The Andre Norton Megapack - 15 Classic Novels and Short Stories

out all them pages an’ puttin’ ’em in order agin, kinda like a game, Pa said. Pa, he never had much schoolin’, but he could read good an’ write an’ figger. He sure liked to read, so he claimed that there book when it was all tied up together agin—’cause he shot th’ buck as was carryin’ th’ shield. So he made a buckskin case and kept all th’ pages together. That was ’bout soldiers of th’ old time, too—parts of it. Romans they was called. Wonder now—did it maybe go back into a shield agin afterward?” He gazed beyond Drew’s shoulder into the world outside the cantina door.
    “Why would anyone want to store books in a trunk in a cave?” Drew changed the subject quickly to break that unseeing stare. He outlined what Stein had told him, and Anse’s attention was all his again.
    “Might catch up with this Lutterfield an’ ask a few questions—”
    “Stein couldn’t get anythin’ out of him. Guess the old man is a little addled. Maybe someone was storin’ stuff, hopin’ to come back when the war was over. Anyway, there’s no way to identify the owner or owners—”
    Anse picked up The Three Musketeers . “You say this is good—’bout fightin’ an’ such?”
    Drew nodded. “Try it…”
    “Somethin’ like this is good t’ have. Ahombre gits tired readin’ labels on cans. I’d like to see how much Pa pushed into m’ thick head. Good coverin’ this book has. Wouldn’t you say as th’ hombre that had it was kinda heavy in th’ pocket?”
    “Yes. In fact, these were bound to order.”
    “How can you tell that?”
    “These two might have come bound alike.” Drew pointed to the book Anse held and The Count of Monte Cristo . “They were written by the same author and could have been part of a matched set. But this one is on a totally different subject and by another writer—Prescott. Yet it is uniformly bound to match the others. I’d say they came from the personal library of a man able to indulge himself in pretty expensive tastes.”
    “Makes you think,” Anse agreed. “Wonder what else was in that trunk.”
    “Looky what we’ve got us here! Regular li’l schoolhouse right in this cantina!”
    The table moved an inch or so as a thick body brought up with a rush against it. A hand, matted with sun-bleached hair, made a grab for the book Drew had just laid down. Before the startled Kentuckian could pull it back from that grasp, hand and book were gone, and the trooper who had taken it was reeling back to the bar, waving the trophy over his head.
    “Schoolhouse…right here…” he mouthed. “Sittin’ there…two li’l boys, studyin’ their lessons. Now, ain’t that somethin’?”
    A chair went over with a crash. Anse was on his feet, had taken two steps in the direction of the soldier. Drew jumped after him, trying to assess the situation even as his hand closed restrainingly on the Texan’s shoulder.
    There were four troopers. Wide grins on the faces of the three still against the bar suggested they were ready to back their companion in any form of horseplay he intended to try.
    “Sam, one o’ them thar schoolboys is breathin’ down yore neck kinda hot like,” the tallest of the bar row observed.
    Anse jerked against Drew’s hold. There was no expression on his thin face, but the old saber scar from lip to eye on his left cheek was suddenly twice as noticeable.
    Sam reached up against the bar, squirmed around, the book still in his hand.
    “Wal, now, sonny, you ain’t really wantin’ this here book back? Never knowed any li’l boy what warn’t glad to see th’ last o’ a book. Better git away from a real man ’fore you gits yore backside warmed. That’s what th’ teacher does to smarty kids, ain’t it?”
    “You’d better watch out, Sam.” Again the tall man cut in. Sam was still grinning, but there was a curve of lip which was far from any real humor, even that provoked by the practical jokes of a barracks bully. “One of them kids had been sayin’ as how he rode with Forrest, regular li’l red-hot Reb, he is. Stomp all over us…that’s what you Rebs has been promisin’ to do, ain’t it? Gonna stomp all over any Blue Bellies as comes into this town? Well, we ain’t bein’ booted—not easy—an’ not by you, Reb!”
    A second, perhaps more—that much warning Drew had before the speaker lurched from the bar straight for him. What had happened, how this had sprung up out of nothing, the Kentuckian could not