Read Online Monument Rock (Ss) (1998) by Louis L'amour - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Louis L'amour
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wants to tackle a man like that, for you know when the chips are dow n and you've got to fight, he'll die hard and not alone.
Sad Priest was a fast hand with a gun, maybe faster than me, but there'd been othe r fast men who had died as easily as anyone.
"Right you are. And it looks like some of these boys here will be able to tell i t around the bunkhouses next year, the story of how Sad Priest and Yanel Webb die d with Race Mallin in an all-out gun battle! What a story that will make for thos e who yarn around the fires!
"Yanel Webb, all his cattle wasted, his ranch in other hands, his wife a widow, an d his baby son an orphan, and Sad Priest, the fastest of them all, facedown in th e dirt of a nester's yard with his belly shot full of lead bullets!"
Beyond them were the others and I grinned at them. "Oh, don't you lads worry. Som e of you favored ones will go along. How many is a guess, but you'd best remember I'v e ten good bullets here, and while I've gone down three times in gunfights, it wa s every time with empty guns!
"Tell them, Sad! You were on the Neuces that time when the four Chambers boys jumpe d me. They put me down and filled me full of holes and I was six weeks before I coul d walk, but they buried three of the Chambers and the other one left the country whe n I left my bed."
"You talk a lot," Webb said sourly.
"It's a weakness of the Irish," I said.
They did not like it. None of them liked it. At such a time no man feels secure and each one is sure you're looking right at him. "What are you doin' here?" Webb demanded.
"This i s no fight of yours." "Why, any one-sided fight is my fight, Yanel," I explained.
"I've a weakness for them. I could not stay out of it, and me with the Gleasons behin d me."
That I said for the smartness of it. I'm not so crazy as I sound, and wild as I ge t in a scrap, I knew they'd salt m e down if the guns opened here. But my deal was to bluff them, for no man wishes t o die, and once the bluff started, to offer them an easy out, a reason for delay.
The Gleasons made a reason. I knew they would figure that if the Gleasons were afte r me, all they had to do was sit back and let the Gleasons kill me-and any gain i n time was a gain for us.
Webb hesitated, soaking it up. He didn't like it, but it was smart, and Priest sai d something to him under his breath, and probably a warning to let the Gleasons come.
Then Webb said, "Why are the Gleasons after you?"
"Korry," I explained, "shot down an old friend of mine when I was down Del Rio way.
I hightailed it back and met him last night and he was a bit slow. He died back ther e and the Gleasons will be after me."
"That," Webb said, "I'd like to see. We'll camp out and see what happens."
Now, that I'd not expected. I'd believed they would ride out and leave us alone , but with them here . . . Maggie Ryan spoke beside me. "What will we do, Race? Th e others will be here soon, and they are not fighting men, they are quiet, sincer e men with families and homes. If there is a fight here, some of them or all of the m will die. Webb won't stop killing once he starts."
"It isn't Webb," I said. "It's that cold image of a buzzard beside him, it's Pries t that worries me."
Strange is the world that men are born to, and strange the ways of men when troubl e comes. Yanel Webb was not a bad man, only a hard man who thought cattle were th e only way of life and would stop all others who came into the country. And those wit h him-they were hard, reckless men, but cowhands, not killers. Fight they would, i f they must, but with a decent way out... and the Gleasons who were coming. Korry ha d been the only bad apple i n that lot. They knew it as well as I, but they were honor bound to hunt me down, bu t I'd no stomach for killing honest men.
Across the hard-caked earth of the yard on that morning after the rain I looked a t Sad Priest.
"Maggie," I said, "there's a chance that we can work it out, but only one chance.
What stake has
Sad Priest was a fast hand with a gun, maybe faster than me, but there'd been othe r fast men who had died as easily as anyone.
"Right you are. And it looks like some of these boys here will be able to tell i t around the bunkhouses next year, the story of how Sad Priest and Yanel Webb die d with Race Mallin in an all-out gun battle! What a story that will make for thos e who yarn around the fires!
"Yanel Webb, all his cattle wasted, his ranch in other hands, his wife a widow, an d his baby son an orphan, and Sad Priest, the fastest of them all, facedown in th e dirt of a nester's yard with his belly shot full of lead bullets!"
Beyond them were the others and I grinned at them. "Oh, don't you lads worry. Som e of you favored ones will go along. How many is a guess, but you'd best remember I'v e ten good bullets here, and while I've gone down three times in gunfights, it wa s every time with empty guns!
"Tell them, Sad! You were on the Neuces that time when the four Chambers boys jumpe d me. They put me down and filled me full of holes and I was six weeks before I coul d walk, but they buried three of the Chambers and the other one left the country whe n I left my bed."
"You talk a lot," Webb said sourly.
"It's a weakness of the Irish," I said.
They did not like it. None of them liked it. At such a time no man feels secure and each one is sure you're looking right at him. "What are you doin' here?" Webb demanded.
"This i s no fight of yours." "Why, any one-sided fight is my fight, Yanel," I explained.
"I've a weakness for them. I could not stay out of it, and me with the Gleasons behin d me."
That I said for the smartness of it. I'm not so crazy as I sound, and wild as I ge t in a scrap, I knew they'd salt m e down if the guns opened here. But my deal was to bluff them, for no man wishes t o die, and once the bluff started, to offer them an easy out, a reason for delay.
The Gleasons made a reason. I knew they would figure that if the Gleasons were afte r me, all they had to do was sit back and let the Gleasons kill me-and any gain i n time was a gain for us.
Webb hesitated, soaking it up. He didn't like it, but it was smart, and Priest sai d something to him under his breath, and probably a warning to let the Gleasons come.
Then Webb said, "Why are the Gleasons after you?"
"Korry," I explained, "shot down an old friend of mine when I was down Del Rio way.
I hightailed it back and met him last night and he was a bit slow. He died back ther e and the Gleasons will be after me."
"That," Webb said, "I'd like to see. We'll camp out and see what happens."
Now, that I'd not expected. I'd believed they would ride out and leave us alone , but with them here . . . Maggie Ryan spoke beside me. "What will we do, Race? Th e others will be here soon, and they are not fighting men, they are quiet, sincer e men with families and homes. If there is a fight here, some of them or all of the m will die. Webb won't stop killing once he starts."
"It isn't Webb," I said. "It's that cold image of a buzzard beside him, it's Pries t that worries me."
Strange is the world that men are born to, and strange the ways of men when troubl e comes. Yanel Webb was not a bad man, only a hard man who thought cattle were th e only way of life and would stop all others who came into the country. And those wit h him-they were hard, reckless men, but cowhands, not killers. Fight they would, i f they must, but with a decent way out... and the Gleasons who were coming. Korry ha d been the only bad apple i n that lot. They knew it as well as I, but they were honor bound to hunt me down, bu t I'd no stomach for killing honest men.
Across the hard-caked earth of the yard on that morning after the rain I looked a t Sad Priest.
"Maggie," I said, "there's a chance that we can work it out, but only one chance.
What stake has
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