Forming an extension to the thrower’s arm and, as its front end moves faster than the hand holding it, the woomera helps to generate a centrifugal force that greatly increases the velocity when the spear leaves it at the highest point of its arc. Held above and behind the shoulder with the hook u...
Ever optimistic, subsequent generals saw no point of seeking other quarters when at any time they might be continuing their advance towards the borders of Texas. On the afternoon of the fourth day after his grand review had been disrupted and ruined, General Horace Trumpet...
To the grandson of Long Walker and a Pehnane tehnap’* in his own right, it went hard to take a blow without repaying the striker in full. However he studied the grim set of the girl’s face and knew she would brook no arguments. Good sense helped him to reach the right decision. Turning, he walked...
The time was half past four in the morning and Topham had just completed examining Marlene Thackery’s body and the library. Topham was a tall, thin, miserable looking man, poorly dressed and not too bright. However, he came cheap and this had been the main reason for the county commissioners hiri...
So much so that she often found difficulty in persuading young men of her true nature. Certainly the young officers at Fort Sorrel failed to appreciate her and showed little desire to join in sober discussions as to the country-wide implications of the treaty council. Bein...
He was so pre-occupied with his thoughts that he went by Dusty Fog and Mark Counter as they walked towards the Bonton Café for their breakfast. “Hey, Dutchy!” Dusty called. “You getting so rich you don’t talk to your old friends any more?” Bringing ...
The recruits, not having been allocated to their companies yet, stood to one side. The remaining men, under their sergeants, stood in the three company blocks. Dusty knew each company held a strength of thirty men instead of the regulation fifty. This did not surprise him, for most regiments foun...
A bold, desperate stroke to end a bloody Apache uprising and save a territory. Dusty’s plan was simple, very simple. It would work, given luck and the folk at Baptist’s Hollow doing the right thing. The party would pull out after dark, the Ysabel Kid having scouted to make...
He heard the sound of a horse approaching and turned to see Cole leading up a big, powerful dun gelding. Not having his own horse along, the marshal had hired the pick of the way station’s saddle mounts and felt satisfied with his choice. When he no longer needed the horse, he would hand it over ...
The sight of those black-plumed scavengers hovering in the sky never struck a western man as being a beautiful sight. When turkey vultures gathered, they followed death and a corpse, or something near to it, lay below them. Human or animal, it made no never mind to a hungry turkey vulture. Glidin...
Avoiding all other attempts to delay them, the woman hustled Belle across the room. Dusty and Paupin rose, following the women into Cornwall’s office where Lucienne sent the second to collect some of the gear deliberately forgotten on helping Belle from the ring. “How’d yo...
Betty Hardin reached that decision in the first couple of miles of the trip and now, within five miles of her destination at Bent’s Ford in the Indian Nations, found no cause to change her mind. As she tried to find a more comfortable, or less uncomfortable, piece of the hard stuffed leather seat...
Andre was said to be the youngest and most handsome man ever to reach the rank of lieutenant on the New Orleans police force. Only he did not seem likely to remain the most handsome for much longer. The four bulky, burly men who came from the shadows of the dark, narrow street intended to alter t...
After visiting the Wells Fargo office and sending a telegraph message which would eventually be delivered to the OD Connected house in the Rio Hondo country, Mark headed towards where he could see Freda’s buckboard halted before the general store. In so doing he had to pass the hospitable doors o...
Even as Liz saw the line of blue-uniformed figures on the top of a slope some three hundred yards away, recognising them as salvation and the means to end the Texans’ mission, she heard the bellow of Ysabel’s rifle. Up on the slope, the firer of the first shot slammed backwards under the impact o...
His eyes roamed around the room, seeing Killem and Kerry alone remained on their feet, then his attention went to where his sister knelt by the unconscious shapes of Calamity and Big Win. “See to Lady Beryl, Wheatley,” he said as the valet came forward. “I’ll take my coat.” The hotel manager appe...
He was tall, lean and cadaverous, with a thin, hard face half hidden by a growth of beard and eyes as hard cold and unfeeling as the eyes of a diamond-back rattler. Along the Rio Grande he was known as a bad man to cross, very unlucky to argue with. He was thoroughly disliked from Pasear Hennesse...
CA ranch crew. Like their employer, the CA cowhands were notorious for their reckless and occasionally dangerous behavior. Living in the company of such men, all older than himself, he had become quick to take offense and well able, eager even, to prove he could draw his guns with lightning speed...
‘What do you reckon to them?’ Keeping his field-glasses to his eyes, Captain Dustine Edward Marsden Fog turned his attention from the original objects of his scrutiny. Big, piggish of face, his almost bloated fat body straining the gold-lace-trimmed blue uniform’s seams, General Buller stood with...
He was expected to set his companions a good example and generally did so. However, little changed beyond making sure that his band did not charge through the camp and create a disturbance. The acquisition of a more powerful bow allowed him to try his hand on larger game. Often he and his friends...