The Death Train (Apache 04) by William M James

Author:William M James [James, William M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Piccadilly
Published: 2023-04-30T23:00:00+00:00

They went at two in the morning.

Life had a bad day in Three Asses.

Even in the shade of the saloon, the heat was dreadful. A dry, baking heat, that dried up the mouth and the skin, making the eyes sore as they squinted all day long for a sign of an Indian. Children grew restless, crying for water. Even the tougher Apache children sobbed among themselves, shouting out for something to drink. By common agreement the last of the brackish water that Hedges had found was divided among the young ones, though Hedges had to fight hard to get the Apache children included in the share-out.

Just after noon they had the first death. A young mother, weakened beyond endurance by the lack of food and water, her body totally dehydrated, simply slipped into sleep and didn’t wake. It took some that way. Others raved and cried out in a fever; their bodies quite burned up.

It was near sunset when they added up the cost of that day. No men had died, but there were now only five women alive: twenty-one white children. The Indian children had been in better shape at the beginning, and all of them were still alive. But everyone was deteriorating fast.

Every movement was more difficult, making everyone pant with the effort. Despite the heat, it was virtually impossible to raise a sweat, and the body reacted against the lack of that vital safety valve. On Reagan’s advice, most of them sucked at pebbles, trying to save their mouths from completely drying out. The edge of the golden sun was just scraping at the peaks of the Sierra Mogollon when things began to happen again.

At Hedges’ suggestion, Cuchillo had been brought up into the main room with the others, and his ropes altered so that there was only a hobble between his feet, and his hands were tied in front of him, making life easier. There had been not the least sight of the Indians, and some of the settlers were beginning to press for a move, saying that the savages must have gone away and left them.

‘No,’ said Cuchillo. ‘They will be led by Red Lance, and he will wait. They have the time, and we do not.’

‘Mex and Jeb must have made it, else we’d have heard something. A shot or yellin’.’

Cuchillo looked at the speaker with contempt. ‘If an Apache wished to kill, he would not do it as a white man, with a great waving of arms and trampling of branches. He would kill with no more noise than the passing of a shadow over the face of the moon.’

Over to the west, the sun slipped lower, and another child ceased to be counted among the living.

‘Look! There! Behind the old store. I saw something moving.’

Everyone rushed over to that side of the building, until Reagan shouted at four of them to get back to their posts and keep watching the other sides. The only one to show no interest in the new development was the slumped figure of the Exalted One.

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