Novel 1954 - Utah Blaine (As Jim Mayo) (v5.0) by Louis L’Amour Page A

at all. Mary shrugged and walked to the window and Lee’s face flamed with anger. He stepped into the room and strode toward Angie. “You!” he shouted, his face contorted. “You just rode in! I seen your horse out here, all lathered! You warned him!”
    “And what if I did?” Her eyes blazed. “I should stay here and let an honest man be murdered by a pack of renegade land thieves?”
    Lee Fox gasped. His anger rendered him speechless. “Thieves?” He all but screamed the word. “You call us thieves? What about that—that—”
    “I call you thieves.” Angie said it quietly. “Lee Fox, neither you nor anyone else has one particle of claim to that land, nor to the B-Bar. Both ranches were used by far better men who got here first. You’ve been snarling like a pack of coyotes around a grizzly for years. Now the bear is dead and you rush in like the carrion hunting scavengers you are, to grab off the ranches they built! You have no vestige of claim on either place except your greed. If anyone has a just claim on the 46 it is Utah Blaine.”
    “Utah?” Fox was wild, incredulous. “What claim would he have?”
    “He was left in charge. That is claim enough. At least,” she shrugged, “it is more claim than you have.” Her tone changed. “Why don’t you be sensible, Lee? Go back to your ranch and be satisfied with what you have while there’s still a chance? You don’t know what you’re doing.”
    Fox stepped toward her, his eyes glittering. “You—you—” His hand lifted.
    “Fox!” Forbes barked the name, and Lee froze, shocked into realization. His eyes swung and stopped. Ralston Forbes held a six-shooter in his hand. “You make another move toward that girl and I’ll kill you!”
    Fox lowered his hand slowly, controlling himself with an effort. “You keep out of this,” he said thickly.
    “Fox, you’ve evidently forgotten how people think of Angie Kinyon in this country. If you struck her your own men would hang you. You’d not live an hour.”
    “I wasn’t goin’ to hit her.” Fox controlled himself, pressing his lips together. “She ain’t got no right to talk that way.”
    “When your common sense overcomes your greed, Fox, you’ll see that every word she said was truth. Furthermore,” Forbes said quietly, “I intend to print just that in my paper tomorrow!”
    Fox’s eyes were ugly. “You do an’ I’ll smash that printin’ press an’ burn you out! You been carryin’ it high an’ mighty long enough. There’s a new system comin’ into bein’ around here. If you don’t think like we do, we’ll either change you or kill you!”
    Forbes was tall. He looked taller now. “That’s your privilege to try, Fox. But I wouldn’t if I were you. There are some things this country won’t tolerate. Abuse of a good woman and interference with a free press are two of them.”
    Fox stared at Mary Blake. He started to speak, then turned abruptly and strode from the room. Then there was a rattle of horses’ hoofs and they were gone.
    “Thanks, Rals,” Angie said. “He would have hit me.”
    Forbes nodded. “And I’d have killed him. And I’ve never killed a man, Angie.”
    “At least,” Angie said, “Blaine will have more of a start. They’ll not catch him now.”
    “No.”
    Mary Blake turned from the window. “What about you, Rals? You’d better not try to fight them. You’re all alone here.”
    “Alone?” Forbes shook his head. “No, I’m not alone. There’s a dozen men here in town who’ll stand by me: Ryan, the blacksmith, Jordan, the shoemaker, all of them.”

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    I T WAS ONLY an hour later that news reached Red Creek of the attack on the Big N. Ben Otten was in the cafe talking to Forbes when a Big N hand came in. They listened to Rocky White’s recital of what had happened. Ten tons of hay gone! Although worth twenty-five dollars a ton now, the hay would be priceless before the coming winter was gone.
    And the ranch house had been shot up. More and