The Long Ride Out | Page 2

boatloads of farmers over from Europe and dumped them in
this God-forsaken wilderness.
"So I bought me my acres, five years ago. Only now the town's staring
to grow up out here, and Britton's got his eye on them. I'm close to the
river, and the land is good for this part of Kansas. It's gonna be worth a
lot of money someday, someday soon.
"Now my daughter's gone. I know Britton's got her, even if he won't
admit it. If I took the deed to my land over there tomorrow, I know I'd
get her back."
"How old is she?" Marlin asked around a mouthful of beans.

"Twenty-six. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking she's gone
off with some man. I'll tell you something for nothing. Eva loves this
land, mister. She would never leave it on her own. Never."
"If Britton wants your land so bad, what's to stop him from taking it?"
"He'd have to kill me first, and that still wouldn't give him the deed. I
got nearly a thousand acres, and that deed could be on any one of 'em.
Only me and Eva know where it is, and both of us are on the stubborn
side. The only thing I'm afraid of is he might hurt her before he finds
out how stubborn she is."
Marlin nodded, started to push back his chair, then jumped away from
the table. He clawed at his gun as he watched a six-foot diamond-back
rattlesnake slither across the floor.
Kraamer ran toward him shouting, "Stop! Don't shoot!" Marlin
hesitated, wondering if the old man had lost his mind. "It's just a
bullsnake," Kraamer said. "Kills mice, even rattlers sometimes. He
won't hurt you."
Marlin holstered his Colt, feeling the skin crawl in the middle of his
back. "He's marked uncommon like a rattler."
"No poison," Kraamer said, letting the snake glide over one of his boots.
"You could say this here snake's a friend of mine."
*
The morning sky looked like snow again as Marlin rode into Britton's
ranch. Four cowboys drifted over from the breaking pens as he tied up
in front of the house.
"He'p you?" one of them said.
Marlin got down. "I came to see Britton."
Another cowboy said, "Yesterday you was looking for Kraamer. You
just like looking for people, or what?" He rubbed his gloved hands

together and smiled.
The first cowboy said, "Kraamer, he ain't too pop'lar round here." They
all nodded at that. All of them had pleasant expressions on their faces,
and holstered guns at their sides.
The second one said, "We sure would hate to think you were working
for him or anything." Somehow they had all gotten between him and
the house.
"All right," said a voice from the doorway of the house. "Y'all boys get
back to work. If you ain't got enough to keep you busy, you talk to the
foreman."
The cowboys shuffled away and Marlin climbed the stone steps to the
house. The man in the doorway was tall and thick, with white hair like
a clump of brush on his head. He wore a clean white shirt and string tie
and he didn't seem to notice the cold.
"You Britton?" Marlin asked.
The man nodded. "You from Kraamer?"
"That's right."
"Come on in."
Marlin's boots made a solid sound on the wooden floor. Some walls
were rock and mortar, some adobe. A fireplace filled half of one wall
and Indian rugs lay in front of it. Marlin sat in a heavy chair and
accepted a cup of coffee from a black woman with stiff white hair.
Britton stood with his back to the fire. "What did Kraamer tell you?"
Marlin sipped at his coffee, then rubbed his lower lip. "He said you
wanted his land."
"Did he tell you some hogwash about his daughter, too?" Marlin
nodded. "I figured. That story of his is all over town. So what's your

part in this?"
"I'm not working for anybody just yet," Marlin said. "Once I figure you
what's going on, then I'll decide what I want to do about it."
"Fair enough. Here's my side of it." He brushed at the back of his
trousers and sat down in a chair like Marlin's. "I've been here a long
time. I came west on the Santa Fe Trail thirty years ago. That was back
before the railroad, back before everybody went land crazy. My wagon
broke down on this very spot and it seemed like a sign. I made it
through a hard winter, and by the time spring came I didn't feel like
moving on any more. I traded with the Comanche and the Sioux, and
later on I fought 'em when I had to. I fought for Statehood too, even
though I am