The next few minutes could well have been my last and probably almost were. I got a boot between the shoulder blades as I stepped out of the Mercedes that put me down on my hands and knees. No place to be with a dozen horses doing their best to trample me into the ground. I was kicked twice, the second time with such force that I thought a rib had gone and then a grip of iron fastened on my collar and brought me to my feet.
Van Horne steadied me with one hand and swung a fist into the rump of the nearest horse with such force that it reared up, almost unseating its rider. Someone struck at him with a plaited leather riding whip. He allowed it to curl around his arm, then pulled the owner from the saddle with no apparent effort, the first hint I’d been given of the man’s enormous strength.
There was considerable confusion for a moment or two after that as the soldiers frantically hauled their mounts out of the way to avoid trampling their unfortunate companion. One or two of them drew sabres and for a moment things looked decidedly nasty and then a single pistol shot sounded and a young officer burst through the outer ring and reined in sharply.
He had a thin, sallow face, a dark smudge of moustache and wore the silver bars of a lieutenant. Unlike most of his men, he was not wearing a rubber poncho and his tailored uniform was soaked with rain.
He smiled coldly, leaned down from the saddle and touched van Horne between the eyes with the barrel of the pistol. ‘Large or small, strong or weak, señor, one bullet is all it takes.’
‘Just call the dogs off, that’s all,’ van Horne told him. ‘We’ll come quietly.’
‘You will indeed. My orders were to apprehend you alive if possible, but I would be happy for you to give me an excuse to act otherwise. I find you an affront to all decency. Take off that cassock.’
Van Horne glared at him, hands on hips. ‘And what if I tell you to go and do the other thing, you pipsqueak.’
The lieutenant dismounted, tossed the reins of his horse to one of his men and faced van Horne squarely, raising his revolver to belt level. He thumbed back the hammer very deliberately.
‘Señor, for reasons of my own which are none of your business, I do not like you or anything about you. I assure you now, on my mother’s grave, that if you do not do exactly as I say, I will give you what you so richly deserve.’
He was no longer smiling and if one looked closely, the gun was shaking a little. Van Horne raised a hand as if to placate him. ‘All right, soldier boy, anything for a quiet life.’
He unbuttoned his cassock at the neck, pulled it over his head and tossed it into the Mercedes. He was wearing a pair of very clerical-looking trousers in black worsted and a white shirt.
The lieutenant said, ‘The collar also, if you please.’
Van Horne removed it and threw it into the Mercedes after the cassock. ‘Satisfied?’ he demanded.
‘Only when I see you hang, señor,’ the lieutenant said. ‘You will now drive this automobile back down the trail under my instructions. The slightest attempt to escape and I shoot. You understand me?’
‘You’ve got a big mouth with that in your hand, that’s all I understand, sonny.’ Van Horne turned and moved back to the Mercedes.
‘You can walk,’ the lieutenant told me and started after van Horne.
‘What about her?’ I nodded towards the girl who was being held unnecessarily by two of his men. ‘Can’t you take her with you?’
He looked towards her and frowned. ‘She’s the one from old Tacho’s place, isn’t she? The one who can’t speak.’
‘That’s right. Have you spoken to him? Did he tell you what happened last night?’
‘No, but I’ve had a reasonably full account from the sole survivor of the rurales you butchered.’
‘Very interesting,’ I said. ‘Did he tell you what they were trying to do with the girl? Did he mention they were about to hang me for trying to intervene? Would have finished me off if my friend there hadn’t arrived when he did?’
He believed me, which was the only important thing, his face turning paler than ever and the expression in his eyes was terrible to see.
‘A dirty world, lieutenant,’ I said softly. ‘And that kid couldn’t even raise a scream to save herself.’
He turned away without a word, grabbed Victoria by the arm and shoved her into the back seat of the Mercedes, then climbed in beside van Horne and told him to get moving. It took van Horne quite a bit of manoeuvring to get the Mercedes pointing the right way but he managed it after a while and we all got out of the way to let him drive past.
We started down the trail, the rest of us, the troopers riding, but the sergeant in charge, a small dark-haired man with a heavy moustache, dismounted and walked beside me, a pistol in his hand.
I produced a packet of Artistas. ‘All right if I smoke?’
‘Sure, I’ll have one with you.’ I gave him a light and he blew out the first lungful of smoke expertly. ‘Had yourselves a ball last night at old Tacho’s, you and your pal, didn’t you? How many rurales was it you saw off – five?’
‘What’s happening now?’ I asked.
‘Oh, the colonel’s waiting to see you down there. Colonel Bonilla. He’s the military governor in this region. He joined us for a routine patrol yesterday morning, just to see how things were going for himself. He’s like that. We were bivouacked for the night at an old rancheria near the main road when this rurale rode up. The one you let slip through your fingers at Tacho’s.’ There was sincere admiration in his voice when he added, ‘You and your pal must be hell on wheels.’
‘What made you come straight out here instead of going to Tacho’s?’
‘That was the colonel.’ He put a finger to his nose. ‘He’s really got it upstairs, that one. He figured you’d make a break for it so he only sent half a dozen guys to Tacho’s with a sergeant in charge, then he had a look at the map with the lieutenant. He said if it was him, he’d make a break for it through the Nonava Pass because it didn’t look possible.’
‘He certainly hit the nail right on the head.’
‘He usually does. He pushed us hard last night. Only stopped when it really started to rain, but he was right again. If we hadn’t been where we were you’d have got through, wouldn’t you?’
Quite a man, this Colonel Bonilla. We reached the place where the trail finally merged with the desert to find the Mercedes standing in the entrance to a narrow ravine. Someone had already started a fire in spite of the rain, no great feat with so many thorn bushes around and the smoke curled lazily on the damp air.
Van Horne was standing beside the Mercedes and I realized that someone, presumably Bonilla, was sitting in the rear seat, the door open. He was a tall, handsome man with sideburns which were prematurely white for I judged him to be no more than forty years of age. He made a rather gallant figure in his caped cavalry greatcoat and he had an intelligent, cynical air to him, the face of a man who has seen it all, everything possible in life and simply doesn’t believe in anything any more.
The sergeant handed me over to the lieutenant who took me the rest of the way. Bonilla looked me over calmly.
‘Your name, señor,’ he asked politely.
‘Emmet Keogh. I’m a British citizen.’
‘Keogh?’ He frowned slightly. ‘An unusual name, señor, and I have heard it before. You are the one who was in charge of security at the silver mines at Hermosa.’
‘That’s right. You seem surprised.’
‘You are not what I would have looked for, señor. I had expected a different kind of man.’
‘In what way? Two horns and a tail?’
‘Possibly even that. Your papers.’
I took out the travel permit signed by the jefe in Bonito. ‘That’s all I’ve got with me.’
He examined it gravely. ‘So, you are supposed to be delivering a truck-load of supplies to this man Gomez in Huila.’
‘That’s right. For Señor Janos, the owner of the Hotel Blanco in Bonito.’
To know Señor Janos is not much of a recommendation, believe me. This man has just given me his personal version of what happened at the way-station last night. Now I will hear yours.’ He nodded to the young lieutenant. ‘Take him away.’
The lieutenant gave van Horne a shove to get started and none too gently. Bonilla chuckled. ‘I’m afraid Lieutenant Cordona doesn’t care for your friend overmuch. You see he is a very correct young man. When he was a boy his parents intended him for the priesthood and he was educated to that end. You will readily understand that to someone like him, a man like your friend who represents himself to be a priest when he is not …’
He produced a silver cigarette case, selected one, lit it and blew smoke into the rain. ‘So, we will now hear what you have to say.’
I told him the exact truth. When I had finished, he nodded slowly. ‘Remarkable – truly remarkable.’ He reached behind him and produced the Gladstone bag. ‘There are fifty-three thousand dollars in here, did you know that?’
‘I saw van Horne for the first time yesterday morning in Bonito when he administered the last rites to three men who were publicly executed at the police barracks. He looked like a priest. He acted like a priest and that’s what everyone took him to be, including me. When he walked in on what was happening at Tacho’s last night, he saved me from getting my neck stretched. Saved the girl from God knows what … That should count for something, whatever else he may be.’
‘Whatever the circumstances, five at one blow, my friend, is a little hard to take, but we will speak again later when I’ve heard from my other patrol.’
He snapped a finger and the sergeant moved in fast. ‘Put him with his friend and then get me some breakfast.’
I joined van Horne who squatted against a rock. His shirt was plastered to his body and he was shivering slightly. ‘Well, what did you tell him?’ he demanded.
‘The truth – what else?’
‘Fair enough.’ He smiled faintly. ‘Not that it will make any kind of difference. Only one way out of this, Keogh.’
‘Perhaps.’ I looked around me. ‘What happened to the girl?’
‘They’ve put her to work.’
She was wearing one of the cavalrymen’s rubber ponchos and a military cap which was why I hadn’t noticed her at first, and she crouched beside the fire cooking frijoles in a frying pan.
She saw me looking, poured coffee into a mug and started towards us. Cordona beat her to it, knocked the mug from her hand and sent her back to her place at the fire with a shove.
‘Now there’s a guy I could really learn to hate,’ van Horne commented.
‘The feeling’s mutual. It seems he has a thing about people who pretend to be priests.’
‘I’m breaking my heart,’ van Horne said, and faintly in the distance a cavalry trumpet sounded.
Half a dozen soldiers, a sergeant in the lead, rode out of the rain. ‘These will be the boys he sent on to Tacho’s last night,’ I told van Horne.
We watched the sergeant go forward to make his report. Bonilla glanced towards us a couple of times, then appeared to question the man closely. Finally he called to Cordona to bring us to him.
‘Tell me, Señor Keogh,’ he said. ‘What were you carrying in that truck of yours.’
‘Whisky,’ I said. ‘For delivery to a man called Gomez in Huila. I’ve already told you.’
‘But forgot to mention the rifles.’
‘Rifles?’ I stared at him stupidly. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Martini Henry carbines. Those packing cases in the back of your truck are full of them, or so my sergeant here informs me and he’s usually reliable.’
‘Nice friends you’ve got, Keogh,’ van Horne said bitterly. ‘I’d say that just about puts the lid on things.’
‘Why in the hell should it,’ I demanded angrily. ‘It’s Janos who owns that truck, not me. He only hired me to drive the damned thing.’ I turned to Bonilla. ‘You’ve seen that permit for yourself. It’s Janos you want. Janos and the jefe in Bonito, Captain Ortiz.’
‘All will be taken care of, Mr Keogh, in God’s good time.’ He ran a hand over the back of the Mercedes’ driving seat. ‘This is really a very handsome vehicle.’ He turned to Cordona. ‘Did you know that I could drive an automobile, lieutenant? A minor accomplishment, but rewarding when presented with a machine like this. In fact I have decided to give myself the pleasure of driving back to Huila in it. Detail two men to accompany me. I should like to get started as soon as possible.’
‘And the prisoners, colonel?’
‘Oh, they can walk, I think. The exercise will prove both salutary and beneficial. You should arrive tomorrow afternoon. Report to me when you do.’
He turned away, dismissing us completely and Cordona ordered us back to our original position. We watched the preparation for Bonilla’s departure. Two soldiers clutching their carbines got in the rear seat and when Bonilla pressed the self-starter, the Mercedes rumbled into life for him as easily as it had for van Horne.
We watched him drive away into the rain and I said to van Horne, ‘Well, what do you think?’
‘Think? What in the hell am I supposed to think.’ He glared angrily at me. ‘Be your age, Keogh. You’ve reached the end of the road and you’d better get used to the idea.’
When we broke camp and moved out the girl was put up on the back of one of the pack mules, Cordona’s orders, but van Horne and I walked, each at the end of thirty feet of rope, wrists lashed together.
I say walked, but in fact this meant keeping up with the horses come what may. When they trotted, we trotted too and when they cantered, we ran.
It was a hell of a morning for even after the rain stopped the going was very rough and on occasion both of us fell to be dragged impatiently several yards.
We stopped at noon and again a small fire was lit so that coffee could be heated. Van Horne and I crouched wearily on the ground beside the horses and watched. Everyone had coffee except us. The girl was particularly distressed by this. She glanced towards us constantly and once, filled a mug with coffee and pulled at Cordona’s sleeve, but he shook his head impatiently.
‘That creep has decided to make us suffer, do you know that?’ van Horne said.
‘I was beginning to think it the general idea. If only you’d played at being a Methodist. Maybe he wouldn’t have minded so much.’
For some reason that struck him as being really funny and he laughed out loud which didn’t please Cordona. He glared across angrily, then ordered his men to strike camp.
The afternoon was a repetition of the morning which is to say it was another long agony that seemed as if it would never end. Towards evening it started to rain heavily again and I stumbled along at the rear of the column, cold, wet and utterly wretched, my legs so tired that it was a small miracle each time I took another step.
When we finally made camp in the ruins of an old rancheria in the late evening, I collapsed on the ground and crawled into the shelter of a broken adobe wall the moment the trooper who had been leading me released the rope.
We had covered something like thirty miles and there were another twenty to go. I opened my eyes wearily and found van Horne beside me.
‘I’m getting old, Keogh, that’s what it is.’ His face looked grey and drawn and yet he still managed to smile. ‘You want to know something? I’ve decided I don’t like our friend one little bit.’
Three separate fires were lit, the men scavenging for wood in a nearby thicket and soon I could smell coffee and bacon on the damp air.
After a while the girl appeared, holding a tin mug of coffee in one hand, a pan containing a couple of frijoles in the other. Cordona arrived on the run and kicked the mug from her hand, catching her wrist and really hurting her.
‘I said no food for these two, damn you,’ he said and then hesitated, obviously considerably put out at the sight of the pain in her face.
‘Does that make you feel better, sonny?’ van Horne asked him.
Cordona turned, a fist raised, restraining himself only with the greatest difficulty, then grabbed the girl by the arm and pushed her back towards the fire.
The rain increased and so did our misery as darkness fell. Several of the troopers glanced towards us as we crouched there in the heavy rain. Cordona ignored us. Simply sat at his own small fire chain-smoking and drinking cup after cup of coffee.
Finally the girl Victoria got up very deliberately, picked up two horse blankets and came towards us. She gave one to van Horne, then crouched beside me and spread the other one around both of us. Men glanced furtively at Cordona, then at each other. I could hear the whispering and yet he made no sign, staring straight ahead of him, too proud to provoke an incident.
I was shaking like a leaf, my teeth chattering, but already I was beginning to warm up, the girl’s body pressed against me. When the shaking continued, she pulled my face down into her shoulders and drew the blanket over my head, rocking gently to and fro. I forgot her age then, forgot her background as my eyes started to close in sleep. She was just a woman doing the right thing at the right time and all women, after all, are born old and knowing most things.
It stopped raining during the night and the following day dawned to a sky of cloudless blue, the sun starting its climb early. By mid-morning it was so hot that all moisture had been sucked out of that barren land again and dust rose in a great cloud stirred by the horses’ hooves.
Van Horne and I marched in the thick of it which didn’t make breathing any easier and the heat was unbearable. By the time we were ready for the noonday halt, I was at the end of my tether and beyond. I had fallen so many times that the column had to be halted constantly and even Cordona had raised no objection when I was given water.
I’d existed in my own small world of suffering and had been unaware of how van Horne was managing. When I finally opened my eyes and found him lying beside me at the noonday camp, he seemed in no better case than I was myself.
‘I’ve decided to live, just to spite this guy,’ he croaked faintly. ‘A small victory, but mine own.’
I rolled over on my back, my whole body on fire, and found Victoria kneeling over me with a canteen of water. She looked frightened and yet angry at the same time. I tried a smile, but my lips were cracking and it hurt.
She poured a little water into my mouth, then bathed my face. Cordona walked across from the fire, a mug of coffee in one hand and stood looking down at us.
‘Satisfied?’ van Horne croaked. ‘Or were we supposed to die?’
Cordona turned away and went back to the fire. Yet he still wouldn’t give in. When we resumed the journey, I was carried to one of the mules and my wrists looped over the high wooden pommel of a pack saddle. It meant that I couldn’t fall down any more which was something, but I still had to walk.
Van Horne was undergoing the same treatment a few yards in front of me and this was the manner in which we covered the final miles into Huila, although in my case it was simply a matter of hanging on, for my toes seemed to be trailing most of the time.
I have no clear memory of entering Huila itself, only of surfacing to a bucket of water in the face and finding myself on my back, Cordona leaning over me.
‘All right, Keogh, pull yourself together,’ he said. ‘You’re here.’
A couple of soldiers dragged me to my feet and we started across a courtyard. Van Horne was ahead of me, also supported by two soldiers and we went in through a large oaken door to a smell that said I was back in prison again.
The cell was no better than a sewer which was, I suppose, the intention. Even that wasn’t enough for Cordona and he had them place us in leg-irons before leaving. I was past caring and as the door clanged shut, plunged into blissful, easeful dark.
I must have slept for sixteen or seventeen hours after that. I can remember waking a couple of times to relieve myself and finding van Horne snoring in the corner and on each occasion, plunged into a deep sleep again by the simple expedient of closing my eyes.
When I finally awakened, it was late afternoon of the following day and van Horne was standing by the small, barred window of the cell looking out.
He turned with a smile. ‘How do you feel?’
‘Terrible.’ I put a hand to my belly which felt as if there was a hole in it. ‘Is there anything to eat around here?’
‘You’ll find a pan of slops in the corner with so many maggots in it I lost count. I’m waiting for your girlfriend.’
‘Victoria.’ I got up and groaned involuntarily at the stiffness in my limbs. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘She was here at the window earlier so I slipped her a fifty-peso note I had in my shoe to go and get us a few things.’ He grunted suddenly. ‘Here she comes now.’
I peered through the bars into a small courtyard with a fountain in the centre. There didn’t seem to be anyone about and the gate to the street outside stood open.
Victoria looked up at me, her face grave and anxious. I said softly, ‘You shouldn’t be doing this.’
She smiled and started to pass things through the bars one by one. A bottle of wine, bread, olives, a couple of long sausages and two packets of Artistas and matches.
‘Good appetite, my friends.’ Colonel Bonilla stepped out of the shadows of an archway to the right of us.
‘Don’t take it out on the girl, Bonilla,’ I said as he approached. ‘She was only trying to help.’
She looked up at him anxiously. He patted her on the head and said, ‘On your way, child, and stay out of trouble.’
To my amazement, she smiled for him, fleetingly and yet it was there, and smiled again for me before hurrying away.
Bonilla said, ‘Yes, my friends, it is always wise to eat well when you can for in this life, one can never be certain if one will ever be able to eat again.’
On which pleasant note he left us to eat and disappeared in the shadows of the archway.