The mankillers Author:Dane Coolidge Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II MESHACKATEE man-trap of the Scar boroughs had caught a wampus when it snared this second rider of the trails. He was huge, and bearded like Olym... more »pian Zeus—a black, curling beard which stood out in bunches beneath strands of long, towsled hair. His nose was small and snubbed, his mouth a cavern of noise, and the rolling blue eyes revealed a depth of ferocity which argued him near to the brutes; yet as he gazed at his fellow prisoner the savagery fell away from him and his smile was almost human. "Hello there, pardner," he greeted with a nod, "so they've got you in here, too. Well by grab, I never thought, after all I been through, to git caught with a bait like that; but when I sees that rock I piles off my horse and drops down to git me a drink, and I'll be shot if Isham Scarborough wasn't right behind that boulder with his Winchester ready to shoot. I surrendered—I had to or the dirty, Texas cowards would have killed me like beefing a steer—but you wait till I git out of here and if I don't lift their hair my name ain't Meshackatee, that's all! I'll throw in with 'em if I have to— because the Bassetts are no better and I don't aimto die by hanging—but it's gitting pretty rank when a man can't ride this canyon without being roped and tied. How'd they work it to pick you up?" "The same way they caught you," confessed the other. "I got down to take a drink and when I looked up I was covered. If there hadn't been two of them " "Yes," nodded Meshackatee, "I know how you feel—I reckon you're a man of some nerve. But them boys would've killed you without batting an eye—by the way, what'd you say your name was?" "My name is Hall," replied the stranger after a silence, and the giant bowed to him gravely. "Glad to meet you, Mr. Hall," he responded cordially. "Yo...« less