The Ghost of the Llano Estacado by Karl May

Author:Karl May
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Western
ISBN: 978-1-910472-11-8
Publisher: CTPDC Publishing Limited
Published: 2014-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

IN THE YUAV-KAY

At the area, where the South-east corner of New Mexico stretches deeply into Texas there were such conditions at the time of our story that only extremely brave men dared to travel there. It was also the place where the hunting grounds of the Apache and the Comanche met, which made travelling even more dangerous.

These two tribes could not maintain the peace with each other for a long period. Even if they buried the war hatchet, the smallest conflict was enough to rekindle the flames of war. The cause of the hostility was that the boundaries of the hunting grounds were blurred, and it created constant conflicts, in which the guns went off by themselves.

The Easterners called this territory “Shears”, which was a very apt name, as the strips of the area sometimes were narrower, sometimes broader, just like the blades of the shears, and those who got between the razors had to be happy if they survived.

The Toyah River springing from the Black Range delivers its water to the Pecos River. This confluence was the border of the hunting grounds of the two tribes. To the West of the Pecos River the ground ascends to the Sierra de Guadalupe, Sierra Pyramid and the Sierra Diablo. To the East the Llano Estacado stretched. However, the Llano did not start directly by the river, only after a long chain of hills that were cut through small valleys. These narrow, gorge-like valleys led from the river to the Llano.

The closeness of the river made the vegetation lush. Even a bit further inland there were smaller streams that gave enough humidity to support bushes, even groups of trees. There were legends that in the middle of the Llano there was an oasis, due to a wonderful spring, whose water was drinkable, and was so strong that it could support even a small lake, and there were trees, and thickets around this lake. However, nobody could say where this place was, everybody had only heard of it.

Near the River Toyah four people were sitting. Their appearance did not create much trust. Their long hair, beard, ragged clothing, and tanned skin showed that they had been in the wilderness for some time. However, they were well armed. All had modern guns, revolvers, and knives. Three of them were Easterners as their slim body, relaxed carriage, sharp countenance showed. But it was impossible to guess the origin of the fourth man. His broad shoulders, short height, thick nose, heavy, large hands made the whole man look clumsy. However, his face was the strangest. One would have thought he was a black man from the distance, because his face was black, or rather bluish-black, but from his nose to his chin he was brown. The blackness had to come from some burning, or explosion. Apart from this, his face was pleasant and sympathetic. Whoever talked to him knew that he was a good man, much as the other three. In a few days one would learn that although they were rough, they were very honest men.

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