Devil's Tower: A Lone McGantry Western by Dundee Wayne D

Author:Dundee, Wayne D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing
Published: 2023-06-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

“It’s mighty gratifying that you fellas are all willing to ride with me after that Aztec treasure. And you blame well know how bad I’ve been itching to get after it… But not so bad I’m willing to strike out in the middle of this cold-ass rain.”

So stated Fenton Eccles as once again paced back and forth within the confines of the old trapper’s cabin, streaming smoke from the cigar clamped between his teeth. Outside the rain was coming down straight and steady, making a long, low, continuous hissing sound on the cabin’s roof. A roof that, after years of withstanding such rains—and many harder ones, not to mention wind and snow and blistering sun—no longer offered shelter without a few chinks.

“Hell, any more leaks come pissing down on us in here, we might as well go on out in the thick of it,” lamented Bo Lasky after shifting his chair and coffee cup to a new spot at the rough-cut table to avoid a fresh dribble of rainwater that had begun plopping into his cup.

“Go ahead if you want,” Amarillo Ames told him. “Number one, it’d leave more dry spots for the rest of us to move to. And number two, it’d give us a break from your constant bellyaching. Jesus, how can you worry so much about a little rain pissing on you when piss—and moan—is all you ever do.”

“Aw, go to hell,” Lasky sneered in return. “If anybody was concerned by the rain, I’d think it would be you… The threat of getting wet might seem too close to taking a bath. And, from the smell of you, that must be something that near scares you to death.”

“Knock it off, you two,” said Eccles. “For a couple of hombres with a cut of for-certain money laying over there in those saddlebags and a kingdom’s riches waitin’ just down the trail, why be so goddamned irritable about a little rain? That treasure has been there in the shadow of Devil’s Tower for hundreds of years. One more day’s delay ain’t gonna give it cause to suddenly up and disappear now.”

Ames eased up a bit and even managed a crooked smile. “But that don’t mean it ain’t gonna up and disappear from its musty ol’ hidey hole pretty soon—smack into our hands.”

Eccles grinned, too. “Damn right.”

Luther Purdy, who’d been standing over by a window, gazing out quietly and drinking coffee, abruptly turned around and said to Eccles, “What did you mean about it waitin’ in the shadow of the devil, Fen?”

Eccles’ grin was quickly replaced by an annoyed grimace. He willed it away almost as fast as it appeared but the truth behind it—annoyance with himself—stabbed deeper than he let on. The mention of Devil’s Tower was a slip-up he hadn’t meant to share with the others just yet. But now that it was out of the bag, he didn’t have much choice but to discuss it some.

Lasky added to forcing his hand by saying, “What I heard

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