Mendosa's Gun-runners by I. J. Parnham

Author:I. J. Parnham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Culbin Press
Published: 2020-06-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

THROUGHOUT A LONG DAY, Dave walked around the encampment, but although he didn’t come within fifty yards of his horse, Waldo’s gaze never left him. Dave ignored him, ensuring he maintained his downtrodden act, but he did talk with everyone whom he wandered past.

He avoided mentioning the gun-runners’ plans and, although he didn’t find any potential allies he could use to take on Waldo, from everyone he detected an acceptance that he was the kind of person who was a bad fighter, but was otherwise reliable.

An hour before sundown, Waldo took Mendosa’s meal into his wagon and then returned to the fire. As Dave shoveled his meal into his mouth, Waldo swaggered around the fire until he loomed over him.

“Are you ignoring me?” he said.

“Nope, I’m just eating,” Dave said.

Waldo nodded. Then, with a round-footed kick, he knocked the plate from Dave’s grasp. The plate landed face down, flattening the food into the dirt.

“Now you’re not eating. You can’t ignore me.”

Dave rolled on to his haunches and prized the plate over. Piece by piece he shoveled the stew back on to his plate, and then sat down and resumed eating, swallowing hard to gulp down the grit.

Waldo’s shadow stayed over him. Then Waldo made a gesture that Dave didn’t see, but which dragged a laugh from Tynan and Elijah, and everyone else around the fire. Dave just shoveled the grit-filled food into his mouth and swallowed, and eventually Waldo headed back to his place by the fire.

With Dave refusing to let Waldo goad him into another fight, Waldo lost all interest in him and within minutes of sundown, he’d retired to sleep beside the fire. Within a half-hour, all the other men retired to sleep except for Tanner, who had volunteered to take the first watch.

Dave waited until all the men were snoring, and then rolled from his blanket. He edged backward from the fire for twenty paces, but as he didn’t detect any change in the rhythm of the snoring, he headed to his horse.

“I won’t be on guard when you get back,” Tanner said, joining him.

Dave shrugged. “I suppose I’ll worry about that problem later.”

Tanner nodded and gestured for him to leave. Dave took his horse’s reins and walked it away from the encampment, but then slowed to a halt. He gestured for Tanner to join him out of hearing-range of the men around the fire.

“What’s wrong?” Tanner asked.

Dave sighed. “Are you still fine with what we’re doing?”

Tanner narrowed his eyes. “You’re not having second thoughts, are you?”

“I am. I’ve always avoided trouble – except when I’m drunk – but I couldn’t avoid that fight with Waldo and it made me realize just how much danger we’re facing here. If you hadn’t persuaded me to let Waldo win, he’d probably have gone for his gun and killed me.”

Tanner sighed and patted Dave’s shoulder. “To be honest the likes of Waldo don’t worry me, but those crates of rifles do. Even if we get away with this, they could still end up in the wrong hands.

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.