by Max Brand
She smiled as she looked down at him.
“I mean,” he explained, “that I’m plumb tired, Charlie. I’m finished with the game. I’m done up and weary to the bone. But if you still can waste time on a good-for-nothin’ gent that never done anything well except the makin’ of trouble, I’ve come back here to ask you to marry me, Charlie.”
“You better have a sleep, first,” said she. “You’re tuckered out and you want to quit now, but tomorrow you’ll be on the wing again.”
“What makes you think that?” he asked her, too tired to follow her meaning clearly.
“You’ll always hunt trouble till you’ve met a master,” said she, firmly. “You gotta ride to a fall, Harry. You gotta fight till you’re knocked out.”
Destry laughed, and he was so very tired that his head fell loosely back as he laughed.
“I’ve met my master,” said he. “I’ve met my peer. He beat me to the draw; he beat me with guns, and he beat me hand to hand. I killed him with luck and not with skill. I’ve throwed the gun away, Charlie. I’m an old man, and finished and done for. A Chinaman could laugh in my face, now, and I’d take it!”
“It was Bent?” she asked.
“Ay, it was Chet.”
She drew a great breath.
“I always knew,” said she, “that something good would come out of him!”
They were married that month, on the day when Willie Thornton was pronounced able to sit up. Because he expressed a desire to see the affair, it was performed in Willie’s room, which was jammed with a crowd that overflowed into the hall and even up and down the stairs.
But, as Ding Slater said, the whole county should have been present, because it meant the end of the old days and the beginning of a new regime in Wham, for Harrison Destry had put away his Colt.
Other Leisure books by Max Brand ®:
TREASURE WELL
THE WAY OF THE WEST (Anthology)
THE BLACK RIDER
CITY IN THE SKY
CROSSROADS
LUCK
RED ROCK’S SECRET
DOGS OF THE CAPTAIN
THE LAWLESS WEST (Anthology)
THE FUGITIVE
TWISTED BARS
TROUBLE’S MESSENGER
BAD MAN’S GULCH
THE RANGE FINDER
MOUNTAIN STORMS
THE GOLDEN CAT
PETER BLUE
MORE TALES OF THE WILD WEST
FLAMING FORTUNE
THE RUNAWAYS
BLUE KINGDOM
JOKERS EXTRA WILD
CRUSADER
SMOKING GUNS
THE LONE RIDER
THE UNTAMED WEST (Anthology)
THE TYRANT
THE WELDING QUIRT
THE BRIGHT FACE OF DANGER
DON DIABLO
THE OUTLAW REDEEMER
THE GOLD TRAIL
THE PERIL TREK
THE MASTERMAN
TIMBER LINE
THE OVERLAND KID
THE GOLDEN WEST (Anthology)
THE HOUSE OF GOLD
THE GERALDI TRAIL
GUNMAN’S GOAL CHINOOK
IN THE HILLS OF MONTEREY
THE LOST VALLEY
THE FUGITIVE’S MISSION
THE SURVIVAL OF JUAN ORO
THE GAUNTLET
STOLEN GOLD
THE WOLF STRAIN
MEN BEYOND THE LAW
BEYOND THE OUTPOSTS
THE STONE THAT SHINES
THE OATH OF OFFICE
DUST ACROSS THE RANGE/THE CROSS BRAND
THE ROCK OF KIEVER
SOFT METAL
THUNDER MOON AND THE SKY PEOPLE
RED WIND AND THUNDER MOON
THE LEGEND OF THUNDER MOON
THE QUEST OF LEE GARRISON
SAFETY McTEE
TWO SIXES
SIXTEEN IN NOME
Copyright
A LEISURE BOOK®
March 2009
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