Read Online Lando (1962) by Louis - Sackett's 08 L'amour - Free Book Online Page B

but they'd run wild all their lives and were of no mind to be trifled with.
    A longhorn is like nothing else you ever saw.
    If a man thinks he knows cattle, he should look over a longhorn first of all. The longhorn developed from cattle turned loose on the plains of Texas, growing up wild and caring for themselves; andforthe country they were in, no finer or fiercer creature ever lived. There were some tough old mossy-horns in that outfit that would weigh sixteen hundred pounds or better, and when they held their heads up they were taller than our horses. They were mean as all get out, and ready to take after you if they caught you afoot.
    Believe me, a man needed a six-shooter and needed to get it into action fast if one of those big steers came for him.
    Times had changed in Texas. When the Tinker and Locklear had been here before, cattle were worth about two dollars a head, and no takers, but now they were driving herds up the Shawnee Trail to the Kansas railheads and paying five and six dollars a head, selling them in Kansas at anywhere from eighteen to thirty dollars each. A trail drive was a money-making operation, if a man got through.
    "Tinker," I said, "if we want to get rich in these western lands we should round up a few head and start to Kansas."
    He grunted at me, that was all. Treasure was on his mind--bright, yellow gold with jewels and ivory and schlike. I'll not claim it didn't set me to dreaming myself, but I am a practical man and there's nothing more practical than beef on the hoof when folks are begging for it on the fire.
    We rode down into a little draw and there was a jacal, a Mexican hut. Around it was fenced garden space and a corral. As we rode up, I sighted a rifle barrel looking at us over a window sill, and the man who appeared in the doorway wore a belt gun. He was a tall, wiry Mexican, handsome but for a scar on his jaw.
    The instant his eyes touched Locklear he broke into a smile.
    "Se@nor! Juana, the se@nor is back!"
    The gun muzzle disappeared and a very pretty girl came to the door, shading her eyes at us.
    "Tinker, Sackett ... this is Miguel," Locklear said. "We are old friends."
    They shook hands, and when Miguel offered his to me I took it and looked into the eyes of a man.
    I knew it would be good to have Miguel with us. There was pride and courage there, and something that told me that when trouble came, this man would stand.
    This I respected, forof myself I was not sure.
    Every man wishes to believe that when trouble appears he will stand up to it, yet no man knows it indeed before it happens.
    When trouble came at the river's crossing, I had faced up to it with the Tinker beside me, but it had happened too quickly for me to be frightened. And what if I had been alone?
    Jonas and the Tinker were impressed by the bluff I worked on the man at the sod house, but I was not. To talk is easy, but what would I have done if he had fired? Would I indeed have been able to draw and return the fire?
    My uncertainty was growing as I looked upon the fierce men about me, tough, experienced men who must many times have faced trouble. They knew themselves and what they would do, and I did not.
    Would I stand when trouble came? Would I fight, or would I freeze and do nothing? I had heard tales of men who did just that, men spoken ofwith contempt, and these very tales helped to temper me against the time of danger.
    Another thing was in my mind when I was lying ready for sleep, or was otherwise alone.
    After the meeting with the man at the sod house I had known, deep down within me, that I would never be fast with a gun--at least, not fast enough.
    Despite all my practice, I had come to a point beyond which I could not seem to go.
    This was something I could not and dared not speak of. But at night, or after we started the ride south for Matamoras, I tried to think it out.
    Practice must continue, but now I must think always of just getting my gun level and getting off that first shot. That first shot