The War Wagon (A Gatling Western #5) by Jack Slade

Author:Jack Slade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mercenaries, cowboys, the old west, western ebook, chet cunningham, westerns 1880s, best westerns, piccadilly publshing westerns
Publisher: Piccadilly

Chapter Eight

NOW CLOSE TO Del Rio, they had followed the river downstream past Cipriano’s place. There was no sign of Cipriano—the cantina was deserted, the stock of liquor removed—and Gatling couldn’t be sure that McNelly hadn’t shot the old man after beating information out of him. McNelly said he had done no such thing. Why would he do such a thing to a retired old bandit? Cipriano had been too frightened not to talk.

Gatling’s answer to that was, “You might have killed him to keep him from sending word ahead to Cheno.”

“You think like a criminal,” McNelly said.

“Or like a Texas Ranger captain,” Gatling said.

The only reason Gatling agreed to go back to Cheno’s camp was the hope of catching up with Belden on the way; and though Gatling hadn’t seen him during the fight on the slope, there was the slim chance that he had been wounded and therefore slowed down. But they didn’t find him in the desert, and the camp was abandoned when they got there. The rifles were gone; everything was gone except empty bottles and cans and Jennings’s charred corpse. McNelly refused to cross the river, so they buried what was left of Jennings and started back.

“Guess you think you done your duty,” McNelly said when they were still a few miles shy of town. “All you accomplished out there was nearly get yourself barbecued. You didn’t destroy the guns, so that colonel of yours is still in the hole. Nothing is forgiven, the way I see it.”

Gatling looked straight ahead; it was awful easy not to want to see McNelly’s sweating red face. Nothing had been said about the rifles, all the way to Cheno’s camp and all the way back. Gatling figured he knew why. “You waited till now to tell me that?” he said. “Well, sir, I was pleased to have you and your little gun along. No telling what Cortinas might be planning for us. Wouldn’t be so smart to get you mad at me.”

“But you don’t mind now?”

“Now is different. We’re all back home safe and sound, so it’s all right to get back to business. Cortinas still has the guns. It has to be talked about.”

McNelly told the colonel the same thing when they went to his office in the morning. The colonel was downcast because things hadn’t worked out. He drank too much brandy the night before, and cursed McNelly and Texas and Cheno before he fell asleep in his chair. It was still early evening when that happened. Gatling left the colonel twitching in his easy chair, bought some cold Pearl beer, went to his room, lay on the bed, and drank it. It was serious business to the colonel, but Gatling couldn’t get too worked up about it. Even so, if he lost the money he was getting from Maxim, it wouldn’t be so good for the Zunis. In spite of all he had done for them, there was still a long way to go before the tribe was prosperous again.

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