Colt Read Online Free PDF Page A

to hold onto the white girl, he yelled at his sergeant “Mulvaney, sound recall!”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    Now it took all Colt’s strength to hold the woman, who was biting and scratching as Captain Van Smyth rode up on his lathered horse.
    â€œI didn’t order recall! The men are hunting down the scattered savages.”
    â€œI did!” Colt yelled back. “They’ll get drawn out and ambushed. We’ve done what we came for, now let’s get out of here.”
    The captain stared at the fighting captive. “Good Lord! What—?”
    â€œI don’t know. Let’s vamoose and then we’ll find out.”
    â€œMa’am,” Captain Van Smyth shouted to the struggling girl, “don’t you understand? We’re rescuing you.”
    The girl continued to fight and yell.
    Colt hung onto her by sheer strength. “She may be a bit addled sir, if she’s spent much time with the Comanche.”
    â€œCould that be Cynthia Ann Parker?” The captain reined in his blowing horse.
    â€œHow the hell should I know?” Colt lost his temper as the girl bit his hand again. “Let’s get out of here!”
    The patrol had reassembled amid the chaos and noise. In the light of the flaming teepees, Colt looked down into his captive’s eyes and they reflected back the flames in their pale blue depths. He realized suddenly she was terrified. He wheeled his mustang as the patrol rode out of the burning Comanche camp, the Indians firing scattered shots behind them.
    Colt pulled the girl’s slender body close to him and realized she was trembling in her dirty deerskin shift, but she was still fighting. She was trying to tell him something, but he couldn’t understand her garbled Comanche. She must be frightened because she shook and her eyes were wide with fear, but she didn’t cry. There were no tears in the pale blue eyes.
    They galloped a quarter of a mile before they reined in.
    Captain Van Smyth looked around. “Is everyone accounted for?”
    Colt glanced behind him and relayed the question at Sergeant Mulvaney.
    â€œAye, it’s Irish luck, I say,” the ruddy-faced Irishman shouted back. “Dugan’s got a slight arrow wound to the arm, but everyone else is fine.”
    â€œThen mission accomplished.” The captain smiled. “Now let’s get back to Camp Cooper.”
    The thoroughbreds were lathered and blowing, but Colt’s mustang was still good. The girl trembled and fought to get away, and he tried to reassure her as they rode. “It’s okay, ma’am. You’re safe now. We’ll take you back to the fort and find your kinfolk.”
    â€œGo back!” she managed to say in broken English almost as if it were a forgotten language. “Got to go back.”
    â€œNo, no,” Colt soothed her and hung onto her, though she fought like a wildcat.
    â€œWhat’s the trouble, Lieutenant?” Captain Van Smyth rode up next to him.
    â€œShock, I think, sir. If she’s been with them long, her mind may not be ... well, you know.”
    The captain nodded and stared at the girl wrapped in her dirty blanket, then spurred his mount and rode up on ahead.
    â€œGot to go back,” the girl gasped.
    Colt shook his head. “No, you don’t understand, we’ve saved you. We’ll find your kin.”
    She shook her head violently. “No. No.”
    He looked down at her, wondering what sort of hellish life she’d been living. Her face was dirty and smudged, her yellow hair a tangle. There wasn’t much water for bathing on the sparse Texas plains.
    She was fighting him again and he hung onto her, gritting his teeth. He could hardly wait to get this crazed girl back to the fort and hope they could find some relative of hers. Looking down at her, he felt pity; she was such a contrast to the pale, delicate features of Olivia and her ladylike behavior. Well, Olivia