Black Hat Jack by Lansdale Joe R

Author:Lansdale, Joe R. [Lansdale, Joe R.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Literary, joe r. lansdale, Texas, Western
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Published: 2014-09-26T04:00:00+00:00

7

I am a fast runner, but I made a note that if me and Jimmy didn’t get killed, I was going to punch him in the mouth.

Went for all I was worth, I can assure you of that, and it was fairly flat there, so I had a mighty smooth run, considering the circumstances. I knew that Bat wouldn’t fire at those Indians near that pair until necessary, because when he did, they might note I was coming. Right then they was concentrated on sending arrows and shots at them two out there on the ground. Soon as they noticed me, he would commence if he was thinking clear, and maybe not even then. I might be out of reasonable range. But when I started back, and with them coming after me, because I assumed they would, he could cut down on them then. I had no doubt he would.

I could see the limping horse and the one already down, and I seen one of the men stand from behind the dead horse, grab the injured horse’s bridle, put a pistol to its head and bring it down in such a way that a V was created with the two dead animals. That was smart thinking.

The Indians, and they looked like a small band of Kiowas, was riding up fast now, and when they seen me, an easier target than someone behind a horse, they started firing. I fired back on the run, cock-firing that Winchester until it was empty, hitting two Indians, maybe killing one, and dropping four horses, throwing their riders in the grass. About that same time Bat started shooting that Henry.

The Kiowas dropped off their horses and left them, got behind their dead ones and started shooting arrows and gunfire. By that time I was near the V that fellow had made with the dead mounts, the person who had killed the horse turned to look at me. I had already been noticed, of course, all that gunfire had drawn attention to me.

“I’m coming in,” I said.

I took a leap, landed between the two horses. A series of arrows plunked into the dead animals and their hides sputtered with bullets. When I was down between the horses, I seen the survivor was a woman. She had her hair pushed up under her hat, but there was no denying she was a woman, young, in her twenties like me. A white woman with a bit of dark hair showing under her hat.

I turned to look at her partner. He was stretched out on his back with his hands at his sides, like maybe he had laid down for a short nap.

“My brother,” she said. “They’ve killed him.”

I had already taken to pulling shells out of my gun belt, slipping them into my Winchester. I said, “Listen here, I’m sorry, but we can’t hang our thoughts on that right now. We’re going to have to run like rabbits in a second. We stay here, all them other Indians are going to be on us.

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