Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 25, 2025
He asked me whose it was; and he asked me about you, and, by jinx! the way he perked up when I told him you were coming in on the stage that afternoon! When he heard you'd been sick, he was for going down to the hotel to get a cup of coffee for you!" McAlpin, like any good story-teller, was already on his feet again.
This left McAlpin across the street with nobody but the butcher to talk to, while he listened intently for the first shot. Lefever was bolder. He followed the two men unceremoniously to Belle's porch and bluffed Belle herself into admitting him to the living room. Laramie had gone into the back part of the house to hunt up Kate; Barb, alone, sat in the rocking chair, chewing an unlighted cigar.
However others may have felt that night about Laramie's affairs, one man, McAlpin, was proud of his ride, desperately wounded, all the way to town. Laramie had made a confidant of no one but Kate. His experience in being trapped was not so pleasant that he liked to talk about it and neither McAlpin's shrewd questioning nor Carpy's restrained curiosity was gratified that night.
Laramie in the meantime had joined a group of men at the upper end of the bar in the billiard hall McAlpin, Joe Kitchen's barn boss; Henry Sawdy, the big sporty stock buyer of the town, and the profane but always dependable druggist and railroad surgeon, Doctor Carpy. With one of these, Sawdy, Harry Tenison from behind the bar was talking.
"You you are crying! I feel a tear with the kiss!" The quivering, broken smile smote Priscilla to the heart. The ward was deathly quiet; only the deep breathing of men closer to life than Jerry-Jo McAlpin broke the stillness. "Why do you cry?" "You know, it's a bad habit of mine, Jerry-Jo." "Yes. You you cried on his book, you remember?" "I remember." "Do you know where he is now?" "No. Do you?"
That's the way he always does, especially coming home from the movies. And if it was the Elk Patrol I'd be sure to hear Bert McAlpin because he's a human victrola record. Pretty soon I could make out a black spot coming nearer and then I knew for sure it was headed for the house-boat. But there wasn't any sound except the splashing of the oars and I thought that was mighty funny.
Thin, bent and grizzled though he was, Kate thought she saw under the broad but shabby hat and behind the curtain of scraggly beard and deep wrinkles dependable eyes and felt reassured. "How far is it to the ranch?" she asked of the queer-looking Bradley. "Long ways, the way you go, ain't it, Bill?" McAlpin turned to the old driver for confirmation.
It became clear that Laramie would start out and search the town if Kate were not produced. "She wanted to see me," he insisted, doggedly. "Now I want to see her." Carpy found he must again intervene. He despatched McAlpin as a diplomatic envoy over to his own house whither he had taken Kate as his guest when she peremptorily declined to return to Belle's.
McAlpin had lived at one time in the Gap, and was himself reputed to have been a hardy and enduring rider on a night round-up. "Anything sick, Jim?" asked de Spain, walking on down the barn and looking at the horses.
McAlpin gasped and swallowed: "What d' y' mean, Harry?" "Damnation!" thundered Tenison. "You heard me, didn't you?" "I did." "Do as you're told." The canny Scot knew well what the message meant. With little ostentation and much celerity he hurried up street. Belle, at her, door with Kate, drawn-faced, could only say that Laramie had promised to come there before starting.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking