Read Online Longarm and the War Clouds by Tabor Evans - Free Book Online Page A

honorable man than War Cloud.
    â€œMust be several thousand dollars in these bags,” Longarm said, glancing into the other pouch. “That’d buy a lot of whiskey and women, all right.”
    â€œA holdup,” War Cloud said. “We almost run up on a pack of curly wolves, Custis. Probably thought we were part of some posse after them.”
    Longarm nodded. “We’ll take the money along to . . .”
    He let his voice trail off as the clacking of hooves rose just south of his and War Cloud’s position, and lower. He and the Apache scout walked over to stand on the lip of the cut through which the trail threaded.
    Magpie was coming along the trail on her buckskin, trailing War Cloud’s grulla and Longarm’s dun by the horses’ reins. She held one of her revolvers in the same hand in which she held her own reins and brought the buckskin to a sudden halt when her wary gaze found her father and Longarm standing over her.
    War Cloud told the girl in Apache that all was well and for her to bring the horses over to where the outlaws’ three mounts were picketed in some mesquites farther down the slope. Then Longarm and War Cloud started to turn back to the campfire. They both stopped and turned back to the cut at the same time, neither saying anything as they stood quietly, pricking their ears.
    From farther off along the trail, on the other side of the cut through the razorback ridge, the clamor of many hooves rose. A good-sized band of riders was heading toward the cut.
    Longarm and War Cloud shared a look.
    The Indian said, “More curly wolves, maybe, eh?”
    â€œMaybe. Or the posse after them.” Longarm started leaping boulders as he dropped down into the cut. “Only one way to find out.”
    He leaped from the last boulder to the trail. War Cloud followed him down. The two men jogged back along the cut through the ridge, the high walls rising around them to block out the moon and the stars. Ahead, the rataplan of the oncoming riders grew quickly.
    War Cloud and Longarm did not have to speak to know the other’s intentions. They’d worked together enough in the past and, while belonging to separate races, were cut enough from the same cloth to know instinctively how to work together without a lot of chinning about it.
    As they left the cut and walked out onto the flat, Longarm moved off the trail’s left side while War Cloud slipped off to the right. Longarm dropped down behind a twisted mesquite, and doffed his hat to make his shadow smaller. The pearl light of dawn was beginning to leech into the sky, making both him and War Cloud easier to see. On the other side of the trail, War Cloud crouched behind a boulder, holding his Spencer repeater up high across his chest.
    The drumming of the riders’ hooves continued. Staring along his back trail, Longarm saw the shifting shadows as the group drew closer. Even with the gradually intensifying dawn light, it was impossible to see how many riders were along the trail. They were a shifting, gray-purple mass as they approached Longarm and War Cloud, and the cut just beyond.
    Longarm didn’t so much as see or hear as he sensed movement behind him. He glanced over his left shoulder to see Magpie move stealthily off the trail, to pass behind him and drop down behind another mesquite to his left. The girl hadn’t made a sound. She had not looked at Longarm as she slipped away from the trail, and she did not look at him now.
    An odd one, that girl. But while she rarely made eye contact with Longarm, he sensed that she was keeping an eye on him, just the same . . .
    Puzzling.
    Longarm gave his attention to the trail. He frowned. The clomping of the hooves had stopped about sixty yards away. He could see the clumped riders as a vague, purple mass. The group had probably heard the gunfire. Whoever they were, they were wisely wary.
    As the sun continued to rise toward the horizon and more