Free Silver in the Blood by George G. Gilman Page B

educate you. For that I charge extra."
    Anatali's face brightened with his idiot's grin. "Talk don't cost anything," he pointed out.
    "With me, everything's get a price," Edge answered.
    The Zulu looked at the tall man with the lean face, studying the hard lines of his rugged profile. Then he shook his head slowly with a sad expression in his large eyes, admitting that he would never understand such a man. He adjusted the spear into a more comfortable position in his right hand and as he moved slightly in the saddle, the club which was held to a belt by a thong under his jacket rubbed comfortably against his leg.
    The two rifle shots were synchronized but the driver of the second wagon screamed longer. than the old-timer who died in his seat in front of his bullion load.  Other rifles cracked, spitting orange powder flashes out of the late afternoon murk and sending bullets whining around the wagons like raging hornets.
    "Get the girl!" Edge yelled, as he jerked his horse to a stop, wrenched the Winchester from the boot and leaped onto the box of the passing wagon, kicking the dead driver to the trail. With a high-pitched wail of urgent command, he lashed the team with the reins to drive the wagon into a sudden burst of swaying speed. The Zulu's reaction to the attack was no slower. He had nothing to learn about horsemanship and he had stopped his mount in an instant. A moment before Martha's wagon drew level with him, a second bullet slammed into the driver, ending his screams and flipping him off the seat. Anatali had jumped into his place, the seat of his pants slithering in a pool of spilled blood, and was urging the team after the bullion wagon almost before the dead man had hit the ground.
    The gunfire of many weapons was like hail on a tin roof in the confines of the pass, the flashes bursting through the gloom on both sides of the trail. In the rear of the second wagon Martha Wilder's normal composure was shattered to pieces by the noise and the  headlong rush. Her soured face was pale with terror as she peered over the tailgate at the rushing trail receding behind. A bullet ricocheted off a rock and smashed splinters from the framework an inch from her cheek. She screamed in horror and jumped to her feet, preparing to dive towards the front of the wagon. But at that moment the trail took a sharp curve arid as Anatali steered the team into the turn, the rear wheels slithered and one of them crunched into a hardened rut. The wagon swayed, teetered and almost went over onto its side. But at the same moment the woman catapulted over the top of the tailgate, balance was regained and the wagon rumbled off with all four wheels taking the weight.
    Martha's body thudded to the hard ground, knocking her senseless and curtailing her scream of anguish. It rolled over and over several times, amid little spurts of dirt which were bullets hitting the ground. Not until it lay still did the sound of the speeding wagons recede to the extent that the thundering voice of a man could be heard.
    "I said hold thy fire, thee crazy fools!"
    The gunshots fizzled out like a spluttering firecracker and a large group of shadows, which might have been boulders clinging to the sloping sides of the pass, suddenly moved and took shape as human forms. 'Slowly, they started down towards the crumpled figure of the woman on the trail, rifles at the ready as if she represented some great potential threat.
    "She alive?" one of the men asked.
    "Bruised is all," came the response as the men gathered around.
    "That's just fine," said a third with deep pleasure. "Seems we're in a position to trade. She's not much to look at but I know a man who'd pay a million dollars worth of silver for her."
    He laughed and after a moment's hesitation all the others joined him. There were twenty-one of them.
    Up the trail Edge could not hear the laughter above the beating of hoofs and rumble of wheels, but he knew he was still close enough to the pass for the sound of