The Death Hunter by Lou Cameron

Author:Lou Cameron
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: costa rica, piccadilly publishing, western pulp fiction, lou cameron, captain gringo, ramsay thorne, merceneries, renegade western series
Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing

Chapter Thirteen

The sun was high and the trail was a dusty oven by the time they rounded a bend and saw the Pacific as an inverted triangle of blue between mustard yellow hills. Captain Gringo picked up the pace as the cooler tang of salt-scented air dried the sweat on his brow. But when the trail wound under a grove of gnarled trees he called a break. It was the first shade they’d seen for hours and there was no telling when they’d see more.

As the weary men took off their packs and flopped to smoke and relax, Captain Gringo moved up the slope for a better view. Gaston joined him as he paused in knee-high wild mustard on the crest. The Frenchman pointed with his chin and said, “There would be a village down there if there was water enough to matter. This valley we have been following runs deserted into the sea.”

Captain Gringo said, “I know. The map says this trail joins another running more or less along the shore.”

“Merde, you call this a trail? It is little more than a goat path.”

“There’s not much land traffic over here. The coast is dry and rugged. Most traffic moves by water. The few villages along the coast may as well be islands. You’d have plenty of privacy if you knew a cove too poorly watered to attract settlers.”

Gaston shrugged and said, “We know the gang we wiped out came this way, in the opposite direction. Save for the mysterious Punta Purgatorio, they would seem to have passed every cove, deserted or not, non?”

“Maybe. We’ll take our time and make sure we don’t skip anything. That shoreline ahead doesn’t look too promising. See how far out the waves are breaking?”

“Oui, the bottom is most shallow, a mile off shore. But what if we find nothing at this Punta Purgatorio?”

“We keep walking south, of course. The more I study the map, the more sense I see to those other guys not bothering. There’s only that one place you can land on the point with a sea-going ship. They might have thought it was a long detour for nothing.”

Gaston nodded and said, “I don’t see any reason to hairpin out to sea there, either. How curious that one of them said it was because their leader was afraid. I fail to see what he could have been afraid of.”

Captain Gringo said, “That makes two of us. They had guns and there were twice as many of them. They couldn’t have been afraid of the folks in that little fishing village. They didn’t hesitate to make themselves at home in another village just as large.”

“Fishermen may be tougher than hill farmers, non?”

“Not that much tougher. There must be something else out on the point that’s not on the map. The map’s survey date is 1880, so it’s over a dozen years out of date. There may be a new coast guard station or something out there, now.”

“Hmm, in that case we may be

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