Son Of a Wanted Man (1984) Read Online Free Page B

the newspaper and went back through their files. They keep a stack of Denver and Cheyenne papers, too, so I ran a fairly good check." Chantry got up and went over to the stove and, lifting the lid, glanced at the fire, then poked in a few small sticks, enough to keep the coffee hot.
    "I'm glad you came over, Sackett. Now we've got to do some figuring." "Let's start with your horse." "You don't suspect me?" Sackett smiled. "I suspect everybody, but I've got a theory. Suppose you tell me how you got him." "It was roundup time, and it was late. Work had been held up and we got off to a bad start, so we were working our tails off when this gent came riding up to the chuck wagon leading five horses.
    "He asked the cook if he could eat, and of course we fed him. I came in for coffee about that time, and he commented that we were shorthanded. I agreed, but added that what we were really short of was horses.
    "He set there chewin' for a minute like he was thinkin' it over, and then he waved a hand at his stock.
    "I've five head there you're welcome to use," he said, "all good stock horses. All I ask is that when you've finished the roundup you keep them up close to your house, in the corral or a small pasture where I can pick 'em up when I come back through. An" keep "em together." "That gent got up, threw his coffee grounds on the grass, and started for his horse. "When will you be back?"' I ask him, an" he says he's ridin' on to the coast and it may be, six months or even a year, but don't worry. He'll be back. Maybe if we're drivin' stock we may just leave the horses we're ridin' an' pick up these. He turned his horse around and said, "Treat "em gentle. They're good stock." An' he rode away.
    "Those horses made all the difference, and so when we finished the roundup I did like he said, only once in a while I'd catch one of them up and ride him to town, like that black.
    "That sort of thing isn't that unusual, and I gave it no thought until after they appointed me town marshal. When I was cleanin' out my desk over in the office I come on this reward poster. Seems like there'd been a holdup over east of here, just a few days before.
    "Our newspaper wasn't operatin' then, and I'd been too busy tryin' to make ends meet, and nobody had mentioned any holdup to me. "Four or five men, they said. Nobody seemed right sure. Well, I filed it with the others and gave it no thought, but I was roundin' up and sellin' off some of my own cows, tryin' to pay bills, and ridin' past my horse pasture I saw those five horses were gone but there were five others in their place. "Five horses, all good stock, but they looked like they'd been used mighty hard, an' just lately. That's when I started puttin' it all together." The fire crackled in the stove, and the clock ticked in the silent room. Neither man spoke for some time. "Smart," Sackett said, at last.
    "Somebody is all-fired smart. his "How could they guess that a two-bit, rawhide rancher like me would someday be marshal?" Chantry said.
    Sackett answered, "And they plan, they plan way ahead, like with your horses and that note of Orrin's. was He gestured toward the papers.
    "There's twelve holdups or more, an' who knows anything?" "I wonder how long it's been goin' on?" Sackett shrugged. "Who knows? Or how many other robberies there have been of which we have no record?
    It would be my guess this is only the fringe.
    We're only two men in two mighty small towns." He tapped the stack of papers with his finger. "This makes the James boys look like pikers. his "They were pikers," Chantry said. "They advertised themselves too much. Everybody knew who they were, and they were two bloody, too many people killed for no reason, like that schoolboy who ran across the street in front of them." "They've been getting away with this for years," Sackett commented, "but when they picked you to keep some horses for them they made their mistake. It only takes one. his "So what do we do now?" Sackett indicated the