'All right, horse,' I said to the black, 'let's go talk to them.'
And we rode through the cholla toward Dead Man's Tank.
Chapter 17
The vague blue feather of smoke lifted faintly above the rocks of an old lava flow. I could hear my horse's hoofs strike stone, or his muffled hoof-falls in the sand. I sat tall in the saddle, Winchester in the scabbard, my mind open and alert.
There can be no planning in such a situation. Until a man is in the midst of it, he has no idea of the lay of the land, no idea of how the ones he's going to meet will be strung out. You just have to ride in and handle it by main strength and awkwardness, with maybe the salt of a little luck.
The men up ahead wanted me dead. No doubt they had me in their sights right now.
No doubt they were holding off to crow over me and mine, or to see what I had to say. As to that Apache squaw, they didn't care one whit. But the Haddens were new in Apache country, and they had no idea what they were up against. If Kahtenny didn't get his squaw, nobody was riding out of there with a whole skin ... not if Kahtenny could help it There was a little thorny, scraggly brush growing amongst the rocks, but the land around was mostly slabs of broken rock, falls of talus off the slopes, or ridges shoved up through the sand.
Glancing back, I could see two Apaches back there, and only two. That meant the others had scattered out and even now were moving in, getting in position for the kill.
Now, I'm a peace-loving man, inclined to easy riding and talking around a fire, and the more Apaches I get around me the more peace-loving I become. Riding up there to those rocks around Dead Man's Tank, I could feel my scalp a-prickling as if it guessed it was going to be lifted.
I taken the thong off the hammer of my Colt, and I rode up a narrow trail through the rocks and looked over into a shallow basin.
Dead Man's Tank lay before me, a pool of water maybe ten feet across, each way.
Beyond it was a mite of fire, with the thin line of smoke losing itself in the sky. I could see half a dozen horses, and what might be the ears of a couple more beyond the rocks.
The Haddens were standing wide-legged facing me, and there was a man higher up in the rocks with a Winchester across his knees. Two more were by the fire, and likely another might be somewhere about.
Right beyond the fire was Kahtenny's squaw, and even at this distance I could see she was both young and pretty. She looked straight at me, and I was betting she was counting on Kahtenny to get her loose from this setup.
And then I saw Dorset.
Dorset, and one of the youngsters. I gave a quick look around, but saw neither hide nor hair of the others. Maybe they were dead now, or else were crossing the border to safely.
Arch Hadden was looking right at me, and he was smiling, but there was nothing you'd call friendly in that smile. 'Well, look who's here,' he said. 'That would-be tough Sackett.'
'Got a message for you, Arch,' I said, resting my hands on the pommel, left hand on top. 'Kahtenny is out there, and he wants his squaw.'
'We told him to send you dead.'
'Must have been some mistake there,' I said. 'I'm still alive.'
'Not for long,' the other Hadden said, sounding mighty savage.
'I take it you boys haven't had much doings with the Apaches,' I said, 'so listen to some reason. No matter what's between you boys and me, you'd better listen real good.
'That Kahtenny is poison mean, and he's a fighter from way back. You see him out there almost alone, but he isn't alone. He's got a dozen Indians in these rocks, and more a-coming. If you want to get out of here alive you'd better turn loose his squaw.'
The one in the rocks, he ups and says, 'We've fought Injuns afore. We ain't turnin' her loose. That there's a right tasty bit of Injun.'
Now I knew the chips were down and their cards were on the table. I was sort of watching everything, thinking about how long it had been since I practiced a left-hand draw, and thinking how they were probably counting on that right hand, far from the gun and resting on the pommel, under the left one. I had done that a- purpose, and was hoping it was going to give me the margin I needed. There was this thing of reaction time ... it takes an instant to see what's happening and for it to register on the mind and dictate a move.
'If you boys are as smart as I think you are,' I said, 'you'll let that squaw loose, and the same for the young lady over yonder. You know what will happen if you bother a white girl out here.'
'Nothin' ' That was the man with the rifle up in the rocks. 'Ain't nobody goin' to tell.'
'You're forgetting about my boys,' I said. 'They'll know and they'll be telling the story about now.'
'Not Spanish Murphy,' Arch Hadden said. 'He won't tell nobody nothin'. We found him tied on his horse and he didn't look like he was going to make it, so we shot him. We just naturally finished him off.'
Dorset was right behind the squaw now, and I never had any doubts about her doing what was best. That little lady had a head on her shoulders and the chances were that right now she was unloosing the squaw.
I knew I had to stall. I had to play for time. 'No use you boys building up for trouble,' I said. 'Turn that squaw loose, and the lot of us have got a fighting chance. We can make it out of here if we move fast, before Kahtenny gets fifty, sixty Injuns out yonder.'
'You ain't got the message,' Wolf Hadden said. 'We're goin' to kill you, boy.'
Me, I smiled at him. Somehow I had to keep those boys talking, get their mind off the moment to give myself an edge. If I was going to do anything at all against the lot of them, I'd need all I could get.
'Most men who try to fight Apaches only learn by losing ... and when you lose a fight to an Apache you never get no chance to use what you learned. You boys take my advice and turn loose that squaw, and Kahtenny might just ride off and leave you be.'
'You scared?' That was that one up on the rocks. He was beginning to get kind of irritating, like a mosquito around the ear.
'You bet I'm scared. I've seen these boys work. Now, I -- '
All of a sudden one of those boys yelled, 'Arch! That damn squaw -- '
She was loose and she was moving, and she was moving almighty fast. The man up in the rocks swung his rifle and when he did I forked out that waistband gun with my left hand and my shot was a hair faster than his.
He fired at the squaw and I shot him right through the brisket, and then swung the gun to Wolf, who was coming up with a Remington Navy.
Dorset, she suddenly threw herself at the man nearest her and she hit him right behind the knees. He was standing on a bit of a slope, and when she hit him he buckled at the knees and fell forward on the gravelly hillside.
The man who'd been alongside the fire, instead of grabbing his gun, turned to lay hold of Dorset, and at the same time that I cut loose at Wolf I jumped my horse at Arch.
He made a quick step back to get out of the way, and a rock rolled under his feet. He fell as he drew, jolting the gun from his hand.
I swung my horse and got in another shot at Wolf, who burned me with one alongside the shoulder. He was just setting up to take a dead shot when my second bullet caught him, and he backed up a full step. My black was on him, and he rolled aside, and I felt bullets whipping around me.
Somehow Dorset had a gun. She fired at one of those boys and then taken out running, the child in her arms, for the pony string.
About that time I saw an Apache up on the slope, and he was shooting down at us.
I swung my horse again and went after Dorset.
She wasn't wasting any time, and fortunately they had left a couple of horses saddled. She pulled the drawstring on one of them and swung the child to the saddle, then she went into the saddle herself with a flying leap and we were off, running our horses across that desert like crazy folks.
Maybe we were a mite crazy. I had an idea we weren't going to make it, but every jump we took gave us a better chance. Behind us I could hear a fight taking place, and somebody else was running a horse off to the right.
