Sundance 6 by John Benteen

Author:John Benteen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: arizona, wild west, old west, indian wars, geronimo, tuscon, john benteen, western pulp fiction, benjamin haas, jim sundance, general crook
Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing

Chapter Seven

Sonora. Lying on his belly, Sundance looked over a ridge crest and across the border into the town.

For three nights he’d led the pack train in the dark through the toughest, most deserted country of southern Arizona, dodging constant cavalry patrols, penetrating the barrier of forts and temporary camps and look-out and heliograph stations set up on high peaks. It had taken a great deal of skill and craft, but he’d succeeded. Now the real test lay ahead.

Out there in the dusk, rugged deserts and humped mountains, outflung spurs of the vast Sierra Madre, stretched away to the horizon. Somewhere in there was Geronimo. But between him and where Sundance lay were a half dozen patrols of American soldiers—in Mexico by international agreement— hundreds of Mexican troops ready to fight anything that crossed their paths, including the American patrols if the Mexicans had the edge in numbers. And, worst of all, there were nearly half a hundred Apache scouts. He might elude the American and Mexican troopers but the Apache scouts were going to be something else altogether.

They were tough, even tougher than the bronco Indians because of their discipline. Fifteen years ago, when Crook had first come to the Territory, he had begun to recruit selected Apache warriors to help him against their own tribes. He gave them regular Army pay—a fortune to an Indian—generous rations and excellent weapons. More importantly, he gave them his trust and his affection and infected them with his own conviction that peace was the only road for the tribes to follow. Because he kept his promises and was a man who knew no fear; because he could fight tigerishly and mercilessly when he had to, they loved and respected him. They were fiercely loyal to him. Under Sieber, to whom they were almost as devoted, they had become the best fighting outfit in the southwestern Army. Now, under Tom Horn, who was no Sieber, but who was a frontiersman to be reckoned with, they roamed that country out yonder in ceaseless attempt to find Geronimo. While Sundance had gotten the pack-train past white soldiers, getting it past Apache soldiers would take every bit of skill, craft and luck he could muster.

He completed his reconnaissance, recalling his conference with Tribolet just before climbing up the ridge. Since the killing of Chavez, he’d had no trouble enforcing discipline, but that did not mean that he could trust these men. Tribolet saw him as a rival, and they were Tribolet’s men. When the time came, it was Tribolet they’d back up. That was something he’d worry about later; the thing was that there’d been no lessening of Tribolet’s hostility and suspicion. If this mission succeeded, Tribolet probably figured, Sundance would take his place with Tanner. Sundance was pretty sure that Tribolet had no intention of letting him get back to Globe alive.

Down in the arroyo where the outfit waited to move out, Sundance and Tribolet had squatted over a map. “The rough part starts,” Sundance had said.

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