Over on the Dry Side by Louis L’Amour Page A

“Nobody even knows what’s actually here.
    â€œTwo men rode north out of Mexico. One Chantry. One Mowatt. They had something with them that Clive considered valuable. The two men wintered here, and then Mowatt…or so one story goes…died here. Some say he was killed.
    â€œAnd some say that started the bad feeling. Some say it began when Mowatt was accused of deserting Clive. It’s all long ago. Over the years the story has grown to include a vast treasure. And men have died for believing it.”
    â€œBut you don’t believe it?”
    He shook his head. “Marny, I just simply don’t know. But Clive was akin to us all in his interests, which were intellectual, historical…what you will.
    â€œSome of us have done well with money—damned well in some cases—but more by accident than intention. So I simply believe that Clive found something of historical interest…something immensely valuable to him.”
    â€œWouldn’t Mowatt have known it?”
    â€œPossibly…but possibly not. Possibly he couldn’t even read. There are still many who can’t. Clive was a linguist.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œHe might have been bringing back proof of some fancy of his. From Mexico. And how much could two men carry? They were riding Apache country. How ‘vast’ could the treasure have been?”
    Chantry stood up. “You’d best be getting back, and so had I.”
    She gathered up a few things and went to her horse. “You’re going to move in here?”
    â€œSoon.”
    â€œThey’ll find it, Mr. Chantry. And they’ll also find you.”
    â€œCall me Owen.” He smiled easily. “You won’t tell them, then?”
    â€œNo…I owe them nothing. Perhaps I owe Mac Mowatt a little. And Frank. Frank’s looked after me since I was a little girl.”
    â€œYour mother married Mac Mowatt?”
    â€œYes. He was much older than she, though she already had me. My real father was an army officer. Mac had known him. Mac met my mother when he came by the house to see my father, not knowing he was dead.”
    She swung into the saddle. “Be careful, Owen. There’s no nonsense about them, and some are a bad, bad lot. In their minds there
is
a treasure, and in their minds they’ve already split it among them. They’ll kill you as quickly as they killed Clive.”
    He watched her ride away and then walked back to his own horse. He brought the black in close to the house and then he went inside. It was dark there now, shadowed and still. He took a stick and spread the coals a bit, pouring the last of the coffee on them.
    Then he stood up and looked slowly around. Something was hidden here, something he must find.
    He believed in no treasure. But find it he must or he would never be free and it was freedom—and this place—that he wanted.
    If he could live here, sit outside on that bench with a few books, watch the sun set over Utah and…he would ask for no more.
    Well, he might not have to be alone. For the first time, he even considered that.
    Chapter 6
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    A LL THE DAY long I waited for Chantry to get back. Pa seen I was restless, and a couple of times he stopped to say something but he didn’t. It was away after dark before we heard his horse come clip-clopping into the yard. He hallooed the house, then he rode on to the barn to put up his black.
    Pa had left some bacon an’ side meat on the table, but he only ate a mite. “I had a little something in the hills,” he said.
    Now I knew he taken nothin’ with him, so’s he must have been fed. Was it her he got his food from?
    â€œDid you find the place?” Pa asked.
    â€œI spent most of the afternoon up there,” said Chantry quietly. “And I can see why Doby was impressed. My brother had a love for this country.”
    â€œWonder how come he got clear up there?” Pa said. “It ain’t a