Read Online Slocum and the Three Fugitives by Jake Logan - Free Book Online Page B

drink from the bottle to steady himself, grabbed Annabelle’s shawl, and wrapped it around himself as he left.
    Slocum’s pace quickened, and he felt right as rain by the time he reached Annabelle’s house.
    â€œThe fire’s got the place warmed up. And so am I,” she called from the bedroom.
    He went to the bedroom and saw a white shoulder poking out from under the blanket. She turned and revealed a tantalizing bit more. Then Annabelle sat up abruptly.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?”
    â€œBrought your shawl,” he said, pulling it off his shoulders. Slocum tried not to flinch but couldn’t stop himself.
    â€œYou’re hurt. And you smell like you bathed in whiskey!”
    â€œI did,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed.
    â€œYou also smell like something’s burned.” In a lower voice she said, “Skin. That smell is burned flesh.”
    â€œMine,” he admitted. “But I ran off three owlhoots trying to set fire to the saloon.”
    â€œYou stopped them from burning the building by letting them set fire to you?”
    â€œSomething like that.”
    â€œMen,” Annabelle said in disgust. “Lie back. I’ve got some salve that’ll fix you up better than a shot or two of whiskey sloshed all over your side.”
    The cold salve caused Slocum a moment of pain and then the last of the burning sensation vanished.
    â€œWas it Deutsch and his brother?”
    â€œLooked to be. Couldn’t tell if one of them was the size of a mountain, but who else could it be?”
    â€œOh, I’ll get even with them. You laughed when I said I’d strap on a gun and call out Rory Deutsch. I’ll take them all on! I’ll—”
    â€œYou’ll do nothing,” Slocum said. “This is my fight.”
    â€œMine, too!”
    â€œMine,” he insisted. “This isn’t the first feud I’ve gotten mixed up in. It won’t be the last.”
    â€œIt had better not be, John Slocum. If you get yourself killed, why, I’ll skin you alive!”
    They chuckled at this. Slocum lay back, the woman’s arms around him until he fell asleep.
    A little before dawn, he came awake in the bed. Annabelle still slept peacefully beside him. Moving more easily now thanks to the curative power of her salve, he got out of bed and went into the kitchen. The fire had died down but the room remained warm. He took his time and wrote her a quick note using a page out of her ledger book, then strapped on his six-gun and left. He had a score to settle.
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    Slocum scanned the land around the ranch house, then worked to the barn. For such a large operation, the X Bar X had very few wranglers. He had spent half a day spying on the Deutsch house and had counted only a half-dozen hands, and they had been more intent on going from the bunkhouse to the barn and back without doing any work. The time in the barn amounted to less than ten minutes, no matter which of the cowboys went in. Slocum couldn’t get his saddle soaped or his horse curried in that time. And no one rode out.
    The ranch might be abandoned for all the activity he saw.
    Most of the cowboys might be out farther west working a herd. Slocum decided to find out. He slipped back down the far side of the hill, mounted, and circled the ranch house, going far to the south and working his way through mountain meadows, which begged to have a herd grazing. He nodded in approval when he saw that none of the range had been fenced. Slocum preferred the open range to tightly penned herds. He knew some ranchers had success in dividing their land and allowing their herd to graze only a single section at a time. When the grass was close-cropped, the herd was moved to a different section, allowing the first to grow unimpeded again.
    The cattle on an open range always grazed in the same fashion, and such close attention—and fencing with barbed wire, the