Read Online Where the Deer and the Antelope Play (Code of the West) by Stephen Bly - Free Book Online

over to Tap, deep wri nkles around her tired-looking eyes.
    “How’s Pepper?” she asked.
    “She was here yesterday, but I missed seeing her,” Tap reported. “I was chasin’ some rustlers off my place. Probably the same bunch that hit April’s.”
    “How are the plans for the wedding?”
    “Everything’s on schedule. She’s got every minute planned out. Say, you’ll still be able to sing, won’t you?”
    Danni Mae took a deep breath and sighed. “I surely hope so, but who knows now? I really don’t know what we’re goin’ to do, Tap. We don’t have two dollars among the whole lot of us.”
    “Me and Stack will ride out tomorrow and get your money back. Right now I’ll see if I can stir up some food. Pepper cooked a few things that me and Wiley didn’t finish.”
    “Wiley?”
    “Oh, he’s a friend of mine stayin’ at the ranch a few days.”
    “I’ll help you. I surely don’t want Stack to cook the eggs.” Danni Mae raised her eyebrows and scooted past him into the kitchen.
    By the time the clear night sky turned a light gray, the crowd at Tap’s house had crammed around the big front room table scraping tin plates piled with steaming potatoes, beef, and eggs. No one talked much, and the girls still looked tired and stunned. Rocky sat by the fire refusing to eat.
    “Ladies,” Tap began, “there’s only one bedroom in this house. It’s a mess, but you are welcome to it. Just kick my stuff out of there and make it home.”
    “Now don’t that beat all?” Selena leaned over the table toward Tap. “That blonde bobcat’s down at McCurleys’, and I’m here in Señor Tapadera’s alcoba.”
    “All four of us will be in the bedroom,” Danni Mae r eminded her.
    The women left the three men sitting at the table drinking thick, black coffee.
    “Mr. Lowery, what about it? You still want to wait ’til tomorrow mornin’?” Tap asked.
    “I’ve been thinkin’. We can’t move in on you and Pepper like this. Maybe I ought to take these girls to Laramie City. Yu mmie Jackson has a little hotel up there, and he owes me a favor or two. Then I could ride down to Denver and find April. Maybe stop off and notify the sheriff.”
    “These boys could be anywhere from El Paso to San Diego by then. Leave the ladies here at the ranch for a while. Let’s ride out tomorrow and see if we cut their trail. The sheriff won’t come over the pass ’til spring to help the dance-hall girls, and you know it.”
    “But I only planned on spendin’ the night. You think Pepper would mind all of us camping out here?”
    “She was countin’ on you playin’ the piano and Danni Mae singin’ at the weddin’. If you all move off to Laramie City and miss that event, it would break her heart.”
    “Except for Selena. The last time the two of them was in the same room, they were yankin’ hair, gougin’ eyes, and pullin’ knives.”
    “Oh, Pepper’s over that now. It won’t be any bother and you can roll out of here right after the weddin'. It’ll be over by noon. You’ll still make it to Wyomin’ before Christmas.”
    Wiley pulled out his barlow knife and picked his teeth. “Now I was thinkin’, I don’t know those boys like you do. I reckon the two of ya probably had more experience with a gun. So if you figure someone ought to hang around the ranch and protect the womenfolk . . . ”
    Tap winked at Stack. “Wiley, which one you got your eye set on?”
    Wiping his mouth with his dark green bandanna, Wiley leaned over the table. “That short one with the curly, brown hair looks like a regular belle.”
    “Danni Mae? Good choice,” Stack replied. “She don’t carry no knife.”
    “The others got knives?”
    “Yep. But Danni Mae just handles a pistol,” Tap joshed.
    Stack gulped down the rest of his coffee and waved the cup at Wiley. “Don’t worry none. It’s just a little two-shot .32. Won’t do much damage, unless it hits something vital.”
    Both Tap and Stack roared.
    “You speakin’