The Silver Canyon by Paul Lederer

Author:Paul Lederer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781497694071
Publisher: Open Road Media

CHAPTER TEN

“I got to get down. I’m sick,” Thurman complained. The sun was a fierce white ball, sweat soaked his shirt evaporating before it could cool him. His stomach turned over with each step of the horse, his head felt like it had been set fire and beat out with shovels.

“Not yet,” Chato said. “At the tinajas.”

Thurman glanced at the dark shadow beside him, the others surrounding him. He had to squint into the sun, his eyes throbbing in an empty skull. Liquor would be the end of him, he decided.

Chavez seemed cool. He wore a broad white sombrero, a flashy red silk scarf. Thurman did not like this man. If there was a treasure, if they found it, he had no doubt what would happen to him. If it was not there it would likely end the same. With Thurman buried in a shallow sandy wash.

“Look—this is prob’ly nothin’ anyway. Why don’t you boys ride on back. As you was sayin’, plenty of people have looked for this treasure. Nobody ever found a thing.”

“Which means it still must be there, señor,” Chavez answered. “I enjoy the desert,” Chato said, waving a hand around the empty spaces. “It is a fine day for a ride.”

Thurman shut up and rode on, jostling limply in the saddle. There was nothing to be done. The more he tried to convince the man there was nothing, the more he believed there must be.

There had to be a way to shake them, yet he could think of none. There were three of them, all armed. Drummer was up ahead, yet what could he do? He only hoped the girl was ready to tell the truth. Maybe Chavez would be willing to share. After all, there might be plenty for all. Why kill him?

Thurman managed to cheer himself up some thinking along those lines and even brought himself to whistle a little tune as the gray plodded on across the yucca-studded wasteland.

Ahead a massive mesa loomed, shimmering through the veil of rising heat. Beyond that was camp, and the girl. A day or two, maybe, and they would all be wealthy. Thurman wondered vaguely what San Francisco was like. These men probably weren’t the cutthroats they were made out to be. He turned once again in his saddle, studying the bony face of Mescalo with that big drooping mustache, the hard eyes of Chato Chavez, Umberto’s broad shoulders. Hell, they probably weren’t all that bad.

By daylight the tracks read the same. Kid Soledad inspected them with Inkada and Ray. Wagon tracks going to or coming from that mesa wall. He threw back his head and looked up the sheer red face.

“He’s here. It’s here.”

“Think there’s silver in this mountain, Kid?” Ray asked.

“Yes. I don’t get it. It doesn’t quite square with the story of the lost ship. But it’s here. The man doesn’t make mistakes about such things.”

“What do you want to do?” Inkada asked. He was squatting on the sand, drawing pictures with a stick.

Montak stood nearby, holding the horses, his thoughtful eyes alert.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.