the Man Called Noon (1970) Read Online Free PDF Page B

worry about Kissling here," Rimes said, speaking softly. "There'll be no shooting on the ranch. Her orders, and his-Ben Janish, I mean."
    Presently Jonas said, "I think I will take a ride after I eat."
    "Then go toward the mountains," Rimes said.
    "If you know anything about punching cows, ask Henneker what to do. Arch rode out this morning. We all help with the ranch work," he added.
    "Suppose I just kept on riding?"
    "You'd get nowhere. That's a wall of mountains yonder. There's fifty box canyons, all of them dead ends. You could climb out afoot, but there's nowhere to go. There'd be fifty or more miles of the roughest country in the world ahead of you ... and no grub."
    "I've got to find out who I am."
    Rimes was silent a moment. "Leave it lay. Why don't you just start off as if you'd just been born? 'Let the dead past bury its dead,' as somebody said one time."
    "The dead might not want to be buried, nor the past want to have them buried. I have an uneasy feeling about that."
    Rimes talked of the ranch, the cattle. There had been no beef shipped from here since Davidge died but the range was good. The mountains and the ridges formed almost natural corrals, and the outlaw hands had kept others away. There were thousands of acres between the ranch and the mountains, a restricted range, well-watered and in some cases sub-irrigated by the flow off the mountains.
    Rimes left, and Jonas lingered over his coffee, worrying about his problem. Did Henneker know anything? Or was the old man just guessing?
    There were clues . .. one was the recognition of the dun's brand as from the Cherokee Nation, which was an outlaws' hangout. The one thing he was sure of was that Ben Janish must know who he was and why he was to be killed.
    And there were the letters and the legal document in his pocket, which so far he had not had a chance to examine.
    Was he Dean Cullane? The letters he had found in his pocket, addressed to that name, would make it seem so, but somehow he was uneasy over the name. Might he have stolen them? Or offered to carry them for Cullane? None of the reasons he could think of made much sense.
    He was feeling restless. His headache had dulled to a persistent throb that kept him on edge, and he was in no mood to be with people. He needed to get off by himself, to think, to plan, to try to find a way out.
    Ben Janish would soon be coming to the ranch, and Ben would no doubt try to finish what he had begun. But what would be his reaction when he found the man he had tried to kill waiting for him?
    Fan came into the room. "If you want to ride and you think you can handle that dun, you might check out my beef for me. I'd like to get an idea what there is that's ready to ship."
    "I don't know," he said, rising. "I don't know what I know about cattle. Or even if I can ride."
    "If you can ride that dun you're a better man than Kissling or Cherry. He threw both of them."
    Several spare ropes hung in the blacksmith shop which occupied a corner of the barn. He chose one and went to the corral. Could he use a rope? It felt natural in his hands, and he supposed he could.
    Rimes was close by when he let himself into the corral and faced the horses. They circled warily, keeping away from him.
    He looked at the dun and held out his hand. "Come here, boy," he said, and the dun came.
    "Well, I'll be damned!" Rimes muttered. "I never saw the like."
    Kissling had come out of the bunkhouse, and he stood watching. Henneker, who had come riding up on a sorrel pony, stopped near Fan. "Now there's a funny thing," he said to her. "That horse knows him."
    "But how could it? He just got here, and that horse was a stray we picked up on the winter range."
    "Sure, I brought him in," Henneker said dryly, "but I still say that horse knows him. Ma'am, something's wrong here, almighty wrong."
    The old man looked down at her suddenly. "Don't you go gettin' any case on that man, ma'am. He's a bad one."
    "The dun doesn't think so," she replied.
    Henneker