Charles King
Sunset Pass; or, Running the Gauntlet Through Apache Land
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4057664613530
Table of Contents
HE DREW LITTLE NELL CLOSE TO HIM.
MANUELITO WAS SHUFFLING ABOUT THE FIRE APPARENTLY DOING NOTHING.
HIS FIRST DUTY SEEMED TO BE TO GET THE PROVISIONS FROM THE WAGON.
"JIM, OLD BOY, WE'VE GOT TO PULL TOGETHER TO-NIGHT."
"MY GOD! THERE'S NOT A LIVING SOUL IN SIGHT."
BENDING DOWN HE RAISED HER IN HIS STRONG ARMS.
THE TWO MEN SET TO WORK TO BUILD THEIR BREASTWORK.
NELLIE, CLINGING TO HER NURSE, WAS TERRIFIED BY THE SOUNDS.
THE POOR DEVIL WAS NOW SEATED, BOUND AND HELPLESS, ON A ROCK BY THE ROADSIDE.
"THAT'S WHAT JIM TOOK FOR AN APACHE."
ONE VEHEMENT KICK AND CURSE HE GAVE HIM.
WITH ONE BACKWARD LOOK HE STAGGERED WEARILY ON.
"MY GOD! WHAT CAN HAVE HAPPENED? IT'S CAPTAIN GWYNNE!"
EVIDENTLY THE ONE WHO WAS SHOT WAS A MAN OF SOME PROMINENCE AMONG THEM—POSSIBLY A CHIEF.
ALL OF A SUDDEN A BLACK SHADOW RUSHED THROUGH THE AIR.
"DOWN WITH THESE STONES, NOW!"
THE BULLET OF THE LITTLE BALLARD HAD TAKEN HIM JUST UNDER THE EYE.
SUNSET PASS.
CHAPTER I.
A RASH RESOLVE.
"Better take my advice, sir. The road ahead is thick with the Patchies."
"But you have come through all alone, my friend; why should I not go? I have been stationed among the Apaches for the last five years and have fought them all over Arizona. Surely I ought to know how to take care of myself."
"I don't doubt that, captain. It's the kids I'm thinking of. The renegades from the reservation are out in great numbers now and they are supposed to be all down in the Tonto Basin, but I've seen their moccasin tracks everywhere from the Colorado Chiquito across the 'Mogeyone,' and I'm hurrying in to Verde now to give warning and turn the troops this way."
"Well, why didn't they attack you, then, Al?"
The party thus addressed by the familiar diminutive of "Al" paused a moment