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    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.
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    "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. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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