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Updated: May 18, 2025
He threw me down hard, but he was considerable strung up about June. Wouldn't do any good for me to tell what I know." "Not a bit," assented Reeves. "Might as well game it out." Houck's hard, cold eye looked at him steadily. "Who said anything about not gaming it out? If you're expectin' me to beg an' crawl you've got hold of the wrong man. I'm a damned tough nut an' don't you forget it.
The wounded man set his teeth to keep back a groan. Very slowly and carefully, an inch here, a foot there, Bob worked Houck's heavy body backward. It was a long business. A dozen times he stopped to select the next leg of the journey. Beads of perspiration stood on Houck's forehead. He was in great pain, but he clenched his teeth and said nothing. Bob could not deny him gameness.
"Houck's here lookin' for me," the wretched boy explained. "What's that you've got under yore coat?" she demanded quickly. "It's a a gun. He made me take it. Said Houck was tellin' how he'd do for me." The fear-filled eyes of the boy met the stricken ones of his bride. She knew now what she had before suspected and would not let herself believe.
If you were half a man if you were white, you wouldn't try to use that against me like you do." "I'm using it for you. Why, you li'l' spitfire, can't you see as Jake Houck's wife you get a chance to live? You'll have clothes an' shoes an' pretties like other folks instead o' them rags you wear now. I aim to be good to you, June." "You say that. Don't I know you?
Again the close-set, hard eyes clamped fast to the wavering ones of the tortured outlaw. In them Tolliver read an ultimatum. Notice was being served on him that there was only one way to seal Houck's lips. That way he did not want to follow. Pete was a weak father, an ineffective one, wholly unable to give expression to the feeling that at times welled up in him.
In his high-heeled boots fast travel was difficult. The footgear of the cattleman is not made for walking. The hill riders do most of their travel in a saddle. Houck's feet hurt. His toes were driven forward in the boots until each step became torture. From his heels the skin peeled from sliding up and down against the hard leather. But he dared not stop. Already he could hear the pursuers.
The spokesman for the Indians still showed an impassive face, but his voice was scornful. "Is Man-with-loud-tongue a yellow coyote? Does he carry the heart of a squaw? Will he cry like a pappoose?" Houck's salient jaw jutted out. The man was a mass of vanity. Moreover, he was game. "Who told you I was yellow? Where did you get that? I ain't scared of all the damned Utes that ever came outa hell."
The Injun's gun wasn't in s-sight anywheres." "Houck's a bad actor," Dud said. "Yes." Blister came back to the order of the day. "All right, boys. Shifts of three hours each, then. T-turn an' turn about. You two take this knoll here. If you see anything movin' that looks suspicious, blaze away. We'll c-come a-runnin'." Bob had drunk at supper two cups of strong coffee instead of his usual one.
No trouble, boys, you understand." But Houck's party did not show up, and before break of day the camp of the trail herd outfit was broken. The riders moved the herd up the creek to an open place where it could be easily crossed. From here the cattle drifted back toward the river. Dud was riding on the point, Hawks and Dillon on the drag. In the late afternoon a gulch obstructed their path.
A half a second later those of the startled cashier lifted toward the ceiling. The assistant made a bad mistake. He dived for the revolver in the desk close at hand. Houck fired. The bank clerk dropped. That shot sent panic through the heart of Sturgis. He bolted for the side door. A second shot from Houck's weapon did not stop him.
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