Read Online Comanche Gold by Richard Dawes - Free Book Online

with a shrug, “what do
you want me to do?”
    “Soaring Eagle know that for Nermernuh to
rebel would be end of The People,” Two Bears replied. “We do
everything we can to keep braves from fighting back, but they take
no more. We need a white man we can trust to go see banker and
force him to stop coming on Nermernuh land.”
    Tucson pushed his sombrero to the back of his
head and a thick strand of black hair fell over his forehead. He
glanced from Two Bears to Soaring Eagle; then he shook his head. “I
don't know what good I could do you,” he said slowly. “What about
Marshal Calloway? Have you seen him about this?”
    “Agent talked to marshal,” Two Bears replied
with a frown. “But we have no proof. Killings made to look like
accident. Lawman do nothing.” He shook his head contemptuously.
“White man's law no good to Nermernuh. White men only laugh at
us.”
    Tucson sat silently while he put it all
together. He knew Two Bears spoke the simple truth when he said
that the white man's law didn't extend to Indians. To most white
men, the only good Indian was still a dead one. If the Comanche
deaths had been made to look accidental, there was nothing Marshal
Calloway could do about it, and he probably didn't care. But what
could he, Tucson, possibly do to help? If he talked to Charles
Durant, the banker would laugh in his face, deny everything, and
show him the door.
    On the other hand, if Tucson did nothing,
Durant's idea would probably work. The Comanche would either be
killed or moved somewhere else...probably to a place even more
desolate than where they were now...and Durant would get the gold.
Tucson had been sickened by the living conditions of the Indians,
and he knew that the gold was the only chance they had to survive,
and maybe prosper.
    Well, Tucson decided, he would just have to
see if there was something he could do to solve the problem.
    “Alright,” he said finally. “I'll look into
things.” He searched the wrinkled face of Soaring Eagle. “I can’t
promise anything at this point, Great Chief. Let's just see how
things develop.”
    Soaring Eagle waited as Two Bears translated
Tucson’s words then his shriveled lips stretched in a pleased
smile.
    “Soaring Eagle say he happy now,” Two Bears
translated, after the old chief had replied. “He say you powerful
warrior who defeat all enemies. He know this before he ask you to
come here. He say sun shine again on Nermernuh.” He paused, then
asked, “What pay you want?”
    “Originally,” Tucson snorted, “I hadn't
intended to ask for anything. But if you've found gold here, I'll
take expenses.” Two Bears looked puzzled, so he explained, “I want
to be paid what it costs me to be here and do the job.”
    Two Bears spoke to Soaring Eagle, and the old
chief reached inside his blanket, came out holding a gold nugget in
his gnarled fingers, and extended it toward Tucson.
    Tucson took it, rotated it in his fingers and
sucked in his breath at the weight of it. Then he said, “This'll do
just fine.”
     

 
    Chapter
Five
     
    It was after sundown when Tucson got back to
Howling Wolf, so he didn't bother going to the boarding house for
supper. He took his time putting the stallion into its stall in the
livery stable, giving it plenty of hay and oats and rubbing it
down. Then he strolled over to the Elkhorn Saloon, thinking he'd
get himself a steak.
    As he moved through the double doors and to
the side, he noted that the place was already jumping. Maybe it was
payday, because there were plenty of cowboys lining the bar and
crowding around the Faro tables, or kicking up their heels with the
women. Tucson sensed that he was a source of curiosity as he made
his way to the end of the bar, where the same empty space from the
night before awaited him.
    It wasn't obvious, nobody stared, but he
could see the men watching him out of the corners of their
eyes.
    Wolf Cabot stood down at the opposite end of
the bar, nursing a glass of whiskey. He was