Adam Steele 18 The Hard Way by George G. Gilman

Author:George G. Gilman [Gilman, George G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Virginian's fear was perhaps as great as that of the boy as the Colt Hartford shuddered in his gloved hands with the effect of the first shot. Zerro Roja took the bullet midway down his back left of center as he started to turn at the sound of the snarling words and corkscrewed to the ground, a look of confused awe on his face as he died. The first major lesson of the violent peace had been to kill a known enemy quickly, the moment the opportunity occurred. Steele had learned this after choosing to make his father's killers suffer long and hard instead of finishing them instantly. The shot which killed the Apache leader had been exploded on the run. Steele came to an abrupt, sure-footed halt to fire the second shot—at a range of six feet across the smoldering embers of the fire. The bullet tunneled into the face of a brave and burst clear in a spray of gore at the crown of his head. But after all the lynchers were finally dead there had been the cold-blooded murder of Jim Bishop for which Steele had suffered so much punishment. From remorse and the firm belief that all other mental and physical sufferings showered on him were decreed by a fate in harsh payment for the crime. And in this was the lesson that a man must not act with reckless impulsiveness when the life of another was in the balance. Thus had he held back from using the rifle until it was too late for Harlan Dexter. And had endangered himself and the boy when the Federales first appeared. He had to kill one of the squaws now for, as the second brave thudded to the ground she made to plunge her knife into Jimmy's belly. The Colt Hartford was fired from the hip again, the barrel dipping down from its upward angle to belch death across a perfect horizontal. Another head shot, the bullet hissing through the flying hair of the kneeling woman to smash into her temple. Her death ended the blood-curdling war cry as the impact of the bullet sent her sprawling along the line of dark crimson which had fountained from the exit wound to splash the ground. Steele was not afraid for himself. His sole concern was for the boy who was now completely transfixed by the terror and horror of the brutal slaying which surrounded him. Jimmy Dexter had almost died, and was still in mortal danger. Simply because the Virginian had restrained himself from acting earlier. For, once the braves had returned to camp, the element of surprise had always been in the white man's favor. Yet he had waited. As he had done at the Dexter mine and at the mesa out on the plateau. And countless times before through the years between now and the moment he strangled Jim Bishop. On this occasion giving the Apaches time to prove that they did not deserve to perish.

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