The Death Hunter

by Lou Cameron

  Nobody but The Detroit Harp said anything, and he said, “Sure, ain’t it grand to be back in the old army? We’re with yez, Captain Gringo.”

  He nodded and told Gaston to feed and quarter the recruits. Gaston shot a glance at the man he’d stomped and the tall American said, “I’ll take care of that. You can pull K.P. for. not asking permission first.”

  “What about the girl? Can’t she feed them?”

  “No. I told you to. Let’s move it out, Lieutenant.”

  Gaston shrugged and started herding the men from the room. As they left, Helena gasped, “That was terrible! Is that man really dead?”

  Captain Gringo sighed and said, “I’m afraid so. It was an old drill sergeant’s trick, although they seldom carry it this far. You set one known malcontent up to let the others know you mean business. He must have known this guy was a stupid thug we couldn’t use, anyway. Why don’t you go to bed, kitten? You look tired and there’s no reason for you to see any more, here.”

  The girl looked confused and asked, “For where am I to sleep?”

  He pointed at an archway with his chin and said, “First bedroom to the left. You’ll be able to lock yourself in.”

  “I am frightened. Where are you and the others going to sleep?”

  “My room’s next to yours. I’ll be close by if you need me. But I don’t think you will. I’m sure they all know better, now.”

  Helena left, uncertainly. Captain Gringo waited until he was alone with the body and stepped over to it. The man Gaston had apparently just murdered in cold blood sat up and said, “Is it safe to leave, now?”

  Captain Gringo muttered, “I might have known. Come on, get lost. If I see you again before we march those other suckers out of town you’ll really be dead!”

  The man in the seaman’s sweater rolled lightly to his feet and said, “Gaston said I’d get paid for my cackle bladder act.”

  Captain Gringo grabbed him by the arm and hustled him out to the patio as he reached in his pocket for some money. He said, “I’m supposed to be disposing of your remains, you idiot! Take this, blow, and for God’s sake stay out of sight! Where the fuck did Gaston ever find you?”

  The actor palmed the money and put it in his pants as he explained, “We shared a cell one time. I’m a con man, not a crazy hired gun. Are you really going to lead that bunch of bums into battle?”

  “That’s not your problem, unless you want to come along.”

  “I was just about to say adios!”

  Captain Gringo was smiling as he went back inside. The “blood” on the floor was starting to dry like the real thing. He knew the trick of holding a rubber bladder filled with substitute blood in one’s mouth until it was time to “die” for the suckers. But the guy had been good. He’d been watching and he’d missed the way Gaston pulled his blows. He was going to have to have a word with Gaston. Surprises made a man nervous when he had so many other things on his mind.

  He didn’t feel up to more dramatics and it was late as hell. He knew Gaston would play it right when they came back to find the “body” gone. If the recruits weren’t impressed enough by now, he was too tired to think up further fun and games.

  He went to his room, barred the door behind him, and groped his way to the bed in the dark. It wasn’t the room he’d had Pattycake in. He’d selected what seemed to be a guest room with that in mind. The English girl’s room still reeked of her perfume and he didn’t want to go to sleep with an erection.

  He sat on the bed and shucked off his boots and duds, hanging the gunbelt over a bedpost. The clean sheets felt good on his naked rear as he slid into bed and groped for a pillow. His hand came down on a head of hair and he stiffened in the dark. Helena’s familiar voice asked, “Is that you, Deek?”

  He said, “Of course. I told you this was my room. What are you doing here, Helena?”

  “For favor, I was frightened. I am also cross with you about the way you have been treating me.”

  As he half sat and half reclined on his side of the bed, Helena moved closer and her thigh against his hip was naked. He said, “You sure have a funny way of acting cross, Helena. Do you have anything on at all?”

  “Por favor, I do not own the nightgown. I am used to sleeping naked.”

  He edged away and said, “Listen, Kid, I said I’d be a big brother to you, but this is pushing your luck.”

  “Do you still think I am a spy?”

  “No, but would you be insulted if I thought you were a virgin?”

  She signed and said, “Alas, that is true. I have been waiting for a real caballero, even though the other girls tease me about it. They say a nineteen-year-old virgin is a crime against nature. But I have never met a man like you before.”

  “Honey, you haven’t met a man you should be in bed with yet!”

  She sobbed in the darkness and said, “I knew it! You still don’t trust me, do you?”

  “Hey, I trust you. I just don’t trust me! Somebody around here has to act like a responsible adult, Helena. I don’t think you know what you’re doing. Are you sure you’re a virgin? You sure don’t act like any virgin I’ve ever met!”

  “I don’t know how to act. You will have to teach me, and then I will be your woman forever, no?”

  Ice water couldn’t have done it better. Captain Gringo sat up straighter and said, “That did it. Where the hell are your clothes?”

  She sobbed, “Please don’t hurt me! I thought I could convince you I was trustworthy by giving myself to you, but I see you still think I am bad!”

  Without considering his own biology, the big American reached out to comfort her, wound up with a hand on her firm young breast, and quickly moved his hand into a more seemly position around her quivering shoulder. Helena snuggled closer, pressing herself to his side. He could feel her pubic hairs against his own thigh and gritted his teeth to mutter, “God give me strength!”

  She started crying with her face against his chest. He patted her and said, “Hey, it’s all right. Nobody’s going to hurt you. Everybody likes you. Nobody thinks you’re anything but a sweet little thing. In the morning, before we leave, I’ll buy you some decent clothes and leave you with some money and a safe place to stay.”

  She wriggled closer, innocently unaware of what her pelvic movements were doing to him in the dark, and asked. “Why can’t I be your woman, Deek?”

  He said, “You saw what happened to your mother, kid. No decent girl should ever get mixed up with a guy like me.”

  “If you were not such a violent person, would you want me for your woman?”

  “I’d sure consider it. But I’m a wanted man on the run and you deserve something better.”

  “Could not I be your woman for just a little while, Deek?”

  He said, “We’d both hate ourselves in the morning. You’re not supposed to throw your virginity away on a one-night stand, kid.”

  “I know. The padre at the church said one could burn in hell forever for being so wicked. But I do not feel wicked, Deek. I have never been in a man’s arms like this before. I had no idea if felt so good to be naked together. What is supposed to happen next?”

  “You’re supposed to get dressed. This is ridiculous! Didn’t your mother ever warn you about guys like me?”

  “She told me, once, that to be in the arms of a man one loves is to be in heaven.” She moved her groin against him, experimentally, and added, “I think Mother was right. Something very strange is happening between my legs. Do you mind my doing this, Deek?”

  “No, but if you don’t stop, I’m liable to do something your mother wouldn’t approve of.”

  Even as he said it, he felt his engorged erection responding and the girl said, “I hear your heart beating fast inside your chest. Is it not supposed to do this when a man is in love?”

  He said, “Aw, hell!” and snuggled down beside her, running his free hand over her curves as he kissed her full on the lips.

  Helena responded eagerly and flattened herself ag
ainst him as they lay face to face on their sides. She gasped as she felt his erection against her soft belly and said, “Oh, I’m afraid again! I did not know it would feel so big!”

  He murmured, “Easy, I won’t go all the way.”

  “Then what are you doing to me?” She asked, as he started to pet her between the thighs. He asked, “Do you want me to stop?” and she replied, “I don’t think so. Everything you have done, so far, feels wonderful. Aren’t you supposed to start hurting me, now?”

  “I don’t want to hurt you, honey. But you’re right. You’re too little for me.”

  Her internal muscles contracted on the one finger he’d slipped inside and she moaned, “Oh, that feels so nice. It does not hurt at all!”

  He got another finger in and started stroking faster. She gasped and asked, “What is happening? I feel so strange! It feels like I have to go, but, Oh, my God, what are you doing?”

  He fingered her through a full orgasm as he soothed, “You’re not going, You’re coming. Do you want me to stop?”

  “Oh, no! Never! Nobody ever told me it felt like that! No wonder my mother stayed with my father all those years! Is it supposed to feel that good with your real thing instead of your fingers?”

  He rolled gently atop her and suggested, “Let’s find out. Tell me if it starts to hurt you and I’ll stop.”

  “You promise? I was told some men could not stop, once they had started, and … oh, you’re touching me with it!”

  He stopped, fighting to control his passion as he held back with just the head gripped in her pulsating opening. And then his flesh betrayed him and he felt a spurt of semen getting away from him as he gritted his teeth. The extra lubrication and pressure popped something inside her and he was suddenly in all the way and coming without having to move. She gasped, “Oh, it’s too big!”

  “Am I hurting you?”

  “Yes, I mean no. I don’t know what I mean, it feels so strange and that thing is happening to me again!”

  He started moving, gently, as Helena’s flesh expanded and contracted around his shaft. She was moaning like a puma in heat and started to move her hips instinctively as she sighed, “Oh, I think we must be fucking, no?”

  “I’m afraid so. I really ought to be horsewhipped for this, but I’m only human.”

  She laughed and said, “It sounds like such a dirty thing when they talk about it around the well. But I really think I like to fuck.”

  “I never would have guessed.”

  “Does this mean I will always be your woman, forever, Deek?”

  He grimaced, grateful for the darkness, and said, “Forever is a long time, Querida. Just think about here and now.”

  She wrapped her legs around him, taking it deeper, and growled, “You will never get away from me,” in mock ferocity. He didn’t answer. He was coming again. But some small sane corner of his brain was telling him he was an idiot and asking how the hell he was going to explain all this in the cold gray light of dawn!

  Chapter Seven

  Somehow, Helena didn’t give him a chance to tell her the cruel-dawn facts of life before it was time to march. He was only alone with her a short while as he took her into town to buy her a dress while Gaston attended to chowing up and arming the men. It seemed sort of shitty to tell a girl she’d have to forget you, right after seeing her cry tears of joy over the first pretty clothes she’d ever had. Despite his noble intentions, the night before, he’d wound up screwing her eight times in a half dozen positions and Helena was glowing like a bride on her honeymoon. It seemed nicer to just let her prattle on about an impossible future as they went back to the house. There was always the chance he’d get killed before he had to piss on the stars in her eyes.

  They found Greystoke waiting for them to see the expedition off. The Englishman nodded politely when Captain Gringo introduced Helena and said she needed a job. Greystoke said, “That should be no problem. I’ll see that she’s properly looked after. But what about you? I came as soon as my agents told me you seem prepared to leave this morning. I mean, dash it all, it’s broad daylight!”

  Captain Gringo nodded back and said, “So what? Everybody on both sides knows we’re going. Why stumble over things in the dark? I figure it’ll take us all day just to get off this mesa.”

  “Oh, you’re probably right. I wired our people down on the coast and they’ll have a steam launch ready if you need it.”

  Captain Gringo shook his head and said, “I’ve changed my mind. Without that observation balloon, we’d be a sitting duck in the water, even without a sub’s periscope to watch out for. They could snipe at us from the trees along the shore and if there was anything to be seen from seaward, you wouldn’t need us. Any one of your own gunboats would have spotted the base by now if it wasn’t inland and well hidden.”

  Greystoke smiled primly and said, “Now you’re starting to make sense. You’ve studied the map I gave you, of course?”

  “Studied the German one, too. It’s more detailed. We’ll cut in to higher ground where the shore is shoal. That still leaves a mess of mangrove swamp to explore. So we’d better get started.”

  He called out to Gaston and the Frenchmen led the men from the house. All had been issued packs and rifles and Bomber Girty was packing the machine gun, tripod and all, while T.B. lugged the ammo boxes. As they lined up, Captain Gringo said, “Bomber, you can leave that tripod here and save yourself a few pounds. It’s as easy to prop the Maxim over a log. Is the water jacket empty?”

  Bomber Girty shook his head and said, “No sir. I thought you needed the water to keep the gun from overheating.”

  “Empty it. We’re not going to be shooting the gun up here on the mesa and water’s heavy. There’ll be plenty where we’re going.”

  Bomber Girty lowered the gun with a relieved look and opened the petcock to let the water drain from the jacket. Captain Gringo looked at T.B. and asked, “Are you up to packing that ammo, kid?”

  T.B. looked blank. Then he grinned and said, “Hell, Cap, T.B. stands for Thomas Boyd. I don’t have T.B.”

  “Good. I see Bomber has the Maxim fixed, so we’ll move out. Gaston, you take the point. We’re marching route-step and taking it easy until we get legged up. What are you waiting for?”

  Gaston asked, “Aren’t you coming with us?” Then, catching on, he grinned and shouted, “Allez, mon braves, we march!”

  As the oddly assorted crew stumbled after him down the tree shaded street, Captain Gringo turned to Helena and said, “I have to go, Querida. I wish we’d had time to get a few things straight, but—”

  “I love you, too,” she said, standing on tiptoe to kiss him as Greystoke looked away, embarrassed. The American returned her kiss and muttered, “Right. Take care of her, Greystoke,” and then he turned and jogged after the others, not looking back. He felt shitty enough as it was.

  He caught up with Gaston at the head of the column and the Frenchman asked, “Have we any particular destination, or do we simply march until we’re in Nicaragua again? This street is taking us north. The coast is to the east, non?”

  “Just keep walking. I want to spend as much time as possible with dry feet.”

  “Ah, true. If we follow the highlands as far north as we can, it will save hacking our way through the low country. I see your plan. We drop down to the jungle near the mouth of the San Juan, then make a single sweep southeast to the Panamanian border, hein!”

  “If you say so. Let’s pick it up a bit. I said route-step, not a funeral march.”

  It took them an hour to clear the suburbs of San Jose and take a trail break in the shade of a coffee grove. Captain Gringo was feeling better as he smoked and rested his butt. He’d overdone it the night before but the kinks were out of his hips and despite looking like a gang of hoboes, the men Gaston had recruited were holding up well and nobody was bitching yet. It was a dry, cool day on the mesa and nobody seemed to be tailing them.

  He ordered two other men to relieve Bomber and T.B. of
the Maxim and ammo. But as he got them back on their feet, one of the men came over and said, “The boys and me have been talking, Cap. How come neither you nor Frenchy seem to be carrying packs and rifles?”

  Captain Gringo punched him in the jaw and dropped him in his tracks, unconscious. Then, as the Others stared, openmouthed, Captain Gringo said, “I’m only going to say this once. Rank has its privileges. We are the commanders and you guys are the commandees. The reason this poor slob was packing my rations in addition to his own was because I’m boss, for one thing, and might have to move suddenly to our one lousy machine gun in the second. Gaston will be scouting ahead most of the time. So he travels light because I told him to. Does anyone else want to lodge a complaint?”

  The Detroit Harp laughed easily and said, “Hell, no, Cap. You have a hell of a way with words. We read you loud and clear.”

  “Good. Relieve this guy of his pack and rifle. He can find his way back to town when he comes to.

  Gaston stepped over to the fallen man, knelt, and took his wallet.

  Captain Gringo said, “Leave him his own money and a couple of the bucks we gave him for his trouble.”

  Gaston said, “Surely you jest?” but the tall American insisted, “Fair is fair,” and watched as Gaston put part of the money back with a disgusted look.

  Captain Gringo waited until The Detroit Harp had the pack and extra rifle. Then he said, “We won’t need that rifle. Just take the ammo and bend it around a tree.”