How the West Was Won (1963) Read Online Free PDF

good men to work beside, but Eve and Lilith-they're different. They weren't cut out to marry with men like those.
    The two girls had moved away from the fire, and the men could hear water splashing as they bathed near the lean-to.
    Don't see no reason why they should be so all-fired different. Your ma's a sensible woman.
    They get it from you, Sam replied reasonably. Those stories you're always a-telling ... how you went off to Albany to see those show-folk. I declare, pa, sometimes I think you don't know your own mind. Take this trip, now. And don't get me wrong-I was for it. So was ma, for that matter. But don't you forget you cut loose from a good farm to go west. Now why d'you supose that was? You've got a feeling for different things. You like change, and color, and folks singing, and I see nothing wrong in it. But you marry one of our girls to a Harvey and you'll break her heart.
    You're talking nonsense, Zebulon growled, but he was pleased despite himself. Still ... did I ever really tell you about those show-folk? Sam, there was a gal there in a red spangled dress-you never seen the like. Suddenly they heard a man running, and turned as Zeke came up to them, his eyes wide and excited. Pa ... there's something out on the river. Seemed like I heard a paddle splash.
    Brutus Harvey had started for the river with a bucket. Now he turned and walked out on the raft to get a better view of the river, away from the glare of the firelight.
    No honest man would travel the river at this hour of the night, Zebulon said positively, and went to get his rifle.
    Can't see but one man, Brutus said, just loud enough for them to hear. Sam took his rifle and slipped away into the darkness. Already the wilderness had begun to weave its pattern around them, and the ancient instincts, so long dead, were coming back again-the instinct for darkness, to remain concealed until an enemy has revealed himself.
    Harvey and his son Colin walked over from their fire, and there was an assuring competence about them that Sam was quick to appreciate. They tell me it's a trick of river pirates to lie out of sight in the bottom of a boat until close up, Harvey said, and then they jump you. Brutus put down his bucket and crouched down beside the raft's hut and drew a huge pistol from his belt.
    The canoe came slowly from the darkness, a paddler seated in the stern. The rest of the canoe was covered with sewn deerskins, under it a bulky cargo. Rides low, Zebulon Prescott whispered to Harvey. There could be men in her, all right. Stepping out into the light from the fire, which was some distance behind him, Prescott said, Just come in slow and easy, stranger, and keep your hands where we can see em.
    Linus Rawlings let the canoe glide under the last impetus of the paddle. In the background he could see women standing, and from the shadows near the trunk of the nearest tree he caught the gleam of a rifle barrel. Another man crouched, scarcely visible, on the nearer raft. They were the only two who acted as a man should.
    Farmers, he thought. If they go on west they'll lose their hair. Excepting maybe for two of them.
    Hold your fire, he said casually. Name's Linus Rawlings, hungrier'n sin and peaceful as your Aunt Alice.
    Harvey walked down to the bank and peered suspiciously at the bundles under the deerhide. What you got there?
    Beaver peltry. As Harvey stepped closer for a better look, Linus Rawlings' voice lowered and chilled. I said beaver pelts. Harvey hesitated, still suspicious, but aware of the implied threat in Rawlings' tone. You're almighty touchy, he said irritably. Out west, Linus replied, you don't question a man's word. Seeing the doubt in Harvey's eyes, and realizing he was a tenderfoot, he added in a more friendly tone, We run short on lawyers and notaries west of here, so when a man gives you his word, you believe it. And when a man's word proves no good, he's finished ... he'll be trusted by nobody, nor can he do business, anywhere. Result