Preacher's Journey by William W. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Published: 2012-11-20T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-ONE

On his way across the clearing where the Indians had planned to make their camp, Preacher picked up his pistols and quickly reloaded them. Dog was nosing around the sprawled bodies of the fallen warriors. Preacher knew if any of the Indians were still alive, Dog would let him know about it.

The kids were already clustered around their great-uncles. Jonathan propped Geoffrey up in a sitting position. “I tell you I’m all right,” Geoffrey insisted, but his voice held a thin edge of pain.

Preacher hunkered beside the two older men and said, “Let me have a look.” He pulled Geoffrey’s coat aside and saw the bloodstain on the man’s shirt, just below his right shoulder. It looked like Hawley’s knife thrust might have missed anything vital.

A quick further examination of the wound revealed that to be so. Preacher wadded up a piece of cloth and pressed it to the blood-leaking hole. “Hold that there,” he told Jonathan, then turned to look at the kids. “Are all you young’uns all right?”

“I’m tired and hungry,” Mary said. “And I was scared until you got here, Mr. Preacher.”

“None of us are hurt,” Nate assured Preacher. “Some of the Indians wanted to kill us when they first caught us, but the chief stopped them.”

Preacher grunted. “Prob’ly figured to use you as hostages if’n he needed to. How’d Hawley come to throw in with them?”

Nate shook his head. “I don’t know. He was with them when they found us.” The youngster looked around. “Where did he go?”

“He got away,” Preacher said in disgust. “So did the chief.”

“Swift Arrow?”

Preacher nodded. “If that was his name. I wouldn’t know.”

“That was his name. He spoke a little English and talked to Hawley some.” Nate pointed to one of the fallen warriors. “That one there was their medicine man. His name was Badger’s Den.”

That was the man whose throat had been torn out by Dog. His medicine hadn’t been powerful enough to stop the big wolflike creature.

With Swift Arrow and Hawley still on the loose somewhere out there in the darkness, Preacher didn’t think they could afford to lollygag around here all night. He said to Geoffrey, “You reckon you can travel?”

“Of course I can, if someone will just tie this bandage in place. . . .”

Preacher did that, and then Jonathan helped his brother onto his feet. Geoffrey was a mite shaky at first, but he steadied himself and nodded to Preacher. “Let’s go.”

The six of them—seven if you counted Dog—moved out quickly as soon as Preacher had gathered up all their weapons. He took some of the knives and tomahawks that the Arikara had dropped too. You never knew when something like that might come in handy.

Preacher kept up a fast pace, guiding them by the stars and by his own instincts. He wanted to put some distance between them and the scene of the fight with the ’Rees. The fact that Swift Arrow had survived the fracas was worrisome. Preacher didn’t think the war chief would

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