Free The Spirit of Iron Eyes by Rory Black Page B

other two
men.
    Col Wall grabbed hold of
Hume ’s
arm.
    ‘ Exactly how many Injuns are we talkin’ about, Matty? Ten?
Twenty?’
    ‘ I figure that there
must be at least fifty of the critters by the way the ground’s all
churned up, Col,’ Hume replied, rubbing the back of his neck.
thoughtfully.
    ‘ Fifty?’ Wall gulped. ‘Fifty Apaches? That’s an awful lot of
Injuns. Are ya sure there’s fifty?’
    ‘ Nope.
I ain’t sure. There might be maybe twice that many of them for all
I know. It’s hard to tell. The ground is kinda roughed up a tad,’
Hume answered.
    Tanny Gibson stopped in his tracks again and
dropped the bag once more.
    ‘ How
many?’
    Wall spun on his heels and gazed around the
horizon with increased alertness.
    ‘ Then
how come we’re stoppin’ for vittles, Matty? We ought to be headin’
after them critters before they catches up with old
Quaid.’
    ‘ That’s a hundred Apaches, ain’t it?’ Tanny Gibson gasped in
utter disbelief as he finally managed to calculate what double
fifty was.
    ‘ Yep!
About a hundred sounds right, Tanny.’
    ‘ We
ain’t got time to waste, Matty. Them Injuns will catch up with
Marshal Quaid for sure. He needs our help. We can’t leave him to
get scalped,’ Col Wall said.
    Captain Hume shook his head slowly and
pointed down at the sand again.
    ‘ They’re ahead of Tom Quaid. Look at the sand, Col. The shod
hoof-tracks are on top of the unshod ones. That means Quaid arrived
here after the Apache rode through here.’
    ‘ Huh?’
Wall was confused. ‘What ya trying to say?’
    ‘ For
some reason, the marshal arrived here trailing Diamond Back Jones
and the bounty hunter them folks back at Dry Gulch told us about. I
figure that Jones met up with his Apache kin and they gave chase to
the bounty hunter. Marshal Quaid decided to keep trailing them
because Diamond Back is out there someplace.’
    ‘ How
come they would chase the bounty hunter?’ Wall asked.
    ‘ Iron
Eyes is a strange dude. Outlaws hate his guts and so do the
Apache.’ Matty Hume sighed. ‘For some reason they reckon that he’s
a living ghost or somethin’. He’s killed his share of their tribe
over the years and they might have thought about getting their own
back.’
    Gibson picked up the bag once again and
brought it to the two men. He spoke reluctantly.
    ‘ Shall
I fix a fire, Cap?’
    ‘ Yep.
Use some empty flour-bags to make a fire, Tanny. There’s plenty of
dry brush around here to get a good blaze goin’. I want to drink me
a couple of cups of coffee and fill my guts with some salt pork
before we head on out again.’
    Anxiously Col Wall bit his lip.
    ‘ So we
ain’t in no hurry then?’
    Matty Hume looked at his
friend. ‘I
ain’t been in no hurry since I first set eyes on them tracks,
Col.’

Chapter Twelve
    Lightning was still exploding
in the skull of the emaciated figure as his feet somehow continued
to take him along the black cave passage. His innards felt as
though they were melting inside his lean frame and the sound of his
pounding heart continued to haunt him. More dead than alive, Iron
Eyes walked like a zombie in search of sanctuary, his long arms
stretched out before him. Every fiber of his being screamed out for him to
rest but he knew there could be no rest whilst the deadly
snake-venom still surged through him.
    Only instinct was driving the
bounty hunter on through the dark cave tunnel now. Iron Eyes had no
idea where he was or even if he were still somehow alive. There
were no rational thoughts in the bounty hunter ’s fevered brain. Only
agonizing pain. Step after step, he continued heading into the
gentle breeze that drifted through the otherwise stale
air.
    He had determined to remain
upright and keep walking until he eventually died or recovered his wits long
enough to reclaim his mind again. The pain was worse than anything
he had ever experienced before.
    How many times had he been
stabbed, shot by guns and bows in the past? So many times that