Slocum and the Warm Reception Read Online Free PDF

who knew about claims would know someone who bought gold and silver. Seeing as how he was carrying a pouch of the stuff in his saddlebags, Slocum wasn’t exactly comfortable with making that fact known to anyone within earshot. After all that had happened so far on his way to Mescaline, the prospect of selling his dust and nuggets now and heading in another direction was becoming more and more appealing.
    The man behind the counter looked puzzled, but didn’t get a chance to speak before Patrick asked, “You planning on staying around here for a spell?”
    â€œThat depends on what your sheriff has to say about it.”
    â€œI can’t speak for him, but . . .” Looking at the skinny fellow, the deputy snapped, “Go on and fetch that pie! Bring us over a pitcher of water while you’re at it.”
    The man behind the counter grumbled to himself and shuffled away to fill the order.
    Now, when Patrick lowered his voice, there wasn’t anyone other than Slocum to hear him. A few locals were looking through a pile of blankets on the other side of the room and the young man sitting at the farthest end of the counter was too interested in his own business to bother eavesdropping on someone else’s.
    â€œThat pretty lady cleaning them stalls is trouble,” Patrick said. “It’s my business to handle trouble in this town and I’ve found the best way to do that is to nip it in the bud before it can sprout. Stay away from her, you hear?”
    â€œOr what?” The question had come more as a knee-jerk response and was out before Slocum could stop it. After so many years of tending to his own affairs, good or bad, he didn’t care to take orders from others. He cared even less for orders nestled within any kind of threat. Even so, he immediately regretted being so cross with the deputy.
    Patrick’s face shifted into a harder expression. “Or . . . if you go sniffing around her and any trouble follows, I can’t just assume she’s the cause of it. You seem like a good fella, John. I’m just warnin’ you is all. The only reason I’ve been pressing the matter so much is because I still got the eyes and every other functioning part of a man and I know the first warning probably fell on deaf ears. Depending on how long you’ve been alone in that desert, the blood may have been rushing so fast that every warnin’ I gave until this very second may not have been heard. So here it is again, watch that lady close.”
    Slocum nodded. “All right. I get the message. What did this woman do that’s worth all these warnings?”
    â€œNothing I can prove,” Patrick replied. “I heard some things, though. None of them were good.”
    â€œThat’s not exactly enough to hang your hat on.”
    â€œWhen she first came to town, some folks came looking for her in regard to a bit of violence in Montana. Seems the man she was with turned up dead. Another man who shared her company was an unsavory type and he wound up dead, too. Vigilantes strung him up and set him on fire.”
    â€œThat seems awfully harsh,” Slocum said. “Even for vigilantes.”
    â€œRumor has it they did the lynching and she lit the match.”
    Slocum let out a low whistle. “These are just rumors?”
    â€œYep. There were also rumors that both men had it coming. The second fella was a known killer and the first wasn’t known at all. Because of that, me and the sheriff kept her safe when those men came looking for her. They were armed and looking for blood and she . . . well . . . it just didn’t seem proper to hand her over to men such as them.”
    â€œUnderstandable.”
    â€œThen the next batch came looking,” Patrick continued. “That was just under a year ago. Bunch of wild-eyed owl hoots stinking of whiskey and shooting up the place like a pack of savages. In between