Read Online Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry - Free Book Online

realized he didn't know what to say. The weight of command had suddenly become very heavy. He had no idea which way they ought to go.
    "Aren't you going to say something?" Woodrow asked.
    "You've been talking ever since I've known you, why'd you suddenly dry up?" "Because I don't know how to be a captain--at least I'm man enough to admit it," Augustus said.
    "What do you think we ought to do, if you know so much?" "I don't know so much," Call said.
    "I've taken orders the whole time I've been a ranger. Why would I know any more than you do?" "Because you're a studier, Woodrow," Augustus said. "You've been reading in that book about Napoleon for years. Me, I'm mainly just a whorer." He took one more look at the landscape, and then turned to his friend.
    "All right," he said. "I'll try to captain if you'll help. I favor trying to strike the Red River. I expect the Pecos is closer but there's little game on the Pecos.
    If we go that way we'd probably have to eat the horses. We've got those extra mules. I say we eat the mules, if we have to, and make for the Red. There's plentiful deer along the Red." To Gus's relief, Woodrow Call smiled, a rare thing in general, Woodrow being mainly solemn, but especially rare considering the hard circumstances they faced.
    "The Red was my thinking too," Call said.
    "Is it?" Augustus said, relieved.
    Usually Woodrow took the opposite view, just because it was opposite, as far as he could tell.
    Both of them turned for a moment and looked at the camp, fifty yards away. All the rangers were looking at them, waiting to see if they would quarrel.
    "The boys depend on us now," Call said.
    "It's up to us to get them home." "I just hope we don't run into a big bunch of Comanches," Augustus said. "A big bunch of Comanches could probably finish us." "One of us will have to scout, and the other stay with the troop," Call said.
    "I agree," Gus said.
    "It's a big thing we're taking on," Call said. "We need to keep our heads and do it right." "We'll get these boys home," Augustus said, proud but a little nervous. He looked once more at Woodrow, to be sure they were still agreed on the directions.
    "So the Red River it is?" he said.
    "Yes, and let's get started," Call said.
    "The Red River it is."
    Famous Shoes was surprised to see that Big Horse Scull could walk so well. Usually he could easily walk off and leave any white man, but he did not walk off and leave Scull.
    When they camped the first night the man did not seem tired, nor did he insist on the large wasteful fires that the whites usually made when the nights were cold. Their fire was only a few sticks, with just enough flame to singe the prairie chicken Scull had hit with a rock. The clouds blew away and the stars above them were very clear, as they divided the skinny bird, which was old and tough.
    Famous Shoes had begun to realize that Scull was a very unusual man. They had walked all day at a fast clip, yet Scull did not seem tired and did not appear to want sleep.
    Famous Shoes yawned and grew sleepy but Scull merely kept chewing his tobacco and spitting out the juice. Famous Shoes thought Scull might be some form of witch or possessed person. He was not a comfortable man to be with. There was something in him like the lightning, a small lightning but still apt to flash at any moment. Famous Shoes did not enjoy being with a man who flashed like lightning, causing unquiet feelings, but there was not much he could do about it.
    "Do you know this Ahumado?" Scull asked.
    "No," Famous Shoes said, very startled by the question. They were pursuing Kicking Wolf, not Ahumado.
    "No one knows Ahumado," he added. "I only know where he lives." "Somebody must know him," Scull said. He had begun to think of walking to Mexico, to kill Ahumado, the man who had shot him and also Hector. The thought of a lone strike had only occurred to him that day. Once he had wanted to take cannons to Mexico, to blast Ahumado out of the Yellow Cliffs. But now that he was alone