Purdy got shot, an' everyone said he got just what was comin' to
him---- Me, an' everyone else--an' he did. But when you get down to
cases, he wasn't no hell of a lot worse'n me, at that. We was both
after the same thing--only his work was coarser." For hours the man
sat staring into his fire, the while he rolled and smoked many
cigarettes.
"Oh, hell!" he exclaimed, aloud. "I can't turn nester, an' even if I
did, she couldn't live out in no mud-roof shack in the bottom of some
coulee! Still, she---- There I go again, over the same old trail.
This here little girl has sure gone to my head--like a couple of jolts
of hundred-proof on an empty stummick. Anyhow, she's a damn sight
safer'n ever she was before, an'--I'll bet the old man _would_ let me
take that Eagle Creek ranch off his hands, an' stake me to a little
bunch of stock besides, if I went at him right. If it wasn't for that
damn pilgrim! Bat was right. He holds the edge on me--but he's a
man." The cowboy glanced anxiously toward the east where the sky was
beginning to lighten with the first hint of dawn. He rose, trampled
out his fire, and threw the saddle onto his horse. "I've got to find
him," he muttered, "if Bat ain't found him already. I don't know much
about this swimmin' business but if he could have got holt of a tree or
somethin' he might have made her through.
Pages:
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192