The Floating Outfit 45: Gun Wizard (A Floating Outfit Western) by J. T. Edson

Author:J. T. Edson
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing
Published: 2020-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Nine – The Kid Brings Word

“Come and get it afore I throw it to the hawgs!”

Chow Willicka rubbed his hands on his apron and let out the time honored bellow which served the cowhand as did mess call the soldier. The old cook stood by the big stewpot, ladle ready to fill the plates of the hungry trail crew as they filed past him.

It was the fifth day out from the ranch, the herd was making good time and there’d been no sign of Apaches since busting up that bunch on the first morning. For all that, Dusty did not relax his vigilance. He, Mark and Johnny rode a circle around the moving cattle, the Kid ranging far ahead. Then two days back the Kid had come to the chuck wagon as Chow and Birdie served out the morning meal. He asked for and was given dry rations for three days, then rode out. That was the last they’d seen of him, where he’d gone and what he was doing was known only to Dusty Fog and Stone Hart.

Dusty collected his food and joined Stone by the fire. Not even the trail boss was allowed to take his meal off the lowered boards at the rear of the chuck-wagon, that was the cook’s private domain. So Dusty and Stone settled down on their haunches, as they’d both done so many times before.

“No sign of the Kid yet?” Stone asked.

“Not likely to be tonight,” Dusty replied. “The river’s still two days away. He’s not riding a relay.”

Stone nodded thoughtfully. The Kid was scouting the ford of the Carne River for possible Apache ambush. It would take him time and he would have to rest his big white stallion after so much hard and grueling work. On the Kid’s news depended an important decision. The Carne River was for most of its length fast and with high sheer walls dropping down to it. There was only one way to get the herd across that Stone knew of. To the north lay a place where the banks shelved down in a gentle slope and the river widened to make a deep, slow moving pool through which the cattle would swim with little or no difficulty. It was a two-day drive, about twenty-four miles to this ford, although the river itself was only about one day’s drive from them in a straight line. There was a small snag to that. Stone did not know in what manner the river stood straight ahead, for this side’s banks were thickly overgrown with trees and bushes. To try and push a herd blindly into thick wooded country like that would be asking for trouble and could result in the loss of a good half of the cattle.

The woods had been a source of much discussion between Dusty and Stone. It didn’t take a master-mind to figure the Apaches would have the main ford under heavy guard, if not actually covering it in full strength. But there was

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