The Border Jumpers (A Fargo Western Book 16) by John Benteen

Author:John Benteen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cowboys, soldier of fortune, piccadilly publishing, john benteen, benjamin haas, neal fargo, gunfighters of the old west, american western ebook, the american old west, cattle rusting
Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing

Five

THIS TIME, they made the mountains. The first glow of false dawn found them holed up in broken ground high in the hills, above a waterhole, where a thin stream of liquid trickled into a basin hardly bigger than Fargo’s hat. “By God,” Fargo jubilated, “we made it! Sterling, you did good!”

Sterling’s voice was steady, deep. “I did, didn’t I? Fargo, I was scared—but not too scared to fight!”

“Long as you don’t get that scared, it don’t matter how scared you are. A man whose guts don’t knot when somebody’s shootin’ at him has got no sense at all. Now, let’s open these saddle rolls, see what’s in ’em. Pray to God there’s some ammo, because we’re flat out.”

He and Sterling unlashed the rolls tied behind their cantles, searched them thoroughly. But they were disappointed, there were only blankets, and in one of the rolls, a big canvas sack, what cowboys called a war bag, holding the small treasures belonging to the owner of the horse, nothing of any help.

Fargo chewed his last cigar. “That makes it rough. Somehow, we got to get some guns and ammo. The question’s how?”

“Right now, I’d settle for some food,” Sterling said. “I’m starving.”

“Me, too. But unless you’re fast enough to run down one of them jackrabbits that comes drinkin’ to that waterhole, we ain’t likely to eat for a while.”

“Jackrabbits drink down there?”

“Everything comes to a waterhole. Rabbits, deer, javelinas—and men. That’s why we can’t stay here long. First thing they’ll do is sweep the waterholes. Hey, what the hell you doing?”

“I’m going to try to get us something to eat,” Sterling said. He was rummaging in a pile of rocks.

“You look out you don’t grab a sidewinder,” Fargo said. “This country’s full of ’em.” He watched Sterling curiously. The young soldier carefully selected a half dozen rocks, each round, smooth, and about the size of a baseball. Then he took up station on the rim of the cut above the waterhole.

The little basin of precious liquid lay in a hollow shaped like a keyhole. Fargo and Sterling had reached it by riding into the flared end of a deep, narrow arroyo that would have been the keyhole’s bottom end, then had passed through a place where the walls of the cut pinched together for a distance of perhaps fifteen yards and were only ten or fifteen feet apart. Then the arroyo flared out again and dead-ended at the wall of rock. Sterling and Fargo had drunk, watered their mounts, and then led the horses straight up the slope beside the water to reach high ground, where they could watch the cut and scan the approaches to it for a distance of a mile of two.

Now Sterling waited, sitting on a boulder, on the rim above the waterhole, his rocks in a neat pile beside him, one in his hand. Fargo, meanwhile, lit the cigar, savored the last smoke he would have for a while, and thought hard.

Their chances were scanty. Run or fight were their only choices.

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.