Grayfox by Michael Phillips

Author:Michael Phillips [Phillips, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC042030, FIC042000, FIC026000
ISBN: 9781441229519
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2016-02-18T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29

In the Camp of the People

It was getting dark by the time we arrived in the Paiute camp. One of the first people we saw was the half-breed. The hateful look on his face as we rode up made me shiver clean through, even more than the thoughts I’d been having the whole ride about getting skinned alive by the Paiutes.

He glared at us like we was the ones that had wounded him. I suppose I should have been glad he was recovered, because he sure did look strong again, but that wasn’t really the first thing that came into my mind when he looked at us.

I wondered how long he’d been here and if Demming was still after him now that he was in the company of the whole tribe—if Demming even knew where he was.

But I didn’t have too much time to think about what the man called Tranter might do to us, because the next minute we were being yanked off the mules and half dragged along through the camp. Then we were standing in front of a powerful-looking Paiute, clearly a chief of some sort. Hawk told me he was the young Winnemucca.

He was dark and weathered, just like the half-breed, and dressed mostly with cloth attire, but with some small skins and feathers about him too. I couldn’t tell his age. The main thing I noticed was his stern expression. It didn’t put my mind at ease about our prospects for seeing the sun rise the next day!

It didn’t take long to find out what they wanted.

It seemed that the chief’s oldest daughter was missing.

The chief’s second daughter, Sarah, who Hawk had told me about earlier, acted as translator, telling us in perfect English all that had happened.

Laughing Waters had been missing for two days. At first the Paiutes figured she was just off by herself, but by nightfall her mother and the chief had got worried. No one had seen her. Several parties had ridden out into the surrounding hills, but none found a trace of her. All the next day they kept on getting more anxious, until halfway through the afternoon a lone rider was spotted approaching the camp. By the time he arrived, every one of the Paiutes—men, women, and children—had gathered around, hoping for some news about the daughter of Chief Winnemucca.

There was news all right, but not the kind they’d been hoping for.

The rider was Jack Demming.

He rode straight into the Paiute camp, all cocky and full of bravado—almost with a grin on his face, to hear Sarah tell it, almost daring them to lay a finger on him.

He had the girl, he told them, looking the chief straight in the eye as if he weren’t afraid of a thing. She was in a cave ten miles away, tied and gagged. They could kill him, but then she’d be dead from the snakes and scorpions a long time before they ever got to her—if they ever did find her. More likely she’d die right where she was, and no one would ever lay eyes on her again.

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