Even if a man like Edge felt like settling down, the two-street community of Ross, Oregon was not the place.
Once a gold town, till the lode was worked out, now a lumber town, but only till the timber was cut down, it was a wretched huddle of uncared-for shacks.
Nor was the meal of half-cold bacon and beans he'd just struggled through likely to let him settle for even one good night's sleep. In fact the only issue settled was that the owner of the Golden Eagle Saloon couldn't cook.
But most unsettling of all was the half-breed woman. Tall and flauntingly good-looking, Edge had seen her change hands in a poker game. Saw her look of resigned contempt when she went off with her new owners. Had even then an inkling that she was about to have a violently disturbing effect on his life in the near future . . .
She was one of those Liberating Women.
Right now it was horses she was trying to liberate. Two of them, rightfully the property of the lawmen who'd just awakened the man called Edge and told him that his horse had been liberated by a night-time thief who'd been liberated from Nebraska's Carlsburg Penitentiary by his brothers-in-outlawry.
Altogether too much liberation going on.
Edge looked at the woman. She'd ambushed them like a man, handled a rifle like a man. Was dressed in a man's clothes - though she filled them just like a woman.
There and then he decided that this Woman's Movement had to be stopped in its tracks. Stopped dead if necessary.
Right now it was horses she was trying to liberate. Two of them, rightfully the property of the lawmen who'd just awakened the man called Edge and told him that his horse had been liberated by a night-time thief who'd been liberated from Nebraska's Carlsburg Penitentiary by his brothers-in-outlawry.
Altogether too much liberation going on.
Edge looked at the woman. She'd ambushed them like a man, handled a rifle like a man. Was dressed in a man's clothes - though she filled them just like a woman.
There and then he decided that this Woman's Movement had to be stopped in its tracks. Stopped dead if necessary.
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