Now Playing:Ultimatum
Episode Eight concluded with:
Dehner shook his
head. “Hardin is a town on edge. You can’t leave the place to Rip Gowdy. You’ve
said yourself that he often falls down on the job.”
Dehner was right, but the marshall hated to admit it. After a few moments of
silence, Carson shrugged his shoulders and sighed. “Be careful. Especially you,
Rance. You haven’t had much experience dealing with Indians.”
“Not so, Marshall. I once spied on a band of Apaches who were planning to
attack a Cavalry regiment.” Dehner gave the Marshall a two finger salute as he
and Reverend Nate left the office.
Outside, the detective and the preacher began to untie their horses from the
hitch rail. “I didn’t know you outsmarted a band of Apaches, Rance.”
“Didn’t say I outsmarted them,” Rance spoke in a low, conspiratorial
voice. “They caught me. Good thing the Cavalry regiment was near by.”
Episode Nine
Both
men guffawed as they mounted up and rode out of town. They hadn’t gone far when
Dehner spoke to his companion. “Bret told me you were adopted by a preacher and
his wife when you were eight. Did you have much contact with Indians after
that?”
“Yes,” Nate replied quickly. “My
parents did a lot of work with the tribes in this area, or as much as they
could. My folks were very devout people who wanted to convert the Indians to
Christianity.”
“How did that go?”
“They got a few converts. Not too
many. But my parents also wanted me to understand where I came from. They
didn’t want to cut me off from my heritage. I grew up knowing many of the
Indians in this area. Still know a lot of them.”
The two men became silent; they were
starting to draw near the hill where the Indians were camped out. Dehner suddenly
pulled up his horse and whispered, “Looks like someone has the same idea we
do.”
Both men watched in the moonlight as
a rider started up the hill. He was riding fast and didn’t look in their
direction. “I take back what I said,” Rance continued to whisper. “That man is
no spy. He’s either expected or he knows Akando.”
“He’s not an Indian,” Nate also
whispered. “His horse has a saddle.”
The newcomer was easy to follow. He
obviously didn’t care if the hoofbeats of his horse were loud. Dehner and Reverend
Nate rode quietly up the hill behind him. When the hoofbeats stopped, the two
men dismounted, tied up their horses, and began to proceed on foot. There were
enough trees to provide both good cover and an array of twigs on the ground
which, if stepped on, could snap and betray their presence.
Both men stopped and hid behind two
separate trees as they got in range of a loud voice. The person talking was
obviously not Akando and was obviously angry. “I don’t give a hoot ‘bout no big
plans. A deal is a deal and ya better do
what ya said ya was gonna do, injun!”
Tomorrow: Episode Ten of Ultimatum
