Goodnight's Dream (A Floating Outfit Western Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

Texans towards the eastern horizon, for they
knew what dawn would mean if Loving and Sid should still be alive.
Descending, they crossed the river and followed Goodnight along the
west bank of the Pecos.
    It was Lane’s party who saw the Comanche
first. They were approaching a point where the valley made a bend
that hid the Indians from the men at the lower level. Bringing his
horse to a halt, Lane stared to where the braves had gathered at
the head of the opposite slope. Trained eyes studied the scene and
made various rapid calculations.
    ‘ Action front!’ Lane barked to his
waiting men. ‘Eight hundred and eighty yards. Load and commence
firing.’
    Even while the words were being spoken, the
trained crews started to move. Leaping from their horses and
tossing the reins to the waiting cavalrymen, they ran to the mules.
Swiftly the wheels and carriages were unshipped from the mules that
carried them and assembled. Even as nuts were being tightened to
secure the pieces, the tube was brought from its carrier and fitted
into position. Other men unloaded and opened the ammunition
panniers, two from each mule, lifting the lids to expose the eight
rounds each held.
    ‘ Three-and-three-quarter-second fuse!’
ordered the sergeant in charge of the ammunition supply, estimating
the time it would take for a spherical case shell to reach its
destination half a mile away.
    Obediently the men from One and
Three guns cut into the circular pewter disc of a case shell’s
Borman fuse at the appropriate place. Then they carried their
charges to the guns. Having no need for such refinements as fuses,
the Five gun was first into action. Taking the fixed round from the
man who brought it, the loader tore the paper covering from the
serge powder bag and slid the charge down the 32.9 inch long tube.
Another man used the vent-pick to pierce the powder bag, leaving a
clear way for the flame from the friction primer iv to reach the waiting explosive
charge. Pushing the primer into place, he connected it to the
lanyard and backed clear of the howitzer.
    ‘ Trail left!’ ordered the gunner,
having set the tube for the desired angle to hurl the solid shot
among the Indians. ‘Right a shade! A touch more! Steady!
Fire!’
    Within one minute of Lane’s command, the
Number Five howitzer boomed out its first shot. Five seconds later,
the One and Three guns spoke and their loads rose skywards
following the solid shot’s curving arc towards where the Indians
had already begun their attack down the slope.
    Plunging out of the heavens, the solid shot
hurled up a cloud of sand from the west bank of the river. Ignited
by the detonating main powder charge, a spurt of flame crept along
the Borman fuse of each spherical case shell. At best using case
shell, even with the well-designed Borman fuses, was a chancy
business, with premature bursts, or no detonation at all occurring
regularly. The case from the One howitzer exploded some thirty feet
in the air over the Comanches, raining .69 caliber musket balls
down on them. While set for the same time, the other case landed
ahead of the attacking braves before the flame crawling along the
fuse reached and ignited the 4.5 ounce burster charge. However, the
crew of the Three gun had no cause for complaint at the result of
their shot.
    Caught in the blast from the
two exploding cases, consternation and pandemonium reigned among
the Kweharehnuh. Horses squealed, reared and a couple went down as
musket balls struck them. The charge was halted and changed into a
milling, plunging mass of men and horses.
    Urged on by the gunners, the
three howitzer crews made fast time in reloading and altering their
aim. Before the amazed Indians could regain control of their
startled horses, the next solid shot plunged down among them.
Struck by the cannon ball, one of the tehnap’s head’s dissolved into bloody pulp and
the man next to him also went down. Then the two spherical case
shells arrived. For once both fuses burned