Gunslinger 02 by Charles C Garrett

Author:Charles C Garrett [Garrett, Charles C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: action heroes, American Old West, American westerns, Gunfighters, Piccadilly cowboys
Publisher: Piccadilly
Published: 2022-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

BLANEZ WAS TRUE to his promise. The equipment he had won from Tobe Hooper was made readily available to Ryker, a ranch-hand detailed to assist the American and supply whatever was needed. The Mexican offered Ryker a room in the hacienda, and for the next few weeks he enjoyed a luxurious existence.

He rose at dawn and breakfasted with Blanez and his wife, then he helped stoke the fire in the gunshop to the required temperature and set to work. He broke off at noon, to eat and take a brief siesta. The ranch stayed quiet in the noon sun as he went back to his labors, carrying on until night fell and it was time to eat again.

The gunshop was superbly equipped. A forge had been erected to supply molten metal to a pulley-mounted system of buckets strung over a solid workbench inlaid with molds. A second bench held a series of vices, two lathes, and racks of hammers, chisels, taps and a drill. Looking at it all, Ryker wondered how the previous owner felt about losing it. If he cared about his work the way Ryker did, it must have come close to killing him to see it thrown away on the turn of a card. Then he decided that any man fool enough to mix liquor with gambling deserved what he got, and put all thoughts of Tobe Hooper out of his mind. If he was to have Muerta’s gun ready in time, he needed to concentrate. And work. There could be no distractions.

He began by taking the Colt Dragoon down to its component parts and bathing each piece of the mechanism in pure alcohol. Then he applied emery paper to the small parts, burnishing them to a fine, high-shining gloss. The cylinder was mounted on a lathe, wheel pedaled by the Mexican assistant as Ryker sanded the bluing down to the underlying metal. He did the same to the barrel and ramrod, shone the trigger guard, hammer and backstraps by hand, then bathed each part in a mild acid solution. He worked over the main frame and cylinder stops in the same way.

Preparing the Dragoon took him two days.

On the third, he set the cylinder in the lathe and used a fine chisel to cut a scroll pattern into the metal. The delicate work called for a sure eye and rock-steady hands, and Ryker kept the pattern as simple as he could, a tracery of interwoven lines. He used acid to etch them deeper into the burnished steel, then chiseled a set of four blank spaces at equal intervals around the engraved cylinder. Then, using the finest chisel available, he tapped out the words, Emiliano Muerta, in flowing script.

He set the barrel in the lathe and spun a pattern around its length.

The fore-end of the frame he mounted in a vice and worked the name on either side. It wasn’t exactly what Muerta had asked for, but it would have to do.

It took him a week to get it all right.

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.