The Renegades: Nick Read Online Free

flag.
    She ran faster.
    “Don’t bother to throw me a sop,” she cried. “I won’t have it! The other claim is better and it’s mine by rights, and you know it, you filthy robber!”
    He righted himself on the horse and rode toward her but without even looking at her. Not from shame, though, because he was staring at something over her head. Suddenly, she heard the hoofbeats right behind her and whirled to see who was there.
    “Hey! You! I seen what you done. Pull up that flag!”
    The challenger was so close that Callie veered to the right to get out of his path. A wild-eyed, bearded man riding a mule raced right up to her tormentor to face him down.
    “Pull up that second flag, I say.”
    “Get out of here.”
    Her flag thief’s eyes had turned so hard that one look could strike flint and make fire.
    He is a dangerous man
.
    The thought hit her in the pit of the stomach. Somehow she hadn’t known that quite so surely until now. It was a wonder he hadn’t drawn his own pistol and shot her dead.
    But the bearded man didn’t seem intimidated in the least.
    “Ain’t right fer one couple to take two claims,” he declared.
    “You’re way out of line, stranger. Ride on.”
    The cold order didn’t faze the man on the mule.
    “I’m willing to bet that you’uns ain’t got two permits to make the Run,” he said. “Wanna show me?”
    Couple. You’uns
.
    It took another breath for Callie to realize that he meant the two of them. He thought they were together.
    “We’re not a couple!” she cried. “I don’t even know him.”
    He just stole my claim from me—I never saw him before that
.
    But she shut her mouth before she said it. This bearded man wasn’t going to help her get her land back; he wanted it for himself. He flicked his white-rimmed eyes at her.
    “You don’t know him. Whar’s yore man, then?”
    “I’m a widow.”
    He dismissed her with a scornful flick of his hand.
    “Widder! Widder woman cain’t prove up no claim.”
    He bore down on the man on the black horse again.
    “Me and two brothers got families to work a farm. Seventeen young’uns amongst us. I’mlayin’ claim to this here quarter-section.”
    “It’s taken. Hit the trail.”
    The man on the mule froze in his ratty saddle. Callie could see his skin whiten, even through the beard and the coating of dust on his face. He looked pretty dangerous himself. She wished she had her gun back, even if all she could do with it was bluff.
    As if he’d shared the thought, the handsome man who’d stolen her claim drew his pistol, quicker than a squirrel stealing acorns. He rested its butt on his saddle horn and stared at the other man.
    “You’ve got the drop on me, now,” the muleback man said, his words coming cold and slow, “but Baxter is my name and I want you to know that sooner or later, that’s the name the Land Office will write on the deed to this quarter-section right here.”
    “Ride,” the land-thief said.
    “You’re protectin’ her interests,” Baxter said, flicking a scorn-filled look at Callie, “and in my book that says y’all are together, wed or not. I aim to go to the law with this.”
    The threat made no impression on her flag-thief.
    “Then go,” he drawled. “Ride or die.”
    This time his words held an edge so keen that Baxter pulled his mule around and started moving away.
    “I’ll be back when you least expect it,” heshouted, “and my brothers with me.”
    He clattered away, raising a storm cloud of dust.
    New voices and noises of hooves and vehicles immediately drowned out the sound of the mule. The man on the black horse glanced around in all directions, then he holstered his gun.
    “Run’s over,” he said. “The intruders from the south have met up with you locusts from the north. You got the last claim.”
    A storm of disappointment swept through Callie, a bitter wind that shook her right down to the bone.
    “The Run may be over,” she said, no longer even caring how dangerous