Over on the Dry Side by Louis L’Amour

know, my brother was here for some time. If there was anything of value here, he would have found it. And being a methodical man, I believe he would leave some clue.”
    Chantry paused. “Moreover, knowing him, he would probably leave such a clue as only I would be apt to discover.”
    â€œWhat kinda clue could that be?”
    Chantry shrugged. “I will have to remember what passed between us, and which of my tastes he knew best. Clive was a fine man, a much better man than I in every moral way. But he had a complicated mind, and so have I, and any clue he left would be useful to no one else.”
    â€œWell,” said Pa, “for the life of me I can’t figger out what kinda clue, or how you’d ever guess it.”
    â€œI’ve got to go back,” Marny said.
    Chantry turned toward her. “Don’t. Stay here.”
    â€œNo, I’ve got to go back. At least one more time. I have things there.…Well, I want them. I’ll need them.”
    â€œWill they know you’ve been to the cabin?”
    â€œNo. I don’t think so. But they’ll go there now. Mac Mowatt will be certain he can find what there is. They’ll tear the place apart.”
    â€œMaybe not,” Owen Chantry said. “Maybe I’ll be there.”
    â€œAlone? Against them all?”
    â€œI won’t be inside. I’ll keep some freedom of action.” I heard Chantry walk across the room. “Yes, I think I must do that. I must be there when they come. I want to keep that cabin.”
    â€œIt’s lonely,” Pa said. “It’s a mighty lonely place. Of a wintertime a man could be snowed in. That house must be nine thousand feet up.”
    â€œI’ve been up high before.”
    I never seen her go. She just taken off and was gone when I waked up, with only the faint smell of her perfume left in the air. But I was scared for her…
scared
. I had a bad feeling about her going back.
    I tried to sit up and got such a stab of pain in my side that I laid down quick, gasping for breath.
    She was gone. There was nothin’ I could do.
    If I just had my old rifle and was up in them rocks…well, maybe I couldn’t do nothin’, but could surely try.
    Suddenly Chantry stood over me. “You all right, Doby? I heard you cry out.”
    â€œDidn’t mean to. Yeah, I’m all right. But I wish you’d bring her back. That’s a bad outfit. I wish you’d fetch her, Owen Chantry.”
    â€œI’ll be at the cabin. She knows that.”
    â€œIf she ever gets there. Mr. Chantry, I’m scared. I’m plumb scared for her. She don’t think they knew she knowed about that cabin, but they prob’ly seen the flowers there.”
    Chantry looked grim, and he had a face for it. He was a right handsome man, but there was a coldness in him sometimes that would frighten a man.
    â€œI’ll just go see, Doby. I’ll ride up there. Right now…today.”
    He wasted no time. He got on the big black and taken his packhorse and headed for the hills. And seein’ him ride out, I wondered what would happen when him and the Mowatts come together.
    Maybe he was only one man and they was many, but she sure wouldn’t be no one-sided fight. Not with him being the other side, no matter how many they had.
    There was somethin’ about that man that made you believe. Even me, who up ’til then hadn’t wanted to believe much of anything ’bout Owen Chantry.
    Somehow, busted ribs and all, I had to be there. I had to be up on that mountain when the shootin’ started.

Chapter 9
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    O WEN CHANTRY WAS a man without illusions. Nothing in his experience had given him the idea that he was protected by any special dispensation from Providence. He had seen good men die when the evil lived on, and he was aware that he was as vulnerable as any other man.
    Yet a man doesn’t command a cavalry outfit, scout for the army against