Sudden Country by Loren D. Estleman Read Free Book Online Page B

ribs pinned me to a wagon and I'd of got clubbed to death just like the others if I didn't think to reach up and pluck out my eye in front of them savages and stick it back in. Well, sir, that there was big medicine. They taken me back to the village and patched me up and there I stayed, eating dog and dispensing advice, until I was fit enough to make my escape. I picked up the lingo meantime, together with a fair knowledge of injun ways that served me in good fettle throughout the troubles."
    "Fascinating," said the Judge; and I could tell by his expression that he was listening with Jed Knickerbocker's ears.
    "It is not that I disbelieve you," Mr. Knox interposed. "An old campaigner like yourself must know that frauds abound here. I would hear something in Sioux."
    "No offense taken," said Wedlock. Whereupon he paid out a string of guttural intonations of a complex variety that defied question. Even Mr. Knox was impressed. He asked Wedlock what he had said. The saloonkeeper colored slightly.
    "Lincoln's address at Gettysburg, or a fair approximation," he confessed. "It was to honor your company and show I've settled that war in my heart."
    "Admirable!" exclaimed Judge Blod.
    "Did you really meet Chief Red Cloud?" I asked.
    "Better than that, lad–Davy, is it? I cured his corns."
    "Indians have corns?"
    "Bigger than your thumb, every last one of 'em. Comes from climbing over rocks and cactus in moccasins. One of the chief's corns was some older than I was and I soaked it in scalding water and rubbed buffalo grease on it and peeled it off after a week. Injuns never learned about soaking feet. Well, sir, the chief was so happy to have feet like a papoose's he was fixing to adopt me, make me his heir and personal physician. Would of, too, if I didn't see my chance and steal away that very night. I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't of stayed. There's worse ways to live."
    "Is that why you wish to serve as our interpreter?" asked Mr. Knox.
    "A man can draw a beer just so many ways, sir. He needs to feel a horse between his thighs or he forgets he's a man."
    "You know the Black Hills?"
    "Better than I wanted to, some days. I scouted them for Custer in '74 and prospected there the next year. I'd likely still be there if I didn't clear out just before the Little Big Horn; picked clean by ants. It was a near enough thing as it was."
    "This Ghost Dancing doesn't frighten you?"
    He made a motion of dismissal with his mug, which was almost empty now. "Newspaper talk. They've no horses nor weapons. Their warriors are too old and fat to put up a fight and the yonkers are full of mission-school Christ. Half of them don't even speak the lingo. You think old Sitting Bull credits that guff he's spouting about dancing back the buffalo and wearing painted shirts that turn away bullets? He ain't long for this here world himself, so he's stirring them up to die right along with him."
    "What luck have you had rounding up volunteers?" the Judge asked.
    "Well, it'd be better if you'd say what you want them for. But I'm closing the place at midnight and if you come back then you'll meet what I've got. Mind you, they're friends of old Ben's, and if you don't sign him you'll not find them as willing."
    Mr. Knox stiffened. "Blackmail, Mr. Wedlock?"
    "I'm just saying they'll do on my word what they wouldn't on a stranger's. Special a stranger that plays his cards as close as you. They've all been snookered before to be what they are, and they didn't none of them forget it."
    "It is a prospecting expedition," said Mr. Knox. "Will that satisfy their curiosity–and yours?"
    "Them hills was mined out years ago."
    "I rather think there is something to be got from them still. In any case that's not your concern. We are hiring an escort, not taking on partners."
    "Right enough. They're no hands with picks and shovels." He drained his vessel and rose. "You'll want to talk this out. I'll be at the bar."
    When he had withdrawn, Judge Blod glared at me. "There