"You're a stupid man," Carlos raged at Crampton. His hand was on the pistol belted to his waist. He wanted the American to fight so that he could kill him.
Crampton recognized the challenge and kept his hand away from his pistol. He had barely escaped from Hawkins's bullets, and didn't want a fight with the angry Mexican.
Crampton still couldn't believe how quickly, or how accurately, Hawkins had returned his shot. The man's bullets had straddled his chest, so close that each had burned his flesh as they drove past. Had Crampton moved either left or right when he fired, he would be dead now.
"You found out that fighting Hawkins is more dangerous than killing some Indians from hiding," Carlos said. He shook his head in disgust for he saw Crampton wasn't going to provide him with the opportunity to shoot him.
Tattersall didn't like Carlos's rough words to his man, but he held himself reined in. He would only take Crampton's side if it really came down to a gunfight.
The three men were in the boardinghouse in El Paso where Tattersall and his men had taken lodging. Carlos had arrived a few minutes before to find Crampton telling Tattersall about the attempt to kill Hawkins.
"Was Butcher alive when you left?" Tattersall said. Crampton had acted like a coward, and Tattersall hadn't expected that.
"I don't know. He shot at Hawkins. He must've missed, or not hit him hard, for Hawkins shot back at him, and at me. I didn't hear anything more from Butcher. He could be alive or dead."
"If he's alive, Hawkins will make him talk," Carlos said. "Now he probably knows that the Valdes family has come north to kill him."
"I'll round up my other men and we'll deal with him tonight," Tattersall said.
"No," Carlos said. "You've never seen what the man can do with a gun, especially a rifle. You don't want to go straight at him when he's ready for you."
"I say there's enough of us to kill him."
"Most likely all of us could. But who wants to die doing it?"
"You're paying the money to kill him, so what do you want to do?"
Carlos understood Hawkins, and was certain he would ride into Mexico to the Valdes rancho and strike at Ramos and Leo. Hawkins might also see the American señoritas and try to return them to the States. Both situations must be prevented. Carlos would gather the best pistoleros in Mexico and catch and kill Hawkins before he ever reached the rancho.
"Hawkins won't allow Crampton's attack to go unpunished," Carlos said. "So let him come into my country where I have all the advantage."
"What about me and my men?" Tattersall said. "We made an agreement with your father that for five thousand dollars in gold we would kill Hawkins. We've rode hundreds of miles because of that."
"Come with me and help take his head and you'll be paid as my father said."
"When do you want to leave?"
"This very minute. Gather your men."
In his room in the El Prado Hotel, Ben quickly packed for his ride into the hostile land south of the Rio Grande. Upon his first arrival in El Paso he had brought his Spencer rifle, bedroll, and the other items of his spartan outfit into the hotel for safekeeping. Now he gathered the outfit up into his arms, left the room, and went to Brutus tied in front of the hotel.
He attached the scabbard of the Spencer to the right side of the saddle. The saddlebags and bedroll were fastened into their usual places behind the saddle. Then he walked swiftly toward the lobby of the hotel to pay what he owed for his stay and tell Tarlow that he would be gone for several days. He wanted to be gone before other men came to try to shoot him. More importantly, he wanted to catch Leo before he reached the Valdes rancho, which was guarded like a fortress.
"Ben, wait up," a man called from the plaza.
"What do you want?" Ben replied, recognizing Evan's voice.
"I need your help."
"For what?"
"I want you to help me find Rachel."
"What happened to her?"
"That's just it, I don't know," Evan said, drawing closer to Ben. "Early this morning, she left my folks' ranch to catch up with me in town. I never did see her, and she never returned to the ranch."
"Maybe she just up and left you." The words of the old night watchman at the Valdes warehouse came to Ben. The man had said there had been a second woman being taken with Maude into Mexico. That woman had green eyes, and Ben knew Rachel had eyes of that color from having seen her with Redpath in the restaurant.
"She wouldn't do that and I'm sure of it," Evan said. "Something has happened to her. You know what she looks like and I want you to help me find her."
"Evan, I just got back from Ciudad Juarez. While I was there, I talked with an old man and he told me about a pretty green-eyed señorita he saw being carried off into Mexico. I didn't know who she might be then. But now you tell me your Rachel's missing. So that must be who it was."
"My God. When did this happen?"
"Early today." Ben felt some guilt at not telling Evan that Maude had also been carried off. But not enough guilt to forestall the plan that was jelling in his mind.
"Who was it that had her? Did he say?"
"He told me there were two men. The Valdes brothers."
"Valdes? Isn't that the name of the man that you stole horses from?"
"The same."
"Why would they take her?"
"That's the way their father got his woman, or so I've heard. Now they're doing the same."
"Do you know where they would take her?"
"Most likely to their rancho in the mountains west of Chihuahua."
"You must know where it is."
"Been there a time or three."
"You've got to help me get her back."
"I don't have to do anything of the kind"
"I'll pay you. I can't do it by myself."
"I seem to remember a fellow who had his face all shot to hell and was willing to pay a certain surgeon to fix it for him. Now the surgeon had the skill, but wouldn't do it, said he couldn't stand to operate on a man. Does that sound familiar to you?"
"Yes," Evan said weakly.
"Now that surgeon wants me to ride hundreds of miles into Mexico and get his girl back from one of the most powerful men in that country. Valdes wants me dead and can muster a hundred pistoleros, even two hundred to do it. Hell, the old man can get the Mexican Army after me. Now you want me to ride into that."
"Ben, I can't get Rachel back by myself."
"How much does the woman mean to you?"
"Everything, Ben."
"What are you willing to do for me if I would help you? What's the payment?"
Evan studied Ben, standing and facing him in the night in front of the hotel. Ben's face was in deep darkness; however, the massive scars that deformed it were imprinted on Evan's memory. He knew fully the complexity and danger of operating to reshape the man's face. The horrible sensation came to him of holding a scalpel in his hands and cutting living flesh, and seeing the blood flowing, and all the time the man quivering and jerking with pain so intense from a million severed nerve endings that he couldn't control his body to lie still and strong men were required to hold him.
"Help me, Ben, and I'll do my very best to repair your face. But I'm telling you the pain will be so great that you might die."
"It won't kill me," Ben replied. Evan would never know that the pain of being isolated from the world, from all humans, had already killed him. Or would have if it hadn't been for a wolf that acted almost human.
Ben put out his hand. "I want an oath and a handshake on it."
Evan took the hand and gripped it firmly. "You have my word that as soon as we return to El Paso with Rachel, I will do everything I can to restore your face."
Ben retained Evan's hand locked tightly in his. "Not good enough. If by chance Rachel should not return with us, for whatever reason, you will still perform the operation. Say it."
"She must come back with me."
"Say it!"
"Even if Rachel doesn't return, I will still operate on your face. Ben, I want to warn you, you won't look as you did before."
"But I'll look human?"
"Yes, I believe I can do that."
"That will do. Now we'll get you outfitted. And I need more cartridges for my guns. I know a store where the owner sleeps up above. It's late but he'll open up for me."
"Let's hurry."
"Give me a minute to talk with Tarlow and then we'll be on our way."
Ben went into the hotel. He was deeply worried. Valdes, with many tough fighting men, would be waiting somewhere along the route. Ben and Evan would have to shoot their way through them. Then Maude and Rachel had to be taken from them by force, or stealth, or trickery, or all three. If he could succeed in that, he had to keep all three alive during the long journey back to the States. Ben wasn't sure it was possible.