Chapter Thirty

Daniel rode into the Indian camp with Tomas at his side. Tomas had not known that many of the canteens contained whisky not water and he was surprised to be offered a mouthful of this nectar before they entered the encampment.

Daniel felt that a hair of the dog was necessary if Tomas was to be of any use in the negotiations.

They dismounted and Daniel drew his loaded rifle from its scabbard before moving to the circle where the Indians were squatting.

Tomas made a greeting in the Comanche language and indicated to Daniel that they should both sit down.

Daniel sat and looked around him while Tomas continued to converse in the unintelligible tongue. He could not see any sign of the white women but he had seen six men while riding in from the ridge and there were only five sitting around the fire.

Daniel became a little wearied of the long-winded conversation that was taking place between Tomas and the Indian spokesman.

“Tomas,” Daniel interrupted. “What is happening? What is all this talk about?”

“Senor, I am telling this man what a great warrior you are and how you can kill at greater distances than anyone else in the whole world.”

“Why? Just ask him how much he wants for the women.”

“Senor, that is not good manners among the Comanches. I must first give him a chance to tell me about how many coups he has counted and how many horses he has stolen.”

“When do we get around to the important matters? All this boasting is just a waste of time.”

“Senor, if we do not do this you might have to end up fighting all of them. First I must make them aware that they are dealing with a great warrior.”

“Oh get on with it then. I was going to offer them all some whisky. I thought that it might make them more willing to make a deal.”

“Whisky, senor? Oh whisky is very good for making deals. I will tell them that it is your custom to drink whisky instead of smoking a peace pipe. Then you must hand around the bottle for everyone one to drink.” Tomas started to translate that immediately. He did not want Daniel to change his mind.

The war-band leader liked the idea immediately if Tomas’s translation was to be believed. Daniel rose and collected the canteen that he had already used to restore Tomas’s abilities.

He pretended to take a sip from the canteen before handing it to Tomas. His lips burned from where the liquid had touched them. Tomas took a long swig before he passed the canteen on to the leader. The leader drank thirstily before handing it on to his companions. The Indians each took a sip and suddenly the sixth man appeared complaining loudly that no-one had called him for his share. None of them noticed that Daniel was no longer partaking but leaving them to pass the canteen around. The canteen contained slightly more than two bottles of whisky and it was not long before the Indians began to pass out. Tomas, being thoroughly accustomed to the contents of the canteen lasted longer than the others but even he succumbed after draining the canteen.

Daniel looked at the sleeping Indians and stood up. He went back to where the sixth Indian had come from and found a bedraggled Teresita Rozas sitting under a blanket with her hands tied behind her and her legs bound together.

Daniel lifted her up and cut away her bonds.

“Senorita, where is your duenna?” He asked her in Spanish.

“Is that all you ask me, Senor? Not: am I well? Have I been ravished? Beaten? Mistreated by savages? What can one expect of a man who lies so freely?”

“I am sure that you will tell me all of those things when we are away from here but right now I need to know: where is your duenna?”

“The band separated when we were being tracked by the army. Ten men went off with my aunt and the others took me with them.”

“Can you ride well?”

“Yes, I can ride well. I have been riding since I was a small child.”

“Good! We are going to have to ride long and hard. Choose a horse from the string over there.”

Daniel replaced the empty canteen by the fireplace with three canteens of whisky. He rounded up all the Indian horses and added them to his string. He dumped Tomas over his horse and tied him in place.

“Let us ride!” He said to Teresita as he led the string south-eastward.

When he was far enough from the Indian camp he cast Tomas free.

“His horse should get him home but he is slowing us down.” He told the girl.

He began to ride in earnest and did not stop until he had put thirty miles behind them and the only reason he stopped then was because they had come to a spring and the horses needed to be watered.

“Why do you bring all these horses with you?” Teresita asked him.

“I cannot afford to leave any horses for the Indians to use to follow us. I am hoping that when they wake up they will find the rest of the whisky that I left for them and drink it. If that happens we have a good chance of getting away clean.”

“But surely with all these horses we are leaving a wide trail for them to follow?”

“They know where we are headed anyway. Our real problem is any other Indians that we might encounter on our way back to Comanche.”

“How did you know that we had been taken by the Indians?”

“Somebody in Comanche mentioned that two foreign ladies had been captured and I recognized your description. I served in the Union army with the Major at the fort. He provided me with the Indian guide that helped me find you.”

“I was terrified by what they might do to me but my aunt was even worse. She screamed all the time until they gagged her. I think the leader sent the others off with her just to get her noise away from him. I don’t know what they did with her.”

“But you have not been hurt or harmed?”

“No, they were rough but as long as I did what they said, they did not harm me.”

“Did what they said? Could you understand them?”

“One of them could speak a little Spanish. He translated what the leader said.”

“I saw the trail that you left of lace from your gown.” He remarked. “That was very brave of you.”

“Yes, I was terrified. I thought at any moment they would notice what I was doing and then punish me. They had the youngest man in the group dragging a bush behind us to cover our trail. He was not very attentive. He just wanted to fight like a warrior and he seemed to think that dragging bushes was a waste of time.”

Once the horses were watered Daniel set off again. The night was moon-lit and the dry landscape stretched out endlessly ahead of them.

“Why do we not stop for the night, Daniel? The Indians do not travel at night.”

“They do when they are looking for revenge. I want to get into those hills over there on the horizon. There is some grass there for the horses and we can see anyone coming for miles away. I will let you sleep for four hours while I watch then you can watch and wake me if you see anything suspicious.”

Daniel gave her some jerky to chew on to ease her hunger pains until they could make a secure camp.

They found a good spot: a basin with dry but ample grass and a cliff face from the crest of which Daniel would have a commanding field of fire. He left Teresita to make a small smokeless fire with bone dry brush and put the coffee pot on while chili beans bubbled in his small pot. They had no sooner eaten when without warning the sky clouded over blanking out the moon and it began to rain heavily.

Daniel and Teresita huddled together under his slicker in the lee of a large boulder.

“This rain is terrible. It is like a shower-bath.” Teresita complained.

“No, it is wonderful. It wipes out all our tracks and leaves water for the horses to drink.” Daniel told her. “You sleep now. I will awaken you in four hours.”

He left her wrapped in his blanket with his slicker over the top and he went to the crest of the cliff to watch. Now that the clouds had rolled in the plain behind them was no longer a clear stretch in the moonlight but he could still see movement and darker shadows against the light coloring of the desert sand. He watched carefully but apart from a few coyotes he saw nothing until his watch was up.

He shook her shoulder gently and she sat up with a start. “Oh! I dreamed that I was still with the Indians and one of them wanted me to be his wife.”

“Did you accept?” He asked in jocular vein.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I am promised to Don de Tudo y Alemany. I shall be the lady of a very large hacienda. Why would I accept a smelly savage?”

“What sort of a man is this Don de Tudo y Alemany?”

“I do not know. I have never met him.”

“How can you know whether you love him if you have never met him?”

“He has seen me when I was at the convent for my schooling and I have seen a miniature portrait of him. He is very handsome.”

“People in portraits are as handsome as the artist is paid to make them.”

“My father has assured me that the portrait was a very close likeness.” She said stiffly.

“In Spain it is customary for the father of the bride to pay a dowry, is it not? How much did your father pay?”

“My father is not a rich man. Our bloodline is excellent but our pockets are empty.”

“So what you are saying is that your father has sold you to a rich man?”

“How dare you say such a thing? My father loves me and he would never do that. He is the kindest of men and.....”

“Shhh!” Daniel held up a hand for silence. “Listen!” He hissed into her ear.

They listened for a moment. There was the click of a hoof upon a stone.

Daniel grabbed his rifle and squirmed up to the edge of the cliff and peered down. Shadowy figures moved on the plain below and the moon peeped through a crack in the clouds. He saw an Indian on horseback with a bow slung over his back. As he watched another moved behind the first bearing a feathered lance.

Daniel watched as they moved silently in single file across the base of the cliff. At least they were not coming his way. He slid back to the girl as quietly as he knew how.

“Indians!” He whispered to her. He checked their fireplace but the fire was cold ashes.

“It is my turn to stand watch.” Teresita whispered to him.

“No,” He replied. “I will continue the watch. Stay where you are.”

He went back to his watch point but the plain below was now empty. He watched until the sun came up and then he went to the highest point with his telescope and looked for smoke. He found some a mile or two to the west of their position. They were not trying to keep their position a secret and that was a good sign. It probably meant that they were not a war party.

They ate cold chili beans with stale bread for breakfast and did without coffee.

Daniel led them east for some miles before he turned south again. He could see water glinting in the distance and the horses could smell it so they angled off toward it.

Daniel did not speak much. His concentration was on the country around them. He did not want to run into another band of Indians while herding a bunch of tempting horses across their path. He would have been happy to let the horses return to the wild by simply releasing them but for all he knew the Indian horses could return directly to their owners and he did not want that to happen.

Teresita was still upset at his suggestion that her father had sold her to a rich man. She kept a frigid silence unless he spoke directly to her. He was such a frustrating man. He was very attractive but she knew him to be a liar and yet on the other hand he had gone out of his way to rescue her and had even bought a lot of horses to trade for her.

She did not know the customs of this country. Did the fact that he had negotiated with the Indians for her make her his woman? The thought did not fill her with dread as being possessed by the Indians had. There was dependability about him, a feeling that when she was with him she was protected. She was still in this silent reverie when he suddenly held up his hand and they stopped.

She listened and she heard voices ahead of them. They did not sound Indian but she not make out what was being said.

Daniel drew his pistol and signaled for them to move forward. They advanced slowly as the voices became louder and louder.

Suddenly they came over the rise and there beneath them was an army fort.