Goodnight's Dream (A Floating Outfit Western Book 4) Read Free

without
needing to be reloaded.
    There were no further attacks
made that day. Nor did the watchers waste lead and powder by
shooting at the cave. More braves came at intervals, including a
war-bonnet chief and many tehnap. Each group of new arrivals appeared on the rim,
studied the situation and then withdrew without hostile action. For
all that, Loving and Sid knew the Comanches would not give up
without further attempts to dislodge them.
    ‘ What do you reckon, boss?’ Sid
inquired as the sun sank towards the western rim.
    ‘ Likely they’ll try to jump us at
dawn,’ the rancher replied. ‘It’s a full moon tonight, so we’ll be
able to see if they try sneaking up too close.’
    ‘ With the moon we can’t chance slipping
out,’ Sid remarked. ‘Might’ve tried to get by ’em and to their
horses but for that.’
    ‘ Not a hope of it,’
Loving grunted. ‘They’re Kweharehnuh, not a bunch of Mission Tejases. We could take a whirl at
going up the rim on this side but we’d be a-foot comes morning and
they’d have found out we’d gone.’
    ‘ I surely hates walking,’ Sid declared.
‘’Specially when the fellers after me’s got hosses. Looks like it’s
root, hog or die right here until Colonel Charlie comes to fetch us
out.’
    ‘ That’s what we’ll do,’ Loving
agreed.
    Although aware that the
Comanche did not normally attack at night—figuring that Ka-Dih, the Great Spirit,
might not find the soul of a warrior killed in the darkness—the
Texans took no chances. While Sid made up a meal of biscuits,
pemmican and water, Loving watched the slope. Then they alternated
a constant guard as the night went by. With the land before them
illuminated by a bright full moon, they could see the Pecos well
enough to detect any attempt to sneak up on them.
    Apart from the glow of fires beyond the rim
and the occasional coming and going of braves watching the cave’s
entrance, there was no sign of activity from the Comanches. Yet
Loving and Sid knew the Indians would be planning their next move,
being temperamentally unsuited for passive siege warfare.
    Sitting with his back against the wall and
his Sharps carbine resting on his knees, Sid was waiting out the
last hour or so before sun-up. Soon he would wake up his boss so
that Loving could make preparations to meet the attack when it
came.
    A faint scuffling clicking noise from above
drew Sid’s attention from the slope. Something fell, clattering
lightly to the ground before the entrance. Sid tensed slightly as
he saw the thing that disturbed him. A few small rocks had fallen
from the rim over the cave. Which meant somebody was up there—and
that somebody must be the Comanches. A puzzled frown creased Sid’s
brow and he wondered what the Indians hoped to achieve from their
new position. Rising sheer for a good forty feet, the wall could
not be climbed. So the braves on top posed little threat to the
defenders. Most likely they were a newly arrived group who were
surveying the situation before joining the main body.
    ‘ Boss!’ Sid hissed, figuring that
Loving would want to know about the arrivals.
    ‘ Stirring in his blankets, Loving sat
up and looked around. Then he rose with the Henry in his hand and
joined the other man at the entrance.
    ‘ Anything doing?’
    ‘ Not across the river, but I thought I
heard something on the rim.’
    ‘ Cover me!’ Loving ordered, then moved
cautiously out of the cave.
    Looking up, the rancher could see no sign of
life on the rim. His thoughts ran parallel to Sid’s on the matter
and he withdrew to shelter as a rifle cracked on the opposite
slope, its bullet whining off the wall above his head.
    ‘ Couldn’t see anything up there,’ the
rancher stated on his return. ‘And there’s no way they could climb
down near enough to do them any good.’
    ‘ The chief’s on the other side,’ Sid
answered. ‘Maybe come to see what the shooting’s about. It won’t be
long now.’
    ‘ That’s for sure,’ admitted