Matagorda (1967) by Louis L'amour Read Free Book Online Page A

killed Pete."
    Duvarney helped Roy from the saddle. "Get over by the fire, Tom," he said, over his shoulder. "Let's have a look at those wounds."
    He turned to suggest the Cajun keep a lookout, but he was gone.
    "Did you get any of them?" Breck asked.
    "I doubt it. We never even saw them. They were down in the brush off the road, waiting until they had us full in the moonlight. We're lucky to have any of us alive."
    Neither Tom nor Roy was hit hard, but Roy had lost a lot of blood. Tap bathed and bandaged the wounds, treating them as well as he could under the circumstances. He'd had a good deal of rough experience in the handling of gunshot or knife wounds, picked up while in the Indian-fighting army.
    He was beginning to have his doubts. Nothing was said about the horses they had supposedly gone to get. It began to look as though the group had actually ridden off hunting a fight, or at least hoping to run into some of the Munson party.
    Tom Kittery got up and walked to the fire. "It was Huddy," he said bitterly. "Nobody else could have figured it out. Of course, I figured they'd be watching Mady's place, so we didn't go there. We went to a spring up back of the place-at least I did. I left the others a quarter of a mile down the road by a deserted corral. From the spring a man can see Mady's windows on the second floor, and she can see a fire at the spring . . . and there's just no place else a fire like that can be seen. I lit the fire, and Mady came up the slope through the trees about half an hour later and told me it was safe to come on down to the ranch.
    "The Coppingers have taken no part in the feud. Fact is, they won't allow me to marry Mady until it is settled, somehow. The Munsons want no truck with them , because the old man has about thirty tough cowhands, and the Munsons don't want to tangle with them.
    "I spent the evening there, mostly talking to Mady, then I went back up the hill to the spring, and then back to the corral. The boys had seen nothing and heard nothing.
    We mounted up and started down the hill toward the Victoria trail. They were waiting for us."
    Duvarney stared at him in astonishment. "You blame it on Huddy? How could he know you were there?" He was thinking that Tom Kittery must be naive not to realize that somebody had sold him out; that he had been set up for a killing.
    "He's uncanny," Kittery said. "Yes, there's something uncanny about that man," he insisted. "He ain't natural."
    Nobody else was saying anything, but from their expressions Duvarney decided they must agree.
    "Of course," he said, "I don't know the people on the Coppinger place, but can you trust them?"
    Tom Kittery looked at Duvarney in surprise. "Them? Of course. . . . Hell, I'm goin' to marry Mady. That's been understood. It's been an agreed-on thing since before the war."
    Duvarney said nothing more. He was an outsider here, knowing nothing of what had gone before, but to him it seemed likely that someone on the Coppinger ranch was accountable for this. He had no faith in the uncanny cunning of Jackson Huddy.
    Duvarney was feeling that the sooner he could start the herd out of this country the better. There was too much going on here that was no concern of his, too much that might wreck all his plans. And although he kept trying to force the thought from his mind, he was thinking more and more of Jessica.
    Tom looked up at him. "Sorry, Tap. This will hold things up a mite. I mean our getting shot up like this. If you'll just stand by~"
    "Stand by, hell! We're going right on with it," Tap said. "When you boys can ride you can join us. I'm still working cattle."
    Tom looked sour. "Well, Breck can help, and Spicer." He looked around, suddenly realizing that Spicer was not there. "Where is Spicer?" he asked.
    Joe Breck answered. "Duvarney sent him to Brownsville."
    "He what?" Kittery was angry. "Damn it, Tap, what d'you mean, sending one of my men off?" He paused. "What did you send him for?"
    "Men. I'm hiring more