"Peach pie," Three Horses repeated.
"I thought that might get you moving," Braddock said.
He helped the old man to his feet, carried the rifle in his left hand, and put his left arm around Three Horses' waist to support him as they walked slowly toward the ranch house where both of the Metcalfs waited now.
"You had all this get-up in that carpetbag you carry around, didn't you?"
"This get-up, as you call it, is the way a Comanche war chief should dress."
"Maybe so. I'll admit, it looks all right on you."
"Is there...a reward...for those men?"
"Sure. I expect it'll add up to quite a bit. If I was you, I'd share it with these folks. They deserve something for what they've gone through, and anyway, it was the lady who killed Riggs."
Three Horses sighed and said, "I would have liked to kill him myself. But I am glad he is dead. He had it coming."
"No argument from me," Braddock said.
After a moment, the old man asked, "You are not going to stay and claim any of the reward?"
"No, now that it's all over and justice has been done, I have to move on."
"Of course. The hole in your badge. Some things appear true and are false. Some things appear false and are true."
"You talking about the two of us or just spouting philosophy like a dime novel Indian?"
Instead of answering, Three Horses asked, "Have you ever thought about having someone to ride along with you on your journeys?"
"Like Natty Bumppo and Chingachgook, you mean?"
Three Horses snorted and said, "Someone has to get you out of trouble, white man."
Braddock shook his head and said, "That's not happening in a million years," as they limped on slowly through the dusk.
More great Westerns by James Reasoner!
OUTLAW RANGER
G.W. Braddock was raised to be a Texas Ranger and never wanted anything else. But when he's stripped of his badge through no fault of his own and a corrupt system turns the vicious killer Tull Coleman loose on the people of the Lone Star State, Braddock has to decide if he's going to follow the law—or carry out the job he was born to do, even if it means becoming an outlaw himself!
OUTLAW RANGER #2: HANGMAN'S KNOT
Hell came to Santa Angelina on a beautiful morning, as the Texas settlement was practically wiped out by vicious outlaws led by the bloodthirsty lunatic Henry Pollard. Now Pollard is in jail in Alpine, waiting on his trial and an all but certain date with the hangman. The only real question is whether an outraged lynch mob will string him up first. Not everyone wants to see Pollard dance at the end of a rope, however. His gang of hired killers would like to set him free, and so would his older brother, a wealthy cattleman who has always protected Pollard from the consequences of his savagery. Riding into the middle of this three-cornered war is the Outlaw Ranger, G.W. Braddock, who may not have a right anymore to wear the bullet-holed star-in-a-circle badge pinned to his shirt, but whose devotion to the law means he'll risk his life to see that justice is done!
OUTLAW RANGER #3: BLOOD AND GOLD
A savage ambush...twenty men slaughtered in a brutal massacre...a fortune in gold stolen! This was a crime big enough and bold enough to bring the Outlaw Ranger to the wide-open settlement of Cemetery Butte, where a powerful mining tycoon rode roughshod over any who dared to oppose him. But even that atrocity doesn't prepare G.W. Braddock for the evil that awaits him, stretching bloody hands out of the past. Gritty, compelling, and packed with action, the saga of the Outlaw Ranger continues in BLOOD AND GOLD, the third exciting installment in this series from bestselling author James Reasoner.
LONE STAR FURY
A plea for help from a woman he thought was dead brings Texas Ranger Jim Hatfield to the ghost town of Palminter. What he finds waiting for him is a storm of outlaw bullets—and an even deeper mystery that leads him to a mansion on top of a sinister mesa overlooking the Rio Grande. To survive, the legendary Lone Wolf will need his keen wits—and all his deadly gun skill!
LAST CHANCE CANYON
Only desperate men dared to venture into Last Chance Canyon, like bounty hunter Rye Callahan and the deadly outlaw he pursued. The fate that awaited them inside the lonely box canyon was something neither man could have anticipated, and the question was whether either of them would make it out alive!
LAST STAGECOACH TO HELL!
Bounty hunter Rye Callahan risked his life to capture the brutal outlaw Ike Blaine in a desert showdown. But an even deadlier danger awaits both men when they board the stagecoach bound for an isolated Arizona settlement with a sinister secret. Callahan will need all his cunning and gun skill to survive this trip on the last stagecoach to Hell!
The Last War Chief (Outlaw Ranger Book 4) Page 6