Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: April 30, 2025
The jovial puncher, having enjoyed Sundown's society to the extent of six-bits' worth of Mexican provender, suggested a return to "The Last Chance," where the tramp was solemnly introduced to a newly arrived coterie of thirsty riders of the mesas. Gaunt and exceedingly tall, he loomed above the heads of the group in the barroom "like a crane in a frog-waller," as one cowboy put it.
With his bundle of clothes beneath his arm, he picked a hesitating course across the yard and deposited the bundle beside the water-trough. Chance, not altogether satisfied with Sundown's assurance, proclaimed his distrust by a long nerve-reaching howl. Some one in the bunkhouse muttered. Sundown squatted hastily in the shadow of the trough. Bud Shoop rose from his bunk and crept to the door.
"We'll have a smoke and talk things over." "But I was to see Mr. Kennedy the lawyer," asserted Sundown. "So? Well, it ain't quite time to see him yet." Sundown's back became cold and he stared at the stranger with eyes that began to see the drift of things. "You ain't a cop, be you?" he asked timorously. "They call it 'sheriff' here." "Well, I call it kind o' warm and I'm goin' outside."
"Taggart'll be gettin' his," said a man. "Not tonight," laughed another. "I seen him hittin' the breeze out. An' sundown's quite a considerable distance away yet, too." If Calumet had any regret over the outcome of his adventure in the Red Dog, it was that Neal Taggart had given him no opportunity to square the account between them.
We're goin' to fan it for Bald Knoll in about ten minutes." "Do I go, too?" "Sure! Do you think we don't eat pie only onct a year? You bet you go helpin' Hi. Boss's orders." "Thanks but I ain't no rider." Shoop glanced questioningly at Sundown's legs. "Mebby not. But if I owned them legs I'd contract to ride white-lightnin' bareback.
Corliss laughed nervously. "What are you doing here?" he retorted, "in the office of the Concho, at midnight?" "I was comin' to get flour and beans for the camp " he began. Corliss interrupted him. "Sounds good, that! But they don't keep the grub here. Guess you made a mistake." Sundown's face was expressionless. "Guess you made the mistake, Billy. I thought you was dead."
And I didn't have to strain my guesser any, to guess who. I told him to saw off and get busy quick or I'd have him pinched for playin' favorites. Guess he seen I meant business, for he come acrost. She toots for Antelope six-forty tomorrow mornin'. This is where I make the grand play as a homesteader, seein' pore Sundown's eatin' on the county. Kind o' had a hunch that way."
Chico Miguel, at the gate, hastened to examine the pony, but Sundown, realizing that the Señorita still stood beside her mother, must needs create further delay. He stepped to the pony and, assuming an air of experience, reached to take up the horse's foot and examine it. The horse, possibly realizing that its foot was sound, resented Sundown's solicitude.
Tried to bluff 'em off orders not to shoot. They got orders to shoot all right. Tell Jack Guess I'm bleedin' inside So-long pardner." The dying man writhed from Sundown's arms and rolled to his face, cursing and clutching at the grass in agony. Sundown stood over him, his hat off, his gaze lifted toward the cloudless sky, his face white with a new and strange emotion.
He saw nothing unusual, and was about to return to his bed when an apparition rose slowly from behind the water-trough. The foreman drew back in the shadow of the doorway and watched. Sundown's bath was extensive as to territory but brief as to duration. He dried himself with a gunny-sack and slipped shivering into his new raiment.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking