"But he come on in an' Charley come in, too. Ed Bedloe was out in the
far corral, gettin' ready to throw the gate open an' turn out the cows
an' stampede 'em off'n the ranch. What for?" She lifted her bony
shoulders. "Oh, nothin'. They'd jus' had trouble with my John about six
months before, an' was taking a good chance to smash up things in
general about the ranch. They swore they was going to burn the cabin an'
the barn an' scatter the stock an' do anything else they could put their
hands to. An' while they was in here, cussing an' abusing my John, who
couldn't even get up an' grab his shotgun in the corner, an' insulting
me all they could lay their dirty tongues to, there's a step at the
door right behind 'em, light as a cat, an' here's Buck come in from the
barn.
"I wish you'd seen that man's eyes! Then you'd know what I mean when I
say he gets hard, hard an' bitter sometimes. An' his voice--it was so
low an' soft you might 'a' thought he was putting a baby to sleep with
it! There was two of them boys, big an' ugly-mean, an' they both had
guns on, in sight. There was jus' one of Buck Thornton, an' I didn't
know yet he ever toted a gun. He uses his hands, mostly, I reckon, Buck
does. He didn't say much.
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