Slaughter's Way (A J.T. Edson Western)
Page 18
Half-a-dozen men went down, a couple of horses collapsed under their riders and all was confusion in the Apaches’ ranks. With their chief dead, and their own medicine clearly as bad wrong as it could be, the brave-hearts took the only way out.
Whirling their horses, the braves prepared to get away as fast as an Indian war pony could run. For all that, they scooped up their dead and wounded across their horses before going. Not one of the braves thought of grabbing up the two medicine-bags full of money which Tanaka had dropped when lifting his shotgun. To them ten thousand dollars meant nothing more than extra weight on a horse.
“They won’t be back,” Alvord stated, coming from under the wagon’s belly. “Lost their chief, medicine’s gone bad. Likely they’ll sneak back on the reservation and behave for a spell.”
“I’ll go collect the money,” Slaughter replied. “We’ll take it, this wagon-load of trouble and Hernandez’s little toy, along to Fort McClellan.”
“Sure lucky for us this-here’s one of the new guns,” Talking Bill remarked, removing the Gatling gun’s magazine. “We couldn’t’ve toted that one I used in the war on the back of a mule.”
“Likely,” Slaughter agreed. “Get the team hitched and let’s pull out.”
For all they had saved the arms from falling into Apache hands; and possibly saved their country from an Indian uprising, Slaughter did not intend to waste time sitting around talking. They still had a herd to deliver to market and he aimed to get it there on time. For that was Slaughter’s way.
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More on J. T. EDSON
i Bill-Show: Wild West Show of the kind made popular by Buffalo Bill Cody.
ii Petalta: A herd rounded up to be cut for marketable stock.
iii For further details about Mr. Earp, read “Bitter-Creek Gallagher’s Head Tax Toll.”
iv Arbuckle’s coffee was one of the most popular brands sold in the West.
v Good-enoughs: Ready-made horseshoes used for temporary replacements on the trail.
vi Suggans: Patchwork quilts made of any odds and ends the cowhand could gather.
vii Horse of a light reddish roan color with a pure white belly.
viii Told in THE PEACEMAKERS