Read Online Raw Land by Luke; Short - Free Book Online Page B

got a prospector in here from Butte to make sure. He disappeared.”
    He paused, and Milt shivered a little in the night. He knew what Pres meant, but he said nothing.
    When Milt didn’t comment, Pres went on. “As soon as I was sure, I tried to get the money to buy that piece. But the company wouldn’t sell an acre unless I bought enough to cost ten thousand dollars. I tried to talk ’em out of it. That got them wonderin’. They hired a mining engineer and sent him to Yellow Jacket. He was lookin’ for somebody to guide him around in them brakes. I sent a couple of men to him, and they guided him. But they steered clear of that canyon. The day this engineer was goin’ to look over that canyon, I caught him the night before and beat him up.”
    â€œSo I heard,” Milt said. “He left, didn’t he?”
    â€œWhere’d you hear?”
    â€œMiss Case.”
    Pres said, “So she told you, huh? Well, she don’t know why I beat him. That’s why. Because he was gettin’ close. And he never come back. So for the last five years I been tryin’ to get hold of the money to buy the place from the company. I almost had it once, but I lost in a poker game. And then Will Danning comes along.”
    â€œAnd buys it out from under you.”
    â€œThat’s right. And he’s goin’ to sell it back to me. And you’re goin’ to talk him into it.”
    Milt said dryly, “I haven’t heard you mention my cut.”
    â€œYou’ll git a cut, soon’s I see if you can swing the deal.”
    Milt was quiet a long moment, considering what Pres had told him. He felt a vague excitement stirring within him as a man will when his ability is challenged. Pres Milo was onto something big, just how big even he didn’t realize. Yet Milt couldn’t tell Will of it, or else Pres would turn him over to the law. But why would Will ever have to know? It wouldn’t be hurting Will if the place was sold and Will got his money back. Once that was done, Pres could buy the place and go ahead with the mining end of it. And he would have to kick through with Milt’s share of the cut, or else Milt could start a search for the prospector’s body. Pres blackmailed him, he blackmailed Pres. Yes, he could do business with Pres if he was driven to it—but not before he’d tried something else.
    Milt rose and said softly, “ Bueno . You’re sure there’s a big deposit?”
    â€œDead sure. The prospector said there was hundreds of thousands of tons.”
    Milt came slowly toward Pres, holding out his hand. “It’s a deal. We’re partners, eh, Pres?”
    â€œYou mean you’ll swing it?”
    â€œThat’s what I mean.”
    Pres put out his big paw, and they shook hands.
    Milt said, “Now put that gun away. You won’t need it any more. Where’s your horse?”
    â€œUp over the ridge.”
    Milt took Pres’s arm and gently turned him toward the bank and started to talk of his chances with Will. While he talked, he steered Pres, who was listening carefully, in the direction in which he had thrown his gun. When they came to the bank, he stepped behind and Pres clambered up the steep slope, Milt at his heels.
    Milt felt in the loose gravel as he walked, searching frantically for the gun. Pres was talking now, ahead of him, but Milt paid no attention.
    And then his fingers touched the cool metal of the six-gun which had been buried under an inch of earthslide.
    His fingers wrapped around it, and at that moment Pres ceased talking and turned around, wondering at Milt’s silence. He saw Milt straighten up, something in his hand, and Pres’s intuition told him what it was.
    He lunged frantically for the top of the ridge and heard the gun cock. He dived wildly over the crest as the gun hammered out behind him. He felt something nudge him in the shoulder, and then he was rolling down the