The Spirit of Iron Eyes by Rory Black Read Free Book Online

chosen target.
    Another of the Indians was dead. He repeated
the action again and again until the warriors were either dead or
had retreated out of range of his Navy Colt.
    He moved back into the relative safety of
the cave and tried to think. It was almost impossible as his head
pounded like a million war drums. He knew that he ought to have a
plan by now, but there was nothing in his mind except the instinct
to survive.
    Iron Eyes dragged his coat towards him,
reached into the inside pocket and pulled out a handful of cigars.
They were all broken but could still be smoked.
    His eyes drifted up and looked at the sun
again. It was now sinking beneath the distant horizon.
    He struck a match with his
thumbnail and touched the end of the cigar between his
teeth. Smoldering leaf fell on to his legs as he puffed on the
putrid smoke.
    Would these Apaches stop once the sun had
set?
    He opened the
gun ’s
chamber and allowed the hot casings to fall on to the cave floor as
he plucked another six bullets off the pile beside him.
    One by one he slid the bullets
into the narrow holes before closing the chamber again and locking
it. He cocked the hammer and sucked hard on the cigar as the sun finally
disappeared.
    Darkness seemed to sweep over him like a
blanket.

Chapter Seven
    Marshal Tom Quaid had wasted no time in
riding out after the outlaw Diamond Back Jones and the bounty
hunter who already seemed to have managed to kill more men in one
day than his notorious prey had done in the previous few years.
Quaid had purchased a fresh mount in the sun-bleached town and
driven the chestnut mare far harder than he had ever driven any
horse before. Quaid had tied the bridle of his black gelding to his
saddle cantle and led the horse across the arid prairie until his
fresh mount was totally exhausted.
    Only when Tom Quaid was convinced that his
new mount could no longer maintain the speed he had demanded of it,
did he dismount and transfer his saddle and trail bags to the black
gelding. He left the lathered-up chestnut and rode on.
    The black gelding had managed
to keep pace with the chestnut mare easily, having no saddle or
trail tack on its back. Now it was also being forced to race across
the hard ground beneath the bright moon as its master tried to gain on the
two men who were ahead of him. The marshal knew that using two
mounts instead of one had enabled him to reduce the distance
between them by several hours.
    It was not the first time he had used this
trick to gain on his prey. But there had never been so much urgency
in his desire to catch up with anyone before.
    He wanted Diamond Back Jones.
    There was nothing that could stop him.
    After more than two hours of
forcing the long-legged gelding to continue its reckless pace,
Quaid eventually drew in his reins, stood in his stirrups and gazed
ahead across the moonlit prairie. He had managed to get all the
information concerning Diamond Back Jones that he required back at
Dry Gulch. Even the town ’s most drunken of men realized that the veteran
lawman was more than capable of using the matched Remington pistols
he sported.
    They had told him everything that he had
wanted to know about the elusive outlaw and the strange bounty
hunter who was chasing him.
    But there had been no mention that the trail
both riders had taken led deep into Apache territory. It seemed to
the lawman that the citizens of Dry Gulch had conveniently
forgotten that small detail.
    Marshal Quaid dismounted from
the tired mount. He removed one of the four canteens from the saddle horn and
then slowly unscrewed its stopper.
    The sound of gunfire out in the distance had
led him to this place. But with the setting of the merciless sun,
the shooting had suddenly stopped. Quaid knew that meant that the
men firing their rifles had to be Indians. Most probably one of the
numerous Apache tribes which reigned supreme in this desolate
land.
    He dropped his Stetson on to
the ground before the black gelding and poured half