The Law of the Trigger Read Online Free PDF

Everything he owned went up in fire and smoke. Of course the neighbors pitched in and helped rebuild, but only Ike Brunner would have thought of bringing him a new team of work mules. Where the mules had come from Gabe didn't know, and he cared less; he just knew that he had the best team in the hills, thanks to Ike Brunner.
    Dunc himself was deeply in debt to Ike. During the big dry-up two years ago, the home place hadn't grown enough to half feed the big Lester family. Ike had brought shelled corn and flour to see them through the winter and early spring. When Dunc heard later that the Brunners were in trouble with the lowland law, he was among the first to help out.
    Ike was a tough one to figure, Dunc decided. A lot of hill families would have gone without food during that dry-up if it hadn't been for the Brunner wagon-train raids. A lot of the womenfolks would still be wearing feed-sack dresses if it weren't for the bolt goods that Ike and Cal took off the mule skinners. And without Brunner money gifts, many of the hill farms would have been lost.
    It was a funny thing. How could a man be so open-handed and big-hearted one day and turn killer the next?
    Ponderously, Dunc moved the thought around in his mind. Not that it bothered him particularly. The raid on the freight company would bring in all kinds of things that the hill families needed: food, clothing, maybe even some shoes. Once there had been a wagon load of illegal whisky, and again a shipment of farm implements. Through some curious mental process Dunc had stopped thinking of these raids as stealing. Ike claimed that they were doing the fair thing, taking from the rich and giving to the poor. And Ike was always right.
    Now Ike Brunner was staring thoughtfully at the ground, studying the list that he had scratched down in the dirt.
    “Fifteen from the south,” he said. “Ten at least from the north. That ought to give us thirty men to hit the freight depot with.”
    “Hell, we could take Reunion with that many men!” Cal Brunner said.
    Ike fixed his cool gray eyes on his brother. “Reunion might be easier to take than that depot. Don't think they haven't heard of us down there, and don't think they won't have the place guarded.”
    Then Ike turned his expressionless gaze on Dunc. “You better fill up on grub and get some rest,” he said. “Tomorrow you won't get much of either.”

    The two brothers watched Dunc strip the bay and put the animal out to graze. Then they stood up and walked casually away from the cave. Cal shook his head, grinning. “I've got to hand it to you, Ike. The Doolins would still be operating if they had a gang like ours.”
    “The Doolins were stupid,” Ike said flatly. “They tried to hold their gang together by dividing equally. These farmers wouldn't know an equal division if they got one; it would just make them hungry for more.”
    Cal laughed. “So you don't give them anything!”
    “Sure I give them something,” Ike said, looking hurt. “A bolt of cloth, some pots and pans, a plow. Maybe a bottle of whisky now and then. More important, I nurse their babies, get doctors for their wives, steal work mules for their farms. Those are the things that make them loyal to me, not money.”
    Well away from the cave, they passed under a tall pine, and Cal's face was suddenly serious. “The trick, is to keep them loyal, Ike. I get closer to the men than you do, I get to know what they're thinkin'. They don't like the way you've been usin' your pistol.”
    Ike's long face grew hard. “Who said it?” he asked.
    “I don't know. Maybe nobody; but they're thinkin' it.”
    “You're gettin' to be an old woman, Cal. Just let me do the thinkin'.”
    Cal shrugged. “Don't say I didn't warn you.”
    He started to walk back toward the cave, but Ike called to him. “Just a minute, Cal. Where did you go last night?”
    “Why, nowhere, Ike. I was right there at the cave.”
    “That's a lie,” Ike said coldly. “I saw you get up