Read Online High Wild Desert by Ralph Cotton - Free Book Online Page B

the trail into the shade of a towering rock. He stopped his horse and looked down at hoofprints on the ground. As the other two drew up around him, Sam gave Lang a warning look that held the outlaw back a few feet.
    â€œApache, Ranger?” Adele asked, stopping closer up, looking down as Sam pointed out the prints of horse hooves in the dirt.
    â€œI believe so,” Sam said, looking at the prints. “Chiricahua, most likely,” he added. “On my way up from Nogales, I heard that seven White Mountain warriors rode off the San Carlos Reservation.”
    â€œGood of you to mention it, Ranger,” Lang said with sarcasm.
    Sam ignored him. He looked all around the upper edges of cliff and rock. “I expect they meant to lie low here and make for Mexico before winter, but the army got on them too quick. From the looks of these prints, they’ve been too harried to yank the shoes off their stolen horses yet.”
    â€œThey still do that?” Lang asked, farther back, watching the Ranger.
    â€œSome do, when they have the time,” Sam said. “Others just let the shoes wear off. If they’re riding the high desert, they don’t like iron shoes on their horses. Say their ponies can’t feel the ground as well among the rocks. These being stolen army horses, I don’t know that it makes much difference.”
    â€œOne thing’s for sure,” said Lang, looking all around with the Ranger. “They know we’re here.”
    â€œYep,” Sam agreed, “and they wanted us to know they’re here. Otherwise they wouldn’t have left these prints, not when they could have skirted higher up above the trail and never been detected.”
    Lang just looked at him for a moment.
    â€œGood thinking, Ranger,” he said finally. “What do you figure they want from us?”
    â€œFood, guns, horses,” Sam said, “everything we’ve got. Everything they were short of leaving San Carlos.”
    Adele looked concerned. Lang ventured his horse a little closer and stopped beside her, seeing the Ranger give him a watchful stare.
    â€œDon’t worry, Miss Adele,” Lang said, sounding sincere. “If they wanted a fight with us, we wouldn’t have known it until they dropped down our shirts.”
    Adele looked to the Ranger as if for confirmation.
    Sam gestured at the hoofprints on the ground, the horses having stepped out of the rocks for a few yards, then veered back up onto the hillside.
    â€œThere’s a couple of good reasons they didn’t drop down on us,” he said. “Whatever guns and ammunition they have, they don’t want to use just yet. And they know the army’s close on their trail. They don’t want gunfire giving up their position if they can keep from it.”
    â€œYou’re right,” Lang said. “The message here is give up something, or have them try to take it all. It’s as good an offer as you’ll likely ever get from warriors on the move.”
    â€œBut you’re not giving them any guns?” Adele said to the Ranger.
    â€œNo, ma’am,” Sam said. “That would only show them two things.”
    â€œThat we’re scared and we’re stupid,” Lang cut in with a trace of a smile. “Apache don’t respect fear or stupidity.”
    â€œLet’s unload the roan,” Sam said. “I’m figuring by now they’re tired of eating lizards and bunchgrass.”
    â€œGive them the horse, to eat?” Adele asked.
    â€œEat it or ride it, that’ll be up to them,” Sam said. “Had they not spotted us, by now they would have been ready to eat one of their own horses. But the Chiricahua don’t like walking when they can ride, especially when they’re put upon by soldiers. This horse will settle things for them.”
    â€œBut—but can’t we just give them some of our food?” Adele asked.
    â€œThey’d see that