Bullet Bait —complete classic western adventure

BULLET BAIT

He was aware of his ragged ten-day beard and his travel-stained gear against the subdued elegance of this room.

They had told him at the office in Denver that this would be a peculiar case.

He was beginning to understand what they had meant.

The mechanical problems of erecting this magnificent house in the bottom of the most inaccessible canyon of the Yampa badlands hinted strongly that its builder had been an unusual man.

It was not surprising that the circumstances of his reported death had also been unusual — sufficiently so to attract the sharp attention of the claims department of the Mountain Divide Insurance Co.

A door opened and closed beyond the railed balcony across the far end of the living room.

Footfalls clicked lightly and quickly along an interior hall.

A girl appeared on the balcony and descended the stairs.

Rising, Rip waited for her to traverse the length of the room.

She was small, beautifully so, but she moved with sure grace and perfect athletic balance which a girlhood spent in the saddle will give a woman.