Killing Halfbreed Read Online Free PDF Page B

anything.  It was the only way I knew to take my mind off the driving need to find Ben.  At night, my frustrations seemed to magnify themselves.  More and more, I found myself resorting to the saloon for relief.
    Liquor has been the ruin of many a man, but I wasn't the type to fall into that sort of trap. Yet, if I wasn't drinking, I’d play cards all night, which made me that much less useful the next day at work.
    The days passed with an ever-loving, eternal slowness that tormented me, and they began blurring into one another.  Before I knew it, six months had gone by, and I with nothing to show for it.
    Nothing was a hard result to take.
    I found the lack of information about Ben and Jessica highly unusual, especially in such a small town where everybody makes everybody else's business their own.  Apparently, neither Ben nor Jessica had made a habit of coming to town much, which made me wonder where they’d gotten their supplies.  You can't survive very long without restocking supplies.
    No, it was obvious people just weren't talking, and I didn't know how to get them to start.
    One day, I finally got a small break.  I ran into Michael Byers, the county’s newspaperman.  Either he knew a lot more about local goings-on than everybody else, or he was just more loose-lipped.
    Byers was an intelligent man.  He wore small, circular spectacles which made him look a bit Ben Franklinish, but younger and thinner, and not so odd-looking.  He was reluctant to open up at first, but after some prodding, he ended up telling me quite a bit.
                "Sure, I remember your brother.  I remember the first day he came to town, actually. Most newcomers to these parts come in off the stage, but he rode in, dusty from the northern trail.  He staked out and claimed some prime land east of here in a little secluded vale.
    “Hard worker, that one, or at least that's what people said.  Why, it wasn’t long before he'd built himself a little cabin and sent for his wife.  When she arrived, it was pretty clear he was in it for the long haul."
    "Well, if that's the case, then why doesn't anybody around here remember him when I ask?  What are they hiding?"  I asked.
    "I don't know if they're hiding anything.  Scared maybe, or just unsure what to make of you."
    "Why would they be scared?"
    "Your brother didn't exactly have it easy around Cottonwood, so he eventually stopped coming to town.
    “You see, before he ever arrived, there were the Big Three: Logan, Dunagan, and Hartford.  They have run this valley for years.  They were running it before this town was even built.  Those three came west together, got started together, and built this community together.  They didn't take kindly to some upstart coming in late in the game and claiming land, especially if he was butting in on their water."
    "Their water?  Did they own the land my brotherclaimed?"
    "No, but they felt like they did.  Kind of held it in common, unofficially, of course.  There are only four major water holes in these parts, and you can’t run a cattle ranch without water.  Tom, Jim, and Bill each claimed and staked out one for their ranch, but the fourth they kept as a common watering hole between the three of them to prevent feuding.  That is, until your brother claimed it.
    “They didn't like that at all and let him know it every chance they got.  Now, he claimed it fair and square, it was all legal, and they were kicking themselves for never having done it themselves.  But again, they'd always been afraid of causing a water war.  It had never occurred to them that someone else would ever have the gall to come in right under their noses and build.  But your brother sure did, by gosh!"
    "Did they need that water?"
    "Yes and no.  I guess the truthful answer is not really. They just felt like they did.  Wanted that extra security in case their own springs dried up, know what I mean?  In all fairness, your brother offered them free use