Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 17, 2025
"Somethin's happened," he ejaculated, "Anything the matter with Ma Brewer?" Tessibel backed into her room and beckoned the dwarf onward by a movement of her head. After she'd shut the door, she pointed to the child with a hissing swish of the whip. "Waldstricker's," she announced briefly. "The squatters stole her and gave her to me." The sight of the little girl stopped Andy near the door.
Towering over Waldstricker's desire to lock up his father's murderer, was the wish to get even with Deforrest Young and Tessibel Skinner. If they'd had the dwarf all this time, they were all in his power. Now, he would wring their hearts! He'd show them no mercy.
Then the two of them sat.... The crackling of the freshly burning wood and the ticking of the clock were the only sounds in the room. "I heard what the man said 'bout Waldstricker's hands bein' stronger'n God's," reflected Andy, aloud, presently. Then he raised his body a little from the floor that he might look into the girl's face. "Say, brat, has old Eb got any marks on his hands?"
Me an' Owen Bennet were settin' at the table, ... Waldstricker he says somethin' nasty 'bout squatters an' ... Owen went fer 'im. Waldstricker pulled 'is gun. I knocked it out o' his hand an' Owen grabbed it up offen the floor an' sent a bullet right through Waldstricker's heart. Then us uns beat it, I mean me an' Owen, an' when they caught us ... he put the shootin' on me.
Ten minutes later he was riding slowly up the hill, and as the past panoramied across his mind ... and evolved itself into the present, he shook his head. Tessibel had separated him from his family, had made him a stranger to his best friends. Would she now, by holding to Waldstricker's convicted murderer, deprive him of his honor? The Skinner home was resting in its winter calm.
"Now tell 'er, an' then ye'll be happier." Shame rose rampant in the boy's breast. "I can't do it," he muttered under his breath. But he knew all the time he would. The events of yesterday, culminating with Waldstricker's brilliant offer, closed every other path. He groaned, catching his lips tensely between his teeth.
Waldstricker cleared his throat. "How long has it been considered good taste, Mr. Graves," he demanded icily, "for a man to bring his mistress into his wife's home?" Every word was perfectly articulated. Frederick grew deathly sick and sat down quickly, making a violent gesture with his hand. He wanted to deny Waldstricker's deadly insult, but he, suddenly, had no strength.
She looked backward at the man on the cot as she asked the last question. "Yep," affirmed Skinner, faintly. "Daddy air sick," she explained. "You'll be excusin' 'im if he don't talk. I'll do all the gabbin' if ye don't mind." Tessibel had regained her self-control. She knew that Waldstricker's presence meant danger to her loved ones, Daddy and Andy Bishop.
Madelene's sad, tearful face flashed through Waldstricker's mind with the suspicions she had aroused against Frederick. Like an angry horse, his nostrils lifted and sniffed the air. Fury against this girl rode in his heart. "You needn't tell us the man's name," he taunted triumphantly. "We already know it." Up struggled Tess to her feet and thrust back the tawny curls feverishly.
Her words directed Waldstricker's attention to the contrast between this squatter girl in the bare shack and the fashionable folk who'd throng his spacious drawing room. "Well, a few," he answered, "but you come along with Miss Young just the same, will you?" Tessibel took the outstretched hand awkwardly enough and as quickly dropped it and began to fumble with her own fingers.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking