Savage 07 by E. Jefferson Clay

Author:E. Jefferson Clay [Clay, E. Jefferson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: action, hero, Colt, .45, Elmore, Leonard, gunslingers, Louis, L'Amour, Piccadilly, publishing, Pulp, fiction, writing, the, wild, west, western, frontier, series
Publisher: Piccadilly
Published: 2023-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Six – A Killer Is Loose

Savage muffled his horse’s hooves with strips of blanket and walked the animal around a little to make sure there was no noise. Next he took a blackened stick from the campfire and rubbed the charcoal on his face. O’Brien, a healthy man feigning illness, watched on.

“It’s terrible sorry I am that I can’t be goin’ with ye, Clinton.”

“Oh sure. You’re just dyin’ to stick your neck out! But mother nature’s let you down again. What is it this time ... bladder, bowels, liver or total collapse?”

O’Brien rubbed his stomach. “I know sarcasm when I hear it, boyo ... but the truth is, it’s the ulcer. Had it since the time in Dublin when I was a junior officer in the constabulary. I worked undercover, goin’ after some rebels, and I had to survive on nothin’ but potatoes and stout for a fortnight.”

“You’re breakin’ my heart,” Savage said, throwing a leg across Stud’s back. He drew in a deep breath as he settled himself in the saddle and turned to ride in the direction of Slave River.

“I could get killed if I flush the Donovans over there amongst those buffalo hunters, you know that, don’t you?” he asked O’Brien sourly.

“I’ll say a rosary,” O’Brien offered.

“You can do somethin’ better.”

“And what would that be, Clinton?”

“You could tell me the real reason you’re so set on runnin’ these men down.”

“I was hired by the jewelry company to recover their merchandise,” O’Brien said innocently. “That’s all the reason there is.”

Savage snorted in disgust and started to move. He would find the real reason for O’Brien’s single-minded obsession with the Donovans in time ... if he lived that long. In the meantime, he wondered what it would be like to travel with a trail pard he could trust.

For just a fleeting moment, he found himself almost missing Yaqui Joe. The little horse thief was no end of trouble, but at least he didn’t have a foot-wide yellow streak down his back. He pushed the whole idea of Yaqui Joe out of his mind. He figured that if any man reached a stage where he genuinely missed the company of somebody like that, he had to be in deep trouble.

The camp was quickly lost behind him. The mid-July sky was overcast with just a patch of stars here and there. The dark land was silent, but that was no indication that it was safe.

Savage held the sorrel down to a trot as they worked their way across a stretch of gully-slashed plain. He rode steadily, and there was still a trace of cavalry in the way he sat his horse, a hint of the War years that had made him what he was. He lit a cigar, shielding the light in one cupped hand. The feeling that he would find the Donovans was strong. The people in Hog Crossing had seemed frightened by his questions. That could only mean one thing, he reasoned; the men he hunted must be close by.

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