The Curse of Iron Eyes Read Free Page A

had endured many battles and each of them
was carved into his scarred features. If Iron Eyes had ever truly
resembled other men, it must have been a very long time ago, Barker
thought.
    ‘ I’m just a
bounty hunter. Why?’
    ‘ I’ve met a
lotta bounty hunters. They weren’t nothing like you,’ Barker
croaked.
    Iron Eyes shrugged and
looked at the bodies being carried by the deputies. He then glanced
back at Barker.
    ‘ Whatever the
tally for them critters comes to, give it to the girl you called
Katie.’
    Before
the marshal could respond, the long legged man had walked away into
the darkness.

CHAPTER
THREE
    The
trail led due south. Iron Eyes was backtracking the Calhoon gang’s
route to Waco, but it was not an easy task. A sand storm had been
threatening for hours and at last started to blow. The dusty
surface layer of the dry sand was blowing hard and fast across the
arid prairie as the bounty hunter forced his weary pony
on.
    The mount was spent and
needed food and water but Iron Eyes cared little for horses. He
just kept ramming his razor-sharp spurs into its already bloody
flesh. He wanted to catch up with the outlaw who had somehow
slipped away from the rest of the now dead gang.
    Nothing else
mattered.
    Only pride in finishing
a job that he had started.
    Most of the tracks had
been blown away, but not all. There were still enough left for the
experienced hunter to steer his pony on toward his goal.
    The bounty hunter knew
that somewhere along the fifty-mile trail that had led him after
the ruthless outlaws, he must have somehow missed wherever it was
that Harve Calhoon had left the main group.
    It was the first time
that anyone had managed to outwit the skilled hunter. But then, the
ride to Waco had been the first time that Iron Eyes had trailed ten
wanted men at once. He had taken on groups of four or five
gunfighters before and dispatched them easily, but the Calhoon gang
had been the biggest and most tricky prize that he had ever tried
to catch and kill.
    As he rode feverishly
on, a thought kept haunting the deadly Iron Eyes; why had Harve
Calhoon cut away from the main group of outlaws at all?
    And where had the
varmint gone?
    Apart from Waco, there
was little else to attract a ruthless bank robber.
    Or was there? Perhaps
Calhoon knew something about this barren territory that he had yet
to learn.
    The trail was
mercilessly hot the further south that Iron Eyes rode. Yet nothing
could stop him now. He was angry and wanted the last of the once
notorious Calhoon gang dead.
    There was no other
way.
    Harve Calhoon had
disappeared, but Iron Eyes knew that there was nowhere for the
outlaw to hide once he located the exact spot where he had cut away
from his nine fellow-outlaws.
    The bounty hunter would
seek him out wherever Calhoon tried to hide.
    The trail began to rise
slowly up a sandy dune.
    The exhausted pony
continued being spurred hard by its master. Iron Eyes knew that he
had to continue following what remained of the trail if he were
ever to discover where Calhoon had managed to do the seemingly
impossible, and get away from the most infamous hunter of men in
the West.
    It
never once crossed his mind that even if he had seen the telltale
signs in the sand which would have alerted him that one of the gang
had split away from the others, he could not have followed both
trails. He would have still tracked the larger group on to
Waco.
    Iron Eyes whipped his
pony viciously with the ends of his long reins and managed to make
the hapless creature climb to the crest of the soft, sandy
dune.
    The
sight that met the steel-gray-colored eyes caused Iron Eyes to haul
his reins up to his chest. He sat silently astride the lathered-up
mount and watched the approaching Apache warriors. They had
obviously spotted the dust which rose thirty feet into the air off
the hoofs of his pony, long before he had been aware of
them.
    There were eight of
them and they were all painted for battle.
    Iron
Eyes gritted his teeth and