Golden Riders (Ranger Sam Burrack Western) - Softcover

Cotton, Ralph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451465946 ISBN 13: 9780451465948

Verlag: Berkley, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack has something of a reputation for finishing what he sets out to do—usually with a shot from his Winchester. He’d been on the trail of five gunmen for days. Then there was four. And he doesn’t plan on stopping until every member of the notorious Golden Riders is behind bars or underground.
 
But when a few of the riders escape in a jailbreak, word gets back to gang leader Braxton Kane that his brother fell under the gun of a lawman. Now Burrack is both hunter and hunted, and if he doesn’t live up to his reputation, he won’t live very long.…

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ralph Cotton is a former ironworker, second mate on a commercial barge, teamster, horse trainer, and lay minister with the Lutheran church. He is the author of Dark Horses, Shadow River, and Twisted Hills.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

JUMPING THE GUN

SIGNET

PART 1

Chapter 1

The Badlands, Arizona Territory

Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack rode a thin, steep game trail up through a maze of large squat boulders and tall standing chimney rock. At the top of the trail there would be four gunmen waiting for him. He was certain of it. There had been five gunmen starting out last week, but yesterday he had reduced their numbers by one when he put a well-placed bullet squarely in the back of Cordell Kane—right between the shoulder blades. It was the best shot he could get, so he’d taken it, knowing that one fewer gun to face in the end could make the difference between dying or staying alive.

Now for the other four . . .

Two of the gunmen waiting up ahead for him were bank robbers Cutthroat Teddy Bonsell and an old ex-lawman turned outlaw, Jake Cleary. The other two were brothers by the name of Cundiff, Willie and Joe Cundiff. They would all be waiting with guns in hand, and this part of his hunt would be over—here atop a rocky hillside in the blazing sun. This was where their trail had brought him, Sam told himself, looking all around. Here was where their lawlessness would stop.

Beneath him, the barb, a coppery black-point dun took the trail at an easy walk, raising its muzzle now and then and sniffing the air up ahead. Sam thought it reasonable to believe that as long as he and the dun had been trailing these two miscreants, the horse had come to know their scent as well as it knew the scent of a bear, a coyote. It was just a notion he’d come to consider, knowing that horses were not always given credit for being as smart or as crafty as, say, a dog, a wolf or a mountain cat. Yet, he reminded himself, it had to be noted that the equine species had managed to survive among its many hungry predators for long ages past. That had to speak well for these fine fleet animals. Doesn’t it? he asked himself.

Of course it does. . . .

He patted a hand on the dun’s neck; the horse sawed its head a little and blew out a breath, as if in some silent agreement with him. They rode on another three hundred yards through twists and sharp turns around land-stuck boulders, and now and then past a lank and sparsely clad pine whose very presence implied that God had a strange sense of humor. Finally the top of the trail revealed itself against a blue cloudless sky. There the Ranger brought the dun to a halt and stepped down from his saddle, rifle in hand.

“Here’s as far as you go, Copper,” he said to the dun. The barb took a sidestep away from him as if to protest his decision and continue on in pursuit. But Sam held the reins firm-handed and rubbed the horse’s nose. “You think so now, but what if it doesn’t come out to suit us?”

The horse chuffed and slung its sweaty head a little, but then settled under such sage reasoning.

“That’s what I thought,” Sam said, cradling his Winchester in the crook of his elbow.

He led the horse a few feet to a lank pine where he loosened the cinch and dropped his saddle from the horse’s back. He slipped the bit from the horse’s mouth and spun one of the reins around a stub of a pine limb and tied it in a loose slip hitch that the horse could easily pull free if it needed to.

The coppery dun stared at him almost warily, Sam thought, as he peeled the trail glove from his right hand and shoved it down behind his gun belt.

“Don’t start being a worrier on me,” he said with a trace of a wry smile. He raised his big Colt from his holster, checked it and let it hang down his side, his thumb over the hammer. “I plan on coming back for you.”

•   •   •

At the top of the trail, Cutthroat Teddy Bonsell eased down behind the hot boulder he’d been lying on. His shirt glistened wet, covered with sweat from the heat of the boulder standing exposed with no shade on its sides or face. He pulled his shirt free from being stuck against his wet chest and fanned it back and forth as if to cool himself.

“Man!” he said to Jake Cleary sitting on the ground beside him in the boulder’s shade. “If hell’s any hotter than that, I pity the devil.”

“The devil ain’t in hell,” said Cleary, idly scratching his salt-and-pepper-colored beard. “He’s smart enough he’s laying somewhere in a cool stream. Did you see the lawman?”

“I saw him; he’s headed up,” said Cutthroat. “He’s riding slow, watching the ground.” He gave a thin grin. “Riding right into our laps.”

Cleary shook his head.

“What’s he still watching our tracks for? Where else could we be but here?”

“Ask him that when he gets up here,” said Cutthroat, levering a round into his rifle chamber. He looked along a line of rock where the brothers leaned, waiting, watching him, all four tired horses standing on their other side. Cutthroat Teddy raised his arm and swung it back and forth and pointed toward the trail on the far side of the boulder.

“No hurry yet,” said Cleary, seeing Teddy and the Cundiffs quickly preparing to meet the Ranger. “The way I figure, he’ll leave his horse down there a-ways and ease up the rest of the trail on foot.”

“The way you figure . . . ,” Cutthroat said flatly. He gathered the front of his shirt and squeezed sweat from it. “Let me tell you something, Jake. I’m the one who laid up there on my belly watching for him. We’re going by what I figure. He’ll be riding up here any minute. You’d best be ready to tell him hello.”

“I am ready,” Jake Cleary said, jiggling his rifle in the crook of his arm. He spat and wiped his hand across his mouth. “You never seen me when I was unready.”

Teddy settled a little.

“Riding, walking, I don’t care how he gets here. I just want the man dead and off our backsides.” He raised his hat and wiped sweat from his forehead. “I figured killing Cordy would have been good enough for him, the way these lawmen are,” he added in disgust.

Cleary just looked at him.

“How are they?” he asked.

Teddy shrugged, leveled his hat back atop his head.

“You know what I mean,” he said. “I figured he’d got himself a dead outlaw to show all the folks in Nogales. That’s all he cares about.”

Jake Cleary looked bemused, cocked his head curiously and gazed coolly at him.

“Are you sure you’ve ever heard of Ranger Sam Burrack?” he said quietly.

“Yes, I heard of him,” said Cutthroat Teddy. “He killed Junior Lake, a couple of other second-rate saddle bums. So what?” He gave a shrug. “It ain’t going to get me all wrought up and worried inside.” He gave a lopsided grin. “Come on,” he said, “let’s get around this boulder, be ready for him when he gets up here.” His grin widened. “Maybe he’ll tell you the story of how he killed Junior Lake and his gang of desperados.”

“I ain’t making him no bigger than he is,” Cleary grumbled, following Teddy around the large boulder.

“Hell, old man, everybody makes him bigger than he is,” said Cutthroat Teddy. “I expect I just ain’t as easily impressed as the rest of yas.” The two stopped on the other side of the boulder and waited as the Cundiff brothers walked over closer to...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Berkley
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0451465946
• ISBN 13: 9780451465948
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 304
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar