Scream of Eagles Read Online Free PDF Page A

hunt.”
    â€œAnd if I don’t?”
    â€œYou’ll not live to see summer turn to fall.”
    The heaping plate of stew was placed before him, and it smelled good. Jamie tore off a hunk of bread and sopped up some liquid, chewing slowly, savoring the flavor of food not cooked on the trail.
    â€œYou hear me, MacCallister?” the unknown questioner asked.
    â€œI hear you. Now leave me alone and let me enjoy my meal.”
    â€œLook here, MacCallister,” the man persisted. “Most of them boys you’re a-huntin’ didn’t put no lead in your wife.”
    â€œThey were there,” Jamie replied, laying down the unwritten code of the West. “They’re all thieves, murderers, rapists, and worse. And I’m going to see that every one of them steps up and shakes hands with the devil. Now leave me alone.”
    A chair was pushed back, and boots struck the floor. Jamie did not look up from the food as the boots walked to the bar. “Miles Nelson says the killin’ of your wife was not done deliberate. It was an accident.”
    â€œShe’s still dead.”
    â€œGoddamn you, MacCallister. Cain’t nobody reason with you about this thing?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œThen stand up and face me, MacCallister!”
    Jamie pushed his plate from him. “Were you with the gang that attacked Valley?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œThen I have no quarrel with you.”
    â€œMy name’s Jones.”
    â€œThat’s good, Jones. Everybody ought to know their name.”
    Jones cursed at that. “My younger brother rides with the Nelson gang.”
    â€œI see. And you’re going to stop me from killing him, right?”
    â€œThat’s right, MacCallister.”
    â€œIs he worth it, Jones?” Jamie asked softly. “Really worth it?”
    â€œHe’s my brother, MacCallister! Now stand up and face me.”
    Jamie moved very quickly. Not as fast as when he was thirty, but fast enough. He grabbed a chair and threw it at the man. The man’s hands flew up from the butts of his guns to protect his face. Jamie closed the distance between them and slammed a big fist into Jones’s face, pulping his lips. He followed that with a left hook that smashed into the man’s jaw, then hit him twice more in the face. Jones sank to the floor, blood streaming from mouth and nose.
    Jamie jerked the man’s guns from leather and laid them on the bar. He looked at the barkeep. “Put those away. Unless you want a killing in this place.”
    Jamie walked back to the table and resumed his eating. Several men rose to help Jones to his feet.
    â€œI’ll stop you, MacCallister,” Jones mumbled through mashed and bloody lips. “You’ll not bring no harm to my little brother.”
    â€œStay out of it,” Jamie warned. “Go on back home and keep clear of me. Your brother is riding with the worst of scum and filth. The Nelson gang has robbed and raped and killed and tortured from Kansas to California. And your brother Lloyd is a part of it. When you take up for him, that makes you no better. Don’t you ever cross my trail again.”
    Jamie finished his meal, bought his supplies, and walked over to the livery. He made himself a bed in the hayloft and wrapped up in his blankets. If anyone came into the livery, Buck would warn him. Jamie could understand taking up for kin, but not when kin was clearly in the wrong. That he could not understand. Lloyd Jones had dodgers out on him from Kansas to California, with charges ranging from rape to murder, and the wanted posters read dead or alive. Every member of the Nelson gang was wanted dead or alive.
    Wanted dead or alive by the law.
    Just dead by Jamie.
    * * *
    Jamie pulled out before any lamplights or candles were glowing in the trading post or any of the buildings surrounding it. Although he wished it were not so, Jamie was certain he would run into Jones again. The man seemed