Ride the Dark Trail (1972) Read Online Free PDF Page A

slung from her hips. "What ever am I thinkin' of? Been so long since I had a guest I don't recall how to act, Of course, there's coffee."
    She started toward the door, then paused. "Young man, would you mind taking a look out yonder? If you see anybody creepin' up ... shoot him or her as the case might be."
    She lighted the other lamp in the kitchen and then carried the lamp from the big front room back to join it. "Nobody coming, ma'am. Looks like they're holed up against the rain."
    "Fools! They might have had me. I fallen asleep in yonder. Heard the floor creak as you stepped into the kitchen or somewhere. They're a lazy lot. Gunslingers aren't what they used to be. Was a time you could hire fighters, but this lot that Flanner has are a mighty sorry bunch."
    She turned, a tall old woman in a faded gray dress and a worn maroon sweater. She looked at me, then sniffed. "I might of knowed it. Clinch Mountain, ain't you?"
    "What was that, ma'am?" I was startled.
    "I said you're a Clinch Mountain Sackett, ain't you? I'd read your sign anywhere, boy. You're probably one of those no-account sons of Tarbil Sackett, ain't you?"
    "Grandson, ma'am."
    "I thought so. Knowed your folks, every durn last one of them, and a sorry lot they were, good for nothing but fightin' an' makin' moonshine whiskey."
    "Are you from Tennessee, ma'am?"
    "Tennessee? You're durned tootin', I am! I'm a Clinch Mountain Sackett myself! Married Talon an' came west an' we set up here. Fact is, a cousin of mine helped put this place together, and he was a Sackett. He went off somewhere in the mountains and never come back."
    "Traipsin' just like you, he was, traipsin' after some fool story of gold. Left some boys back in Tennessee, and a wife that was too good for him.
    "Come in an' set, son, you're among home folks!"

    Chapter 3
    It was comfortable in that old kitchen, and old as it was the place was neat as a man could wish. The floor was scrubbed and the copper pots shone brightly with light reflected by that coal-oil lamp.
    The coffee smelled right good. Even though I'd had a cup at the Bon Ton down in town, this here was better, better by a whole lot.
    "They said down in town you had you some hands," I told her.
    She chuckled. "I aimed for them to think so. I been alone for nearly a year now. Bill Brock, he picked up some lead last time we had us a fight with those folks, and he died. I buried him out yonder." She nodded toward the area behind the house. "Figured to move him to a proper grave when the time came."
    She taken a cup of coffee after she'd poured for us and then she came and set down. Her face was lined and old enough to have worn out two or three bodies but her eyes held fire. "You be Logan Sackett. Well, I d'clare! You a puncher?"
    "I'm whatever it takes to get the coon," I said. "I guess I ain't much, Aunt Em. I'm too driven to driftin' an' gun play. Why, even that horse I'm ridin' yonder ain't mine. Come time to leave back yonder down the country I hadn't no time to buy a horse nor the money to do it with. This one was handy so I taken to his saddle and lit a shuck out of there."
    She nodded. "I've seen it a time or two. Come daylight you go yonder to the barn an' turn that horse loose. He'll take time but he'll fetch up back home sooner or later. We've horses a-plenty here on the Empty."
    "I wasn't figurin' on - "
    "Don't you worry none. There's enough rooms in this here house for the whole of Grant's army, and then there's the bunkhouse. We ain't short of grub, although we could do with some fresh meat now and again."
    "No reason you can't hole up here until the weather clears."
    "Thank you, ma'am. On'y I was sort of figurin' on Californy. I been there a time or two and when winter comes I just naturally get chillblains. I thought maybe I'd head for Los Angeles, or maybe Frisco."
    "I can pay," Aunt Em said. "You needn't worry none about that."
    "I wouldn't take money from kinfolk. It's just that I - "
    "Logan Sackett, you be still! You're