Read Online White Lightning by Lyle Brandt - Free Book Online

homicide, it wasn’t worth leaving themselves afoot on unfamiliar ground, where they might need mobility to stay alive.
    Besides, the ride gave Slade a chance to think and get better acquainted with his trail companion. As he learned over the next few miles, Naylor was twenty-five years old and Texas born, a farmer’s son who didn’t take to plowing, milking cows, or slopping hogs. He’d tried his hand at cowboying, then figured out there was no future in it for him. He’d been appointed a U.S. deputy in Austin, then accepted transfer to the territory when it came his way. He was a fair hand with the twin Colts, by his own account, and while hesavored tracking bad men, Naylor didn’t have the attitude of some lawmen who yearned for opportunities to throw their weight around.
    “You figure we’re enough?” asked Naylor, when he’d finished laying out his brief biography.
    “Enough for what?” asked Slade.
    “To handle what we’re up against.”
    “We don’t know what that is yet,” Slade replied. “Don’t undermine yourself by worrying ahead of time.”
    “I’ve just been thinking about Tanner.”
    “Good. That ought to keep you sharp. But don’t imagine that you’ll end up the same way.”
    “Could happen, though,” said Naylor.
    “Anything
could
happen,” Slade reminded him. “We could be struck by lightning from a clear sky, or a prairie fire could overtake us on the trail. You could wake up tonight with rattlers in your bedroll.”
    “Thanks for that,” said Naylor. “Nice of you to cheer me up.”
    “The other side of fretting is that we could have the job wrapped up in no time, run the ’shiners out, bust up their stills, and bring whoever took Bill Tanner down to face Judge Dennison.”
    “You really see that happening?”
    “The day I pinned this badge on,” Slade replied, “I gave up telling fortunes.”
    “Hey, speaking of that, I heard you took the job to nail your brother’s killers. That the straight of it, or just a campfire story?”
    “Straight, far as it goes,” Slade said and laid it out for Naylor, sketchy on the details, steering absolutely clear of Faith and their relationship.
    When he was done, the younger deputy said, “And youstuck around when it was done. No itch to get back on the move?”
    “I’ve seen a lot of territory,” Slade admitted. “And I won’t say one place is the same as any other. That’s a crock. Some places, you can take your ease and never give a second thought to trouble. Others…well, I reckon you’ve seen those.”
    “A few,” Naylor acknowledged. “But to stay in Enid when you’ve been to Dallas, Denver, any of the big towns, something had to hold you.”
    They were edging into something Slade did not plan to discuss with Naylor, or with anybody else. To cut it off, he said, “You get to be my age, the thought of staying put begins to make more sense. A steady salary, a roof over your head that you can count on.”
    “Goin’ out to sniff around for killers. Gettin’ shot at for your trouble. Yeah,” said Naylor. “I can see how that appeals to an old-timer like yourself.” He laughed and added, “You’ve got what, ten years on me?”
    “At least,” Slade said. Some days it felt like forty.
    “I don’t know,” said Naylor. “Enid’s good for now, you know. But it’s a place I work
from
, if you follow me. I like the traveling. The hunting.”
    “Just make sure you’re not the one who’s being hunted,” Slade advised him.
    “There you go. That sunny disposition.”
    “It’s a funny thing, I grant you,” Slade replied. “Older you are, the more it seems you’ve got to lose. Should be the other way around, if it made any sense.”
    “Who ever said that life makes sense? My older brother is a preacher, if you can believe it, down El Paso way. He makes a living spittin’ fire and brimstone at the faithful, Sunday mornings. Couple hundred of ’em eat it up.”
    “I take it that you’re not a praying