Table of Contents

PURE HELL WITH A GUN!

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Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Praise

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

PURE HELL WITH A GUN!

“You got any kin you want me to notify, Vic?” asked Smoke Jensen.

“Notify about what?”

“Your death.”

Vic was suddenly unsure of himself. He looked around him. “You alone, Jensen?”

“I don’t need any help in dealing with scum like you, Vic. Come on, make your play.”

Vic began cursing, working his courage back up to a fever. “Drag iron, Jensen!” he screamed.

“After you, punk.”

Vic’s hand dropped to his gun....

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Copyright © 1990 by William W Johnstone

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This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events, is entirely coincidental.

Dedicated to

Tommy & Emily Ruth Ervin

What man was ever content with one crime?

Juvenal

I had rather live with the woman I love in a world full of trouble, than to live in heaven with nobody but men.

Robert G. Ingersoll

1

“I don’t like the idea of the kids on the ocean,” Smoke said. “By God, I just don’t.”

Sally faced him from across the table in the house in the high-up country of Colorado. “Smoke, there is a new treatment available in France, and Louis Arthur has got to have it. We’ve been to the finest doctors on this continent. They all say the same thing.”

“Sally, I’m not arguing that. I want what is best for Baby Arthur. But why do all the children have to go? My God, they’ll be gone for more than a year.”

She smiled at him. Smoke Jensen and Sally never had the hard, deadly quarrels that so many couples suffered. They were both reasonable people of high intelligence, and each loved the other. “The exposure to a more genteel climate—and I’m not talking about the weather—will be good for the older children. They need to broaden their horizons.”

Smoke laughed as he picked up his coffee mug, holding it in one big, flat-knuckled hand. The laughter was full of good humor and did not contain a bit of anger or scorn. He stuck out his little finger. “They gonna learn how to hold a coffee cup dainty-like, with their little pinkies all poked out to one side?”

Sally laughed at him. “Yes. You heathen.”