The Devoured and the Dead by Kristopher Rufty

Author:Kristopher Rufty
Format: epub

16.

Ispotted dark shapes slinking around the shadowy spaces between the trees. I was able to make out three men, moving slowly, walking abreast of each other.

Lenora leaned in close to me. “I still have Daddy’s gun.”

I tried to look back at her. “What?”

“First chance I get . . . ”

“Don’t do it. We don’t know how many there are.”

She was quiet for a moment. Then she said, “I’ll wait for my chance. I won’t tell you when I’m going to take it. You’ll know.”

I figured the way I would know was from either Lenora shooting one of them or getting shot herself.

“Don’t,” I said. “There’re a lot more of them than you.”

Lenora huffed. I could tell she didn’t like my reasoning, but I could also tell she somewhat agreed with it.

“Whew-we!” a voice cried. “What have we here?”

The men were only a few steps away from the camp. I could see them through the faint mist that clung to the trees. All wore Confederate uniforms that looked threadbare and ragged, as if they’d been stripped from men killed during war.

The two on either side were tall and lanky, with arms that seemed too long for their bodies. The one on the right had a long, black beard that reached his chest. It fluttered in the breeze like tangle weed stuck on a tree.

The soldier on the left had no hair on his face at all. His eyes were tiny bulbs under an overhanging brow. Thin long hair dangled from beneath his cap.

The one in the middle was the shortest of the three but also the stockiest. His head was wrapped in cloth that had probably once been white but was now a dull grey. Strips dangled like flimsy braids of hair. I saw only one eye peering between the strips as he pivoted his pistol this way and that. I realized the cloth was a dressing that covered most of his face. What glimpses of skin that showed where the bandage sagged was pink and scarred.

The bearded one said, “Want me to fetch the rifle, Lassiter?”

Lassiter, the bandaged one, said, “Go right ahead, Ken.” He pointed at Lenora. “Check on her, Wally. I see she’s hidin’ somethin’.”

While Ken walked over to where Jonathan had discarded the rifle, the odd-looking one hurried over to Lenora. He stopped in front of her, arching his back so his crotch was inches from her face. “Got somethin’ fer me, darlin’?”

Lenora stared up at him. “I ain’t got shit for you, mister.”

Lassiter pitched back his head and let out a guffaw that turned to a cough. Wally seemed a tad hurt by Lenora’s comment. He looked around as if he did not know what to do.

“Shee-it,” said Lassiter. “Damn firecracker, that one. I knew she’d be. Didn’t I tell you? I tolt you that, didn’t I?”

Wally, looking as if he were holding back tears, nodded. “You shore did, Lassiter.”

Lassiter whistled. “Saw that photograph and knew she was a firecracker. Don’t have looks like her and not be one.

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