Spake As a Dragon (27 page)

Walking around the room are two other
men. One is dressed entirely in black, head to toe. One wears a
brown ten-gallon Stetson cowboy hat, the other wears a black
flat-rimmed hat. To Sam it looks like a cross between a Stetson and
a sombrero. The black hat has a hatband made with silver Mexican
pesos. Both are dressed in long sleeve shirts, leather vests with
six-shooters strapped to their hips. Their holsters are strapped to
their legs with narrow strips of rawhide. Gunslingers! The dude
with the black hat is wearing a fancy pair of high-heel western
style boots. Adorning each boot is expensive Mexican silver spurs,
which jingle and jangle as the rowel touches the floor with each
step he takes. Sam has heard this rhythmic sound of the spur rowels
before, but where? Yes, now he remembered: as he hid in the closet
he could hear the man walking that shot his mother and father. The
spurs he wore made that same jingling sound.

The one with the black hat walks up to
the man tied to a chair and demands, “I’m telling you for the last
time where is that claim with the gold?” He then slaps him hard
across the face. Sam has witnessed enough to see the man in black
is clearly the one in charge.

The fellow on the receiving end of all
this abuse mumbles something about not knowing what they are
talking about. Black hat doesn’t like this answer and smacks him
again.

Brown hat says, “Give me another
chance at him, I’ll make him talk.” He walks over to the stove and
removes the scalding pot of what must have been coffee at one time.
Bringing it closer to the nearly un-conscious man and begins to
pour the hot coffee over his head. The scream from the man is
horrendous. Sam must make it stop, he must. He drops his eyes from
the view of the interior, pulls the hammer back on his Springfield,
and is about to advance around the house and confront the two
villains.

Suddenly above his right ear his skin
feels the touch of cold metal and the metallic click of a pistol
being cocked. “What you looking at boy? Somethin’ inside you
dying
to see?” The man with the six-shooter says,
emphasizing the word ‘dying’, “Now git up! Git yerself around the
side of the cabin and git inside. “I’m gonna give yous a close-up
look.”

The cabin door flies open and Sam is
shoved inside. “Oh, what have we here?” Ask black hat turning to
look at the door.

“
A peeping Tom,” says man
number three. “Caught him outside that hole there watching yer
fun!”

The leader tells them to bind Sam to
another chair. Once Sam is securely lashed he asks, “So you want to
save this here gent, do you? How do you and him relate?” Sam
answers that he does not know the other prisoner. He was out on a
hunting trip and saw the smoke from the chimney and came to
investigate.

“
Hmm,” Says Blackie, “A
likely story, I believe you two are in cahoots with each other. You
and him are working that gold mine together, right?”

“
Sir, I have never seen
this man in my life, but if you keep beating him you are going to
kill him, and his death will be on your hands.”

“
Let me explain something
to you lad, I don’t know the number of men that I have already
killed. One more ain’t gonna make any difference. I’ll kill him,
and you too for that matter, like stepping on an ant. You two ain’t
nothing, all I want to know - where is the gold mine?” As he
finishes, he turns and slugs the old fellow again.

“
Wait mister, wait. Why do
you think he knows where the gold mine is?”

“
You see Buck here,”
pointing to Mr. Brown Hat. “He was up on the mountain with our gang
when a friend of theirs by the name of Old Bill stopped by. He told
of finding a gold mine and said he give a map of it to his
partner.

Well ‘fore you know it some low down
sneaking skunk pitched a stick of dynamite into the fire. Buck was
the onlyest one to run off. Now our friend with the gold mine was
kilt along with the rest of the gang, and he never got a chance to
tell Buck and the boys where the mine was or who he done give the
map too.

I was waiting at the Gap fer the boys
to ride back in, but Buck was the onlyest one that got back. We
knowed about this here cabin and this old prospector coot and
figured he was Old Bill’s partner, but he ain’t talking. He’s
prouder of that mine than he is of his life.” Looking at Sam,
“Maybe you’re not?”

“
Look mister, this old
man, well Rufus is his name, doesn’t know anything about a mine.
He’s been prospecting all his life, you think if he had struck it
rich he would still be livin’ up here in these mountains. No
sir’ree, he’d be in Knoxville havin’ himself a big
time.”

“
Makes sense boy, you
mean,” winking at the others, “wasting his money on drinking
whiskey, gambling and chasing wimmen. Wait, maybe you and him
haven’t had time to do much minin’ with all this snow and all –
yeah that’s it, he’s trying to save it all for hisself.” Turning to
Rufus, he draws back his fist to strikes him again.

“
Hold on there mister,
you’re right, Rufus is my uncle. I lied, I thought I could work out
a deal with you, but I see there is no use. Please stop beating him
to death and I’ll talk.”

“
You mean you are related
to this old coot and he shared the mine with you?”

“
Well, I just happened to
be out hunting that day and ran upon Rufus at the creek when he
discovered a vein of gold.”

“
You’d just say that to
save you and your uncle’s worthless hides.”

“
Naw, its real,” Untie my
hands and I can prove it to you. Blackie instructed only one of
Sam’s hand be loosened.

With his free hand Sam reached into
his pocket and withdrew the large gold nugget and handed it to
‘Blackie.’ The three outlaws gawk and eye the yellow hunk of metal.
One says he has never seen such a large piece of gold. Another
dreamily tells of the wimmen and liquor he can buy, the other
speaks of goin’ to Cal-i-forn-nee-a. “Shut up, both of you. This is
just one piece of gold. There must be lots more where this’en come
from. That old man ain’t gonna tell us nothin’, put him out of his
misery, and then we’ll git the information from our new partner
here, right kid?”

Buck pulls his Colt from its holster
and walks over to Rufus. Rufus is un-conscious or maybe already
dead, but Sam is not going to let Buck just shoot him, “Wait, wait
don’t kill Rufus! If you swear not to harm us anymore, I will tell
you where you can find the mine.”

The three outlaws huddle together in
the far corner of the room whispering Buck says to ‘Blackie,’ “Yer
not buying that tale are you? Let’s just shoot them both and git
out of here. They don’t know nothin’”

“
Hold on there Buck. What
if the kid is right, we might be passing up a great opportunity.
You know he got that nugget sommers.”

“
We ain’t partnering up
with them, are we?”

“
Naw, of course not. Let’s
just play the hand out then we’ll kill’em both.”

“
Okay kid,” said
‘Blackie,’ walking over to Sam. “We’ve decided, all you’ve got to
do is tell us where the gold is. And we’re not going to kill you if
fact we’re gonna let you two be on your way.”

“
Now,” said Sam, “you
swear you’re making a double-dare promise?”

“
Oh, I swear it on my dear
old mother’s grave.” One of the bandits looked at the other and
winked, they knew ‘Blackie’s’ Ma was still alive.

“
All right then, look in
the lining of my hat.”

‘
Blackie’ pulls Sam’s hat
from his head, turns in inside out and feels a piece of paper. He
pulls it out, its a map, he lays it on the table and begins to
study all its details.

Once he confirms to his satisfaction
the map is real he turns to his two compadres, “Kill’em
both!”

“
No wait!” says Sam. “You
double-dared promised.”

“
There is no honor among
thieves, you know that kid, I lied.” Looking at Buck and the other
outlaw, “Git on with it! Kill them both!”

As the two remove their six-guns from
their holsters and begin to aim, Buck is going to kill Sam and the
other buckaroo is going to shoot Rufus. They pull the hammers back
on their pistols just as the front door is kicked open. In charges
Luke with the Spencer belching .56 caliber lead bullets as fast as
he can fire them. Within seconds, the three outlaws lie dead on the
floor.

“
Are they dead?” asks
Sam.

“
Dunno,” Luke said as he
fired one more bullet into each body. “I believe they are
now.”

Luke unties Sam who has tears
streaming down his face. Luke did not know if the tears are from
happiness of being saved or from the nearness he came to death,
regardless, Sam hugs Luke and runs to Rufus and begins to untie the
ropes that bind him. Luke stops him, “Forget it Sam, he is
dead!”

Sam walks across the smoke filled room
and removes the gold map from ‘Blackie’s’ clenched hand, and the
gold nugget from his vest pocket, “Just had to do it Luke, just had
too. I couldn’t sit and watch them kill Rufus. Let them kill him
for a gold mine, who would do such a thing?”

“
Not you, that’s for
sure,” said Luke. “Go through their pockets and pull out any papers
that might identify who they were.

“
Come on Sam, that’s
enough excitement for one day let’s go home,” Luke said as he
re-loaded cartridges into his rifle. Sam picks up his Springfield
and opens the cabin door to head home.

Luke was wrong! Their day of
excitement was about to continue; for standing at the door growling
was a mammoth 400 pound black bear. He was at least 7 or 8 feet
tall, with teeth showing that were at least two inches long and it
has a very ravenous look in it’s eyes and doesn’t at all seem
friendly. “Run”, says Sam.

“
Run! You’ve got to be
kidding. He’s standing in the only way out of here.”

The bear is so massive he pushes the
door from its hinges as he tries to get into the room. His huge
body will not fit through the cabin entrance. Sam thought the cabin
was small before, but now it seems no bigger than a matchbox.
“Shoot it Luke, shoot it. It’s coming in.”

Luke fires one round, nothing happens.
Well, maybe something did – the bear get madder. “Shoot it again
Luke!” Sam yells. To make the bear even madder Kentuck is outside
raising cane, barking and biting at the bear’s
hindquarters.

“
I’m trying Sam, but I
have a shell jammed in this Spencer. It won’t fire.”

The bear has now squeezed himself
through the narrow door and is inside the room.

Luke and Sam retreat to the farthest
corner as Luke attempts to get his rifle to shoot. They are running
out of time, the bear raises its head, which touches the ceiling.
He is swinging his massive forearms, each tipped with razor sharp
claws awaiting their chance to grab something to hold on to. Right
now, odds are it appears it will be Luke and Sam. Luke cannot get
his rifle un-jammed.

The bear is so close they get a hint
of its smell. It has a musky, pungent, urine smell. He opens his
mouth wide and lets out a terrifying growl. “Shoot Luke! Shoot!
We’re running out of time.”

Luke yells back, “Sam we’re out of
time. My Spencer won’t fire.”

Running purely on adrenaline, Sam
raises his Springfield musket, thrusts the barrel almost into the
upper portion of the bear’s mouth just behind those fearsome teeth,
which now are a mere few inches from the end of his rifle. He
touches the trigger; the hammer falls on the primer cap, igniting
the black power with a loud
‘kaboom
,’ the bear growls again,
lumbers forward and falls. The bullet went straight through the top
of the bear’s mouth directly into it brain – killing it instantly.
As the bear collapses, Luke and Sam have to hug the wall to keep
the beast from falling right on top of them.

“
Well,” said Luke stepping
over the dead mound of brown fur, “you wanted a bear now you’ve got
you one. Only question now – what are we going to do with
him?”

MEAT APLENTY

It is nearing nightfall on the fourth
day since Luke and Sam left to go hunting. Catherine is worried;
normally a two-day hunt is all the hunters can withstand out in the
freezing sub-zero temperatures up on the mountain.

Catherine hears a rifle shot high upon
the mountain side an hour or so before she sees two men walking
through the snow on snowshoes, leading three horses and a burro.
She can see one of the ponies is a pinto, white with tan marking.
In the snow, the pinto is almost invisible. All the animals were
heavy laden and were having a hard time walking through the
knee-deep snow. Catherine removes the shotgun from over the mantle
and cautiously returns to the front door. These strangers are still
too far away to recognize who they were, but, “Dang it,” that sure
looks like Kentuck about fifty feet in front. No, it can’t be the
boys, but again she looks, “That has to be Kentucky Lead, there has
never been a dog that looks like him! What’s he doing with these
fellows?”

She knows it cannot be Luke and Sam
they had not taken any horses – if fact they only have three horses
and one burro, and she knows they are still in the barn.