Battle of the Teton Basin (High Country Book 3) by Jason Manning

Author:Jason Manning [Manning, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-08-13T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

"Get back to the wagons," said Zach, and kicked his horse into motion, heading out across the flats to catch up Letcher's wayward horse.

"Promise me!" Letcher yelled after him.

But Zach pretended not to hear.

He caught up the horse without undue difficulty and turned back toward the wagons. He could see that Letcher and Angelique had reached the caravan. He could also see that a group of Indians—twenty, maybe twenty-five of them—had broken away from the rest, who remained on the distant ridge, and were coming straight at the wagons. Choctaw had belayed the order to circle up. There wasn't time. The traders took cover underneath and behind the wagons.

By the time Zach reached the caravan, the Indians were a couple hundred yards away. They had their ponies stretched out in a gallop. Thundering hooves kicked up a plume of dun-colored dust. Zach tethered both horses to a wheel of Choctaw's wagon and took the buckskin sheath off the Hawken to check cap and charge. Choctaw had dug a spyglass out of his possibles. He scanned the group of approaching riders with the spyglass, and then the long line of Indians on the distant ridge. Finally he lowered the spyglass and clambered back up into the wagon box and yelled: "Hold your fire!"

As the lieutenants conveyed this order, Choctaw jumped off the wagon and turned to Zach with vast relief on his craggy features.

"I see women and children up on that ridge, Hannah, thank God."

Zach knew that was a good sign. Indians bent on war did not bring their families along.

"What tribe?" he asked.

"Arapaho, I think. A whole band on the move. The bunch coming up has our mules in tow."

The group of Indians checked their ponies fifty yards from the wagons. One of them ventured closer, raised his lance overhead, and uttered a piercing yell.

"He's trying to tell us something," said Choctaw, "but I'll be damned if I know what. I don't speak the lingo and, frankly, don't know anybody who does. The Arapaho language is entirely different from any other Indian tongue."

The brave in advance of the rest hurled his lance into the ground.

"Reckon that actions speaks louder than words," said Zach. "Is that a challenge? Or a way of telling us he's come to talk and not fight."

"He wants to talk. Guess I'll mosey on out there and see if I can figure out what the hell they want."

"I'll go with you," volunteered Zach. "I'm pretty good with sign language."

Choctaw gave him a hard look. "We've got to go out empty-handed, Hannah. You never can tell about Arapaho. They can be friendly as all get-out one minute and turn on you the next."

"I'll take my chances."

"Let's go." He glanced beyond Zach, as Hanrahan and the other lieutenant, a man named Gifford, came up to the head of the column for further orders. "You two make damned sure nobody shoots. If you do, those Dog Soldiers out yonder will make short work of us." He smiled coldly at Hanrahan.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.