Collection 1988 - Lonigan (v5.0) by Louis L’Amour Read Free Book Online Page A

another man by the simple procedure of shoving the man away. White-faced, the girl danced with him, and when the dance was over, she and her friend left. Others began to drift away, and somberly, Dan Regan watched them go.
    Jenny Meadows was perfectly aware it was time she left, but Dan had made no effort to come to her, nor to request a dance. Disappointed, and more than a little angry, she delayed even after Tom Newton began to urge her to leave with him.
    Once, early in the evening, she had danced with Burr Fulton. He had teased her a little, but his behavior had been all she could have asked. Now he came to her again, his face flushed with drinking.
    â€œLet’s dance!” he said, grinning at her.
    She was frightened at the lurking deviltry in his eyes, and she could see the temper riding him. Fulton was a reckless man, a man known to be ugly when drinking—and dangerous. She hesitated, and Newton spoke up quietly. “She has this dance with me, Burr.”

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    F ULTON STARED INSOLENTLY at Newton, and Jenny felt a rising sense of panic.
    â€œYou mean she did!” he said. “She has this dance with me, now!”
    Newton’s face paled, but he stood his ground. “I’m sorry, Burr. She dances with me this time. Another time, perhaps.”
    â€œThis time.” Burr Fulton’s attention was centered on Newton now. “This time she dances with me. You take a walk or get your horse and ride home. I’ll take care of her!”
    She turned quickly to Newton. “We’d better go, Tom. We should have gone long ago.”
    Fulton’s eyes turned to her then, and the taunting violence in them shocked her. “You stay until I get through with you!” he said. “Maybe I’ll take you home tomorrow!”
    Tom Newton’s fist swung. It was a nice try, but Burr had been looking for it, hoping for it. He knocked the punch down and kicked Newton in the stomach. With a grunt, the boy fell to the floor, his face twisted with pain.
    Suddenly Dan Regan had stepped between Jenny and Fulton. “That was a dirty trick, Burr,” said Regan. “You didn’t have to kick him. Now you and your boys had better go home, you’re spoiling a good dance, and insulting women.”
    Fulton’s face tightened. “Why, you lily-livered skunk, I’ll kill—!”
    The words stopped, for he was looking into a six-gun, and then he realized that the gun had been in Dan Regan’s hands.
    â€œSo? A sure-thing operator, aren’t you?” he sneered. “Walk up to a man with a gun in your hand! Don’t take no chances, do you? Holster that gun and give me a fair shake! I’ll kill you then! I’ll shoot you like a dog!”
    â€œYou talk too much!” Regan said, disgust in his voice. “Take your coyote pack and trail out of here. Move now!”
    His eyes ugly, Fulton turned his back on Dan and walked away. The dance broke up quietly. Regan stood alone and watched them go. Nobody came near him, nobody spoke to him, not even Jenny Meadows. Bitterly, he watched them go, knowing in his heart how they felt. He was afraid to give a man an even break, he came up with the drop on Fulton…he wouldn’t take a chance.
    All of them were glad that Fulton had been stopped before something more ugly happened, but this was not the way of the west. You faced a man, and you gave him an even break.
    Dan Regan did not stop at the stage station on his way back to the hills. He just kept going until the high timber closed around him and his sorrel was soft-footing it over thick pine needles toward the cabin on the bench above Hidden Lake.
    â€œWe’d better forget her, Red,” he told the sorrel. “She thinks we’re yellow. And so do the rest of them.”
    Rumors came to him by occasional passing prospectors or hunters. Rustlers were harrying the Slash B by day and by night. The herds were decimated. Two of the Slash B riders