Read Online I'm Off to Montana for to Throw the Hoolihan (Code of the West) by Stephen Bly - Free Book Online

at readin’, but I think he explained it here in this letter.” He pulled a long brown envelope out of his pocket. “I’ll go put Saint Peter—that’s my horse—in the corral.”
    Pepper ripped the letter open.
    Pepper darlin’,
    First, we are both doing fine, and there’s nothing to worry about. Don’t tell Lorenzo, but Selena had a little trouble here in town with a couple of drifters who used to visit her at the dance hall. Do you remember Jackson and Bean? It’s nothin’ I can’t handle. I just didn’t want to go off and leave her a day before her wedding in a town where she hardly knows anyone.
    I’m sending Howdy to look after the place. Don’t let his looks or smell fool you. He’s a good man and will back you even with his life. You see Odessa gets all slicked up before you two bring the wagon to town tomorrow. Tell him I had some unexpected business in Billings.
    We have a room at the England House, but I’m sticking Selena in with Angel-girl. I’ll take Selena’s room at the hotel in case these romeos try any late-night serenades. It will be a great delight to get these two married off and hide them out at the ranch where they can’t get into any more trouble.
    See you in the morning, beautiful, if my heart doesn’t break of loneliness tonight.
    Tap
    Pepper lifted the hem of her dress and hiked back to the house. As she closed the big oak door behind her, the place suddenly seemed huge, cold, and very empty.
    Tattered red, white, and blue banners still flagged in the wind as Tap and Angelita rode into Billings. Less than one month earlier, railroad tycoon Henry Villard, former Pres ident U. S. Grant, and other dignitaries had gathered at Gold Creek, north of Deer Lodge City, and celebrated the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Portland, Oregon, were now linked by a railroad.
    All along the line, rail towns and tent cities gloried in the event they assumed would bring great prosperity to their r egion. A large canvas banner reading Welcome to Montana’s Heartland, faded and wind-torn, still stretched across the railroad depot.
    “Maybe we should stop so I could look at the railroad d epot,” Angelita prodded.
    “What? We haven’t been in town two minutes, and you’re already wanting to bilk some pilgrim out of two dollars? Your days of workin’ the crowd at the train depots are over, young lady.”
    “I just thought I’d see if I could rile you,” she shot back. “You’re easy to predict, Mr. Tap Andrews. Now where are we going first? How do we find someone to hire?”
    “We look for the Drovers’ Cafe.”
    “Do they have one here?”
    “It might have a different name, but it’s the same thing. But first we need to find Miss Selena and invite her to di nner. What would you like to eat?”
    “I’d like some lobster.”
    “You’d like what?”
    “Lobster. I read in the newspaper the train would soon be hauling in food from the East Coast. They said the day would come when you could go into a Montana hotel and order fresh lobster. So that’s what I want.”
    “Beefsteak is what you’ll have.”
    “Then why did you ask me what I wanted?” she pouted.
    “Come on.” Tap trotted his horse to the rail in front of the New York Hotel.
    He tried to brush the road dust off his jacket as he stood on the raised wooden sidewalk in front of the tallest building in Billings. Angelita, coat buttoned to her neck and wool hat pulled down to her ears, scampered into the lobby ahead of him.
    The hotel felt hot and stuffy. Tap unbuttoned his coat and let it swing open as he approached the counter. Angelita was already in a heated discussion with the clerk.
    “You got problems, lil’ darlin’?”
    "Are you with her?” the clerk asked.
    “Yep.”
    “I was just telling this girl Miss Selena is in Room 24.”
    “Thanks, mister.” Tap tipped his hat.
    “Actually he was just tellin’ me they didn’t cater to my kind in this hotel,” Angelita