Guns of Mars 47
A Martian action-adventure by The Legend Chuck Dixon
CHAPTER 12.3
The bounty man was actually relieved when the predators he came across walked on two legs.
Three men rode down from atop a slope. They raised a yellow cloud of dust behind them as their thoats slid as much as then trotted down toward him.
The bounty man tossed the waterskin and bag to the ground before him to free his right hand. In his left he held his carbine cradled in the crook of his arm. He watched the riders descend toward him leading two riderless mounts behind them.
The pack animals were loaded down with pelts that the bounty man recognized as banth skins. The lead rider wore a cloak of the same, his neck decorated with a chain of claws and another of teeth. Two of them were red men and the third of the First Born, a race of ebony men who called the southern pole home. They were all rough men. Thickly muscled arms criss-crossed with raised scar tissue, the souvenir of many encounters with wild beasts. They were also heavily armed with rifles and large bore pistols worn strapped across their bellies.
They rode down to within fifty paces of the bounty man and stopped, arrayed about him at center, right and left. They were widespread so as not to provide a combined target. The bounty man well knew the reasoning behind this.
The lead man, the black, wore an open smile, his hands resting on the horn of his saddle.
“Are you alone, friend?”
The bounty man laid a hand on a pistol butt as answer.
“Dangerous place to be afoot, friend,” the man said with eyes that belied his friendly grin.
“Maybe I could buy one of your thoats,” the bounty man said.
“I’m afraid we need all of our mounts.” The black smiled at his comrades, his amusement genuine now.
“You’ve had a successful hunt.”
“And it’s not over, friend. There’s all kinds of game in these hills.”
The bounty man drummed his fingers on the pistol butt.
“If we were to be willing to part with a mount,” the black man said. “What would you offer in payment?”
“I have nothing but this waterskin.” The bounty man nodded to the skin lying in the dust before him.
“We have water, friend.”
“Not like this.”
“Oh? And what makes your water so special, friend?”
“It comes from the deepest rock, the heart of the planet. From an ancient spring. You’ve never tasted sweeter.”
Signed First Edition collectors might be interested to see what the endpapers of the leather edition are going to look like. Here are the front endpapers:
Special Note: GUNS OF MARS is now available in a hardcover edition. It is available at Amazon and at NDM Express.
