His head ached so badly he felt as if his eyes were being pushed out of his skull. He realized that in the fight he'd completely lost control of himself. He'd become a wild thing, a creature without a mind. It had happened to him several times before, in fights that had ended with his killing a man.
Thoughts of triumph that he had killed his enemy, of terror at the realization that this fight could have gone the other way, chased each other around in his brain, but he felt even more alive and happier than he had last night with Clarissa.
Sudden light dazzled him. An arrow of fear shot through him. More Indians?
"Raoul!" It was Eli Greenglove's voice.
His eyes adjusted, and he could see Eli, Hodge Hode and Levi Pope standing at the entrance to the side tunnel. They looked at the body at his feet and the bloody knife in his hand, and then up at him and their eyes were wide and their lips parted.
Those looks are worth as much to me as this whole mine.
"You really chopped him into mincemeat," Eli said. "I'll have to get me one of them Arkansas toothpicks."
"Get the other two bodies in here," Raoul said, making an effort to keep his voice steady. "We'll find some place to bury them."
"Better search the whole mine, make sure there's no more redskins," said Eli.
Raoul agreed, but he felt certain this one he'd killed was the only one in the mine. He looked down at the dead face. The Indian wasn't much more than fifteen or sixteen years old. Good, he thought. Hadn't had long enough to do much harm.