Comanchero Blood (A Dragoons Western Book 2) by Patrick E. Andrews

Author:Patrick E. Andrews
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: comancheros, piccadilly publishing, kiowa indians, us frontier fiction, patrick e andrews, the us dragoons, early us cavalry, the old west ebook
Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing

Twelve

Gavin MacRoss sat in the comfortable crook of two large branches in the heights of a cottonwood tree growing along the Little Arkansas River. The foliage, thick for early spring, gave him plenty of cover as he peered through his field glasses at the Comanchero camp on the other bank. If it hadn’t been for the danger he faced, he would have enjoyed his perch. The weather was beautiful, birds chirped, and the sound of the flowing water was very soothing.

He had climbed into the lofty regions of the tree just before dawn while it was light enough to allow a safe ascent, yet too dark to be spotted by any alert outlaws who might be early risers.

The lieutenant was well prepared for a day-long stay in the tree. A haversack across his shoulder held the food he would consume until it was dark enough in the evening to climb back to the ground without danger of observation from the Comanchero camp. His canteen, hanging by its strap on a branch near him, was filled with water from a creek a couple of miles away where the rest of the dragoon detachment, along with Basil Karshchov, waited for his return with whatever information he could garner.

The lieutenant’s time was not wasted. He had spotted the stockade where the prisoners were held on the north end of the encampment, and the large corral for the Comancheros’ horses in the exact opposite direction at the southern extreme. The young officer estimated the size of the settlement to be approximately a half-mile long with a width that ranged from a few feet where the two rivers joined, expanding out to a couple of hundred yards up to the stockade. He was surprised to see numerous women and children, obviously belonging to Comancheros, living in the primitive village. The outlaw band, like other similar ones, was a culture unto itself that stayed outside the bounds of normal society.

Between visual sweeps with the binoculars, Gavin sketched the layout of the camp, noting easy accesses and areas where the population was the heaviest. After he’d completed his drawing, he studied it at odd intervals. Several plans of entering and exiting the settlement for a rescue mission made tentative appearances in his alert mind.

Various-sized bands of Comanchero horsemen kept busy all day, riding in and out of the place. Gavin wondered how long it would be before they noted the absence of the group he and his men had intercepted two days before. As a professional military man, he surmised that the riders were scouting and exploring the countryside to gather information for any future forays of murder and kidnapping they might wish to conduct. Eventually, he realized, some of those Comanchero riders would discover the bodies of their dead compatriots.

By mid-afternoon, Gavin had gathered all the information he needed. In order to keep from getting bored until it was safe to withdraw, he kept a sharp eye on everything that went on. As far as he

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