Slaughter's way by John Thomas Edson Read Free Book Online Page A

chef in a fancy restaurant, it was nutritious and would keep for a fair time. Given water to drink, jerked meat to eat, and a couple of blankets which were strapped behind the saddle cantle, Burt Alvord was all set to follow the Long Rail herd for two or three days and by that time they would be well dear of Slaughter's area.
    None of the other men thought of asking why Burt Alvord should be riding away from them at a time when all hands had more than enough work on their plates. While he helped with the cattle work, Alvord's main duties were in the capacity of scout. So the other men imderstood that should anything in that line crop up,

    Alvord would leave the cattle work and ride to handle it. After what had just happened down by the stream, all hands figured that Alvord might be better occupied watching Long Rail than helping them to gather cattle into the petalta.
    ""Wash," Slaughter went on as Alvord rode oflF on the scouting mission, "Mr. Chisum allows to have bought our cattle from a runty, scar-faced gent."
    "Does, huh?" Sure.
    '^How many men, John?^
    *'I figure you and I can tend to it, especially as T want the petalta cutting as soon as possible."
    The fact that they were riding to face odds of three to two, and against a trio who would as soon shoot a man as look at him, did not appear to worry Trace or deter him from following his boss. Back just after the war, when Carpet-bag Davis's corrupt Reconstruction administration went under, Washita Trace had ridden with John Slaughter in the Texas Rangers, helping clear up the mess left by Davis's evil State Police and wipe out the criminal element Davis's men never even tried to hold in check. Diuing their time as rangers. Slaughter and Trace had smelled plenty of burned powder and felt bullets slap the air around them. Trace reckoned there was no other man he would rather have at his side than Texas John at such a moment.
    Any way a man looked at it, the lead was Hable to fly when they reached the Taggert place. Cow thieves hung when captured; and the Taggert boys were unlikely to siurender without a fight. The Taggerts knew their necks were headed for a rope should they be taken in. Too many folks in the area had lost cattle, although so far the Taggerts managed to avoid having any connection with the disappearances brought home to them.
    Without thinking of it, Trace dropped his right hand to feel the handle of his long-barreled Colt and he cast a glance at the butt of his rifle in the saddle boot. If trouble came, he had the means and the abihty to handle his end of it.

    Slaughter told his other men to ride back to the petalta and do whatever Tex Burton decided was necessary. Then he swimg his horse and his eyes met Trace's.
    **Let's go see the Taggerts/' Slaughter said.

    CHAPTER FIVE
    Tte Mending Of Tke Taggferts' Ways
    At one time the small ranch which the three Tag-gert boys bought in on had been a pretty fair little spread, and cotild have been again if its owners cared to put time and some hard work into it. However, the Taggerts never cared for hard, or easy, work if it could be avoided; and in all truth did not buy the place with any intention of taking up permanent residence.
    The Taggert brotihers possessed one good quality that many people much better favored in other ways failed to show. They never outstayed their welcome in any area. Which same meant the brothers had become tolerably well-traveled men, for any locality which was fortunate enough to be braced with their presence daroned soon got around to demanding their absence. Not that the brothers often stuck around long enough to give their neighbors time to start making demands; which quite possibly accounted for how they came to stay alive for as long as they had.
    On their arrival in Blantyre County, the Taggerts looked for an ideal place to temporarily set down their roots. They wanted something not too large, reasonably central and not too well kept up by its previous owners. In this they were