Read Online The Bandit Princess by J. Roberts - Free Book Online

nobody as famous as you, sir.”
    “Can we get started?” Clint asked.
    “I gotta wait, see if anybody else—”
    “Abner, we’re trailing those two men you just took across, and we can’t afford to let them get too far ahead of us.”
    “They lawbreakers?”
    “They are,” Clint said.
    Brassfield fell silent.
    “You’ve taken them across before, haven’t you?” Clint asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Didn’t know they were lawbreakers?”
    “I had an idea.”
    “Let’s get started, Abner,” Clint said.
    “Yes, sir.”
    Abner closed the gate and they pushed off, headed for the other side.
    “What’s on the other side?” Clint asked.
    “Town called Whitfield.”
    “What’s there?”
    “It’s where Belle Starr used to go to buy supplies. Lots of other folks, too.”
    “What about Pearl Starr?”
    Abner shrugged as he steered the rudder.
    “Don’t know.”
    “She’s never been on here?”
    “Mr. Adams,” Abner said, “I ain’t looking for any trouble.”
    “I’m not looking to give you any trouble either,” Clint said, “but our job is to find Pearl Starr.”
    “Well, all I’ll say,” the man replied, “is that you’re goin’ about it the right way if you’re followin’ them two.”
    Clint watched the play of muscles in the man’s arms as he steered the ferry. Abner was well over six feet, and had a lot of upper body strength. Clint couldn’t force him to talk, and if he threatened the ferryman with a gun, what was Clint going to do, shoot him?
    “Okay, Abner,” he said, “just get us to the other side as fast as you can.”
    “All depends on the current, Mr. Adams,” the older man said. “If I don’t have to fight it much, the trip won’t take too long.”
    Clint looked at Alice, who was holding her horse’s head still.
    “We’ll catch up to them,” Clint assured her. “Don’t worry.”

TWENTY-TWO
     
     
     
    When they got to the other side, Abner opened the gate so Clint and Alice could walk their horses off the ferry.
    “Abner,” Clint said, “you seen Belle Starr in a while?”
    “Not in a long while, Mr. Adams,” he said.
    Clint shook the man’s hand.
    “Thanks for the ride.”
    Abner nodded, then tipped his hat to Alice. They watched as he closed the gate and pushed off for the trip back to the other side.
    “Why didn’t you tell him what you told the sheriff?” Alice Eads asked.
    “What’s that?”
    “That you’d take it personal if word got back to Pearl Starr.”
    “I doubt if he gets off his ferry very much, Alice,” Clint said. “He’s got a bedroll on there with him.”
    “I didn’t notice.”
    “Besides,” Clint said, “I believe him when he says he’s not looking for trouble.”
    “You’re probably right.”
    They mounted up and Clint found the trail left by Tate and Del. As they followed it, Clint tried to give Alice some tips on reading sign.
    “Find something unique about the sign,” he said. “Something about one of the hooves—something identifiable.”
    “These look the same to me,” she complained.
    “Yes, but there’s something unusual about the gait of one of these horses.”
    She went so far as to lean down from the saddle to take a closer look, then sat up straight.
    “I don’t see anything,” she said.
    “Look at the left front hoof of that horse,” Clint said, pointing to the tracks left by one of the horses. “That horse comes down heavier on its left front hoof than its right.”
    “So it’s lame?”
    “Not lame,” Clint said. “It’s just an idiosyncrasy of that particular horse. If we happen to lose the trail, just keep an eye out for that horse.”
    Alice nodded, continued to study the tracks as they went along.
     
    As Tate and Del rode into Whitfield, they were still talking about how lucky they’d been back in Briartown.
    “If we had killed the Gunsmith,” Tate said, “we woulda had to explain to Pearl what we were doin’ in Briartown.”
    “Yeah,” Del said, “that’s the reason you