The Andre Norton Megapack - 15 Classic Novels and Short Stories

skin was white, that automatically made him prey. Drew said so now.
    Teodoro answered that. “Apaches want guns, señor . Their arrows are deadly, but guns are always better.”
    “I’d think,” Anse cut in, “that any guns Kitchell’d have he’d be hangin’ on to—needin’ them his ownself. Can’t be easy for him to git them, neither.”
    “Not here, no,” Teodoro agreed. “But south, that is different. There is big trouble in Mexico—this French emperor fights Juarez, so there is much confusion. In wartime guns can be lost. A party of soldiers are cut off, as was Coronel Oliveri almost—men can be killed. But a gun—it is not buried with a man. A gun is still useful, worth money, if he who picks it up from beside the dead does not want it for himself. So—such a bandido as this Kitchell, he could take horses, good, trained horses—maybe from the army—and he would run them south. He would sell them for money, sí , probably much money. But also he could trade for guns—two, three, five guns at a time. Not as good as those his own men carry—old ones maybe, but good enough for Apaches. He would then bring these north, give them as payment for being left alone.”
    “Why wouldn’t the Apaches just kill him and his men and grab what they have?” Drew pointed out what seemed to him the obvious flaw in the system.
    “Apaches, they are not stupid. Guns they could take. But once such a gun is broken, where can they get another? They cannot walk into Tubacca or Tucson to buy what they need. Kitchell’s men do, perhaps—it is thought that they do so. Also when he trades at the border it is with men who would meet the Apaches with fire and bullets. Apache war parties are never large. Perhaps in all this part of the country there are not more than half a hundred warriors—and those scattered in small bands. I do not say that this is truth, Señor Kirby. I only say that it would explain many things—such as why Kitchell has not been caught.”
    “Makes sense,” Anse commented. “Always did hear as how Apaches were meaner’n snakes but they wasn’t stupid. Keep a tame gunrunner to work for ’em—that sounds like th’ tricky sorta play they cotton to. If it is so, th’ man who gits Kitchell may jus’ rid this country of some of them two-legged wolves into th’ bargain.”
    “According to what I’ve heard,” Drew said, “this Kitchell claims to lead a regular Confederate force that hasn’t surrendered. If he wants to make that valid, he wouldn’t dare any such deal!”
    “I’ll bet you without waitin’ to see a hole card,” Anse replied, “that if that coyote was ever ridin’ on our side—which I don’t stretch ear to—he cut loose them traces long ago. There were them buzzards we had us a coupla run-ins with back in Tennessee, ’member? Scum…some of ’em wearin’ blue coats, some gray, but they was all jus’ murderin’ outlaws. What did they whine when they was caught? Did th’ Yankees run ’em in, then they was unlucky Reb scouts. An’ when our boys licked up a nest of th’ varmints—why, we’d taken us a mess o’ respectable Yank ‘Irregulars,’ ’cordin’ to their story. ’Course none of their protestin’ kept ’em from stretched necks.” His hand went to his own. “I oughta know, seem’ as how I was picked up with a parcel of ’em an’ was close ’nough to feel th’ wind when a noose swung by.
    “This here Kitchell—I’m takin’ Bible oath he’s th’ same mangy breed. Maybe so he started out to be Reb, but that was a long time ago an’ he crossed over th’ river long since. An’ some of them beauties back east, they’da lapped muddy water outta an Apache’s boot tracks, did it mean savin’ their dirty hides. Sounds to me, Teodoro, like you’ve some plain, straightforward thinkin’ there—a mighty interestin’ idea. An’ maybe we’re jus’ goin’ to attend to th’ provin’ of it!”
    “Not by ourselves,” Drew corrected. “We have our orders.”
    “Sure. But there ain’t no order ever given what says a man has to stand up an’ be shot at an’ he don’t shoot back. No, I ain’t sniffin’ up trouble’s hot trail like a bush hound. But neither am I goin’ t’ sit down an’ fold my two hands together when trouble hits as it’s like to do out here.”
    Drew agreed with that, though he did not say so. Rennie must know the circumstances. They would have to defend themselves if it came to a fight. But he could hope