Showdown at Parson's End E-Book

Simon Webb

• Herausgeber: Robert Hale
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

When Anthony Armstrong returns to his hometown of Parson's End after completing his studies at Harvard, he expects to spend a few quiet weeks lending a hand at his family's farm. When his father is shot, however, he is drawn into a vicious range war. Armstrong longs to return to his studies, but as the body count rises, his chances of ever seeing Harvard again grow fewer by the hour. Matters reach a shattering climax when he is confronted by a ruthless and bloodthirsty band of Comancheros.

Leseprobe

Showdown at Parson’s End

When Anthony Armstrong returns to his hometown of Parson’s End after completing his studies at Harvard, he expects to spend a few quiet weeks lending a hand at his family’s farm. When his father is shot, however, he is drawn into a vicious range war.

Armstrong longs to return to his studies, but as the body count rises, his chances of ever seeing Harvard again grow fewer by the hour. Matters reach a shattering climax when he is confronted by a ruthless and bloodthirsty band of Comancheros.

By the same author

Comanche Moon

Badman Sheriff

A Town Called Innocence

Showdown at Parson’s End

Simon Webb

© Simon Webb 2016

First published in Great Britain 2016

ISBN 978-0-7198-2109-7

The Crowood Press

The Stable Block

Crowood Lane

Ramsbury

Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2016

Robert Hale is an imprint of

The Crowood Press

The right of Simon Webb to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

CHAPTER 1

The scarlet mail-coach came bowling down the hill at a fair lick, coming at last within sight of its latest destination. The messenger sitting beside the driver turned round and banged on the roof with a chunk of wood, hollering, ‘Parson’s End. Parson’s End, a-comin’ up.’

Truth to tell, the messenger might as well have saved his breath, for the coach contained only a single passenger and he knew better than any employee of the stagecoach company that they were about to pull into the little town of Parson’s End. After all, he had been born and raised not five miles from there and was tolerably familiar with every crack in the boardwalk on Main Street. Anthony Armstrong craned his head out of the window and watched as they entered the environs of what, he felt, had to be one of the most dreary and least interesting towns in the whole of the United States.

The first structure of note to meet his eyes was the imposing bulk of a three-storey, faded clapboard building with ‘MERCHANTS HOTEL’ painted on the front in letters six feet high. The absence of a possessive apostrophe, which he had never before noticed, irritated the young man. Next was a row of run-down stores, which were little better than adobe shacks with false fronts. These were emblazoned with the names of the proprietors and type of goods on offer within: THOS KIRBY, BANKER, G.M. HOOVER, LIQUOR & CIGARS, COVENEY, SUPPLIERS OF DRY GOODS, TINWARE AND GUNS. Apparently nothing at all had changed in the year and a half that he had been away and this fact too caused Armstrong to click his tongue in an expression of dissatisfaction and annoyance. The damned place hadn’t changed since he was a boy. For somebody who had spent the last eighteen months at Harvard Law School, the parochialism of his home town stood out in sharp contrast to the urbanity and sophistication of Massachusetts. Had it not been for his mother’s entreaties in the letters which she had been sending him every week since he went off to take up his place at college, Anthony Armstrong seriously doubted if he ever would have wished to return. Still, he thought, as the stage shuddered to a halt with a screeching of iron brakes, there it was. He was back now for the Hilary vacation and might just as well make the best of it.