Flint (1960) by Louis L'amour Read Free Book Online

building another cigarette.
    "You're not from hereabouts, or I'd recall your voice," the rider said, "and I know almost everybody around. You don't fit anywhere unless you're a friend of Port Baldwin."
    Kettleman felt a cool wind blowing down the canyon. He waited, and then he said, "I don't know the man. Does he live here?"
    "Newcomer. From back East somewhere. He just moved into the country with forty thousand head of cows and that means he's got to crowd everybody off their range. I think he knew that when he came in."
    Porter Baldwin. He had never met him but he knew his name. It was one of those things he believed he had left behind.
    "Is he the one who is importing the gunfighters?"
    "That's the one. Although Tom Nugent may do the same."
    "And what about your outfit?"
    "Kaybar?" The man chuckled. "I suppose the boys over there would say I was the gunfighter for Kaybar. I'd not claim the job for myself but they might claim it for me. And there's a salty bunch at Kaybar. The colonel knew how to pick them."
    "Knew?"
    "He's dead. His daughter handles the outfit"
    "How does a girl figure to lead a war?"
    "If a girl can do it, this one can. She's a girl to ride the river with, I'd say. I'd not want a better boss."
    The rider was silent for a few minutes, then said, "I'm going to ride along." He paused. "You got grub? coffee?"
    "Thanks. I do have them."
    "But no horse. And that's a curious thing. A man afoot in this country isn't going far."
    The rider turned his mount "If you want to look me up, you ask for Pete Gaddis."
    Kettleman listened to the sound of the retreating horse, strangely drawn to the man who had talked so quietly into the night Gaddis had wanted to talk, and to a stranger.
    So. Porter Baldwin.
    The past then was not so far behind. Yet Baldwin could have no idea that Kettleman was anywhere around. So what was Baldwin planning? Why had Baldwin suddenly come into this area with forty thousand head of cattle? Baldwin knew nothing of cattle and wasn't likely to get interested in them.
    His mind, long attuned to business combat, now began to seek out causes and effects, searching for the hidden motivations behind Baldwin's move. Gaddis had said, "That means he's got to crowd somebody off their range." That must be it.
    The interest then was not cattle, but land. Land here was held by big cattle outfits, the government, or the railroad. And Baldwin had done no negotiating with the railroad.
    The moon was rising, and he had not considered the moon. Living in cities, a man rarely looked at the sky.
    He shouldered his pack, hung the rifle from his shoulder by its sling and, carrying the shotgun, he started out. When he was opposite the point of rock he crossed the dry water-course and bedded down among the rocks. During the night he was awakened by pain. The pain twisted his vitals and he grew weak and sick and it was a long time before it passed off, and he slept.
    When he awakened again he was weak and drenched with cold sweat. He got up and built a small fire and huddled over it, shivering and chilled. The moonlight lay weirdly upon the ghostly rocks and threw eerie shadows along the sandy way where the water had gone. Off to the east the wall of the mesa lifted, towering black against the sky, and dawn came slowly from a cold sky, and he did not make coffee or eat.
    The gnawing pain in his stomach stayed with him, but he got up and shouldered his pack.
    He could not be far from the entrance to the hideout The wall of lava was about fifty feet high along here, huge black blocks of it, and then in places great wrinkled bulges like the skin of a sleeping elephant He walked along a few steps, stepping from rock to rock where possible and holding close to the wall for fear of missing the entrance.
    There was a lot of brush, stiff, wiry, and filled with thorns, clumps of prickly pear, and a few scattered pines. He had gone only a hundred yards or so when he felt a sickness in his stomach and he paused and leaned against