Little Sam's Angel Read Online Free Page A

warning and innocent people could get hurt."
    "Then they ought to stay away from it."
    "Yeah, I reckon," Hedges said, smiling suddenly. "Guess maybe I ain't got that much sense though. I'll hitch up."
    Whatever the old man was getting at, he didn't make it any clearer. Fact was, after the way he had been in all the short time Gabe had known him, he went amazingly quiet. They'd been driving for well over two hours before he spoke again.
    "Up yonder there," Hedges said, pointing off into the distance, "is what you won last night. It starts down here in the valley, running for half a mile, then goes straight up into those mountains for two more. Got all you need for growing feed down here in the valley soil, good grazing mid-way, then there's a fair sight of timber on up there."
    "For a cattle ranch, not a farm," Gabe said with appreciation in his voice and a touch of bitterness. The sight was too beautiful to be the cause of blood spilled, just as desirable as the land had been at Crystal Creek.
    "Reckon that's what it's going to be used for. Them homestead laws don't say it all has to be put under a plow. Some don't call for any at all. Little Sam used them laws right, having each man file on all four parcels that the law allows per person. This here section is on the outside edge of the ranch. Main ranch buildings for the Rocking M are on the next one, and the other six sections run out behind it."
    Gabe turned around to look at him when he said six. With eight men filing four claims, each at one hundred sixty acres per claim that meant one ranch would be five thousand one hundred twenty acres when it was all through.
    "See why Burns burns?" Hedges asked with a chuckle. "Rocking M runs for eight miles down this valley, two miles thick. The rest of the claims take a jog up there and run the sixteen sections at four thick, two deep. What with each section half a mile square, that takes up a mighty parcel of land."
    "Yeah," Gabe said, looking away again.
    "Lost a sight of land from what Old Sam originally claimed, but it wasn't worth much more than being able to say it was his. A-Bar-B Ranch was what we just come off of. He'll have twenty-four sections when his men prove up on them. Other side of him is Buck. He took eight between him and his son. Land starts running poor over that way. There's a few more little places scattered around, but it's easy to see that Rocking M has to kinda lead things around here. Little Sam had to make arrangements to claim near all, even if it wasn't all needed or wanted. Filed on the best so's the others would do the same. Won't be no range wars here."
    "The farmers stay away?" Gabe asked distantly.
    "Some come in, but once they see what's left, they move on. No one would care if they took what's left anyway. Ain't worth nothing; no water on it. We're on what you won now. That's the house there. Smith's been living in it till he let go of that deed."
    Gabe looked up, surprised at what he saw. He'd expected a one-room shanty, the bare minimum required to qualify as a dwelling to prove up on a homestead claim. Instead he found himself looking at a large and tidy frame house, painted a sparkling white and set back in the timber Hedges had mentioned earlier. Gabe didn't have time to wonder over it, though.
    "Riders coming. Must be the Rocking M hands," Hedges said, pulling the team to a halt in front of the well-constructed gate of the homestead yard. "Don't see Little Sam, though."
    Gabe didn't see anyone particularly little. The average bunch of cowhands had a share of smaller than average men in it, but this one didn't. The leader in front of the five men was bigger than most men, mean-looking on top of it, dark and swarthy with the look of a brawler. He was the one Gabe watched. The man looked mad clear through.
    Riding down hard on them, he got so close to Hedges' team that the horses pranced and fought the traces when he jerked his mount to a halt not three paces from their heads.
    He hit the