"Wait," Evan whispered urgently. "I saw something move."
"What? Where?" Ben said, and instantly halted his reach for the gate of the corral.
"On the roof of the freight station."
Ben looked at the freight station, which was immediately adjacent to the corral. The building was long, with a flat roof that had a low parapet along its edge. The upper quarter of the structure was silhouetted against the star-filled sky. Ben quickly scanned along the top. At midpoint on the length of the parapet, he saw a star vanish and another one come into view. A man had shifted his body as he watched down into the corral.
"I see him. There'll be others with him."
Ben and Evan had warily approached the Valdes freight station in Terrazas to swap their jaded horses for rested ones. They had almost walked into an ambush. The gunmen, from their elevated position and hidden behind the wall, had an excellent location from which they could guard the horses and shoot would-be thieves. With the night brightened by starshine and the light of a moon, Ben and Evan would have been easy targets.
"Carlos almost had us that time," Ben said. "Damn good thing that you got cat eyes and saw the man."
"Close, all right. What now?"
"I think I know where there'll be some horses. Let's get back out of sight."
They drew away into the night and circled the station. Behind a second and smaller building, smelling of the dead ashes and iron of a blacksmith shop, they came to several horses tied to a hitch rail.
"These will do," Ben said.
"How did you know they'd be here?"
"Those fellows on the roof wouldn't walk to the freight station. They'd ride. Since I've been here before, I knew the most likely place where they'd hide their mounts, and that would be right here."
They selected three from the eight and rode the night away, and the sun into the sky, and on into the day until the middle of the afternoon.
* * *
Ben halted his small cavalcade on the border of the short-grass plain called Piano de San Augustin. He leaned wearily on the pommel of his saddle and studied the flat expanse of land.
"What are you thinking?" Evan asked. He held his exhausted body in the saddle by willpower alone. His damaged lung ached and felt like lead in his chest. The old gunshot wound had robbed him of the strength and endurance needed to keep up with Ben.
"We're within twenty miles of Chihuahua and thirty miles or thereabouts to the Valdes rancho. Carlos hasn't been able to stop us. I'm thinking he'll try something big any time now."
"He may think they shot us at Terrazas."
"He probably doesn't know about us avoiding his trap there. And I'm betting he wouldn't put all his money on that one hit-or-miss attempt at stopping us."
Ben continued to scan the plain, which was some twelve miles east to west and about an equal distance north to south. On his right the plain lapped against the base of Sierra El Tstido, a series of jagged, stony mountain peaks. To his left, it merged into Laguna El Cuervo, a broad and shallow basin that would be a bog hole this time of year. He counted four herds of cattle grouped here and there on the plain and grazing the dry grass. He saw no cowboys.
"Would you expect an ambush out there on the flat land?" Ben said.
"No, I wouldn't. Horsemen could be seen for miles."
"They could stay dismounted and hide behind the herds of cows. If we came upon them, they could ride us down on our worn-out horses."
"So what do you suggest we do? Find another way to the Valdes rancho?"
"We've come straight down El Camino Real because it's the fastest way to overtake Maude and Rachel. We did it even knowing that way made it easier for Carlos to set traps for us. Nothing has changed. We want to get to the girls before they're forced to marry the Valdes brothers."
"So we go straight ahead."
"Right. Keep a sharp eye out. This is Valdes land and he could have an army of pistoleros ready to jump us."
* * *
“Come out,” Leo said firmly as he held the stagecoach door open and offered his hand to Maude. “This is the hacienda of the Valdes family,” he said proudly.
Maude stepped down from the coach to the ground. Rachel came to stand beside her. Both looked around at their surroundings. The coach had just arrived at the hacienda and halted in the courtyard.
Ramos Valdes, outfitted in elegant caballero clothing, came out of the hacienda and walked toward them across the stone-flagged courtyard. Leo raised his hand in greeting and went to meet him.
“This place is like a fortress,” Maude said to Rachel. She spoke quietly so that the stagecoach driver and the pistolero, who were close by, couldn’t hear.
“More like a prison for us,” Rachel said as she surveyed the six-foot-high stone wall that encircled the hacienda and its wide yard.
The house was a huge one-story structure made of adobe and stone with a flat roof. A round thirty-foot-tall watchtower made of stone rose from the center of the hacienda. The walled compound contained some two acres and sat on the top of a low hill a half mile from the base of Sierra Las Tunas Mountain. The Santa Isabel River flowed past at the bottom of the hill.
“The hacienda must have at least fifteen rooms,” Maude said.
“More like twenty,” Rachel said. She was still considering how to escape. There had been an armed guard at the gate when they entered. At this very time a man was watching them from the watchtower. Her spirits sank as she realized the steep odds that were against them for slipping away.
A middle-aged woman, fair-skinned with blond hair and wearing a blue dress, came from the hacienda and joined with Leo and Ramos. She took Ramos’s arm and the three moved together toward Maude and Rachel.
“That must be Father and Mother,” Maude said nodding at the approaching man and woman. “Why, she’s an American,” she added with surprise.
“She’s beautiful, and her hair is more blond than yours, Maude.”
“She’s one of us and will help us get out of this place.”
“Maybe, but I wouldn’t bet on it.”
The three were close now and Rachel saw the woman had brilliant blue eyes. That explained tie source of Carlos’s and Leo’s blue eyes.
“Aren’t they lovely, Father?” Leo said.
“Most lovely,” Ramos responded. They were young and strong and should make fine babies. His sons had done very well in their selection of wives.
“I am Ramos Valdes and I welcome you to our home,” Ramos said. “And this is Señora Valdes.”
“I too welcome you,” said the woman.
Rachel thought the woman’s expression showed sadness, even regret, at their presence here. Perhaps Maude was correct, that Señora Valdes might help them. Then the woman smiled and whatever she was feeling was hidden.
Señora Valdes moved forward and hugged Rachel and Maude, an arm about each of them, pressing them tightly to her. Both girls stood rigid in her embrace. They were captives brought to this alien place by force. This was so regardless of the gracious greeting bestowed upon them.
Señora Valdes felt the stiffness and moved back.
“Which one do you claim?” Ramos asked.
“This golden beauty here.” Leo took Maude by the arm. He looked at his mother. “Her hair is just like yours, Mother.”
Maude pulled free of Leo’s hand. “Are we guests or prisoners?” she asked sharply. “If we are guests, then I want to leave.”
Ramos’s face hardened at the question. Leo looked angry.
“Helena, take them into the hacienda,” Ramos said. “Explain how things are to be for them.”
“Come with me,” Helena said. She gestured at the hacienda and then walked off leading the way.
Rachel and Maude glanced at each other. Rachel shrugged and nodded. Both followed the woman.
Ramos stared after the two young women. “Without turning, he spoke to Leo, “Does anyone know that you have them?”
“I don’t believe so.”
“What about Hawkins?”
“Carlos stayed behind to kill him. He should be here soon.”
“Carlos will most likely succeed in slaying him. Even so, I will put two men in the watchtower and start men patrolling the grounds of the hacienda.”
“Carlos wants a quick marriage. No banns announced.”
“I agree. The sooner the señoritas are your wives, the better it will be. I’ll send a rider to Chihuahua for our priest.”
“I stopped to tell him to come and perform the wedding ceremonies when I passed through Chihuahua. He wasn’t there, but his assistant said he was scheduled to be back within two days. So I left a message for him to come here when he returns.”
“He will come promptly. Now let’s have some wine to celebrate the family’s good fortune to find such beautiful wives for you and Carlos.”
Once inside the hacienda and out of the men’s sight, Rachel caught Helena by the arm and stopped her. “We were kidnapped and brought here as prisoners. You must help us to return to our homes in the States.”
Helena removed her arm from Rachel’s hold. “I would never do that. My sons have chosen you two and it isn’t my place to act against them.”
“Kidnapping is a crime, even in Mexico. You would be protecting them by letting us go.”
“They are in no danger from the law for my husband is a powerful man with much influence.” She looked directly into the eyes of the two young women. “You can find happiness with my sons for they will make good husbands. It will take time and you must search for it, but it is possible.”
A sudden understanding came to Rachel. “You were forced to come to Mexico too. And to become a wife against your will.”
“What was your original name?” Maude asked.
“That’s not important. I have been Señora Valdes for twenty-five years. I will die as Señora Valdes.”
Helena looked from Rachel to Maude and back to Rachel. “The Valdes family is very rich. You can have everything you desire. Already Carlos and Leo have their own ranchos, and one day they will inherit great wealth.” She paused looking at them. “You will stay here for a few months and then be taken to your own homes.”
“We want to go to our homes in the States,” Rachel said.
“And right now, not later,” Maude added. She might return to El Paso, but she knew that she would never return to the house of Lester Ivorsen.
“That will never be,” Helena said.
“We have friends who will be looking for us,” Rachel said.
“Maybe you do,” Helena replied. “However, you are many hundreds of miles from the United States and they will not find you. Even if they should, they will not be able to help you for my husband has many pistoleros, hard ruthless men who are loyal to him. It would be better if any friends of yours did not find you, for then they would die.”
“You should help us to leave,” Rachel said pressing the woman. “You of all people know what this means to be kidnapped and forced to marry strange men.”
“I disapprove of what Carlos and Leo have done. However, they are men and very much like their father.”
“And they see how he has gotten away with kidnapping a fair-skinned wife,” Rachel said.
“Why don’t they get wives like other men do instead of stealing them?” Maude said in frustration at the woman’s unwillingness to aid them.
The woman looked stonily at Maude and Rachel. “I tell you again, you must find happiness with my sons for you will never leave Mexico. Now come with me and I will show you the hacienda and your rooms.”
* * *
"Un caballero venga mucho rapido," shouted the boy Carlos had stationed on the roof of the hacienda.
Carlos stopped pacing the courtyard and looked up at the boy. "How far away?" he called back.
"He's just crossed the arroyo."
"Is he waving his hat?"
"Yes, like a crazy man."
"Bueno." The rider was giving the signal that Hawkins had been spotted. It was now time to kill the damn horse thief.
Carlos moved hurriedly across the courtyard. The hacienda and the thousands of acres surrounding it formed a small rancho Ramos Valdes had acquired for the nonpayment of a debt. Carlos had chosen it as his headquarters due to its location on the south end of Piano de Augustin and near El Camino Real. From there he had gathered twenty pistoleros, ten from among his own men and another ten from the outlaws and thugs of Chihuahua's underworld, men that his father had used from time to time. He had promised payment of two hundred pesos to each man who rode against Hawkins. In addition, a bounty of one thousand pesos was put on Hawkins's head and five hundred on the head of the man who traveled with him. The bounty would be paid to the man who fired the bullet that killed either one of them. Carlos had put one of his trusted lieutenants in charge of the Chihuahua hard cases to insure they followed his orders.
The message informing Carlos of the failure of his men to kill Hawkins in Samalayuca had caught up to him within a day after the fight. He would have liked to know what had gone wrong that had prevented four men from stopping the horse thief. No word had yet reached him from Terrazas, but Hawkins was now here and so the men he had placed at the freight station had failed.
Carlos had been surprised to learn that there was a second man traveling with Hawkins. His presence worried Carlos. Could it possibly be that it was known Leo and he had stolen the two American girls? That the second man was riding with Hawkins to get them back? The girls were to be the mothers of the next generation of the Valdes family and must not be taken from Leo and him. They would not be, because the large number of men Carlos had assembled would overwhelm Hawkins and his companion.
Carlos entered the hacienda to find Tattersall and his four men playing cards at the table in the sala. He didn't like the scalp hunters, but he endured them for they were excellent marksmen. He had seen them practice with their weapons and knew they were better than any of his own men or the men from Chihuahua.
"One of my riders is coming and soon we will know how far away Hawkins is," Carlos said.
"I heard the boy yelling so I guessed Hawkins was close," Tattersall said.
"That's good, for I'm damn tired of waiting," Adkisson added.
"I hope you got your gold handy to pay us," Tattersall said. Carlos's plan was a good one and he was glad he wasn't in Hawkins's boots.
"They're in position. Now we must ride swiftly and trap the horse thief between my pistoleros and your men."
* * *
"Where did they come from?" Evan said. He had a bad feeling as he looked at the group of horsemen who had come into view to the south down El Camino Real.
"There's low land at the far end of the Plano," Ben replied. "That's about two miles from here." He pulled his spyglass from a saddlebag and focused it on the riders trotting their horses toward them.
"Five of them," Ben said. "All are dressed like Americans. They're too far away to tell much more about them. It could be that Tattersall fellow I was told about. If so, he's got four friends with him. Best we change to our other horses in case we have to make a run for it."
Both men swung down to the ground and hastily swapped their saddles, Ben to Brutus and Evan to the back of his second horse. Ben pulled the bridle into place on Brutus. The big gray horse tossed his head and his big ivory teeth rattled against the iron bit. The horse had covered hundreds of miles during these past days and still he was showing his willingness to run.
"This may be the time when you have to show what you got," Ben said as he petted the animal's muscular shoulder.
He yanked himself astride. Evan mounted and sat his horse beside Ben.
They looked at each other. Then faced south and rode on to meet the band of men.
"What do we do if it is Tattersall?" Evan said.
Ben had turned and was looking to the side and out across the plain. He spoke without turning. "It's Tattersall, all right, and he's got help. Look." He pointed off to the right and somewhat behind them where a large band of horsemen had come into view from behind a herd of cows. "And over there." He jointed to the left at a second group of riders moving upon them.
Ben checked the new bands of men with his spyglass. "All Mexicans. They stayed dismounted and hidden until the Americans came into sight."
Evan groaned as he evaluated the position of the riders. "They've got us in the center of a triangle. We're penned in."
"And they're closing on us. Carlos has a damn fine plan." Ben estimated the openings between any two of the three groups to be about a mile and a half long. The gaps were swiftly closing as the horsemen trotted their mounts toward them. "We can't fight Carlos's pistoleros out here where there's no place to fort up," he said. "We've got to break out or we're dead men."
"Which way?"
"Toward the mountain between the Americans and that Mexican bunch," Ben said quickly. "If we can get into the rocks, we have a chance to stand them off. First, though, we've got to pass through that gap between them before they get within gun range."
"Looks like the Mexicans are coming at us faster than the Americans," Evan said as he jerked his belt off and held the buckle end in his hand.
"The Americans are holding back so that the Mexes will take our first shots. When our guns are empty, they'll charge in and finish us off. Now we've got to ride like hell. Lay the whip to that horse and keep up for I'm going to let Brutus have his head."
"I'm ready."
"Then let's ride! Ride!" Ben touched Brutus with his heels and gave a shrill, keening cry. Brutus leapt ahead, his long legs stretching. In three jumps he was in full stride.
Ben saw both groups of foes immediately begin to lay on the whip to cut Evan and him off. Still, he thought they could break free of the closing jaws of Carlos's trap. He bent low and shouted into Brutus's ear. "Run, you big bastard. We can make it."
Ben glanced to the side to check if Evan was keeping up. Evan wasn't there. He looked to the rear. Evan was lashing his mount with the belt. Still, he was two horse lengths behind and falling farther back as Brutus tore ahead.
"Whip that slow son of a bitch," Ben shouted. "Beat him to death! Ride him into the ground!"
"Go on, Ben," Evan shouted. "He can't keep up. Get away if you can."
Ben looked at the Mexicans rushing in on his right. They were closer than the Americans riding in from the left and were almost within rifle range. If he let Brutus run full out, he could make it from between the two bands of men.
He began to rein Brutus in for he couldn't desert Evan. He pulled Brutus down until he was riding side by side with Evan.
"You dumb ass. Save yourself," Evan shouted fiercely.
A searing hot pain ripped across Evan's back. He was hit, a bullet had creased him. He bent forward until the pommel of the saddle was hard against his stomach.
Ben had seen Evan wince as he was struck He had heard the boom of the gun and knew it was from a .50-caliber Sharps carbine. One of the Americans was very good. He unbuckled his belt and tore it free from around his waist. He struck Evan's horse a half-dozen cutting blows across the rump. The speed of the straining horse increased but little.
A whizzing chunk of lead hit the brim of Ben's hat and partially cut it off, and it drooped and flopped in front of his face. He ripped the piece loose and flung it aside. Another bullet tore past and the top of Brutus's ear disappeared in a bloody explosion of flesh and hair. An instant later, the big horse faltered and broke stride as a bullet plowed through a rib and deep inside. The horse caught himself with great effort and his gait steadied. He ran on, but only for a few strides, when his gait became rough and unstable.
Ben felt the gallant horse striving to maintain his pace. However, he was weakening, and his breath was a hoarse, ragged saw. He slowed more and more, and then came to a staggering walk. He stood swaying and trembling as he fought to hold his feet.
Ben kicked free of the stirrups and jumped clear as Brutus fell.