Western #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

I could find a girl called Rosie, or Little
Rosie?’ Angel asked.
    Hickok laughed. ‘Son, there’s about a thousand girls in
McCoy’s Addition,’ he smiled. ‘Any one o’ them could be called
Rosie an’ probably is.’
    Angel
nodded. Then: ‘Could you — maybe, ask your — uh,
friend?’
    Hickok laughed again, and heads turned towards him.
    Angel
noticed that many of the faces were hostile.
    Hickok was obviously not popular among the cowboy element.
He’d read one or two things about Abilene in the newspapers which
came infrequently his way on the Gibbons ranch and at the Fort.
Hickok was said to be terrifyingly fast with his guns, and a born
killer. Yet here he seemed the soul of courtesy, and apart from his
florid style of dress, a gentleman.
    ‘ Belle!’ Hickok called, and the girl came mincing over. ‘My
young friend here is looking for a girl named Rosie.’
    Belle
eyed the younger man speculatively and let a pink tongue slide
provocatively across her rouged lips, ‘Oh, come on, cowboy,’ she
said, slipping an arm through Angel’s, ‘you’ll have a much better
time with Belle, won’t he Bill?’
    ‘ You’d eat him for breakfast,’ Hickok grinned. ‘Leave off, and
answer the question.’
    ‘ Rosie, Rosie, Rosie,’ Belle said. ‘Rosie Russell, mebbe? She
works over to the Longhorn. There’s Rosie something-or—other has a
place back up in the Addition. Hell, Bill, there’s mebbe half a
dozen. Who can keep track of all of them? They come out here like
flies.’
    ‘ Looks like you’re going to have to do it the hard way, son,’
Hickok said, as the girl flounced off again.
    ‘ Ploddin’ around an’ askin’.’ Angel nodded. ‘I guess so,’ he
said.
    ‘ You
got much money, boy?’ Hickok asked abruptly.
    ‘ No
sir, not much,’ Frank Angel admitted. Hickok nodded. ‘Can you use
that thing?’ he gestured with his chin towards Angel’s
gun.
    ‘ Uh …
I … yes, I can shoot a bit.’
    ‘ That
means you can’t. Take it off.’
    ‘ What?’ Frank Angel looked at the Marshal in surprise. ‘Take
it off an’ give it to me,’ Hickok said.
    Frank
Angel was suddenly aware that the entire saloon had frozen, and
everyone had stopped speaking simultaneously as Hickok gave the
order. Chairs scraped nervously as men tried to edge out of line of
possible fire behind Angel. Hickok just kept on looking at the
younger man and Angel shrugged. He unbuckled the belt and holster
and laid them on the table. Immediately the chatter and the noise
began again, and Hickok smiled.
    ‘ You
go poking your nose around the Addition totin’ a gun, someone’s
just liable to invite you to use it for the hell of it. You know
how folks are about questions in
    these
parts.’
    ‘ I
know,’ Angel said, ‘I’m going to ask just the same.’
    ‘ You
take care, boy,’ Hickok said. ‘On’y go down there in the
daytime.’
    ‘ I’ll
do that, Mr. Hickok,’ Angel said. ‘I guess you’re right about the
gun.’
    ‘ About guns I’m always right, son,’ Hickok said. ‘I’ll walk to
the door with you.’ He went ahead of Angel and pushed the batwings
wide, scanning the street carefully before he stepped out on to the
sidewalk. Only then did Frank Angel realize he had shielded
Hickok’s back the entire way with his own body. He shook his head.
Why would a man want to stay in a job where he had to do that every
day of his life?
    Hickok saw the head-shake and smiled.
    ‘ Plenty o’ men in this town who’d like to see me dead, boy,’
he said. ‘More who’d like to go back to Texas with a notch on their
six-gun for Wild Bill. I take as few chances as I can, draw my
hundred an’ fifty a month, an’ keep the town as quiet as
possible.’
    Angel
gestured with his chin at the crowded, brawling, rowdy street.
‘That’s quiet?’ he asked.
    ‘ You
wait until Saturday night,’ Hickok said. He settled his back
comfortably against the wooden wall of the saloon and tipped his
hat slightly forward. ‘Pick up