Smoke laughed at him. “That’s all horse-crap and you know it, Val. You chose your life-style willingly. So don’t go out with a lie on your lips.”
“I guess,” the outlaw said, his voice weak. He looked around him and laughed bitterly. “All them books them folks back east write about the glamorous life on the hoot-owl trail. They don’t know nothin’. All the outlaws I ever seen, me included, were dirty and hungry and cold and miserable ninety-nine days out of a hundred. But there ain’t no point in wishin’ I could change it, is there?”
“No, there isn’t.”
“Smoke?”
Smoke looked at him.
“You’re a good man, Jensen. You got a good woman. I wish you both the best.”
“Thanks, Val. You want to be buried with your boots on?”
“No. Gonna be hot enough where I’m goin’.” He laid his head on the ground and closed his eyes.
Smoke waited for death to take the man.
“Max?” Sally whispered. She had taken a good-sized chunk of burning wood from the fire and stepped up behind the man. One end of the fire-brand was blazing hot.
Max turned and Sally hit him in the face with the burning end, then jammed the blazing wood into his open mouth. Max dropped his rifle and screamed, backing up. His boot hit a rock and sent him tumbling over the edge of the cliff. He screamed for a thousand feet.
Silence fell over the wilderness.
Sally rubbed her aching ankles and wrists, then set about making fresh coffee and slicing bacon. Her man would be along in about an hour.
Smoke rode into the flats and dismounted. He held his woman in his arms for a long time. She pushed him away and expelled breath. “What took you so long?”
“I buried Val Singer. Are you all right?”
“I am now. Come on, eat. I made fresh coffee.”
The sun burst out of the clouds and mist of mid-afternoon. Sally looked across the fire at Smoke Jensen. “No point in starting out now. We can wait until morning.”
“Oh? You have something in mind?”
She came to him and whispered in his ear.
Smoke took her in his arms. “Now that’s the best suggestion I’ve heard in a long time.”
Table of Contents
PURE HELL WITH A GUN!
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Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Praise
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
