Читать книгу Settling The Score - George McLane Wood - Страница 60

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Let’s get in the shade of that tree over yonder. Boil us some coffee, Ed, while I unsaddle and grain the horses. Then we’ll eat some jerky and take a nap. We’ll get into Jasper about dark and have look around.” At sundown, Jeff awoke, stood up, and stretched. Ed was still asleep, snoring softly. Jeff nudged him with his boot toe. “Get up, Ed, we need to get going.” Ed woke, rubbing his eyes as he stood up. He moved over and stood by the horses and began to relieve himself. When he’d finished, he began to saddle them.

“What are we gonna do when we get to Jasper, Jeff?”

“I’m gonna find Murphy.”

“Then what?”

“I’m gonna kill him, unless he kills me first. If he does, Ed, you’ve lost your lifetime job.”

“That ain’t funny, Jeff, I’m plumb serious.”

“So am I, old friend, so am I.”

Jeff remembered the first time Ed had lost this job, when he was in jail and Murphy had sent Lester and some men out to Jeff’s ranch, and they’d herded all of Jeff’s cattle away someplace, but not before Lester had beat and stomped poor old Ed and run him off the ranch and back to town to eat out of trash cans. Yeah, I’m gonna kill him, Ed. Or he’s gonna kill me.