Free The Fury of Iron Eyes (An Iron Eyes Western #4) by Rory Black Page A

ran his fingers through his mane of
black hair and felt the pain of his stitched-up scalp. His head
still ached but he no longer heard the throbbing drumming inside
his skull. The only drumming he heard now was coming from somewhere
below in the heartland of the Cheyenne as their warriors advanced
on the cavalry.
    ‘ Why soldiers want gold?’
the young brave asked his grim-faced companion.
    ‘Greed ,’ Iron Eyes muttered under his
breath.
    ‘ No understand,’ Silent
Wolf said as he looked back into the stony features of the bounty
hunter. ‘What is greed?’
    ‘It’s when one man wants what another man
has,’ Iron Eyes informed.
    ‘ You mean they want
Cheyenne gold?’
    Iron Eyes nudged his horse
closer to the younger man’s pony. ‘They probably want your entire
reservation as well.’
    ‘ That is wrong,’ Silent Wolf
breathed heavily as his chest heaved. ‘My people would give them
the yellow rocks if they asked, for it is of no use. Gold is not
strong enough make knife. It is heavy. It useless.’
    ‘ But it shines,’ Iron Eyes
shrugged. ‘Folks back east like it ‘cos it shines.’
    ‘ They stupid.’ The young
Cheyenne spat at the ground.
    ‘ They sure ain’t got the
same values as us hunters and that’s for sure, Silent Wolf.’ Iron
Eyes watched as the distant warriors continued past the soldiers
and headed towards the mouth of the valley. He was curious. ‘Where
are your people headed?’
    ‘I do not know,’ Silent Wolf
replied as he, too, wondered where his fellow Cheyenne were going. As a
hunter, he would have stopped when he was above his prey and then
struck. Seeing the long line of Indian riders continuing through
the trees made no sense to his own honed instincts.
    Before either man could
speak again, a noise like thunderous lightning bolts filled both
their ears. The red-hot tapers of bullets seemed to flash all
around them from behind their mounts.
    They were being shot
at.
    Without knowing what or who
could be using them for target practice, Iron Eyes slapped his long
reins across the tail of Silent Wolfs grey pony. The animal leapt
forward and raced through a gap between the trees with its young
master hanging on to its mane. Iron Eyes swung his horse
full-circle as the shots tore up the air around him, and drew one
of his Navy Colts. He fired blindly back at the place where the
bullets were originating.
    As Iron Eyes’ sixth bullet
blasted from the long blue barrel of his pistol, he turned the
horse and dug his spurs into its flesh. The animal jumped down on
to the lower ground where the grey pony had just fled, and then
began to follow.
    Pushing his empty gun into
one of his roomy coat pockets, Iron Eyes grabbed his reins in both
hands, pulled his mount’s head up and rode into the
darkness.
    Bullets continued to follow
the bounty hunter until he managed to steer his petrified horse
into the dense trees. He continued riding hard until he saw the
waiting Cheyenne rider before him. Only then did he drag his mount
to a stop.
    ‘ Who shoot at us, Iron
Eyes?’
    Iron Eyes dismounted and
checked his horse before replying. ‘Whoever it was, they were using
handguns.’
    ‘ How you know
this?’
    ‘I’ve heard most guns in my
time, little hunter. That was two Remingtons and a Colt.’ Iron Eyes ran his
hand over his tired horse and bit his lip.
    ‘Must be white
men ,’ Silent
Wolf said thoughtfully. ‘But why white men up here and why they
shoot at us?’
    ‘ I figure they was shooting
at me.’ Iron Eyes shook his head as he felt the pain starting once
again inside his skull. The violent riding had also started his
head wound bleeding again and a thin line of blood trickled down
his face. The bounty hunter ran a finger across his temple and
stared at the blood on it.
    ‘ You bleeding.’
    ‘ Yeah,’ Iron Eyes said
whilst loading his empty gun before ramming it into his belt next
to its lethal twin. ‘I keep bleeding like this and there ain’t
gonna be none left.’
    ‘