Outlaw Pass (9781101544785)

Table of Contents

 

 

“What I'm sayin' is, if you stick your hand on my coat, you might not get it back.”

“Whoa!” Leather Vest mocked, and threw his hands up, pretending to be terrified. “I believe we've got us a rattlesnake here, Rafe. Better jump back before he bites ya.” He took an exaggerated step back then to Rafe's amusement before the smile of contempt returned to his face, and he focused his gaze upon Adam as he issued his warning. “Now I'm gonna teach you a little respect, and show you what happens to jokers who threaten me.” He reached for one of his pistols.

Before he could pull it, Adam threw the glass of beer in his eyes, at the same time grasping his rifle by the barrel. Swinging it like a club, he cracked Rafe on the side of his head before the startled bully could pull his revolver halfway out of his holster. In almost one continuous move, he spun around to face Leather Vest, who was sputtering and spitting, trying to wipe the beer out of his eyes. One quick thrust with the butt of his rifle smashed Leather Vest's nose and dropped him to the floor....

SIGNET

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First published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library,
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First Printing, October 2011

ISBN : 978-1-101-54478-5

Copyright © Charles G. West, 2011

All rights reserved

 

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

 

 

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S805-111510

“Mose said you were lookin' for me,” Adam Blaine said when he met his father coming from the barn. “If you're still worryin' about those missin' cows over on the north range, I found 'em this mornin' holed up in a ravine near the creek.”

“No,” Nathan Blaine replied. “I figured you'd find'em. I knew they wouldn't be far. Mose always blames the Indians when we've got cattle missin'. I keep tellin' him that if there's one or two missin', then it might be hungry Injuns cuttin' out some of the stock—but not when we're talkin' about twenty or thirty at a time.”

Adam smiled, picturing the worried face of the old Indian scout. Mose Stebbins had come to work for Adam's father when his eyesight began to fail him and he no longer trusted himself to lead a cavalry scouting party. The old man had gone on many a hunting trip with him in the mountains to the north and the Absarokas to the south. Now his eyes were no longer sharp enough to be accurate on shots of any distance. Never one to admit to this weakness, he always tended to give Adam the longer shot, saying the young man needed the practice. “I counted thirty-two head,” Adam said, “all bunched up together.”

“I figured,” his father repeated. “That ain't why I sent Mose to find you, though.” He waited for Adam to step down from the saddle. “I think it's time you went to look for your brother.”

“Yessir,” Adam replied without emotion. Jake, three years his junior, had been away from home for over a year. That in itself was not cause for concern for Adam and his father. Jake had sent a message that he was planning to leave Bannack and head for home that very day. Now, two weeks later, Jake had failed to show up from what should have been a five-day ride at most. There was no concern on his father's part for the first week. Jake was always his free-spirited son, prone to drift with the wind, and Nathan was not surprised when he didn't show when he was supposed to. Never content to work at raising cattle, Jake had hurried off to join the horde of other dreamers when news of a major gold discovery in Bannack reached their little settlement on the Yellowstone. Adam had to smile when he remembered Jake's promise on the day he left. “I'll find enough gold to buy all the stock we need to make the Triple-B the biggest cattle spread in the Gallatin Valley.”

His father had responded with the statement that the Triple-B was already the biggest. “But if you have to chase your tail in a circle around Bannack, go to hell on. When you run outta grub, come on home.”

Nathan's claim was not an exaggeration. The Triple-B
was
the largest, but it was because it was the only cattle ranch in the valley. He had built it up from its simple start as a small herd he had driven up from his home in Briscoe County, Texas. The old man was now fully aware that his was a situation that was bound to change, and soon. More and more settlers were showing up on the trail that led from Fort Laramie to the gold strikes in Bannack and the more recent one in Virginia City. These were not the folks that worried Nathan; they were just passing through. It was the people looking for space to build new homes who concerned him, and the fertile land of the Gallatin Valley was a strong attraction to many of these farm families. Nathan knew the fences would be coming, and his free range would be shrinking with each new arrival. John Bozeman, along with Daniel Rouse and William Beall, was already rumored to be thinking about laying out a town. For now, there was room for everybody, but how long would that be the case? These were the issues he would deal with in the not too distant future. His concern on this day, however, was for his son, and what trouble he might have gotten himself into in the mining camps. In sharp contrast to Jake, Adam was as steady as a granite cliff. Taller by a couple of inches on a powerful frame, Adam was truly Jake's big brother, and Nathan was confident that his elder son would ensure the continued success of his ranch long after he was gone. Adam had been getting his younger brother out of scrapes since they were boys, so it was not unusual that Nathan was sending him to find Jake once again.

It was all the same to Adam. Unlike his brother, he never crowded his mind with thoughts of country he had never seen, or places he had not been. To him, life was what you made it, with whatever tools or weapons were at your disposal. He didn't fault Jake for being a dreamer. That's just the way Jake was. In fact, Adam sometimes envied his younger brother's longing to see the valley beyond the next mountain, or to follow the river to its beginning. Jake often teased his brother about his emotionless approach to each new day and the work that was waiting to be done. But he knew and appreciated the fact that the rock that was Adam was always there to lean on. Mose said Adam was soulful, born without a funny bone, but Nathan suspected his son's serious approach to just about everything was due to his mother's early death and the subsequent burden that had fallen upon him to look after his younger brother while doing a man's share of the ranch work. It was Adam who had convinced his father to let Jake follow the prospectors to the gold fields. “He'll get it out of his system pretty quick,” Adam had predicted, “when he finds out all his hard work won't result in much more than a little grub money.” As it turned out, however, Jake had evidently stuck with it longer than Adam had figured. And according to the message he sent, he was coming home with a little more than “grub money.” Adam wasn't surprised in one respect, however, knowing how important it was to Jake to prove that he was his own man, and was not dependent upon his father or Adam to make his mark. Still, it was hard to picture Jake with a pick or shovel in his hand. No matter what he did, though, Jake was always going to be Jake, wild, sometimes to the extent of recklessness, and that was more than likely the reason for his failure to arrive when he said he would. Maybe he had encountered a saloon along the way that had tempted him to risk some of his fortune on cards and women. It wouldn't be the first time.
I wouldn't be surprised
, Adam thought.
Well, I'll go see if I can find him.

 

“I figured you'd be ridin' Bucky,” Nathan Blaine remarked when he walked into the barn where Adam was securing his saddlebags on a red roan named Brownie. Bucky was Adam's favorite horse and almost always his first choice when considering a ride of any length.