the Strong Shall Live (Ss) (1980) by L'amour Louis

Author:L'amour, Louis [L'amour, Louis]
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-12-12T06:26:00.140000+00:00

BIG MAN

Cherry Noble rode into Wagonstop on a blade mule. He was six feet seven in his socks, and he habitually wore boots. He weighed three hundred and thirty pounds. He swung down from the mule and led it and his three pack animals to water. As he stood by the trough with his mules, the bystanders stared in unadulterated amazement.

Noble looked up, smiling in a friendly fashion. "What's off there?" He indicated the country to the west with a bob of his head.

From where he stood nothing was visible to the west but the sun setting over a weird collection of red spires and tabletopped mountains.

Lay Benton replied. "Nothin' but wilderness, some of the wildest, roughest country on earth and some bloodthirsty Indians."

"No people?"

"None."

"Water? And grass maybe?"

"Could be a little. Who knows?"

"Then that's where I'll go. I'll go there so when folks do come there'll be a place waiting for them. Sooner or later people come to most" every place, and mostly when they get there they are hot and tired. I'll have grass, water, and beef a-waiting."

"You'd be crazy to try," Benton said. "No white man could live in that country even if the Indians would let him."

Cherry Noble's laugh boomed, his face wrinkling with the memories of old smiles. "They'll let me stay, and I guess there's no place a man can't liveif he sets his mind to it." He slapped a bulging saddlebag. "Know what I've got here? Cherry pits, that's what I When I stop I plan to plant cherries I Ain't no better fruit, anywhere, and that's why people call me as they do. Noble's my name and folks call me Cherry. You could trail me across the country by the trees I've planted."

Lay Benton was a trouble-hunter, and he did not like Cherry Noble. Lay had been the biggest man around until Noble arrived, and he still considered himself the toughest. The big man's easy good humor irritated him. "If you go into that country," he said contemptuously, "you're a fool!"

" 'Better to be a fool than a knave,' " quoted Noble. He was smiling, but his eyes were measuring Benton with sudden attention and knowledge.

Benton came to his feet ready for trouble. "What was that you called me?"

Cherry Noble walked to the foot of the steps where Benton stood. "Friend," he" spoke gently, still smiling, "I didn't call you, but if you heard your name just keep a-coming."

Benton was irresolute. Something in the easy movement and confidence of the big man disturbed him. "You don't make sense !" he said irritably. "What's the matter? Are you crazy?"

Noble chuckled, his big hands on his hips. "Now as to that," he said judiciously, "there's a division of opinion. Some say yes, some say no. Me, I've not rightly decided, but at any rate I'm not a very wise man.

"Feller back in Missouri when I was about hip-high to a short burro, he give me five books, he did. He said, 'Son, you take these books and you read them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.