White Apache by Charles C Garrett

Author:Charles C Garrett [Garrett, Charles C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: A Gunslinger western, action heroes, American Old West, American westerns, Gunfighters, Piccadilly cowboys
Publisher: Piccadilly
Published: 2023-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

IT WAS AN easier climb than he’d expected, with a sharp ridge knifing upwards in the direction he wanted, eroded by the wind and the sudden rains to give a fine series of hand and foot holds. Once his boot slipped as a chunk of rock broke away under his weight, and he hung by his fingers, feet scrabbling for a grip.

When he was safe, he waited for several minutes, trying to control his breathing, listening above the sighing of the wind for any sound that would show he had been heard. But there was nothing.

Although it was easier, it was also longer, and he squinted at the riding moon to see how much time he had taken. Finding to his surprise that he had been climbing for well over an hour.

Allowing for getting past the sentries, he would still have to find a path down the other side into the canyon, and then locate the gun and the girl. Harness the Gatling and drive the whole thing out of the canyon and across fifteen miles of desert to the safety of Agua Verde. Easy as that.

The first problem was getting past the men who were on watch at the top of the towering cliffs, with their fire for heat and light. As soon as Ryker reached the top he saw that it was going to be harder than he had imagined. There was no path up there, among a jumble of split boulders. Although the light of the fire had been clearly visible from below, once he was up there it had vanished, hidden from him by his closeness to the rocks.

So all he could do was make a cautious approach across the top, knowing that any one of the boulders might conceal a brace of armed Mescalero braves. Unlike the Chiricahua that he had butchered at the waterhole, these men would have no worries about making a noise. That would be their job, and it would be up to him to either pass them in silence or kill them quickly and quietly.

After nearly half an hour’s stalking, Ryker had at last found the guards, guided by the smell of smoke and the crackling of burning wood. There were two of them, both sitting on their haunches, wrapped in heavy blankets. Blankets that the Cavalry Major back in Agua Verde would have recognized as Army issue.

Ryker waited for ten minutes, squatting in silence, in case there was another man moving about the top of the cliff. But nobody else appeared and he decided that the time had come to take a chance.

He was actually higher than the sentries, and he stared into the blackness beyond them, trying to determine where the path down lay, but it was impossible to see past the halo of light from the glowing fire.

Which meant that his options immediately narrowed to only one.

He had to take out both men. And take them out silently enough for nobody else to hear him.

What he needed was a lucky break.

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