20
“Lupe?” Slocum shouted, and quickly dismounted in the inky night.
“Yes, yes, who is out there?” her sleep-hoarse voice called out to him.
“Slocum.” He helped Juanita down.
“Mother of God, man, what do you want in the middle of the night?”
“I need to leave a friend with you.”
“Leave a friend?” She sounded uncertain. She struck a match, illuminated the room for a moment, then lit a candle. “Who is with you?”
“Juanita James, meet Lupe Valdez.”
She held the candleholder up to see their faces. “Mother of God. John Chisum’s niece?”
“Nice to meet you, Lupe,” she said.
“The pleasure is all mine, but—”
“She needs a place to hide. Apaches and then Coyote and his bunch have taken turns kidnaping her.”
Lupe put a hand to her mouth in disbelief. “You poor girl.” She set the lamp down and took Juanita by the arm to the bed. “You sit here, I have some medicine that will help you sleep.”
“I’m fine,” Juanita protested. “No need to make a big fuss about me.”
“Sure?”
“Sure.”
“You watch her,” Slocum said.
“You’re leaving?” Juanita asked, rushing over.
“You’ll be fine here. Get some rest. Lupe is a good doctor too. This is the safest place I know about.”
“But John will be so worried—”
“I’ll try to get him word that you’re all right. First I need to be sure it’s safe for you to return there.”
“You be careful too.”
He hated to part with her—since their night in the line shack she was all he could think about. But other things were more pressing at the moment. Coyote was number one on his list, what to do about him. Obviously the outlaws wouldn’t find Juanita at Lupe’s. Then, like a bad recurring dream, he recalled his being knocked half out and the gang taking turns raping her. A shudder of revulsion ran up his spine.
“I’ll be back in two days,” he promised her.
She slipped into his arms and her lips met his. The fire of her mouth revived the deep-rooted memory of their tryst. At last they parted.
“Slocum, be very careful,” she whispered.
“I will.” And he left.
The black horse was tuckered when he reached Rio Rita at dawn. Slocum’s eyes were dry from the lack of sleep. He dropped heavily from the saddle with the collie barking at him. A look of relief swept over Slocum’s face as Marty came out on the porch wearing an apron.
“You sure take long rides.”
“I do,” he said, dazed from lack of rest. “Seen anyone?”
“I met a man I guess I should hate.”
“Who’s that?”
“Dex Bailey.”
“John Chisum’s foreman?”
“Yes, John Chisum’s foreman.”
“What did he want?” Slocum stripped the saddle off, piled the rig on the horn at his feet, and released the weary horse to go to water.
“Nothing. We met. Why?”
“How did you meet him?”
“He came up the river and I was changing water.”
“What did he have to say?”
“Not much. I told him about Ted getting shot and all.”
“How did he act?” Slocum busied himself washing his hands and face in the pan on the porch.
“He acted like a man considering it all.”
Slocum shot a glance at her. “What? He works for Chisum. He had to know.”
“Maybe, maybe not. I would say he didn’t know that Ted was shot in the back six times.”
“Ted know him?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. Least he never mentioned it. Why?”
Slocum dried his face on the towel. “More things that ain’t answered.” Then he shook his head in disappointment.
“What have you been doing?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I have breakfast cooking if it isn’t burnt. Come on in and tell me while we eat.”
“That’s the best thing that has happened yet.”
He told her about rescuing Juanita and seeking refuge in the line shack. About Coyote and his bunch taking her and his getting her back.
“What now?” she asked.
“I need a few hours sleep. Then I’ll borrow another fresh horse from you and go find this Coyote.”
“I want to go along.”
“No. No place for you. You’ve got children to think about in Las Cruces.” He shook his head in disapproval.
“You can’t face all of those outlaws alone.”
“I’ll figure a way.”
“This is my fight too, Slocum.”
“Eat your breakfast,” he insisted.
“What are you going to do?”
He lifted his gaze to the small window spilling sunlight into the kitchen. What was he going to do? Stop this Coyote once and for all—his bunch along with him. Why had he ignored it for so long? His disgust for bloodshed had grown so great. He closed his burning eyes.
He had hoped that wolflike instinct inside him was gone forever. For years he’d tried to seal it away. Avoid it at all cost. The death, the dying, the killing solved little, yet sometimes that was all that settled things in a land where greed overshadowed law and order.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“Settle it. Ted’s death, and the rest.” The grim thought of them savagely using Juanita’s body reminded his sleep-deprived brain of more tragedy.
“You can’t do it alone.”
“I’ll find a way. Right now I need a few hours sleep.”
“There’s the bed.” She pointed.
“Thanks. I’m dirty.”
“Don’t worry. Get some sleep.” She began to gather up their dirty dishes.
The afternoon heat had found the interior of the ranch house. He awoke to a man’s voice outside. How long had he been asleep? He swept the hair from his face with his hands and threw his feet over the edge. The cap-and-ball Colt hung in the holster on the end foot of the bed. He tried to shake away the fuzziness in his mind and vision.
“I’ll see if he’s awake,” Marty said.
Her head popped into the doorway. “You awake, Slocum?”
“Yes.”
“I have a man out here I want you to meet.”
“Good,” he sighed.
The man who came behind her was in his thirties. Slocum recognized him when he came in the doorway. His broad shoulders filled the doorway and his bull-hide chaps were black inside from rubbing the legs and from saddle leather and sweat. He removed his Boss of the Plains hat.
“This is Dex Bailey. John Slocum.”
“We’ve met before,” Slocum said. “You’re Chisum’s foreman.” After they shook hands, Slocum sat to pull on his boots.
“Yes. Mrs. Davis told me why you’re here,” Bailey said. “I heard her story yesterday about her husband’s murder. Guess it made me do some thinking.”
Slocum looked up at him. “And?”
“Mister. I’ve run roughshod on a few deals, but I never shot a man in the back over water for some ten-cents-a-pound cows. Not a family man minding his own business.”
“No one said you did.” Slocum stood up to get his right boot on. “Someone did.”
“I swear to you I never knew a thing about it.”
“You and the Coyote don’t draw wages at the same place?” His gaze met Bailey’s, and they locked hard.
“Mister, I rode back here to right a wrong. I don’t know who else Chisum hires and works for him.”
“Francisco Springs? They killed some Mexicans and ran off women and children.”
“All right, so I didn’t check close enough. So I’m here offering my services to help right a damn wrong. You opposed to that?”
Slocum looked around for his other boot. “No, if you mean it.”
“He means it,” she said quietly.
“Good enough. I’ll saddle a horse and we’ll go find them.”
“Suits me.”
“First both of you sit down and eat something,” she said, “No need going off unfed.”
Slocum grinned to himself as she went off to fix them food. He looked up, and could see she had Bailey’s full attention. Slocum rubbed the itch under his nose with the side of his finger, and then bent over and pulled on the other boot. Marty had found her someone—he looked as tough as the hide in the chaps he wore. From the looks of him and sounds of him, he’d do to ride the river with too.
Over the meal he filled Bailey in on the abduction of Juanita and the other problems. They rode out from Marty’s place with the sun over the peaks in the west. On fresh horses, they rode in a long trot northward.
“You think he’s still in that canyon where you found Juanita?” Bailey asked.
“It’s someplace to start.” Slocum did not miss the man’s glance back. It was the worried look of a man uncertain about what he was leaving.
“You seen Chisum the past few days?” Slocum asked.
Bailey shook his head, riding alongside Slocum’s stirrup. “But he should be at the ranch. He had some important guests coming to see him according to his cook Hattie—businessmen from Santa Fe.”
“Juanita was upset I didn’t take her home, but I wasn’t sure what the Indians had done over there.”
“Probably stole some loose horses is all. They do that all the time. They wouldn’t dare strike the ranch.”
“She’s safe and in good hands for the time being.”
“Good. Chisum will be beside himself about that girl’s disappearance. I’d swear, at times he’s outright jealous of anyone even talking to her.”
Slocum nodded. He felt certain that Bailey didn’t know about their affair either.