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.â
Chantry paused. âMoreover, knowing him, he would probably leave such a clue as only I would be apt to discover.â
âWhat kinda clue could that be?â
Chantry shrugged. âI 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
âWell,â said Pa, âfor the life of me I canât figger out what kinda clue, or how youâd ever guess it.â
âIâve got to go back,â Marny said.
Chantry turned toward her. âDonât. Stay here.â
âNo, Iâve got to go back. At least one more time. I have things there.â¦Well, I want them. Iâll need them.â
âWill they know youâve been to the cabin?â
âNo. I donât think so. But theyâll go there now. Mac Mowatt will be certain he can find what there is. Theyâll tear the place apart.â
âMaybe not,â Owen Chantry said. âMaybe Iâll be there.â
âAlone? Against them all?â
âI wonât be inside. Iâll keep some freedom of action.â I heard Chantry walk across the room. âYes, I think I must do that. I must be there when they come. I want to keep that cabin.â
âItâs lonely,â Pa said. âItâs a mighty lonely place. Of a wintertime a man could be snowed in. That house must be nine thousand feet up.â
âIâve been up high before.â
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 herâ¦
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 nothinâ I could do.
If I just had my old rifle and was up in them rocksâ¦well, maybe I couldnât do nothinâ, but could surely try.
Suddenly Chantry stood over me. âYou all right, Doby? I heard you cry out.â
âDidnât mean to. Yeah, Iâm all right. But I wish youâd bring her back. Thatâs a bad outfit. I wish youâd fetch her, Owen Chantry.â
âIâll be at the cabin. She knows that.â
âIf she ever gets there. Mr. Chantry, Iâm scared. Iâm plumb scared for her. She donât think they knew she knowed about that cabin, but they probâly seen the flowers there.â
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.
âIâll just go see, Doby. Iâll ride up there. Right nowâ¦today.â
He wasted no time. He got on the big black and taken his packhorse and headed for the hills. And seeinâ 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 wouldnât be no one-sided fight. Not with him being the other side, no matter how many they had.
There was somethinâ about that man that made you believe. Even me, who up âtil then hadnât wanted to believe much of anything âbout Owen Chantry.
Somehow, busted ribs and all, I had to be there. I had to be up on that mountain when the shootinâ 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 doesnât command a cavalry outfit, scout for the army against
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