Louis L'Amour Read Online Free PDF Page B

this.”
    Reluctantly, he got to his feet as Anna entered. She came at once to me. “You will find my Carrie for me? You and Yance? When she was gone, the others would not look, and I knew what they believed, yet I have always loved Diana. I never believed any of the things they said. It was just that she—”
    â€œShe what?”
    â€œShe loved the night. Our parson has said that witches love the night, that they meet in the forest in old caves, ruined buildings, and that they keep to darkness and the shadows.”
    We crossed the lane to Macklin’s cabin, spotless inits neatness. We sat at the table, and he looked out the open door.
    â€œOur house is empty without her,” he said. “I have been much alone, and she cared for me. I—have some small skill with tools, but I am happier with my books. She read them, also, and we talked—long hours.”
    My eyes went to the small row of books.
The Compleat Gentleman
, by Peacham, stood beside Barrough’s
Method of Physic
and Michael Dalton’s
Country Justice.
Although I knew them by name only, I had seen them in Jamestown. Bacon’s
Essays
and his
Advancement of Learning
I knew well. They had been among the last batch of books brought up from the coast. “I see some old friends yonder,” I said.
    His expression changed. “You have read them?”
    â€œBacon,” I said, “and much else. My father was a reader of books, and our teacher was a very great scholar. He was Sakim.”
    â€œAn infidel?”
    â€œSome would call him so. I would not.”
    â€œHow can you hope to find them? Not even Max Bauer could, and he is our best in the woods.”
    Slowly I got to my feet. I knew much that I had wished to know. If Pequots had the girls, they might be dead by now, but I did not believe it.
    â€œThose others who disappeared? All were girls?”
    â€œYes, but that means nothing. A lad would have found his way back. But a girl?” He shrugged.
    â€œDiana, they say, was very much at home in the woods.”
    â€œShe was different.”
    I walked to the door. “I will find them, Macklin, but what of you? Should you stay on here? There is suspicion, and if what I hear of your people is true, she would be risking much to return.”
    He looked at me, then shook his head. “How far can one go? And where can one stop? Is there no place in which to rest?”
    â€œYou’ve been through this before?”
    He shrugged. “It is ever the same. And it is myfault. She was reared by me. I could have made her another way, and she would have been like other girls.” He frowned suddenly. “But I was a fool. I did not want her like others. I wanted her to be like herself.”
    â€œAnd like her mother?” I asked.
    The eyes he turned toward me were the eyes of a man who had been through hell. There was pain there and fear, anger, resignation—I knew not what, only that he was a man suddenly without hope.
    â€œSo you know? I guess I always knew there would be a time. I knew someone would come who knew.”
    He stared at me, then the floor. “My God, what will we do
now?
”

Chapter IV
    A thunderous knocking on the door interrupted whatever might have been said. Macklin went to the door, and I stood back, expecting anything.
    There were four men, and they brushed by Macklin to face me. “You are Sackett?”
    â€œI am.”
    â€œYou are to leave—
now.
We do not need your godless kind in this place. You are to go, and you are not to return.”
    â€œI have come only to help,” I said coolly.
    â€œWe do not need your help. You must go—or suffer the consequences.”
    â€œIt seems that help is needed whether you believe it or not. Two girls have disappeared. Perhaps they have been taken by Indians, and you do nothing to find them.”
    â€œThat is our affair. It is none of yours. One of you was here and ended in the stocks.