the Rider Of Ruby Hills (1986) Read Online Free Page B

and his own youthful strength. Yet he had never met a man such as he faced now. As he looked into the hazel eyes of the stranger he felt something turn over away deep inside him. It was as though he had parted the brush and looked into the face of a lion.
    Vernon dropped his hand. "I'm sorry. I'm afraid your manner made me forgetful. My sister can't come into a place like this."
    The two men measured each other, and the suddenly alert audience in the Bit and Bridle let their eyes go from Vernon to the stranger. Bob Vernon they knew well enough to know he was afraid of nothing that walked. They also knew his normal manner was polite to a degree rarely encountered in the West, where manners were inclined to be brusque, friendly, and lacking in formality. Yet there was something else between these two now. As one man they seemed to sense the same intangible something that had touched Bob Vernon.
    The batwing doors parted suddenly, and Sherry Vernon stepped into the room.
    First, Haney was aware of a shock that such a girl could come into such a place, and second, of shame that he had been the cause. Then he felt admiration sweep over him at her courage.
    Beautiful in a gray tailored riding habit, her head lifted proudly, she walked up to Ross Haney. Her face was set and her eyes were bright.
    Ross was suddenly conscious that never in all his life had he looked into eyes so fine, so filled with feeling.
    "Sir," and her voice could be heard in every corner of the roon, "I do not know what your name may be, but I have come to pay you your money. Your horse beat Flame today, and beat him fairly. I regret the way I acted, but it was such a shock to have Flame beaten that I allowed you to get away without being paid. I am very sorry."
    "However," she added quickly, "if you would like to run against Flame again, I'll double the bet!"
    "Thank you, Miss Vernon!" He bowed slightly, from the hips. "It was only that remark about my horse that made me run him at all. You see, ma'am, as you no doubt know, horses have feelin's. I couldn't let you run down my horse to his face, thataway!"
    Her eyes were on his, and suddenly they crinkled at the corners and her lips rippled with a little smile.
    "Now, if you'll allow me-" He took her arm and escorted her from the room. Inside they heard a sudden burst of applause, and he smiled as he offered her his hands for her foot. She stepped into them and then swung into her position on the horse.
    "I'm sorry you had to come in there, but your brother was kind of abrupt."
    "That's quite all right," she replied quickly, almost too quickly.
    He stepped back and watched them ride away into the darkness of early evening. Then he turned back to the saloon. He almost ran into a tall, carefully dressed man who had walked up behind him. A man as large as Pogue.
    Pale blue eyes looked from a handsome, perfectly cut face of city white. He was trim, neat, and precise. Only the guns at his hips looked deadly with their polished butts and worn holsters.
    "That," said the tall man, gesturing after Sherry Vernon, "is a staked claim!"
    Ross Haney was getting angry. Men who were bigger than him always irritated him, anyway. "It is?" His voice was cutting. "If you think you can stake a claim on any woman you've got a lot to learn!"
    He shoved by toward the door, but behind him the voice said, "But that one's staked. You hear me?"
    Soledad by night was a tiny scattering of lights along the dark river of the street. Music from the tinny piano in the Bit and Bridle drifted down the street, and with it the lazy voice of someone singing a cow camp song. Ross Haney turned up the street toward the two-story frame hotel, his mind unable to free itself from the vision that was Sherry Vernon.
    For the first time, the wife who was to share that ranch had a face. Until now there had been in his thoughts the vague shadow of a personality and a character, but there had been no definite features, nothing that could be recognized. Now,