The Dreamgivers by James Walker

Author:James Walker [Walker, James W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781441261908
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2012-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Zac hurriedly mounted one of the saddled horses in the corral. He gave little thought to the owner of the other horse, assuming only that whoever it was had been left behind to take care of him. Scooping up the reins of the second horse, he took one last look at the darkened cabin and yelled, “Long walk back.” As he turned the horses up the trail beside the canyon wall, he paused and drew his Colt.

The mounts stamped on the rocky ground, and in a matter of seconds a figure appeared in the darkened doorway. Only the lights from the night sky gleaming across a rifle barrel gave away the hidden gunman. Zac cocked and fired three well-placed shots into the darkened doorway, shots that were followed by the sound of the rifle falling on the wooden porch. Zac turned the horses up the canyon and scrambled them up the incline and onto the upper desert floor.

Within a matter of minutes, he was reining his newfound ponies up to the entrance of the lava tubes where he had left the boy. He had given little thought to the possibility of another ambush, and the notion of this oversight spooked him a little. The desert night wind had begun sailing past the entrance to the cave and dust accompanied the whistling of its ebony edges. The boy was heavily on his mind. Being afraid for someone else was a strange feeling for Zac. Right now, though, the boy was unfinished business, and Zac never liked unfinished business.

“Skip! Skipper! It’s me, boy. I’m comin’ in.” He began to slowly inch his body into the cave; the wind blowing behind his back and the chill of what he might or might not find made his hair stand on end. Each slide of his boots along the darkened cave floor was muffled by the shrill moan of the wind across the entrance of the cave.

Just in case the boy was not the only one in the cave, assuming he was still there, Zac lit no match and made no further sound to give away his position. Before he reached the spot where he had left the boy, his boot touched a soft, large object that blocked his path. Zac stooped down. It was a body! And it was still warm. The man’s sidearm was still holstered. Zac figured the fella must have been quite surprised by the double-aught greeting. Feeling along the ground, he found the shotgun just beyond the body, the barrel still hot.

With his small shopkeeper in hand, Zac stepped over the inert figure and began to crouch low, crawling forward on all fours. Within a few more yards the whine of the outside wind had a diminished effect on his ears, and he began to hear other noises coming from deeper in the cave. He heard a quiet weeping and sniffling. There was also the sound of hooves. Carefully, Zac moved to the side of the lava wall and, crouching down behind an outcropping, he pulled a match from his shirt pocket.

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