Read Online [Texas Rangers 04] - Ranger's Trail by Elmer Kelton - Free Book Online Page B

Andy’s mind. “We’ll talk about it when and if the time comes. The state’s broke. It may not have enough money to reorganize the rangers anyway.”
    “ I’m bettin’ it will. You saw Rip Ford and Henry McCulloch with Coke when he marched up to the capitol. He didn’t pick old rangers like them for nothin’.”
    Rusty remembered the farmer’s admonition to announce himself before he rode up to the Bascom place. He shouted, “Hello the house.”
    He saw a movement at a window and had a quick impression of a face, though it was gone so quickly he could not be sure whether it was that of a man or a woman. He shouted again.
    The door opened. A tall, raw-boned middle-aged woman stepped outside with a double-barreled shotgun pointed in Rusty’s and Andy’s general direction. The chill wind toyed with her long, stringy hair that showed no familiarity with comb or brush. “I don’t know you,” she hollered. “You got no business on this property.”
    “ If this is the Bascom place, we’re carryin’ a message for Alice.”
    “ You’re close enough. I can hear you from where you’re at. Deliver your message.”
    Rusty disliked having to shout, but that shotgun did not invite a closer conversation. “It’s kind of private. It’s about her mother. Is Alice here?”
    Rusty caught a quick glimpse of a girl coming up behind the woman in the doorway. The woman shoved her back inside. “You tell me, and I’ll tell her what she needs to know.”
    “ Her mother is worried. Wonders if she’s all right.”
    “ Of course she’s all right. Why wouldn’t she be?”
    “ Her mother’s not all right. Alice needs to know that she’s awful sick.”
    Alice pushed her way outside toward Rusty, but the woman grabbed her and pulled her back. Alice struggled to free herself. Momentarily distracted by her effort to control the girl, the woman turned the shotgun away from Rusty. He took the opportunity to spur the dun and close the distance. Without dismounting, he wrenched the weapon from her hand. He pitched it to Andy, who caught it and broke it open to extract the shells.
    The woman’s face flushed with rage. “Who are you to come bustin’ in here like this? You’ve got no right.”
    “ We just came to see Alice and tell her about her mother.”
    Alice’s eyes said she was afraid of the woman. She pulled away. “What’s happened to Mama?”
    “ She’s had a stroke. Paralyzed on one side. It’s a struggle for her to talk.”
    “ She was all right when I left.”
    “ It happened afterwards. It’d do her a world of good to see you.”
    The woman’s eyes were the deadly gray of bullet lead. “You got no business goin’ anywhere. Your place is here with your husband.”
    “ I want to see my mother.”
    “ And ride off with two strangers? I won’t stand for it.”
    “ They’re not strangers. Rusty and Andy are friends of my family.”
    “ They’re men, and you’re a woman. A married woman. It wouldn’t be decent.”
    “ Decent?” Growing indignation pushed Alice’s fear aside. “You call this family decent? You call robbin’ and stealin’ decent?”
    The woman raised her hand as if to slap Alice. “Shut up, girl. You don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”
    “ Oh, but I do. You think I don’t know where Corey and his brothers have gone?”
    Rusty saw murder in the woman’s eyes. “You shut your mouth or I’ll shut it for you. I told Corey he made a mistake bringin’ you here.”
    Rusty felt a strong apprehension. “Alice, you’d better come with us. I already see that this is no place for you.”
    She hesitated. “I don’t know what Corey might do.”
    “ We’ll take you back to the protection of your family. There’s nothin’ he can do.”
    The woman declared, “The hell there ain’t. He’ll be comin’ after you and draggin’ you back by the hair of the head.”
    The girl wasted no more time considering. She said, “I’ll gather my things.” She went into the