Slocum 421 Read Online Free PDF

purpose.”
    â€œNo problem. We can load it in the bed of one of your wagons, cover it with grain sacks for our animals, and then trade blankets. Those small crocks are harder to bust than glass. But in case of a wreck, we could lose them all.” Stowe shrugged.
    â€œNow I’m a whiskey trader. Oh well, maybe we can make money with it all.”
    â€œHey, you got Murty. That is the cutest redhead in the whole country of Kansas. Man, when I saw her today in that new dress, I said, that sumbitch Slocum screws with her every night—whew.”
    Slocum agreed with a nod. “Hell, you can trade some of your whiskey for some young squaw who hasn’t got the clap. She’d keep you entertained.”
    Stowe nodded. “I should do that. You find me one, I’ll pay you for her.”
    â€œI’ll see.”
Trade for your own
was his unspoken answer. “We will leave in about four days. I want to shoe some of the horses. Some don’t need it.”
    â€œDay after tomorrow, I’ll send a farrier out here who has a forge setup and blower. And you be careful. Send the wagon you aim to carry the whiskey and goods in with about four men to help load it.”
    â€œI’ll send the best driver too.”
    Stowe laughed. “Do that. Good luck. Keep your head down.”
    They parted. Stowe went and found Escatar, the broad-shouldered man who served as his foreman. He had been a seaman in his younger days and knew every trick in fist fighting and knives, and bore the scars to prove it. He smiled a lot while buffalo hunting—claimed it was so much better than being at sea. Slocum didn’t know much about the sea except for some coastal sailing in the Gulf to get from New Orleans to Texas ports.
    Slocum and Escatar stood off to the side. “We have a new problem we don’t need to talk about out loud where the others can hear. Stowe wants to trade some whiskey for hides with the Indians. Keeping the men out of that supply will be hard. It is sorry whiskey, untaxed. If the federal agents find it, we will be fined. So it will be a new source of trouble, huh?”
    Muscled arms folded over his chest, his man shook his head under the knit cap. “I will explain a hands-off policy.”
    â€œGood. Farrier is coming tomorrow to shoe the horses that need shoes. We will load the wagon I spoke about tomorrow too.”
    â€œI will take it in to his warehouse.”
    â€œYes. You will need four men to load it.”
    â€œNo problem.”
    â€œI think we can have our supplies loaded and be back out on the plains in four days.”
    â€œThose were four good men you hired. They will work.”
    â€œI thought so. Existing down there in that river camp taught them a job is good fortune.”
    â€œHer cooking too.”
    Slocum agreed.
    He went to town and played cards that night in the rowdy Oxbow Saloon. Stowe wasn’t there. Lots of gossip was passed around about the Indians and their uprisings. His gambling luck held, and he won enough to break even. When he started out of the batwing doors into the night, he heard a shot. Then, in the dark street, he saw the figure of the man who had made the shot from his horse. Slocum’s gun drawn, he aimed it at the shooter and shot the one threatening everyone. Hard-hit in the chest, his gun went off harmlessly into the air and he pitched off the horse and down on his face in the dirt.
    Customers rushed outside to join those on the street. Slocum was kneeling down by the man the shooter had fired at.
    â€œYou all right?”
    â€œNo. I’m gonna die. He got me.” The man strained against the pain.
    â€œWhat was this about?”
    â€œSpanish treasure. Get the map out of my saddlebags. There’s a fortune out there.”
    â€œWhere is your horse?”
    â€œThe bay under the Mexican saddle.”
    A glance up, and Slocum saw the wooden saddle horn shining in the light from the saloon. “What is