The Return of Caulfield Blake Read Online Free PDF Page A

wrinkled face filled with rage. Simpson needed the grandson’s help to negotiate the steps. Finally, the two old enemies stood face to face.
    â€œBlake, I warned you never to come back,” the old man shouted. “I’ll see you dead this time.”
    â€œYou’ve done your warnin’, old man,” Blake said, never flinching. “I told you somethin’, too. I told you to leave my family be. If you need to blame somebody for your boy bein’ a murderer, then blame me. Hannah never caused you pain.”
    â€œShe’s a Blake,” Simpson said, spitting on the rich carpet of the hotel. “That’s enough. And she gave birth to two Blake pups.”
    â€œLook, Simpson, eight years ago you came to me and asked me to be sheriff of this town. You asked me to swear to uphold the laws. You didn’t say anythin’ about lookin’ the other way when your boy shot a judge in cold blood right in the middle of Front Street.”
    â€œThat judge was a carpetbagger, a thief. He was no better’n a snake. You shoot snakes.”
    â€œHe was a man, no better or worse in the eyes of the law than Henry Simpson or Caulfield Blake. I didn’t ask for that badge. You and the others, you put it all on me. Then when the soldiers came and expected justice, you turned away. Afterward your brave bunch of men came after me.”
    â€œYou hung my son, Matt’s father.”
    The young man glared at Blake. A trace of viciousness appeared in the corner of his eyes.
    â€œI helped execute a killer. He had a fair trial before a jury of his peers. You could have appealed.”
    â€œTo Yankees? To the same men who killed two of my boys at Selma?”
    â€œI fought in the war, too, remember? I didn’t sit behind a desk and call myself colonel when the smoke cleared.”
    The comment brought a shiver of rage to the old man’s face. Blake only smiled.
    â€œYou’ve been warned, Blake,” Simpson shouted. “The next time you show your face in this town, someone’ll put a bullet through it right in between your eyes!”
    â€œOh?” Blake asked, chuckling. “You think maybe you can pay someone a few hundred dollars to do that? Or will you face me yourself? Why wait? Why not right now?”
    Young Matt started toward Blake, but his grandfather held him back. Then the sheriff walked through the door, a Winchester rifle in his hands. Blake moved aside and let the lawman take over.
    â€œI think it’s best you leave,” the sheriff said to Blake. “Colonel, maybe you ought to have a little rest. You seem a bit flushed.”
    Simpson smiled.
    â€œYou remember what I said, Blake!” the old man shouted.
    â€œOh, I will,” Blake told him. “And you keep in mind that I won’t look kindly on you troublin’ Hannah and the boys.”
    Before the old man could say anything more, Blake turned and slipped quietly out of the hotel. He soon spotted his horse at a watering trough in front of the Palace Saloon. He walked cautiously the hundred yards to the horse, accepted the reins from Charlie, and climbed into the saddle.
    â€œTell Dix to come see me,” Blake told the boy. “And tell him to keep a weather eye out for Simpson. The old man’s capable of anythin’.”
    â€œYes, sir,” Charlie said.
    Blake then turned the horse toward the far end of town and began the five-mile ride to the Bar Double B. Home. For the first time since arriving in town he trembled.

Chapter Four
    Blake rode along the dusty road almost without thinking. The seven years he’d been away had not erased the memories accumulated in a lifetime of riding those hills. He passed the oak grove where he’d asked Hannah to be his wife. He paused near Siler’s Hollow to recall the times he’d chased Dix and Marty Cabot through the high grasses. But the hollow was now flooded by an ocean of water. And Carpenter Creek . . .