Read Online Showdown With Fear by Stephen Wade - Free Book Online Page B

a groan behind them. The wind was dying down and the captive was coming to his senses. He was a short, solid man, compact. A cowpoke by the look of him, skin like leather.
    ‘What the hell you do to... to git me like this? ‘
    ‘Well feller... I love windstorms and you hate ‘em... so I brung ya to a quiet spot. The name’s Dan Mullen. This here’s my friend Ned Pearce.’
    ‘I know who you are, you idiot. I been tailin’ you for days.’
    ‘I knew.’
    ‘ You knew ? Goddam it... I thought I was being all quiet like.’
    Dan grasped the man’s collar and lifted him. He jerked his head back against the trunk with a thud. ‘Look, you rat... I want some information from you about that vermin McVie. He’s got my boy holed up somewhere in the Sword.’
    ‘Mister... if you want to know where the Rattler’s Nest is, then I swear I don’t know. I’m with Stobart.’
    Dan let the man go and turned to Pearce, who was looking puzzled. ‘Stobart... I should have known. The old friends meet up again... so there’s something big going on... Christ! We’ll need an army. If it’s Stobart, there’s desperadoes crawlin’ all over these twenty square miles of hot hell...’
    The prisoner seemed quite proud to be associated with a name that clearly inspired such perturbation. He couldn’t help blabbing out a few useful facts.
    ‘Right... King Stobart is only six miles thataway...close on forty men with him. You’re a goner, Mullen.’
    ‘Shut it. You talk when I tell you to.’
    Dan needed some thinking time. He could do one of three things. First, keep the man as a hostage. But that would be no worry to Stobart. Second, he could send Pearce back with this man while he himself went on. Third, he could take a bold step and send this snake in with a message. After some walking around in a circle tossing the options around, he decided on being bold.
    ‘Right, you scumbag, you’re about to scuttle back to the two big noises and give John McVie a message from me. But first, we need to eat. You can go in the morning.’
    ‘Mullen, what if they come looking for him?’ Pearce asked.
    ‘A risk we have to take. I’m going in there tomorrow to face them. You can come or stay... your choice. I wouldn’t ask you because...’
    ‘I know... because it’s suicide under another name.’
    ‘I wouldn’t have put it so simply.’
    ‘I heard you was a book-reader, Mullen. Any o’ your fancy books got any suggestions about beating fifty men with an arsenal of weapons and...’ The man realised he’d said too much. He cursed himself under his breath. Dan turned to him sharply and went up close. ‘What did you say?’
    ‘Nothin’
    But he had said everything. Pearce was puzzled, so Dan explained. He told about the past schemes of McVie and Stobart, always dreaming up grandiose plans to take on the world. They had both been skirmishers in Indian wars and both fought for the South in the Big One. Pearce listened, open-mouthed. He was being told that there was virtually a private army being assembled just a few miles from him. For the first time on this trek, he longed for his store.
    *
    ‘I’ve never had nothin’ - not a bent peso - till I grew hard enough to stand up and take what I wanted!’ Nick Stobart had suggested opening some whisky to pass the time under cover during the dust storm. The others were regretting it now.
    ‘Never could take his drink,’ Sammy whispered to his big brother, who was watching Stobart pitifully. He was thinking what a pathetic sight this was. A man who made himself a ‘King’ was no more than a raving drunk.
    ‘Sure... course you are a hard hombre ... here, dreenk a leetle more with me huh?’ Barero was as far gone as Stobart. Nothing was going to be achieved today, John was thinking. But the biggest worry was Sammy. He was hot-headed and the tone was becoming a touch aggressive.
    ‘See, my family, we had nothin’ but an adobe heap... up the trail from some mine. Pa was killed