United States or Russia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
She had already noted that the fences were well kept; she had seen chickens and pigs, flowers and a small garden; and behind the stable, in an enclosure of barbed wire, she had observed some cows milkers, she was certain. The ranchhouse was well sheltered by timber.
If you-all ain't glued there you might grab his grips an' tote them up to the ranchhouse. Tell the missus that I'll be along directly with the boss." Amusement over the Southern twang that marked Norton's speech filled Hollis. He had noticed it before and it had made plain to him the reason of Norton's unhurried movements, his slow humor, his habit of quiet scrutiny.
Rigid in her chair, the girl watched the riders swoop toward the ranchhouse; Sanderson, lounging against the porch column, smiled saturninely. The riders headed directly toward the porch. Sanderson counted them as they came to a halt within thirty feet of the edge of the porch. There were twenty of them.
He patrolled the gully during the slow-dragging hours of the early morning with a growing caution and determination, his lips setting always into harder lines, his eyes beginning to blaze with a ferocity that promised ill for Taggart. Shortly after dawn, kneeling in the gully at the end toward the ranchhouse, he heard the wagon move.
She did not interfere with the work, which went steadily on. The ranchhouse began to take on a prosperous appearance. Within a week after the beginning of the work the sills were all in, the rotted bottoms of the studding had been replaced, and the outside walls patched up. During the next week the old porches were torn down and new ones built in their places.
As daylight waned the fugitives realized from the shuffling gait of their mounts, from drooping heads and dull eyes that rest was imperative. They themselves were fagged, too, and when a ranchhouse loomed in front of them they decided to halt for much-needed recuperation.
At first he suspected that the men in the group belonged to Deveny, and he drew out his pistols, one after the other, and examined them for he decided if Deveny was among the men to settle for good the question of power and authority that Haydon had raised. When the men came closer, though, swooping toward the ranchhouse like feathers before a hurricane, he saw that Rogers was among them.
Not however, till they reached the old ranchhouse, where the woman had tried to persuade her to stay, did they stop for long. Elizabeth had a tender feeling in her heart for that motherly woman who had sought to protect her, and felt a longing to let her know how safely she had been kept through the long journey and how good the Lord had been to her through the years.
As he fired Bridge turned in his saddle and shouted to the others to make for the shelter of the ranchhouse. "There are two hundred of them," he cried. "Run for cover!" Billy and the Clark brothers leaped to their saddles and spurred toward the point where Bridge sat pumping lead into the advancing enemy. Mason and Mr. Harding hurried Barbara to the questionable safety of the ranchhouse.
With the memory of Randerson's threat always before him, "if I ever lay eyes on you ag'in, I'll go gunnin' for you," Masten rode slowly and watchfully. For he had felt that the words had not been idle ones, and it had been because of them that he had hired Kelso. And he went toward the ranchhouse warily, much relieved when he passed the bunkhouse, to find that Randerson was apparently absent.
Word Of The Day