Loius L'Amour Silver_Canyon_v1.0

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Standing over the body withMulvaney's words ringing in my ears, I could see
with clarity the situation I faced. Yet why hadMaclaren come here? What was he
doing on my ranch in the middle of the night? And who could have been riding
with him?
Somebody wantedMaclaren dead badly enough to shoot him in the back, and had
lured him here on some pretext. He certainly was not a man given to midnight
rides. It had been late when I left his ranch and at that time he had been
there.But so had Morgan Park.
The morning was cool, with a hint of rain.Mulvaney started for the Boxed M to
report the killing toCanaval . It would be up toCanaval to break the news to
Moira. And I did not want to think of that.
My luck broke, in one sense, JollyBenarascame riding up theWash , and I sent
him off to town to report the shooting to the sheriff and to Key Chapin.
When they had gone, I mounted my horse and, careful to obscure no tracks,
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scouted the area. There was a confusion of hoof prints where his horse had
moved about during the night, and at that point the sand was soft and there
was no definition to any of the tracks.
One thing puzzled me. I had heard only one shot, yet there were two bullet
holes. Crouching beside the body, I studied the setup. Strangely enough, only
one bullet hole showed evidences of bleeding.
There were no other tracks that I could identify. They were mingled and
overlapped each other, and all were indefinite because of the soft sand.
When I saw riders approaching I walked back to the body. The nearest
wasCanaval , and beside him, Moira. The other three were Boxed M cowhands. One
glance at their faces and I knew there was no doubt in their mind as to who
had killedRudMaclaren .
Canavallooked at me, his eyes cold, calculating, and shrewd. Moira threw
herself from the horse and ran to the still form lying on the sand. She had
not looked at me or acknowledged my presence.
"This looks like trouble,Canaval . I think I heard the shot."
"Shot?"
"Only one ... andhe's been shot twice."
Nobody said anything, but all kept their eyes on me. They were waiting for me
to defend myself.
"When did he leave the ranch?"
"No one knows, exactly."Canaval sat very still in the saddle, and I knew he
was trying to make up his mind about me. "He turned in after you left it must
have been around two.Maybe later."
"The shot I heard was close to four o'clock."
The Boxed M riders had moved out, casually, almost accidentally it seemed,
but shutting me off from any escape. Behind mewas the spring, the bog, and a
shoulder of rock. Before me, the riders formed a semicircle.
These were men who rode for the brand, men loyal, devoted, and utterly
ruthless when aroused. The night before they had given me the benefit of the
doubt, but now the evidence seemed to point at me.
"Who was with him when you last saw him?"
"He was alone. And if it's Morgan Park you're thinking of, forget it. He left
right after you did."
Tom Fox, a lean, hard-bitten Boxed M rider, took his rope from his saddle.
"What wewaitin ' for, men? There's our man."
"Fox, from all I hear you're a good hand, so don't throw your loop over any
quick conclusions I didn't killRudMaclaren , and had no reason to. We made
peace talk last night and parted on good terms."
Fox looked over atCarnaval . "Is that right?"
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"It is butRud changed his mind afterward."
"What?"
That I could not believe, yetCanaval would not lie to me.RudMaclaren had been
only half won over to my thinking, I knew. But that he could have changed his
mind so fast I was not willing to believe.
"Anyway, how could I know that?"
"You couldn't,"Canaval agreed, "unless he got out of bed and rode over to
tell you. He's the sort that might do just that I can think of no other reason
why he would ride outdurin ' the night."
The one thing I had been telling myself was that I'd be in the clear because
I had no motive. And here itwas, the perfect motive. My mouth was dry and my
hands felt cold ... sweat broke out on my forehead.
Fox began to shake out a loop. I tried to catch Moira's eye, but she refused
to look at me.Canaval seemed to be studying, over something in his mind.
Nobody had drawn a gun, yet that loop in Fox's hand could snake over me
quicker than I could throw a gun and fire. And if I moved toward a gun,Canaval
would also. I didn't know whether I could beatCanaval or not ... and he was a
man I didn't want to kill.
Fox moved his horse a step forward, but Moira stopped him.
"No, Tom. Wait for the men from town. If he killed my father I want him to
die, but we'll wait."
Reluctantly, Fox waited, and then we heard the horses coming. There were a
dozen riders, with Key Chapin in the lead.
He threw me a quick, worried glance,then turned toCanaval . Briefly and to
the point, the foreman of the Boxed M explained the situation. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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