Read Lone Star 01 for Free Online Page A

Diamond. I ride there, and they strike Leach’s Lazy L.”
    â€œAs Miss Starbuck said, Quince, track them down.”
    â€œDon’t think I haven’t tried. But once off the flatlands, we lose them up in the rock canyons. Can’t even get a line on where the cattle’s being sold, either, no sign of any of your herds showing up anywhere in the territory. It’s just like the mountains opened up and swallowed them whole, and I tell you, it’s got me buffaloed.”
    â€œWell, I guess that means me and the others will have to form a vigilante committee,” Melville said, glaring as he leaned over the desk again. “I know it’s illegal, but we’re fed up with losing our men and cattle.”
    Deputy Oakes brooded, as if considering the ultimatum. “Daryl,” he finally said, “I’ll ask you not to go off half cocked. Let me wire my boss in Laramie to send some more deputies. I’ll scatter them around, and we’re sure to get a lead on where the rustlers are rat-holed. You tell that to the others, will you?”
    â€œI’ll try,” Melville replied. “They might not listen.”
    â€œMake them listen. Letting your crews run around with itchy trigger fingers can only lead to worse trouble, not less. I mean this for your own good. I’d really regret having to arrest you or any of your men for taking the law into your own hands.”
    â€œAll right, Quince, I’ll string along with you awhile longer.” Straightening, Melville started for the door. He paused, hand on the knob, to add, “But things have to change around here, and fast.”
    â€œThey will, Daryl,” Deputy Oakes replied with an earnest heartiness. “You’ve got my word. You can count on it.”
    Melville nodded and opened the door, then hesitated again to look at Jessica. “Coming, Miss Starbuck?”
    It was less a question than a command, and normally such a tone would have provoked Jessica. But she had no more to say to Deputy Oakes, and plenty to ask Daryl Melville. Besides, she was interested in knowing why he’d raised his eyebrows when he heard her name. So, with a parting smile to the deputy, she went out the door that Melville was holding open for her.
    Before she could utter a word, Melville started angling across the street, his long swift strides hard for her to follow.
    â€œWhere are you going so fast?” she asked.
    â€œTo get my father,” he said, slowing so she could catch up. His onyx eyes were flashing more irately than ever. “He’s over in the Thundermug, half swacked by now. The damn dog-bleeding crooks.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œHalford and Kendrick, bartender and gambler, the owners of the dive. If one doesn’t rob you, the other one will. Say, by any chance would you be related to the Starbucks in Texas?”
    â€œYes. Why?”
    â€œI’m one of the ranchers in the Circle Star co-op.”
    â€œOh? Which one?”
    â€œSpraddled M. M for Melville.” Reaching the boardwalk on the opposite side of the street, he stopped and smiled at Jessica. “Daryl Melville. And my father, Tobias, of course; he started it after driving cattle up from Texas back in the early seventies.”
    â€œYou sound proud of it.”
    â€œDirt-proud, mostly, but it’s home,” he responded wryly, and gestured down the street, where the trail continued west to Garrett. “There’s a fork in the road a fair piece from here, that goes to five spreads back in the slopes, including ours and the Flying W. There ain’t none of us but hasn’t fought everything Mother Nature has to throw, and we were winning until this thieving and murdering came along. Hate to say it, but you rode into a range that’s raring to explode.”
    â€œI’ve done that before,” Jessica said quietly.
    â€œI admire your spunk,” he said, starting up the boardwalk again, “but