Саймон Бествик - The Devil and the Deep - Horror Stories of the Sea

He went back into the shadow under the wagon.

Uncle JoJim turned toward Black-beard. “What are your wishes?”

Black-beard dismounted. “We’ll do as the man suggests. But we won’t stay long, on account of the smell.” He gave Red-beard a quick gesture. “Have your boy tie the horses to those ridiculous wheels.”

“But Charley’s animal ain’t got a bridle,” Joshua said.

Red-beard dismounted as well. “So take a rope and loop it around the beast’s neck.” He looked at Charley and grinned. “That will be good practice.”

Black-beard and Red-beard stepped up on either side of Uncle JoJim. “You heard the invitation,” Black-beard said. “Let’s go.”

Uncle JoJim did not look back at Charley as he and the two bushwhackers disappeared under the wagon. And for the first time he could remember, Charley felt completely alone.

“Well,” Joshua said as the men disappeared into the shadow, “I guess we should get down and tie the horses.”

So Charley slid down, rubbed his itching face, and then reached up and grasped a strand of Bird King’s mane. He led Bird King to Calico Girl, took the mare’s bridle in his free hand, and brought the two horses to the big wheel at what he thought was the front of the wagon. Joshua led the other three horses to the rear wheel and tied their reins to it. Then he tossed Charley a six-foot piece of rope.

“Do a good job,” Joshua said, “or Pa might get mad.”

Charley looped Calico Girl’s reins around a wheel spoke thicker than his leg, tying them with a slipknot. Then he looped the rope around Bird King’s neck, knotted it, and tied the loose end next to Calico Girl’s reins with another slipknot. Together, the slipknots looked complicated and tight. Or so Charley hoped.

Then he stepped between the two horses. For the moment, he was hidden from the men, and from Joshua as well. But he could hear Black-beard talking.

“I may have heard of you, Mister Thomas,” Black-beard said. “This Injun’s comments have reminded me. Did you not solicit investors for an ‘Overland Navigation Company’ in Westport, Missouri, some fifteen years ago? And did you not lose them all when the Federals refused to embrace your fanciful schemes?”

Charley shuddered at the ugliness of Black-beard’s voice, then stepped farther back between Bird King and Calico Girl until he stood beside the scabbard that held Uncle JoJim’s shotgun.

Captain Thomas’s deep voice floated to him from the shadows. “First, sir, I am not ‘Mister’ Thomas. By virtue of decades in command of both government and private vessels in the Northern Atlantic and other regions, I am ‘Captain.’ Second, my plans for overland navigation were never fanciful, but wholly practical. All the world was once the sea, you know. And though the waters have partially receded, the same methods employed upon them for generations may also be employed upon the lands that once lay beneath them. Such as this vast prairie.”

Black-beard and Red-beard both laughed then, and Charley’s reaction to the sound was to reach up and touch the shotgun. If he stretched on tiptoe, he might be able to pull it free.

But then what? The shotgun was long and heavy, and Uncle JoJim had allowed him to fire it only once, at the beginning of today’s hunt. It had knocked Charley over, and he had found himself on his back in the grass, staring up at a patch of blue sky. The prairie chicken he had been trying to shoot had flown on through that blue patch, free and clear. Charley was pretty sure the bird had looked down and mocked him.

But maybe now that he had fired the gun once, he could brace himself for its force.

He rose on his toes as he heard a rumble of thunder to the south. And then he heard Joshua’s voice.

“Are both barrels loaded?”

Charley jerked back his hand. Joshua had come up beside the wagon wheel and was now standing between the necks of Bird King and Calico Girl, staring at Charley. He had spoken softly, and since they were between the horses, and thunder was rumbling, Charley didn’t think the men had heard.

“Just one barrel is loaded,” Charley said. “Uncle JoJim used the other on this bird.” He touched the third chicken hanging from the left side of the saddle.

Joshua shook his head. “That’s no good. You would have to kill both my pa and Mister Barnett, real quick. So you’d need both barrels. Otherwise, whoever was left would cut off your scalp.” He tilted his head toward the other horses. “I saw Pa do it once. Both he and Mister Barnett have whole bags of scalps. They’re going to use them to trade with the Injuns between here and New Mexico.”

Charley’s mouth had gone dry, but he forced himself to swallow. “I wasn’t going to do anything.”

“Yes, you were.” Joshua’s voice was even softer now. “You’re an Injun, and Pa says that’s what Injuns do. You think about how to kill white men. But if you try it like you have in mind, you’ll die. And that would make me sad. I ain’t had much chance to be around other boys, and I like it. I don’t even mind too much that you ain’t white.” He pointed back over his shoulder with his thumb. “Come on, now. Pa will be perturbed at us for being slow.”

Joshua backed out the way he had come, and Charley followed. Bird King snuffled Charley’s neck as he passed by.

Charley’s fingertips tingled. He wished he could have done it. He wished he could have taken the shotgun and used it on Black-beard and Red-beard. But Joshua was right. One barrel would not have been enough. So he supposed he was grateful that Joshua had stopped him.

But he didn’t think he would have a chance to be grateful for long.

As Charley and Joshua came away from Bird King and Calico Girl, Captain Thomas emerged from underneath the wagon again. He still carried his twisted ivory staff. The boys stopped at the rim of the wheel so as not to cross his path.

“He’s sure tall,” Joshua whispered to Charley. “And ugly.”

Charley stiffened. That had not seemed like a smart thing to say.

But if Captain Thomas had heard, he gave no sign. “You gentlemen may remain seated if you like,” he called back into the shadow. “Forgive me for rising again so soon. But I smell rain, and I would prefer to take our dinner from the fire before it arrives.”

He strode to the coals, slid the pointed end of his staff through a loop of wire in the hammered-tin dome, and swung the dome away from the grate. A cloud of smoke boiled up into the twilight.

Black-beard and Red-beard came out from under the wagon with Uncle JoJim between them. Charley saw that Red-beard had drawn his pistol and had placed its muzzle against Uncle JoJim’s ribs.

On his right side. Where Uncle JoJim had no arm. So he had no chance, not even a tiny one, of knocking the pistol away.

In that instant, Charley found that he was no longer afraid. Now, he was just angry.

Captain Thomas, with his back to the other men, set the tin dome on the dirt. He slid his pointed staff back from the wire loop, then used it to stab at something on the smoking grate.

Black-beard gave Red-beard a glance. He stepped past Charley and Joshua and slipped between Calico Girl and Bird King.

“The Neosho River is a few miles to the east,” Captain Thomas said. “And while its offerings cannot match the bounty of the sea, I have found it to be sufficient.”

He spiked a long, blackened thing the size of a man’s arm, and he turned to face the wagon while holding it high. The coals behind him glowed scarlet.

“I hope you like water moccasin,” he said.

Red-beard made a gagging sound, but kept his pistol jammed into Uncle JoJim’s ribs.