Money and Honor: An Old West Story

By FARY SJ OROH

Donna Ross was frightened, and Will Morrow knew it was a question of honor that worried her. But his code was upheld with a six-shooter...
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daun Ilalang Publishing
• Release date: Apr 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386154037

Book preview

CHAPTER I

Two Stacks of Yellow Bills

WILL! the girl’s voice called. Will! Come here quickly please.

The voice came from inside the depot of the railroad station at Burnstone, Arizona. Will Morrow swung hastily from his tired horse at the sound. He knew that voice, he would know it anywhere on earth at any time of the day or night. Although he had never admitted it, even to himself—a man with his background and personality does not admit such things—every time he heard this voice his heart seemed to beat faster.

Will—

I’m coming, Donna. What is it?

She was inside the depot. He couldn’t see her, but he could hear the fear in her voice, the sudden, sharp, inexplicable fear of a woman who has come unexpectedly upon trouble. Except for five years when he had been away, Morrow had known Donna Ross most of her life. He had never known a time when she seemed afraid of anything. Her father had been a prospector, a miner, and she had followed him almost from the time she was able to walk.

She had known the rough life of the mining camps, the dangers of the trail, the winter blizzards in the mountains, the summer sun in the desert, but she had never known, or had never shown she had known, the meaning of fear.

She was afraid now. The fear was in her voice. Morrow jerked free the gun holstered at his hip. His high heeled boots clumped on the wooden boards of the depot platform as he raced for the open door of the station. He did not know what he expected to find inside the railroad station but if it was something big enough to frighten Donna Ross, Morrow grimly suspected he would need the gun. He stepped through the door.

Donna Ross was standing at the counter in front of the grill where the station agent transacted the railroad’s business. Ed Carter, the agent, was standing beside her. Sam Ormsby, a newcomer whose business was mining claims, stood at the far end of the counter. Brown wrapping paper from a half-opened package was lying on the counter in front of the grill. Morrow caught a glint of yellow hidden behind the brown paper.

What’s going on here? he asked. Ormsby? Carter—

Ormsby’s face was blue with suppressed anger. Carter looked shaken. Donna Ross’ face was paper white.