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

grasshoppers come in clouds that would darken the sun and strip bare the land like a plague." She stared off, as if calling up her memories.
    "Shoot? Well, I guess yes. Gun loads was mighty scarce back yonder in the hills, and when somebody went out for meat for our family he or she was expected to come back with meat for every load taken."
    She refilled my cup and hers. "Logan, I got to find Milo. This here place belongs to the boys, him and Barnabas. I'm not so young as I used to be, an' one night I'll fall asleep and those out there, they'll close in an' finish me off. I need he'p, Logan."
    I shifted in my chair, feeling guilty-like. I'd lost no ponies around here. Californy was where I'd be fixing to be, and then I had to put my oar into that squabble down in town.
    "I could stay on a few days," I said. "There's nobody waitin' for me yonder. Or anywheres else," I added, thinking on it. I guess since my folks died nobody had ever waited on my coming or cared what happened.
    "That Flanner," I said, "he carries a gun in a shoulder holster."
    "He does? Well, I reckon he carries one someplace. He's killed a few. Nobody braces him." She looked up at me, real sharp. "You seen Johannes?"
    "Not to know him. There were several men a settin' in the saloon. In the Bon Ton. But I don't know - "
    "Wouldn't have been him. Johannes Duckett He's some kin to Flanner, and he's not quite right in the head, I think. Or maybe he's just strange. But he's a dead shot with a gun of any kind and he's a back-shooter ... he'll shoot you front, back, or sideways. Mostly he cares for the livery stable."
    "I didn't see anybody."
    "Well, he was around there, then. Whenever he ain't there, somebody else is, and when Johannes is about you just don't see him unless he's of a mind to let you."
    After a time she went off to bed and I fussed around a mite, and taken a turn outside. Pretty soon Pennywell came down to spell me and I curled up on a mattress to take five.
    Daylight was coming through the shutters when I awakened, and I could hear folks stirring around out in the kitchen. From the porch I could look over that layout there by the gate, and of a sudden I started gettin' sore.
    Holding an old lady like that! And shooting at her so's she didn't dare stir out in front of her own house.
    Setting there on the porch in the shadows I studied the layout and made up my mind that come sundown I was going to do some moving around of my own. Californy looked bright and pretty to me and I wasn't going to leave here with those fellers out there makin' trouble for Aunt Em.
    Out back I fetched a bait of corn from the bin for my horse - I guess he'd never had it so good.
    Em Talon was right. They had some mighty fine stock out yonder in the fenced pasture behind the barn, so I saddled up, roped myself a half dozen horses, and brought them up to the corral one at a time. Then I stripped the gear from the borrowed horse and turned it loose.
    It ran off a ways, then commenced to graze out there betwixt those boys and the house. Finally as if it taken a notion to travel, it moved off.
    Leaning on the corral I studied those horses. The ones I'd picked were mighty fine stock, all wearing the Empty brand. There was a tough-looking strawberry roan that I liked right off, and a steeldust gelding with a wise look about him.
    Those were good horses but they hadn't been under a saddle for months, maybe. They'd take some riding, so I made up my mind to do it.
    Whilst I was puttering around I got to studying on where Milo Talon might be. If I was to get shut of this job I'd better find him ... and that wasn't easy to do.
    Milo was a man who covered country. There'd be folks in Brown's Hole might know where he was, or up in the Hole-in-the-Wall country. What I had to do was start the word moving along the trails. It might take time, but if Milo was alive, he'd hear it.
    Meanwhile there was a lot to be done. I topped off those broncs, and they showed me plenty of action, but they