[Texas Rangers 03] - The Way of the Coyote Read Online Free Page A

loss. Still, he would reluctantly admit that her choice had been a good one. Gifford, badly wounded in Confederate service and sent home to Texas to die, had fought his way back to his feet. The Monahan family had come to regard him as one of their own. Like them, he accepted hard work and frontier hazards as challenges to be met head-on. Rusty could understand how Geneva had become attracted to him. In his defiant outlook and unflinching convictions, he reminded Rusty of Geneva's murdered father. James and Evan Gifford could have been brothers instead of brothers-in-law.
    Rusty forced the regrets aside and shook hands. "How's the baby, Evan?"
    "Stout. You can hear him holler for half a mile." He glanced at Andy, but unlike James and Purdy, he asked no questions. He accepted what his eyes told him. "Geneva was uneasy about you ... we both were. Preacher Webb and us, we prayed for you and the boy."
    Rusty feared Evan could read in his eyes what was in his mind. "I didn't ask James about the rest of the family." It was an oblique way of asking about Geneva without directly mentioning her. Evan had never shown signs of jealousy, and Rusty did not want to stir up any.
    "They're fine. We're about finished gatherin' the crops. Gettin' fixed for the winter."
    "So now you're puttin' the Monahan brand on these cattle."
    "It's better than sittin' around worryin' about the Yankee occupation."
    "Maybe you're so far out on the edge that the Yankees won't bother you much." Rusty doubted they would trouble the Monahans anyway. Their loyalty to the Union had been well known during the war. Too well known, for it had killed the father and one son and had driven James into exile west of the settlements. Evan was potentially vulnerable, however, because he had served in the Confederate Army.
     
    * * *
     
    A horseman alone could travel forty or fifty miles in a day, depending upon how hard he wanted to push and how much he was willing to punish his horse. A herd of cattle did well, however, to move ten or twelve. The day was well along when Rusty and Andy joined the drive, but James pushed a few more miles before he called a halt.
    "If we get them wore-out enough, maybe they won't feel like runnin' tonight," he said. "By tomorrow night we'll have them at home."
    Rusty asked, "Once you get them there, what's to keep them from driftin' right back where you found them?"
    "Hired a couple of ex-soldiers to see that they don't go far."
    "How can you afford to pay anybody?"
    "Can't. Times are so hard that some people are glad to work for three meals and a dry place to roll out their blankets. I promised them a share of whatever we get for the cattle next year."
    "And if you get nothin'?"
    "They won't be any worse off than we are."
    James's shirt was a case in point. It had been mended so many times that it was hard to discern which parts were original material and which were patches. "Stupid damned war," James said. "All them fiery speeches, all them bands a-playin'. Look what it brought us to."
    Rusty countered, "I was no more in favor of it than you were. I thought Texas already had war enough."
    James cast a glance toward Andy, riding beside Vince Purdy on the other side of the herd. The boy and the old man had struck up a friendship during Andy's brief stay at the Monahan farm before going north to seek his adopted people. "How likely are those Comanches to come huntin' for Andy?"
    "I think we threw them off of the trail. They'll have no idea where to look."
    "You said he killed somebody."
    Rusty shifted in the saddle, resting one hip while he placed extra weight on the other. The old arrow wound in his leg often pained him when he became tired. "You remember me tellin' you about the raid he went on with his Indian brother and some others down to the Colorado River country? There was a warrior by the name of Tonkawa Killer. He hated Andy for bein' white. When Andy's horse fell on him and broke his leg, Tonkawa Killer tried to finish it. Thought he