King of Spades by Frederick Manfred

Author:Frederick Manfred [Johnson Joel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8032-4882-3
Publisher: UNP - Bison Books
Published: 2015-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

It was midnight, he’d been asleep several hours, when of a sudden he awoke to the vague gray light of a half-moon high overhead. He awoke without stirring. Only his eyelids parted.

There they were. The eyes. And not a dream either.

It was a young girl. The pupils of the young girl’s eyes were as glossy black as freshly hardened tar. They glittered. Her hair also was black, and was plaited Indian-fashion, a fat braid behind each ear. A doeskin dress glinting with green beadwork hung to her knees. She wore leather leggings and moccasins. Her breasts had just begun to form.

He stared at the girl without moving a muscle.

The thought flashed through his mind that for all her buckskin garb and long black braids she wasn’t Indian. Her cheeks were dusky, yes, but not dusky enough.

He had heard of white children being stolen by Indians to replace lost children. She was probably one of those.

Then the dusky girl did a strange thing. She slowly leaned down until her face came to within a few inches of his. Her breath wisped on his beard. She seemed to be examining him minutely, beard and mustache, nose and lips, cheeks and forehead.

Her breath on his beard tickled him a little. The smell of her was the smell of wild ferns and sage.

Of a sudden she wept large tears. One of them, glistening in the weak moonlight, fell big and wet on his upper lip. Salty.

Of a sudden he made a grab for her; and caught her by the elbow.

The low shrill scream of a caught fawn broke from her.

“Got you.”

She jerked to break free. She almost made it.

He rose sitting to hold her the better. “Not so fast, my little wildcat.”

She squirmed, rolled, twisted. Abrupt undulations like that of an inchworm in agony rippled through her.

“Snaky. Like she ain’t got any bones.”

He wrestled her, trying to get a solid hold on her. He couldn’t quite manage it. He became aware of her wonderfully supple waist, her firmly muscled seat, her slim resilient neck. “She’s as slippery as a greased mink, by God.” He caught her around the neck from the rear with his left hand. He squeezed, powerfully. “I don’t mean to hurt you, little one, but by the Lord I do aim to tame you.” Finally his fingertips found the right spot and, suddenly, she was quiet.

“Let’s have a look at you.”

Picking up a stick with his free hand, he reached over and stirred up the embers of the fire and then threw on a piece of fat. In an instant both he and the girl were bathed in a warm crackling glow.

“Just what’s the idea, coming into my camp like this sneaky-like, hey?”

He kept a tight pinch around her neck to keep her in control. She was as helpless in his grip as a pullet in the mouth of a fox.

“Speak up.”

Her body hung slack, and the fall of it was abject.

“I’m not going to hurt you, child. But I do mean to find out what this is all about.

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