the Sky-Liners (1967) Read Online Free PDF Page B

now. Maybe if she saw him in a rage it would help. Me and Galloway must have been thinking the same thing. Only trouble was, I up and made a damn fool of myself. I said the wrong thing.
    "Besides," I said, "Judith is only a youngster. She's not old enough to marry."
    Judith ran up her flag and let go with all her guns, she was that mad. "Flagan Sackett, you wouldn't know a woman if you saw one! I am so old enough! We'll just show you how old I am! James, if you're ready we can be married tomorrow morning."
    Fetchen straightened up. Of course, that was all he wanted all the time. He threw me a look that was what a body might call triumphant. "I would be honored, Judith. If you'll come with me I'll show you to your room."
    Judith got up and turned her back squarely to me. I started to speak, but what could I say?
    Fetchen turned and looked back at us. "Gentlemen, I'll send a couple of the boys over for my fiancee's clothing and her horses - all of them."
    "What do you mean, all of them?"
    "I mean those you two have been riding. They are Costello horses."
    "For which we have a bill of sale," I said calmly, but I was fighting mad underneath.
    "That's right, James," Judith said. "Those horses belong to them."
    "We will look into that a bit further," Fetchen replied. "I do not think those bills of sale, as you call them, will stand up in court."
    They walked away together and left us sitting there, and of a sudden I no longer had any appetite. Youngster she might be, but I had no wish to see any girl in the hands of Black Fetchen.
    "Galloway, we can't let him do it. We got to stop him."
    "You tell me how. She wants to marry him, and we can't prove a thing against him."
    "Do you suppose he really drove in some Half-Box H cattle?"
    "I'd lay a bet on it. Oh, he's a smart one! If anybody saw him with cattle of that brand, he's now got himself an alibi. Also, it makes him look good with the other cattlemen around."
    "What's he see in her, do you suppose?"
    Galloway, he gave me an odd look. "Why, you damn' fool, that's a right pretty little girl. Shapes up like pretty much of a woman. And in case you forget, Ma was no older when she married Pa."
    He was right, only I didn't like to admit it. That Judith seemed like a youngster ... all those freckles and everything. Only when I started reminding myself of that everything, I got to remembering that what Galloway had been saying was right. She was nigh to being a woman, even if she wasn't one yet ... in my judgment, anyway.
    "Flagan, what are we going to do?"
    Upshot of it was, we went to see the marshal, Wyatt Earp, but he said he could do nothing. "Sorry, boys." He was kind of abrupt. "Mr. Fetchen brought in some of the Hawkes cattle and turned them over at the corral. That certainly doesn't make him seem a thief. Also, there seems to be no evidence that he had anything to do with running off the herd. As for the girl, she is old enough to marry, and she wants to marry him. I am afraid I can do nothing."
    Bat Masterson was sheriff of Ford County, and we went next to see him. He was a right handsome young man about twenty-four or -five years old, wearing a dark suit and black derby hat. You had to be quite a man to wear a hard hat in those days; it was such a temptation for some half-drunk cowpoke to try to shoot it off your head. Bat's didn't carry any bullet marks that I could see.
    He listened to what we had to say, then shook his head. "Sorry, boys, there's nothing I can do. The girl has a right to marry, and there's no warrant out for any of that crowd." He paused a minute. "Although I've got some good ideas of my own."
    "Anything we can tie to?" Galloway asked.
    "No. But a man who rode in the other day said he saw the Fetchen outfit driving about fifty head of cattle. They didn't turn in but half a dozen scrubs."
    "Ain't that evidence?"
    "Not exactly. Rufe was drunk when he saw them. Now, I'd take his word for how many head he saw, drunk or sober - Rufe's an old cowhand. But I doubt