Read Online Blood Valley by William W. Johnstone - Free Book Online Page B

a-runnin’ over. Rusty shoved the barrels of a Greener under Big Mike’s chin and said, “First one reaches for iron, I blow your fat head off!”
    Rusty eared back the hammers, both of ’em, on that sawed-off, and Big Mike’s eyes got to lookin’ like saucers.
    Jerkin’ A.J. to his feet, I shoved him down the steps and toward the corral and barn. The rest followed, Joy and Wanda blubberin’ and snortin’ and flingin’ snot ever’ which-a-way.
    On the way over, I showed Mister A.J. the tracks of that horse we’d been trailin’. His face turned white as a fresh-washed petticoat.
    It was some rash on me and Rusty’s part, for if Maggie and Jean and some of their hands hadn’t a showed up, me and Rusty just might have ended up lookin’ like that cheese that’s full of holes.
    But show up they did, along with some Quartermoon boys, all of ’em ridin’ escort to the buckboard carryin’ the dead girl.
    I was right proud to see them all.
    By this time, the grounds was full of Circle L riders, most of ’em gunhands, or at least drawin’ fightin’ wages. And they was ready to earn their money, too.
    The Arrow and Quartermoon boys circled the yard.
    â€œRusty,” I said. “Find that horse with the marked shoe.” I kept an eye on Big Mike while Rusty started lookin’. Mike was so mad his face was all mottled lookin’. But he kept his hands away from his guns. I sorta wished he would try to grab iron, and I think he knew it.
    It didn’t take Rusty long to find the horse. He led him right into the yard and I checked the shoe. There it was, the V standin’ out plain as egg on your face.
    I looked at A.J. and then at Mike. “You’re both under arrest.”
    â€œOn what charge?” Mike hollered. “That horse don’t prove nothing!”
    â€œOrderin’ the murder of Broderick Simmons and aidin’ and abettin’ them who done the killin’.”
    Well, that wound up Joy’s key agin, and she and Wanda tuned up and commenced to squallin’.
    Jean and Maggie was both smilin’ kind of grim-like.
    â€œYou’ll never make it stick, Sheriff,” A.J. said.
    â€œMaybe not,” I told him. “But I’m sure gonna give it all I got.”
    â€œYou’re a fool!”
    As time would tell, I did come out of it lookin’ kinda foolish, but it did accomplish one good thing: it lined up the smaller spreads directly on my side.

Chapter Five
    My, but it was a grand sight, for as long as it lasted, that is. Me and Rusty had tied A.J. and Big Mike’s hands behind them and boosted them up into the saddle. Only I give A.J. too much of a boost and he fell plumb over the other side of the horse. I ’spect it hurt when he done a belly-flopper on that hardpacked ground. He squalled something fierce about it.
    â€œI’ll sue you!” A.J. hollered, wallowin’ around on the ground.
    â€œHell, I ain’t got nothin’. Go ahead and sue me.”
    We finally got everybody mounted and commenced to head for town. A.J. and Big Mike give us all a pretty good cussin’ on the way in. My, my, but for all of A.J.’s gentility and suaveness, he sure knew how to string together some mighty bad words. And that way of ridin’ was none too comfortable for them, neither. Big Mike fell off his horse twice. And that was a sight to behold. Come to think of it, he done some pretty fair country cussin’, too.
    Joy and Wanda had some hands hitch up a buggy and they followed us, in the drag, both of them varyin’ between cryin’ and cussin’. Them gals weren’t no ladies, neither, let me tell you that right off the bat. I never heard such nastiness come out of a woman’s mouth. Kinda makes a feller’s faith in womanhood quiver a bit.
    The whole town turned out to see A.J. and Big Mike get put in the pokey, not all of the onlookers