Lone Star 05 Read Online Free PDF Page B

loving as she was, even she could not hold him here.
    â€œIt is not a matter for understanding,” said Ki. “It is just the way I am.” He looked directly into her eyes. The girl was frank and bright, as well as pretty. Ki decided to ask her about something that had bothered him all day long. “Barbara, that telegram for Mr. Elkin today—did you read it?”
    â€œI couldn’t help it—it was right there and—”
    â€œI’m not accusing you of anything. I was wondering whether your employer has ever received any similar messages.”
    â€œFrom Skyler? Oh, yes, lots. There’s always something going on out there. I think the company may have a mine out there or something. Mr. Elkin is always very interested in Skyler. More in the last few months. Some kind of business deal, I guess.”
    â€œDo you know what it’s about?” Ki asked.
    She thought for a moment. “Not really. I don’t get to see all the messages.”
    â€œHow is it, working for Elkin?” Ki went on.
    â€œHe’s nice enough. Doesn’t treat a girl bad, the way some men do.” She blushed. “He’s not as nice as you.”
    â€œHas he ever given you any reason to distrust him?”
    â€œI don’t think so. What do you mean, Ki?”
    â€œI’m not certain I know, either. It is just a feeling I have about the man.”

Chapter 3
    With Provo now two days behind them, Ki and Jessie rode into Skyler. They approached from the west, their tired horses picking up at the sight and smell of human activity. Ki’s senses, too, caused him to sit his saddle more upright, prepared for any eventuality.
    â€œThis town is not to our liking,” he said to Jessie. “And it will not like us. It is a feeling deep inside me. As your father used to say, trouble is brewing.”
    Jessie had to smile, despite Ki’s gravity. To hear him repeat Alex Starbuck’s very American language, and capture the dead man’s tone and manner, made her again realize how close the two, Ki and her father, had been. But her amusement was short-lived. She did not doubt Ki’s warning; she had come to trust his instincts implicitly.
    The town itself looked harmless enough, giving no hint of danger. It was a rude, ramshackle assembly of false-fronted buildings of sawed lumber along the wide main street, with smaller structures strung out here and there on several rutted side streets that crisscrossed haphazardly. It did not possess the staid symmetry of Salt Lake City, the Latter-Day Saint capital, or even the more businesslike setup of Provo.
    Jessie counted no more than three dozen buildings altogether, many of these crude homes, the rest for commercial, religious, and civil purposes. Few people were on the streets, and fewer horses and wagons. Altogether, Skyler added up to a rather forlorn, dilapidated town—and she wondered what held it together.
    The pair kept their horses closely reined as they rode side by side, looking for the local jailhouse. To those townspeople who were out, they looked to be the strangest strangers who had ridden by in a long while. Jessie in her denim jeans that hugged her shapely legs, atop the big gray, was a sight never beheld and probably never imagined by the men in these parts. And Ki, who elicited stares and whispers wherever he went, his long black hair hanging down to his shoulders, sat easily erect in his saddle, looking straight ahead.
    They found no building bearing the designation they sought, and turned back to the stone courthouse, where they secured their mounts and went inside.
    A sullen young man behind a tilting desk inside the house of justice told them that prisoners were kept downstairs in the cellar, the most secure area in the building. He then asked them what their business might be.
    â€œWe’re here to visit the prisoner named Thomas Starbuck,” Jessie said.
    â€œAnd who are you?” the young man