Tonto Basin by Grey Zane

Author:Grey, Zane [Grey, Zane]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781477833285
Publisher: AmazonEncore
Published: 2013-07-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

“Say, Ben,” said one of the men to his companion, sitting hunched up a few yards distant, “shore it strikes me queer that Somers ain’t shootin’ any over thar.”

Jean recognized the dry, drawling voice of Greaves and the shock of it seemed to contract the muscles of his whole thrilling body, like that of a panther about to spring.

“I was shore thinkin’ thet same,” said the other man. “An’, say, didn’t that last shot sound too sharp fer Somers’s Forty-Five?”

“Come to think of it, I reckon it did,” replied Greaves.

“Wal, I’ll go around over thar an’ see.”

The dark form of the rustler slipped out of sight over the embankment.

“Better go slow an’ careful,” warned Greaves. “An’ only go close enough to call Somers. Mebbe that damn’ half-breed Isbel is comin’ like some Injun on us.”

Jean heard the soft swish of footsteps though wet grass. Then all was still. He lay flat, with his cheek on the sand, and he had to look ahead and upwards to make out the dark figure of Greaves on the bank. One way or another he meant to kill Greaves, and he had the willpower to resist the strongest gust of passion that had ever stormed his breast. If he arose and shot the rusder, that act would defeat his plan of slipping around on the other outposts who were firing at the cabins. Jean wanted to call softly to Greaves:—You’re right about the half-breed!—and then, as he wheeled aghast, to kill him as he moved. But it suited Jean to risk leaping up on the man. Jean did not waste time in trying to understand the strange, deadly instinct that gripped him at the moment, but he realized he had chosen the most perilous plan to get rid of Greaves.

Jean drew a long, deep breath and held it. He let go of his rifle. He rose silently, as a lifting shadow. He drew the Bowie knife. Then, with light, swift bounds he glided up the bank. Greaves must have heard a rustling—a soft, quick pad of moccasin—for he turned with a start. At that instant Jean’s left arm darted like a striking snake around Greaves’s neck and closed, tight and hard. With his right hand free, holding the knife, Jean might have ended the deadly business in just one move, but when his bared arm felt the hot, bulging neck, something terrible burst out of the depths of him. To kill this enemy of his father’s was not enough! Physical contact had unleashed the savage soul of the Indian. Yet there was more, and, as Jean gave the straining body a tremendous jerk backwards, he felt the same strange thrill, the dark joy that he had known when his fist had smacked the face of Simm Bruce. Greaves had leered—he had corroborated Bruce’s vile insinuation about Ellen Jorth. So it was more than hate that actuated Jean Isbel.

Greaves was heavy and powerful. He wheeled himself feet first, over backwards, in a lunge like that of a lassoed steer.

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