Midnight Rider (Ralph Cotton Western Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

didn’t answer. Instead he walked over to where Spiller held the sobbing woman by her arm.
    “Turn her loose, Spiller,” Rock said again. He held the money up. “We came here for money. We got it.”
    “Huh-uh,” said Spiller, “I’m taking a little taste for my trouble. Don’t even think about trying to stop me.”
    Rochenbach looked away and let out a breath as if in submission. But then he turned back in a flash; his stiff new boot came up hard and fast and buried itself in Spiller’s crotch. The gunman jackknifed at the waist with a terrible sound and seemed to freeze there, both hands grasping himself.
    Rochenbach’s Remington streaked out of his belly holster and made a hard swipe across the side of Spiller’s forehead. Spiller’s hat flew away.
    “My God, Rock, you’ve ruined him!” said Casings as Spiller fell to his side on the cold, hard ground.
    The woman stood staring wide-eyed, her mouth agape.
    “Go to your husband,” Rochenbach said to her, making her snap back to her senses. “Both of you get inside.”
    Turning the Remington toward Casings, Rock asked him, “Anything you need to add?”
    “Huh-uh, not a thing,” said Casings, instinctively taking a step back, fighting the urge to cup his hands and protect his crotch.
    On the ground, Spiller let out a strained, pain-filled groan. Blood poured from a long welt running down the side of head, along his jawline.
    “Throw some water on him. Let’s get him in his saddle and get out of here,” Rock said calmly. “We’ve interrupted these folks’ supper long enough.”

Chapter 4

    Two pairs of gleaming red eyes flashed in the darkness above the three riders as they rounded a sunken boulder on the trail back toward Denver City. In the pale light of a rising half-moon, Rochenbach and Casings rode along, Spiller slumped and silent in his saddle a few feet ahead of them. As the brush of padded paws swept down the side of the boulder and sprinted away into the greater darkness, Casings took his hand off his rifle stock and dropped it to his side.
    “Coyotes…,” he said sidelong to Rochenbach.
    Rochenbach didn’t answer. The horses plodded on at a walk.
    A few yards farther along, Casings said quietly to Rochenbach, “We had no idea Edmund Bell was dead. Our job was to collect something from him, that’s all.”
    Rochenbach didn’t answer, knowing that the less he spoke, the more Casings felt he had to.
    “I mean, I wasn’t going to do anything to that girl,”he said. He nodded at Spiller riding ahead of them. “That was all his idea.”
    “You didn’t try to stop him,” Rochenbach said quietly.
    Casings stared at him.
    “No, I didn’t,” he said. “Why did you?”
    “Because I was told we came here to collect money. So that’s what I did,” said Rock. “Sure, I had to rough the fellow up a little, but just enough to get the job done. What Spiller was about to do to the woman was stupid.”
    “Yeah, I have to admit, you got what we came for,” said Casings, looking him up and down. “I call getting money from that ragged-ass kid nothing short of a miracle.”
    Rock cut him a sidelong glance.
    “What are you saying, Casings?” Rock asked.
    Casings shrugged and said, “Nothing, just that it was a miracle.”
    “A
miracle
?” said Rock. “So you’re expressing a religious view?”
    “No,” Casings said, sounding embarrassed. “I’m just saying it’s not likely that Sonny Bell or his pa, either one, would have any money. That’s all.”
    “Then why did we waste our time riding out here?” Rock asked, sounding irritated. “Is this some kind of kid’s game?”
    “Whoa,” said Casings. “I’m just saying we’ve had a hard time shaking any money out of Edmund Bell.”
    “Really?” Rochenbach stopped his horse and stared at Casings. “You’re the one who said ‘Put a scare into these beefers and miners, they come up with somemoney.’ I put a scare into him and he
came up
with some money.” He turned