"How is it fired?" he shrilled. "Unless you tell me, there will be no
Wolf clan left!"
He lugged the heavy gun to the window, mounted it there as he had seen
the women do in practice.
"Tommy," he said to a thirteen year old boy. "Quick, get me a pan of
ammunition."
"I can't," Tommy all but wailed.
"Get it!"
"I can't. It's ... it's _unmanly_!" Tommy melted into a sea of tears,
utterly confused.
"Maureen," Alan snapped, cooler now. "Get me a pan of ammunition for
the Bren gun. Quickly. Alice, show me how the gun is charged."
Alice was at his side, trying to explain. He would have let her take
over had she been larger, but he knew she couldn't handle the bucking
of the weapon. Maureen had returned with the ammunition, slipped
it expertly into place. She too had had instructions in the gun's
operation.
Alan ran his eyes down the arroyo. There were possibly forty of them,
Horses and Crows--well armed, he could see. Less than a quarter of them
had the new muzzle loaders being resorted to by many as ammunition
stocks for the old arms became increasingly rare. The others had
ancient arms, rifles, both military and sport, one or two tommy guns.
He waited another three or four minutes, one eye cocked on the progress
of the running battle below. Vivian, the scout chief, had dropped
back to take over command of the younger warriors. She was probably
beginning to smell a rat. The intensity of fire wasn't such as to
suggest a large body of enemy.
The women in the arroyo were placed now as he wanted them. He forced
himself to keep his eyes open as he pressed the trigger.
_Blat, blat, blat._
The gun spoke, kicking high the dust and gravel before the Horse and
Crow warriors advancing up the arroyo.
They stopped, startled. The citadel was supposedly in their hands.
They reversed themselves and scurried back to get out of their exposed
position.
He touched the trigger again. _Blat, blat, blat._ The heavy slugs tore
up the arroyo wall behind them, they could retreat no further without
running into his fire.
They stopped, confused.
Alan said, "Maureen, get another pan of ammunition. I'll have to hold
them there until Vivian comes up. Alice, run down to the matriarch and
tell her about the warriors in the arroyo. Quickly, now."
Little Alice said sourly, "A husband shouldn't interfere in warrior
affairs," but she went.
* * * * *
When Vivian strode into the citadel she had her sniper rifle slung
over her back and was admiring a tommy gun she had taken from one of
the captured Horses. "Perfect," she said, stroking the stock. "Perfect
shape. And they seem to have worlds of ammunition too. Must have made
some kind of deal with the Denver clans."
Her eyes swept the room and her mouth turned down in sour amusement.
The Horse woman was dead and the Crow had by now been marched off to
take her place with the other prisoners who were being held in the
stone corral.
"What warriors," she said contemptuously. "A _man_ overcomes two of
them. _Two_ of them, mind you." She looked at Alan, the reaction was
upon him now and he was white faced and couldn't keep his hands from
trembling. "What a cutie you turned out to be. Who ever heard of such a
thing?"