A Texas Hill Country Christmas by William W. Johnstone Read Free Book Online Page A

Fort Griffin said.”
    â€œHow did he come to jump the reservation right now, so close to Christmas? I could understand it more if he’d waited until spring to go raidin’. Thought most of those Injuns like to sit on the reservation durin’ the winter when the weather’s bad.”
    â€œSomething happened to set him off, I reckon,” Matt said. “We may never know what it was. But he was able to talk some of the other warriors into going with him, and that’s all that really matters. We need to round them up and get them back where they belong.”
    â€œAfter what they done?” Brenham sounded surprised. “To tell you the truth, Matt, I didn’t figure we’d be takin’ any prisoners.”
    â€œMore than likely it won’t come to that,” Matt said. “I don’t expect them to give up without a fight.”
    â€œI hope they don’t,” Brenham said fervently. “I really do.”
    They rode on, watching and listening intently for anything out of the ordinary. Matt had studied Major Macmillan’s maps of the area, but he had never been to Dark Valley before and wasn’t sure exactly what they were going to encounter. About an hour after he and Brenham had parted company from the rest of the patrol, he brought his horse to a halt and pointed.
    â€œSmoke on the other side of that ridge,” he said.
    â€œI see it,” Brenham said. “Don’t look like a house or a barn on fire, though. More like chimney smoke.”
    â€œI think so, too,” Matt agreed. “That must be one of those ranches we’re supposed to be looking for. I’ll go ahead and ride on in so I can warn the folks living there. Think you can backtrack to the patrol and bring them here?”
    â€œSure I can,” Brenham declared. “I been a backwoodsman all my life, Matt. Was runnin’ around them Georgia hills when I was just knee-high to a possum.”
    Matt grinned and said, “All right, then, head on out—”
    He stopped short as a volley of gunfire erupted somewhere not far away. The shots came from the direction of the chimney smoke they had spotted a few moments earlier, and there were too many of them to think it was somebody shooting at an animal or anything like that.
    No, that was a real life-or-death fight they were hearing, and Matt knew what it had to mean.
    They had caught up to Black Moon and the other renegades at last.

C HAPTER S EVEN
    Matt jerked his Winchester out of the saddle boot.
    â€œTaw, get back to the patrol!” he said. “Bring them back here as fast as you can.”
    â€œDadblast it, Matt!” the young trooper protested. “I can’t go off and leave you—”
    â€œThat’s an order, soldier!”
    Brenham pulled his horse half around and said, “You told me you weren’t no officer, so I don’t have to do what you say!”
    Matt bit back an impatient curse.
    â€œListen, we both know what’s happening on the other side of that ridge. There’s at least a dozen renegades in Black Moon’s war party. Two men can’t stop them any more than one man can. The whole patrol needs to be here if we’re going to have any chance of saving those settlers.”
    Matt’s words made sense, but he could tell Brenham was torn by the logic anyway. Finally the soldier grimaced, hauled his horse the rest of the way around, and called over his shoulder, “Don’t kill too many of the rascals ’fore I get back!”
    He jammed his heels into the horse’s flanks and sent it leaping into a gallop. The cavalry mount’s hooves drummed against the ground as Taw Brenham raced back the way he and Matt had come.
    Matt headed the other way, toward the ridge beyond where the fighting continued.
    He rode most of the way up the slope, winding his way rapidly through the trees, but he reined in and swung down from the saddle just before he