Loius L'Amour Sacketts 12 The Lonely Men

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for
a pillow, I went to sleep.
When I woke up it was maybe two hours later and the fire was down. Most of
the
Apaches lay around sleeping, and I still wasn't tied, which made no sense at
all
unless they figured on having some fun when I made a break for it.
Thirst was about to strangle me and the waterhole was right beyond the edge
of
camp, so I got up, making no special try at keeping quiet, and I walked over
to
the waterhole, lay down and drank. Then I went back and stretched out again.
I knew as well as anything that at least four or five pairs of eyes had been
on
me all the while, and had I jumped for a gun or a horse they'd have had me.
So I
just stretched out quiet, feeling a whole lot better for the drink.
Presently Kahtenny got up and walked over to me and sat down. He rolled
himself
a smoke as easy as any cowpoke you ever did see, and he sat there smoking
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until
half of it was gone before he spoke. "Somebody want to kill you."
"Me?" I chuckled. "Maybe a lot of folks." I sized him up as having something
puzzling on his mind. "You mean your boys?"
"Other man. White man."
"A white man wants me dead? What makes you think so?"
"He have my squaw. He say, you dead he give her to me. I bring your body, he
gives squaw."
"So why haven't you done it?" Kahtenny looked puzzled. "Why he want you dead?
I
think somehow it is a trick."
"How'd you get the news? Did Toclani bring it?" He showed no surprise that I
knew Toclani. "Yes ... he bring it. My squaw ... she talk to sister at San
Carlo. She go quickly in the night, but when she leave these men take her."
"Did they hurt her?"
"No. Toclani say no." He looked at me. "Me fight Toclani, but Toclani good
man.
My squaw good woman. Toclani puts Apaches to watch out for my squaw."
"Who are these white men?" "Their name is Hadden. There are several. Toclani
sees them. Why they want you dead?"
"I shot them up. Rocca ... you know Tampico Rocca? They called him greaser
and
were going to kill him. We fought Rocca and me, we kill one ... maybe two of
them.
He still was not satisfied. "Toclani says you good man. Great warrior."
There wasn't much I could say to that, so I kept my mouth shut and waited,
but
my mind was working as fast as I could make it. I lay no claims to being a
thinker or a planner. I'm just a mountain boy who grew up to be a free
drifting
man, but it didn't take much figuring to see I had a way out of this if I
could
come up with the right ideas. Trouble was, I had to play my cards almighty
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careful, because I surely didn't have any hole card. One thing working for me
was that Kahtenny was suspicious, and feared a trap.
To kill me of his own idea would be simple enough, and likely that's what he
would have done, after some torture to see what kind of a man I was. But now
somebody else wanted me dead, and he was puzzled.
From what I gathered, Kahtenny's squaw had slipped back into the reservation
to
see her sister and that was when the Hadden boys caught her ... waiting until
she started to leave.
It was nothing unusual for a wild Apache to return to the reservation, stay a
while, and then leave. The Army was always trying to get them to return, and
often the squaws would come back first to look over the situation.
Now they had Kahtenny's squaw and he wanted her back, but he was like a wild
thing that sniffs trouble at every change, and there was a lot about this
offer
that he did not like.
He sat smoking and waiting, and finally I said, "I think you can not trust
them."
He looked at me. "They will kill her?"
"They are bad men. They would have killed Rocca for nothing. I think if you
take
my body to them they will kill her and you also ... if they can."
He waited a while, and I poked sticks into the fire. Then I said, "Give me my
guns. I will get your squaw for you."
For a long time he said nothing, then abruptly he got up and went to the
other
fire, where he remained, occasionally in low-voiced conversation. After a
while
he came back and sat down on the sand. "You can get my squaw?"
"Kahtenny is a warrior. He knows the ways of war. Much can happen, but this I
promise. I shall get her safely if it can be done."
After a pause, I added, more quietly, "The Haddens are not Apaches. They are
fierce men, but they are not Apaches. I can get your squaw."
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