Read Online Louis L'Amour by The Cherokee Trail - Free Book Online Page A

tell him. He recognized you, didn’t he?”
    “I doubt it. I do not believe he ever saw me before. I saw him from our window. I was inside the house until it started to burn; then we fled out the back. No, I don’t believe he ever saw me.”
    She paused. “Mr. Boone? Why did they want Wat?”
    “Surprised you haven’t guessed. They want him because he knows where they are hid out. Don’t you see? They’ve found a place, and that was where Wat ran away from. They’re afraid he’ll tell the law, or somebody. If they get him, they’ll either keep him locked up, or they’ll kill him.”
    “Kill a little boy?”
    “Ma’am, in Lawrenceville and some other places, they killed women, children, and old men. Besides, the stakes are bigger now. Jason Flandrau has not only been mentioned for governor, he wants to
be
governor. You’ve got to get out of here, Mrs. Breydon. You’ve got to take that little girl of yours and run.”
    “I can’t.” She looked directly into his eyes. “This is my home now. This is my job. As far as Jason Flandrau is concerned, he will not be governor if I can help it.”
    “He’ll know that, ma’am. He will also know that with you operating this stage station, you’ve no place to hide. Any passersby, any passenger on the stage, anybody who wants to lay up in the woods back yonder, any one of them can kill you.”
    “This is my job. I shall stay here.”
    Boone stared at her, then got up quickly. “All right, but you be careful, d’you hear?”
    “He was one of those who came down from the hills and burned my home. He ran off our cattle. He killed a couple of our people who got in his way. And then he killed my husband. Oh, I’ll be careful, Mr. Boone, but I shall go down to Denver and tell them.”
    “He’d laugh at you. So would other folks. Ma’am, didn’t you
hear
me? He’s a church member over yonder. He sings in the choir, gives money to good causes. He’s a pillar of the community, and who are you? You’re just some no-account woman who runs a stage station. Least, that’s what they’ll say.”
    Of course, he was right. Long after he was gone, she sat in her chair thinking. Matty came up to her and stood across the table. “Mum? I heard what was said. I wasn’t eavesdroppin’ or the like. You’ve got to be careful, mum.”
    “Yes,” she agreed, “I must be careful. I have Peg to think of, and Wat.” She looked up at Matty with a wan smile. “See? I am already thinking of him as one of the family.”
    “He’s a good lad. I doubt you’ve noticed, mum, but he’s tryin’ to improve his table manners. I see him watching you and Peg. He makes his bed ever’ morning, too.”
    Mary Breydon heard, but she did not reply. Jason Flandrau was evil. He was cruel, vicious, and a thief. To think of him being governor or holding any public office was to shudder. Somehow, someway, she must defeat him. But Boone was right. To many of the women around Denver and Laporte, she would be suspect. She was working at a job usually only held by a man—something not quite “nice.”
    The stage came in, and she glanced at the passengers as they stepped down, suddenly aware that she must pay careful attention not only to who they were but to their actions.
    Two of the eight passengers were men obviously bound for the gold camps to the west, one a drummer peddling, as he soon let them know, hand-me-downs for men who bought their suits off the shelf. There was a rather pretty young woman who was, she said, a performer. There was an older woman on her way to Fort Laramie, traveling with her husband, a captain in the army, stationed there.
    The seventh was a tall, very thin man with a neatly trimmed handle-bar mustache and auburn hair. He had the air of a gentleman, but his clothes, although still neat after the long stage trip, were shabby.
    He glanced very quickly at Mary, frowned slightly, and looked away, then back again, as if puzzled.
    Wilbur came inside behind her and said,