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Show page 190 "He and Katie were laughing and joking," the boy said, his voice edged, trying to control his anxiety. "I asked Katie was she going with him to his place. She didn't answer me." Rhine pulled Durham from his pocket, wet a thumb and peeled a wheatstraw paper. He rolled a c i g a r e t t e , l i t it and inhaled. The boy's s i s t e r cculd do what she wanted, she was twenty one. Rhine stared through Mrs. S c o t t ' s front window at the s t i l l , humid, dusty s t r e e t of Division Point and at the empty c a t t l e cars on the siding. The g i r l ' s problem was her continued loneliness on the two acres of d i r t out in the scrub-oaks her parents had left her and t h e boy; a ranch they called i t . There was nothing in a lawman's book to f i t such situations as her deciding to go off with S t a n d t a l l , nothing he could do one way or the other. The sheriff smoked thoughtfully, looking out at the s t r e e t, at dust b a l l s s t i r r e d up by the wind. "You best go on back home and get your cows up," he said to the boy. " I t ' l l be bad weather tonight." The boy's mouth flew open in disbelief. "You don't aim to do nothing! What you sheriff for?" "Son, i t i s n ' t a thing I can do much about," said Rhine. Some of the hardness left his face. "You go on now, do the best you can." "So much for your affections," said Mrs. Scott to Rhine. She was cleaning her counter when the sound of gunshots reached the cafe. Rhine stepped outside, saw a quarter-horse and rider galloping past the general store. With one hand he kept the boy behind him until the rider was out of sight in his .own dust. |