Blood on the Trail by Terrence McCauley

Author:Terrence McCauley [McCauley, Terrence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Published: 2022-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

From a hill on the outskirts of town, Ed Zimmerman looked over Silver Cloud through the same field glasses he had taken off a dead cavalry officer the gang had ambushed about a year before. John Hudson had let the remaining soldiers in his patrol go, unarmed of course, in the hopes that their story of the Hudson Gang would carry through their ranks. Zimmerman knew the story would draw the ire of the blue coats but adding to their legend had always been of greater concern to John.

Since all of the lamps along the boardwalks of the main thoroughfare were now lit, Zimmerman could get a good idea of the layout of the town. Buildings of various sizes were huddled together along a single, long main street. A clock tower dominated the sky above the town. It would come in handy if they decided to ride in.

Given the hour, he judged the lights he saw from certain buildings must have been saloons. He wondered which one of them was The Green Tree. Before Zimmerman had sent him ahead, Ace had told him he would set up shop there while he hired on men to back them against Halstead.

“Don’t know what you hope to see,” Cliff said. “It’s pitch black out there.”

It was not totally black. There was a half-moon shining in the clear night sky. Zimmerman kept looking anyway. “So says the one-eyed man.”

“Don’t need two eyes to have enough sense to know there’s nothing you can see from this far away,” the black outlaw said.

“Common sense means you don’t ride into a place afore you look it over,” Mick told him. “They got lights burning down there enough for Ed to see plenty.”

“I don’t feel like ridin’ into no trap,” Bug added. “If it takes looking through them glasses to make us safer before we go in, I’m all for it.”

Cree said, “Ace not coming out to see us is a bad sign, boys. Mighty bad. He should’ve been here an hour ago by my reckoning.”

“Your reckoning ain’t worth spit.” Bandit pulled his coat closer at the neck. “That randy bastard is probably gettin’ himself ridden by one of them sportin’ ladies while we’re freezing our asses off up here on this damned hill. You know how you can’t count on him for nothin’ except whorin’ and gamblin’, Ed. Should’ve sent me in there like I asked.”

“You’re a worse heathen than Ace ever was,” Bug said. “You’d be doing all the things you’re saying he’s doing and worse if you were down there instead of him.”

Zimmerman enjoyed listening to the banter of his men as he looked over the town. And they were his men now. The more they argued amongst themselves, the less likely they were to unite against him when things got thick. And things would get awfully thick awfully fast. He had no doubt about that.

He decided to stir the pot a little. “What about you, Pole? Any complaints about my administration so far?”

“Nope,” Pole answered.

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