Slocum 421 by Jake Logan Page B

horse.”
    â€œHell, we can give you one if you can get these guys going on this send-them-home deal. What else can we do?”
    â€œDon’t they all go to town and get drunk?”
    â€œYeah, Saturdays. They do that over at Buttercup. At the O’Riley Bar. What do we do then?”
    â€œCut some cinches, tie some tin cans on their horses’ tails in long chains, and set off some Chinese firecrackers.”
    â€œWhat would you do next?”
    â€œNext I’d set some explosives and blow up the corral that holds their horses and scatter them to hell and gone.”
    â€œYou’ve done this before?”
    â€œMaybe. But I know it will thin down his ruffians in a hurry.”
    â€œI can’t wait to tell Jon about this. He’s been itching to run them off, but see we’d never thought of all that.” She reached over and clasped the top of his hands with her own. “We’ve been needing you for some time.”
    â€œThanks. Next time I’ll stay longer.” He teased her.
    She drew a deep breath up her slender nose. It had been broken sometime earlier, but that only added to her appeal to him—
tomboy
.
He figured she’d been thrown off a pony or maybe a horse. No telling, but she was a nice-looking woman—tough-acting, but she’d had to be to live out here and survive.
    Jon and Carter arrived, and Slocum and Glenna went outside to see how their day had gone. A warm wind was blowing out of the south, and the two looked weary. Jon was in his early twenties and Carter was close to forty, with gray sideburns and sharp blue eyes.
    â€œThis is Slocum. His story is too long to tell out here. You guys have any trouble today?”
    â€œNot that we couldn’t handle,” Carter said, sounding mad. “Nice to meetcha, Slocum. As for our trouble, we pulled a wild cow out the mud, and when we got her out, two of his men rode up and accused us of trying to steal her. It was one of theirs, but we’d worked for over an hour to get her out. And I’d bet ten bucks they were up on the ridge the whole damn time laughing and letting us do all the work.”
    â€œYou did the right thing.”
    â€œWe know that, but it was their damn attitude. I’m going to wash up. I got time?”
    Glenna smiled at him. “Plenty of time. Slocum has some neat plans for those pushy rannies.”
    â€œYeah, I’d have them crap on a bear trap—” Carter went on toward the small bunkhouse. “That would fix them.”
    â€œI guess you see he don’t like them either. Who were they, Jon?” she asked.
    â€œOne guy I knew was named Rocky. The other was a new man. He never offered his name, but he’s more Texas trash.”
    â€œI have fresh coffee. Let’s go inside. First nice day around here. I hope there will be more.”
    Slocum agreed.
    They talked and laughed over Slocum’s plans. Jon, Carter, and Glenna were more than ready to try and rid the range of these bad-mouths that Horace Garvin had hired. Carter really liked the ideas and was ready to start putting them into action.
    â€œWe have the blasting sticks,” Jon said as their conversation wound down.
    The two men excused themselves and went to the bunkhouse, leaving Slocum and Glenna sitting in front of the low fire in the fireplace. It felt good because the temperature fell fast after sundown.
    â€œTell me all about your childhood,” she said. “I bet you had an interesting life growing up.”
    â€œI was raised on a farm in south Georgia. Did all the things boys did growing up and then got caught up in the war.”
    â€œWhat happened after that? Did you go home and farm?”
    â€œI did, sure. I was starting to build the family farm back up from the ruin it had become during the war. But a greedy carpetbagger judge tried to take the farm away from me. I turned he tables on him and his henchman—and then had the label ‘judge