Golden Riders Read Online Free PDF

I’ll be right back.” He looked at Oates. “Go back to the bank, for now.” He looked at Arthur Polks. “Come with me, Polks, and do me a favor. I’m going to need a qualified legal opinion from an officer of the court here.”
    â€œAny way I can help, Sheriff,” Polks said, giving Oates the banker a sly smug grin. “Any way
at all . . .”
•   •   •
    It was late evening when the Ranger rode into the Midland Settlement with Jake Cleary and Cutthroat Teddy Bonsell, both of them handcuffed, riding along in front of him. Sam held on to a lead rope that ran from one wounded outlaw to the next, a loop drawn around each of their waists. Bonsell held his hands up against his chest, his right thumb hooked in his shirt, supporting his injured left fingers. The bandanna around his fingers had turned almost black, covered with thick congealed blood. Cleary sat stiffly upright to help lessen the pain in his bruised lower belly.
    Along the boardwalk townsfolk had begun to gather as soon as the three riders came into sight. They stood armed and ready, holding rifles, shotguns, pistols, pick handles. Fear and hatred shadowed their faces. Yet upon seeing the two men handcuffed and the Arizona Ranger badge on Sam’s chest, they eased back, lowered their weapons, and watched as he followed his prisoners toward the hitch rail in front of the sheriff’s office.
    â€œNot a real friendly bunch here, are they?” Jake Cleary said, eyeing the townsfolk. The three looked at the collapsed overhang in front of the hotel and the broken support posts.
    â€œSomething bad’s gone on here,” Sam replied quietly. “They look a little edgy.”
    He looked at the broken window glass and ragged curtains in the street, the ripped-out window frame on the hotel’s second floor. Two men carried the busteddouble doors away from the hotel. Two others stood in the broken glass with brooms and shovels.
    â€œ
Edgy
is putting it mildly, Ranger,” Bonsell said in a lowered voice. “I see hanging ropes in their eyes.”
    â€œYou two keep your eyes down and your mouths shut,” Sam replied. “Let’s see what the sheriff’s got to say.” Ahead of them, he saw the sheriff step out of his office and stand looking toward them from the boardwalk.
    As the Ranger and his prisoners rode closer, the sheriff eyed his badge and let his hand fall away from the butt of his holstered Colt. He watched the Ranger touch his hat brim as the three stopped in the street a few yards away.
    â€œWe’ve never met, Ranger Burrack,” Schaffer said, touching his hat brim in return. “I’m Sheriff Dave Schaffer.”
    Sam gave him a questioning look.
    Shaffer explained, “I recognized your sombrero,” he said with a thin smile. “I heard you were riding a black-point dun these days. Sometimes a man’s horse and hat gear is easier recognized than the man himself.”
    Sam only nodded and returned the thin smile.
    â€œPleased to meet you, Sheriff,” he said. Gesturing a nod toward the street behind him he said, “I can see you’ve had your hands full here.”
    â€œYep,” said the sheriff. “Three brothers calling themselves the Garlets rode in and tried to rob our new bank.” He aimed a narrowed glance toward the Midland Settlement Bank. “Left us with a mess, but didn’t get away with any money.”
    â€œI’ve been hearing their names of late,” Sam said. “Ijust put them on a list I keep. Good job catching them. It saves me the trouble.”
    â€œObliged, Ranger Burrack,” said Schaffer. “I’d like to take credit for catching them, but I can’t. The truth is they got so broken-down on mescal and cocaine beforehand, two of them rode smack into each other, the third idiot rode his horse up the hotel stairs and out the window, glass and