The War Wagon by Clair Huffaker

Author:Clair Huffaker
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 1975-10-15T05:00:00+00:00

Taw cupped a match in his hand and his lean features glowed momentarily in the night. He blew the match out, broke it in his hand and threw it away. "How good timing can you get with that battery?"

"To the absolute second. Sam Colt—fellow who figured out how to make that gun you're wearing—he was the one, I think, who first figured out how to set off explosives with a galvanic battery. The minute I touch two wires together it sets off sparks in the detonators. The sparks set off little dabs of fulminate of mercury and potassium chloride that's in the detonators and then that sets off the main explosion, the dynamite. Happens faster than the speed of a bullet."

Taw inhaled slowly on his cheroot. "What if some of the guards hit the bridge before Old Ironsides gets clear of it?"

"It ain't probable, but I've thought of that. So has Snyder. I'll let the coach get over and touch it off. Only thing to do. Those fellows wouldn't know what happened. Wouldn't feel a thing. It'd be a nice, clean way to die."

They could see the lights of the Fork when Taw held his pinto back. "You go on, Wes. I'll circle and ride in from the north."

Catlin said, "Next time I see you I'll have eight sticks of dynamite shoved inside the front of my belt."

"Well, if anybody tells a joke then, try not to laugh too hard at it."

The powder man's voice became small and worried. "Josephine'll be mad at me for staying out so late. She's been sick abed, and she frets a lot since I took my time at the Green Mountain Mine."

"Why'd you quit your job?"

"Cause one of the miners come down with the cat fever. Didn't want to chance catching it. Since then I been staying home most of the time. You know, Taw, when I get me that gold I'm going to buy Josephine a big home in St. Louis with a great big, fine bedroom and a big, soft bed with stacks of new magazines all around. And then I'll be able to leave her alone and she won't worry herself so much about where I've been and what I've been doing every minute." He pulled his mule around toward town. "I'll go on home now."

"So long, Wes."

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