• • •
Doctor Draper said with sour humor, “I told you the other day that you wouldn’t be up and around for a while yet, Roy.”
Cameron could see the doctor’s thin face looming over him. Beyond it, he caught the warm glow of Jenny’s eyes. The face moved away and Jenny came closer. She touched his fingers with her own.
“How long have I been here this time?” Cameron asked. His voice sounded rusty to his ears.
“It’s noon Monday,” Jenny answered. She brushed him with her smile. “But you’re all right, Roy. The bullet’s out and the doctor says the wound is clean.”
“You’re tough!” Draper snapped. He scowled as if he found his own diagnosis hard to believe. “Torn ligaments, two bullet holes in you …” He broke off and went out of the room.
Cameron said worriedly, “Balder — I left him in a cell!”
“Tod and I found him when we came to town with Obed about three o’clock Sunday morning. He said he’d heard shooting from the bank and we went there and found you.”
Cameron said bitterly, “I had to lock Balder up. He thought I was in with Larabee and tried to jail me.”
“He doesn’t think it anymore,” she said softly. “Not after he heard Tod’s story and mine — and Jupe Dondee’s. He’s still alive and he did a lot of talking.” She smiled.
“The marshal seemed almost pleased to have been wrong about you.”
Her smile broadened. “The former marshal, that is. The job is yours when you’re ready for it, Roy.”
“You’re talking too much,” Cameron said. “How can I kiss a woman who’s talking all the time?”
She laughed and bent toward him. Their lips touched. She drew away. “Are you going to do that every time I try to talk?”
“Every time.”
“In that case,” she said, “I’ll plan on a lot of talking.”
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Copyright © 1965 by Louis Trimble. Copyright © renewed 1993 by R. Mary Todd Trimble. Published by arrangement with Golden West Literary Agency. All rights reserved.
Cover Images ©istockphoto/David Mathies
This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.
ISBN 10: 1-4405-4976-1
ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-4976-2
eISBN 10: 1-4405-4974-5
eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-4974-8
The Desperate Deputy of Cougar Hill Page 14
