Read Online Rowdy Rides to Glory (1987) by Louis L'amour - Free Book Online

Rowdy Rides To Glory (1987)

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    For Want Of A Horse.
    Rowdy Horn Stared Gloomily At Cub's Right Hind Leg And Shook his head with regret.
    "No use even thinkin' about it, jenny," he admitted ruefully to the girl he wante d to marry. "Cub won't work at the Stock man's Show this year. Not with that leg!"
    Jenny Welman nodded, faintly irritated. Something was al ways going wrong. "No," s he agreed, "you can't ride him, and without a good roping horse you wouldn't hav e a chance at first money, and without five thousand dollars-"
    "I know! Without it we can't get married!" Rowdy ran his fingers through his dark , curly hair. "Jenny, does that money make so much difference? Lots of folks I kno w started with a darned sight less, and if I get a good calf crop this year we woul d be all set."
    "We've talked of this before," Jenny replied quietly. "If you want to marry me, you'v e got to provide a home for me. I won't start like my mother did."
    "She was pretty happy," Horn insisted stubbornly, "and your mother was a mighty fin e woman."
    "True, but just the same, I want to be comfortable! I don't want to slave my yout h away trying to get ahead like she did." Suddenly, and excitedly, jenny caught hi s arm. "Rowdy! I just happened to think. Why don't you see Bart Luby?"
    "Luby?" Horn's mouth tightened. "What would I see him for?"
    "Maybe he would let you borrow Tanglefoot to ride! He's going to ride Royboy, I know , so why don't you ride over and ask him?"
    "Ask a favor of Bart Luby?" Rowdy's eyes smoldered. "I will not! I'll let the rode o go to kingdom come, and the ranch too, before I'll go to him for help! Anyway, he' d turn me down flat. He knows well enough that with Cub an' me out of the running h e is a cinch to win."
    "Will it do any harm to ask?" Jenny insisted impatiently. "Why you imagine he hold s anything against you, I can't guess.
    He's the wealthiest man in the whole South Rim country, and has the biggest ranch , so why he should worry about you, I wouldn't know."
    There was an undercurrent in jenny's voice that stirred Rowdy's resentment. He glance d up, studying her carefully. He had been in love with jenny Welman for a long time , and had been going around with her for almost a year, yet some how of late he ha d been experiencing vague doubts. Nothing he could put his finger on, but little thing s led him to believe that she placed more emphasis upon whether a man had money tha n how he got it.
    "If you'd like," she suggested, her eyes brightening, "I could see him for you."
    "No." Horn shook his head stubbornly. "I won't ask him, and I don't want you askin g him. He knows exactly how I feel about him, and he knows I think there was somethin g wrong about that Bar 0 deal."
    "But Rowdy!" she protested, almost angry. "How can you be so foolish? After thre e years I was hoping you'd forgotten that silly resentment you had because you didn' t get that ranch."
    "Well, I haven't!" Rowdy told her firmly. "If there was one man I knew, it was ol d Tom Slater, and I know what he thought of Bart. There was a time when he though t of leaving that ranch to both of us together, but after Bart Luby left and went t o cattle buying, Slater never felt the same about him. Something happened then tha t old Tom didn't like. Why, three times he told me he didn't even want Luby on th e place, and that he was leaving it to me. It doesn't make sense that he would chang e his mind at the last minute!"
    "It was not at the last minute!" Jenny protested. "He had given Bart a deed to th e ranch-over a year before his death. Why, with that deed he didn't even need the will , but all the same, the will left everything to him. You heard it read yourself."
    Jenny's chin lifted, and in her eyes Rowdy Horn could see the storm signals flying.
    This old argument always irritated Jenny. She was just like nearly everybody in th e South Rim: admired Luby's cash and show as well as his business ability. And of course , the ma n had made money.
    It was easy