Warpath of the Mountain ManValor of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone [Johnstone, William W]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Published: 2017-05-23T04:00:00+00:00

37

Smoke made his way cautiously through the cave, finally seeing a square of light ahead in the darkness.

Slowly, carefully, he squeezed out of the opening and got to his feet.

Twenty yards away, he saw Ozark Jack Berlin and Blue Owl getting their supplies together and getting ready to get on two horses they had tied to a tree.

Smoke stepped out into the open, his right hand near the butt of his Colt .45 Peacemaker on his right hip.

“You boys thinking of leaving this little party?” he asked in a low, hard voice.

The two men whirled around, their eyes wide with surprise.

Berlin smiled slowly and turned to square off facing Smoke. “You must be the famous Smoke Jensen I’ve been hearin’ so much about,” he growled.

Smoke smiled lazily back at him. “One and the same.”

“You as fast with that six-killer as they say you are?” Berlin asked, his hand moving toward the pistol on his hip.

“You’re about to find out, Mr. Berlin,” he answered.

Berlin’s hand moved and he slapped the butt of his gun, his teeth bared in a grimace of hatred.

Smoke waited a second, then drew in a movement so fast, Berlin’s pistol was still in the leather when he fired. His bullet took Ozark Jack Berlin in the middle of his forehead, snapping his head back and blowing brains and hair and blood all over the horse behind him.

The outlaw’s eyes widened in surprise before they clouded over and stared the long stare into eternity.

Blue Owl jumped to the side and raised his hands. “I don’t have a gun, Jensen,” he said, a pleading whine in his voice. “You’ll have to arrest me and take me to jail.”

Smoke slowly shook his head. “I’m not an officer of the law,” he said in a hard voice. “And you’re not going anywhere.”

“But . . . but . . . you wouldn’t shoot an unarmed man, would you?” Blue Owl pleaded.

Just then, Cal, Pearlie, and Bear Tooth crawled out of the cave behind Smoke.

Smoke nodded at the knife in Blue Owl’s belt. “That the knife you used on those women?” he asked.

A strange light gleamed in Blue Owl’s eyes. “Yeah, it is. You want a taste of my blade, white eyes?” he asked scornfully.

Smoke took a deep breath. “I think it only fitting you die the way you killed so many others, breed.”

“I’m not a breed!” Blue Owl said heatedly. “I’m a full-blooded Modoc.”

Smoke unbuckled his belt and let his guns fall to the ground, pulling out his Bowie knife in the same motion.

“Then you know what I’m going to do to you, Indian. I’m going to kill you, then I’m going to cut your eyes out so you’ll wander the afterlife blind for all eternity.”

“We’ll see, Jensen, we’ll see,” the Modoc said, pulling his knife and spreading his arms in the classic knife-fighter’s stance.

“Smoke,” Cal called fearfully.

“Hush, boy,” Bear Tooth said, grinning. “Watch, an’ learn.”

* * *

The two men circled each other warily, Blue Owl occasionally sweeping his knife before him to keep Smoke away as he looked for an opening.

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.