Davy Crockett 7 by David Robbins

Author:David Robbins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: davy crockett, american frontier fiction, david robbins, king of the wild frontier, coon skin hat, early american settlers, mountain men 1800s, tenessee
Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing

Eight

Davy Crockett never so much as flinched. Bound and helpless, partially hemmed in by coldhearted butchers who wouldn’t think twice about making worm food of him, he showed no fear. As the giant called Blackjack Tar elevated the cutlass to cleave Davy’s skull in half, Davy calmly looked up, straight into Tar’s dark eyes, and said in an even tone, “I wouldn’t, were I you, hoss. Not unless you’re bulletproof.”

The Englishman was poised for a fatal slash. Every iron muscle on his neck and wrist bulged. Another second, and the deed would be done. But he met Davy’s stare, met it and paused, hesitating so long that murmurs broke out among the freebooters. “Bold words, raccoon-head,” he said at last, “but you’re not holding a gun.”

“It’s not me you need to worry about.”

“Oh?” Tar lowered his arm a trifle. “Then who is going to fill me with lead?”

“They are,” Davy said, and nodded toward the creek and the high reeds that framed it. Simultaneously, he pumped his arms several times in the agreed-upon signal. Immediately, Flavius and Taylor and the twenty Mexicans rose in a row, rifles tucked to their shoulders. Every last muzzle was trained unerringly on the gigantic form of Blackjack Tar.

The freebooters cursed and shouted in alarm, raising their own weapons. Some started to rush toward the creek but were halted in midstride by a roar from their enormous leader. Although some of the cutthroats were between Tar and the creek and in the line of fire, he was so huge, so massive a target, that the riflemen in the reeds were certain to put enough balls into him to slay him instantly.

Tar realized that, even if many of his men did not. “No one move!” he shouted. “No one shoot! Anyone who does will answer to me! And by the queen’s garters, I’ll have your head on a platter!”

The freebooters did not like being held at bay. They grumbled, they nervously shifted, they flexed fingers on their weapons. But such was the power Tar had over them that not one renegade opened fire.

The giant grinned down at Davy and jabbed his cutlass at the Texicans. “Your idea, I take it?”

Davy nodded.

“Arranged before you even snuck into camp, I’d guess?”

Davy smiled.

“Set up just in case you were caught?” Tar chuckled. “A tactic worthy of me. But how did you know I wouldn’t kill you on the spot last night? Say, in the tent?”

“I met an actor once, in Memphis. About talked my ear off over his cups. Went on and on about how every thespian should have a flair for the dramatic,” Davy related. “You have the same flair. You’re part showman, Tar. The way you set your hair on fire. That cloak. How you like to swagger about. I reckoned you’d want to make a show of our deaths. And I was right.”

“You took an awful gamble. I admire that.” Tar lowered the cutlass to his side. “There’s more to you than I suspected, lad. I underestimated you.

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