Read Online the Rider Of Lost Creek (1976) by Louis - Kilkenny 02 L'amour - Free Book Online

Often enough he'll just ride into a place under some other name, and he'll punch cows or something of the kind and bother nobody. He's a top hand ... rides like a man born true to the saddle, and he's an expert with a rope. Plus he's not quarrelsome ... never stirred up any trouble I know of."
    "Well! Tm surprised, Jim. You talk as if you were on his side."
    "Didn't know there was any sides yet, ma'am.
    You asked and I answered. And I gave you an honest opinion."
    "I'm sorry, Jim. I know you did. I'm just not myself tonight."
    He turned and looked at her. "No? Somehow I thought you were."*
    He walked away, and she stared after him, half angry . Now what had he meant by that? She wondered.
    It was several minutes before Rusty Gates caught up with Kilkenny. He found him waiting in the shadows, a Winchester in his hands.
    "What do you want, Gates?"
    Rusty leaned forward and patted his horse on the neck.
    "Why, I reckon I want to ride along with you, Kilkenny. I've heard you were a straight-shooter, and I guess you're the only one I know who can get into more trouble than me without tryin'.
    "If you can use a good man by your side, I'd admire to ride along. I've a feeling that in the days to come you could use some help."
    "All right, Rusty. Let's ride."
    When Lance Kilkenny rolled out of his blankets in the earliest dawn, he glanced over at Gates.
    The redhead was still snoring. Kilkenny took up his boots and shook them thoroughly to be free of any scorpions and tarantulas which might have taken refuge there during the night. Grimly, he contemplated a hole in his sock.
    No time for that now. He pulled on his boots and stood up.
    Carefully, he checked his guns.
    Then he moved out from camp, keeping under cover, and for fifteen minutes he made a painstaking search of the area. Not until he was sure nobody was within the immediate vicinity did he lead his buckskin into camp and saddle up.
    Lance and Rusty were encamped on a cedar-covered hillside with a wide view of Lost Creek Valley. Lance mounted the buckskin and rode quietly away, but he was back and had bacon frying before Rusty Gates awakened.
    Coffee was bubbling in the pot when Rusty came over.
    "Hey ... Rusty exclaimed. "You've got bacon!"
    "Picked it up last night from the Mexican who gave us the frijoles. He's got half a dozen hogs."
    "Hell, man, if he can get a half dozen more he's got the key to the mint Bacon is scarcer than minted gold in this country!"
    Rusty rustled some wood for the fire, then saddled his horse. When he returned to the fire he squatted on his haunches, feeding sticks into the flames.
    "How about this Bonham"..."... He asked suddenly. "Have you ever seen him before?"
    "No."... Kilkenny paused a moment, then said, "How about you?"
    "No. He ain't from around here."
    "I wonder."
    "You wonder? Why? They said he was from New York City and he surely dresses like a pilgrim."
    "I agree to that, but you were curious yourself, Rusty.
    And he knew about Mort caring for me when I'd been shot."
    "Hell, that story's been told time and again.
    Everybody knows about that. Just like they do about that supposed meeting between John Wesley Hardin and Bill Hickok. Stories like that are told around every camp fire. And every time you hear them, they're different You're just too suspicious."
    "I'm still alive ... Kilkenny commented, dryly.
    "You've got something there."... Gates walked to the edge of the nearest cedar and picked some dead stuff off the ground to bring back to the fire. "Who do you think he is?"
    Lance shrugged. "No idea."... He turned the bacon over. "Except that my name got a rise from him.
    I thought I caught a look in his eyes ...
    Well, no matter. Maybe I was seeing things."
    They were silent for awhile, listening to the bacon frying and enjoying the tantalizing fragrance as well as the smell of the burning cedar.
    There were a few clouds in the sky that looked like rain, and occasionally the wind stirred the fire, blowing the flame.
    "You came up