The pack train was following the riders. The kid was in charge of the four packhorses for the day. He’d been in high spirits with the outfit.
“I’m going back to herd cows, lady and gentlemen. And I think I am ready.”
“It will be hard for you to adjust,” Gordon said over his shoulder as they rode under the pines.
“It damn sure will. I have had a great time with you, Gordon.”
“Me too.”
Up front, Slocum nodded and twisted in the saddle. “Don’t let your guard down. Gomez still may have leftover people that want to resurrect his power.”
Everyone nodded. They came off the mountain range in a long day’s push and were glad to reach the campground. The small street markets were already closed, so Silva cooked beans and turned up her hands. “Nothing more I can do.”
They laughed and applauded.
The Kid was concerned about a packhorse’s hoof that must have been bruised on the trail. He stood the brown horse in the creek, hoping the cool water might get the swelling and pain down while they ate.
Afterward, Slocum and the Kid went back to check on the horse. When they led him out of the water, he still was gimpy on the leg.
“We may need to replace him tomorrow if we can find another,” Slocum said.
“I ain’t being a baby about things. That horse came from Dan’s. I rode him a lot. Maybe he can make it back and heal. I don’t want to leave him in Mexico.”
“He can make it back, we’ll take him. I understand your feeling for him. We left enough horses at the first camp—maybe we can make it back with this one.”
“Good. That makes me feel better.”
Slocum clapped him on the shoulder. “You did your share, and I’d ride the river with you anytime.”
The Kid dropped his chin. “I guess you know that makes me feel real good. I wondered about this big guy who came to Dan’s and was going to wipe out that outlaw. I am proud I rode with all of you. I won’t forget it.”
“Neither will I.”
They went to bed, Slocum with his sweet companion.
“Are you tired?” she asked.
“Sure. It was a long day. You tired?”
“Not tired enough to miss you stirring me up.”
He kissed her and they made love.
• • •
At dawn they saddled, packed, and rode off. The brown horse carried empty packs and kept up. Slocum felt a little stiff and blank as they rode in the growing heat of the day. They were out of the cooler air, and the dusty, dry sun-heated land stretched for miles ahead.
That night out of habit Slocum asked the men to take turns standing guard. Each man drew a shift, and he went to bed with Silva.
The two of them were talking and savoring the chance to lie down together, skin to skin.
“I think Juan Romales was killed before you came. There was also Pasco. He was another mean bastardo in the Gomez ranks. No one spoke of him, did they?”
“No one up there ever mentioned anyone,” he said.
“Oh,” she said, acting ready to hug and kiss him. “There will always be some more to take their place. Love me.”
Later, Charlie woke him with a hand over his mouth. “We have company.”
Slocum nodded and put his finger to her lips. He moved out from the blanket with his britches up. He had his six-gun in his fist, trying to locate any movement or sounds. Charlie quietly woke the others.
They were soon all awake and armed, keeping low in the starlight. Slocum heard a strange horse and nodded. This horse was communicating with theirs horses—that’s how Slocum knew it was an outsider. Someone coughed beyond the camp. The hair on Slocum’s neck rose when someone ran over the gravel under the hill.
He dried his hand on his pants and recovered the Colt. They were out there. Would they wait till dawn, when they would be able to see their targets? Night insects still chirped. There was hardly a rim of light on the horizon to the east. He could smell the oil on his gun and the burnt smell of spent gunpowder.
Then someone shouted, “Take them!”
Men wearing sombreros emerged in sight, firing pistols like wild men and charging them. A deadly array of shots cut the strangers down, and there was silence, save for the cries of the wounded. A cloud of eye-burning smoke hung in the air. With caution Slocum and his men rose.
“None of us are hurt,” Gordon said.
“Good,” Slocum said. “Disarm them. Make sure they are comfortable. When it is settled, send someone for medical aid. Silva will make a meal and we will ride. How many men were out there?” he asked Charlie.
“A dozen maybe.”
“I thought so. It’s over, Silva,” he said to her.
She came out from under the covers—dressed. “Good, I never heard so many shots around me in my life.”
“Charlie, we need to learn the leader’s name too.”
“We can do that.”
“Our horses are all here and fine,” the Kid reported. “We can take theirs with us. The good ones, I mean.”
“Good idea,” Slocum said and smiled. The Kid had really grown up.
Charlie returned as Slocum helped stoke Silva’s cooking fires.
“The man who hired them was called Pasco.”
Silva exchanged a look of I-told-you-so with Slocum. They continued to work on the food preparation. When it was done, Gordon and Ken arrived to dump armloads of weapons on the ground. Silva served them tortillas wrapped around a sugary dry apple/raisin combination that they smiled over.
The Kid held his up. “Bandits raid us and she still comes through with desert. Hurrah for Silva.”
They agreed.
“How about the raiders?” Slocum asked Charlie.
“Five are dead.”
Ken nodded. “A few more will die, and some will survive with medical care.”
“Where did Pasco go?”
“He rode away, they said.”
“Did anyone see him to know his face?”
“I saw his horse,” Charlie said. “He was a big black stallion.”
“Beware of the dark horse,” Slocum said. Damn—cut the head off one snake, and another slithers out.
• • •
Packhorses were loaded and saddled, and they rode out, herding the rest and not looking back. This could be their last day on the road. Slocum planned to go to the casa site and search for any overlooked treasure. In late afternoon they arrived at the burned-out shell of the place, and the fire smell was still there.
“There is a safe no one has opened down here,” Ken said, leading the way. “It has been beat to death and not opened.”
“Reckon anything is left in it?” Slocum asked.
“I don’t know much about safes. They tried to blow it up. They beat it to death with axes and sledgehammers.” Ken stood, pushed his hat back on his head, and looked awfully skeptical.
“We can tie some blasting sticks on the hinges and blow them up,” Slocum said.
“Wait, wait,” the Kid hollered, running over. “Anyone listened to the dial?”
“I don’t think you can turn it,” Slocum said.
On his knees, the Kid studied the battered remains of a dial. His ear to the side, he listened for any sound.
“It still turns.”
“You hear anything?” Ken asked
“Maybe a click. I’m going back.”
Some bird went to making a yakking sound. The kid was trying to get his ear closer to hear the works inside. He said, “Shoot that bird.”
Slocum looked around for it. No one could see the bird.
Everyone squatted around the Kid as he fidgeted with the dial. Time went by, and he kept trying to figure the right dial turns by clicks. The temperature rose, and someone went for water.
Slocum stepped up. “Have you tried to open it?”
“The handle is broke off.”
“There is a hole in that knob on the left. Let’s find an iron rod to go in there and try to open it.”
Ken and Gordon got to their feet. The Kid kept listening and twisting.
In the fire’s ashes, Ken found a rod about the size of the hole.
The Kid stood up, took the rod, inserted it, and first it bent on him, but then it began to twist. He gave up and almost smiled. “Now it is so messed up, it’ll never open.”
He kicked the door with his heel in anger, and the door fell off. His reward was all the tarnished coins that spilled out. Not ten or twenty, but a wealth of them.
“How much is there?” Ken asked, looking at the shifting coins.
“The canvas sacks burned up in there, and so did the folding money.” Slocum straightened up. “Thanks, Kid, but I’d say all us working together opened it, so everyone get a canvas bucket and we will divide it. As they say, ‘To the victor go the spoils.’
“Silva, you as a shareholder get a bucket,” he told her as she stood frozen in place, in shock over the amount of money before them.
“Here’s you a bucket.” The Kid handed her one.
“Where did all the buckets come from?” she asked.
Gordon shook his head. “They were in an out building.”
Charlie was putting handfuls of all denominations in the buckets. The Kid went in and helped him spread the wealth. In the end there were five buckets near full of an array of coins.
“Where’s your pail?” Gordon asked Slocum.
“She gets mine.”
The Kid scoffed. “That ain’t fair.”
“It suits me. Now we need to sew canvas bags to carry it back home.”
“Hell, it would take packhorses to carry it,” the Kid said.
“It will. Maybe two. But we have plenty of horses,” Slocum reminded him. “Let’s put our find in our camp. Two men to guard it. The rest of us will see if we can find this outlaw Pasco.”
“How bad can he be?” Gordon asked.
“He won’t surrender to us. But if he’s around someplace, we can get him,” Slocum said. “Let’s go find him.”
“Where do we look for him?”
“Try the cantinas. Someone will know. Who guards the money?”
Ken said he and the Kid would watch it. The others nodded in agreement.
“You know, if he comes around and knows you have it, there will be hell to pay,” Slocum said.
“We’ll be ready,” Ken said.
The other two rode out, leaving Silva with Slocum. He needed to take her back to her village, and he hated to part with her. They first needed to find this outlaw.
Charlie spotted Pasco’s black horse at a hitch rack. Salt coated his legs and chest; the devil must have run him for miles.
“That’s his horse,” Charlie said. “You won’t miss him. He’s a big guy. I’ll guard the back door.”
Slocum agreed. He dismounted and went alongside the deep-breathing black and loosened the cinch. With another look around, he headed through the batwing doors.
After a second to let his eyes adjust to the darker room, he went to the bar and ordered a bottle of mescal with two glasses. He hadn’t seen the big man. But several were off to the side under a lamp, no doubt gambling. Gordon joined him at the bar. Slocum poured them out some mescal in the glasses.
“It is three dollars for the bottle, señor,” the bartender said.
“Sure, we buy them all the time. You know a bandit son of a bitch named Pasco?” He slapped the money on the bar.
“I think we found him,” Gordon said with his hand on his gun.
Some cardplayer fell over backward to clear the line of sight from Slocum to the man under the sombrero fixing to get out of his chair.
“Who the hell are you?” the Mexican asked.
“Did you send a half dozen men to raid my camp?”
“So I did. What are you going to do about it?”
“Get your hand away from that gun butt or you will be where we sent those dumb peons you sent to kill me and my compadres.”
“Who are you?”
“Slocum’s my name, Pasco. He’s Gordon. Now we’ve met you, put your hands in the air.”
“What will you do with me?”
“Parade you up and down the street and ask women if you raped them or their daughters.”
“You can’t do that to me.”
“Why not?”
“They would kill me.”
“That’s the idea. Your reign of terror is over. Stand easy. Gordon, get his gun. Hands a little higher. That’s good.”
Gordon disarmed him and shoved him toward the door. “You’re lucky. We kill birds like you. This way you can tell them in hell you faced a mob to get there.”
They shoved him outside the cantina in the bright daylight. Slocum fired two shots in the air to get people’s attention.
In Spanish, Gordon invited them all to come over there. Folks ran to hear what he would say and who the big man was standing up there like their prisoner.
“This is the outlaw Pasco. Five days ago, my posse killed his boss, Raul Gomez, in the Madres. He is gone. His men were killed in the barracks explosions. One last thread of that man is here. They raped and robbed all you people. He was the man in charge. Should we turn him lose to screw your wives and steal the little money you have, or will you all be men and put him in a grave where he deserves to be?”
“In the grave!” they began to shout.
“Do you need a pistol?”
“No,” a woman said. “We have guns. Can we have his gun?”
“Sure.” Gordon hoisted it out of his waistband and gave it to her.
Two-handed, she cocked the hammer and raised the pistol to shoot the outlaw.
“Do you remember me?”
He shook his head.
“You ruined my life back then. Today is my day. I am going to ruin yours.”
The gun roared. Pasco grabbed his chest. She shot again. He was sprawled on his back pleading.
“I cried and you never stopped.”
She shot him in the face, and then her two-handed grip on the gun failed and she dropped to her knees, crying and praying, “Father, forgive me for I have sinned. Hail Mary—”
Other women came to hug and comfort her.
Slocum waved his arm to get their attention. “Remember this day, amigos. A woman has shown she can kill a coward and a bully.”
Charlie had joined them. He nodded to Slocum, and they rode back to camp.
Silva came out to meet them.
“You all look so glum. What is wrong?”
“Nothing,” Slocum said. “I bought some canvas, large needles, and heavy thread to make coin sacks. Silva, show them how to make them.”
“Where is Pasco?” she asked.
“He’s dead. The reign of Gomez is over.”
Dismounted, he stood by his horse. She handed the canvas and items to Gordon. “Hold these,” she said.
Then she ran around and hugged Slocum. “Why are you so sad? Those bastards you came for are all dead. You found every one of us lots of money. What is wrong?”
He kissed her cheek and whispered, “And now I must lose you.”
“Not till in the morning.”
“Good.”
• • •
They went off the next day, and she rode one of the spare horses.
When they arrived at the well in the village, Silva’s sister was doing wash and ran over with her wet dress showing her boobs and navel through the wet material. The two women hugged and danced. Slocum dismounted.
“You met my sister,” Silva said. “Like I said, she’s been taking care of things here. You kiss her good for me.”
Her sister was not as slender as Silva, but she had a nice body and they kissed long.
In a low voice, he asked Silva if her sister knew about the reward. She wrinkled her nose. “Kiss him again,” she said to her sister, “and I will tell you why later.”
So her sister did, and then Slocum mounted up and rode away on his pacing horse to catch the others headed home. In Nogales they sold their extra horses and he gave the money to the four men, who tried to give him some of it.
He refused it, and they went on to Dan’s place and had a party.
Slocum learned that the Apache scare was over when he and Dan talked.
“What do I owe you and your men?” Dan asked.
“Me you owe two fifty, the men a hundred apiece, and that will square the three of us. Your men as well as mine have some money they recovered. But they earned that. Gomez is no more, and his gang are sprouting weeds.”
“Oh, I owe you more than two hundred fifty.”
“That’s all I need.”
“I’ll get the money out of the safe and pay you three. But my cook will expect you to entertain her.”
They both laughed.
“I can do that,” Slocum said. “I’m in no hurry. Though I think Gordon and Charlie want to go on home.”
“I’ll get that money.”
Slocum gathered the crew. “Dan’s gone for your money. He’s paying you two a hundred apiece and I will get two fifty.”
“You should get a thousand,” the Kid said.
“No, all I need are some expenses. I want to tell you how much I appreciate all four of you. Silva is back home, and we know she is rich by her standards. She will be fine. All those bastards are dead. We can ride on and live our lives.”
“I ain’t the speaker for everyone, but I won’t ever forget it,” the Kid said. “You ever need me, I want to go with you.”
“The same here,” Ken said.
“I live in St. David,” Gordon told them all. “You are welcome at my house.”
Charlie Horse stood and shrugged. “I used to live in a wickiup, but we will have a jacal after this and a garden. Come stay with me.”
“And any of you need anything, come see me,” Dan said, handing out the money to them.
Slocum kissed Goldie good-bye and promised to return. She threatened him with her finger and said, “You better.”
Then he hopped on the pacing horse that Dan had given him and headed for Patagonia.
• • •
There was a note for him at the hotel desk.
Dear Slocum,
I have gone back to my schoolhouse. They sent a driver for me. I am somewhat lost without you, but I understand. Our affair has given me more backbone. After the school session I may go back to Kansas and live my life up there. I know now I can be a real woman, and you gave me the strength to see that.
God bless you.
Sandy
Slocum looked at the letter and nodded.
“Anything I can do for you, sir?” the desk clerk asked. “She was a very lovely lady.”
“She was that. You hit the nail on the head.”
• • •
Slocum turned and left the hotel. Sandy didn’t need him anymore. She’d find her way all right without him meddling in her life. He felt stiff and numb from the Mexican expedition. What he needed was a place to put up his boots and get settled back.
A woman with her face full of tears came across the street to meet him. “Wait. Wait.”
“What can I do for you?”
She sniffed, and tears ran down her face. “They killed him. You knew Earl Reed my husband.”
“Yes. You have a ranch up in the Mule Shoe Mountains. I knew Earl. Who killed him?”
“I don’t know. He’s dead. They said they buried him. I am stuck here and I have two small children. I don’t know what I can do. I saw you, and you are the first person that I even knew in days. I am about to collapse.”
He hugged her. “Why can’t you go back?”
“One of my horses died of colic after we got here.” She turned up her hands. “I have no money. There was some money at the ranch. Earl said he had to stay there and protect it.”
“You had any food lately?”
“No.”
“Get those two kids and let’s go eat.”
She looked taken back. “I am not begging.”
“I am. Let’s go to lunch, I need some. Where are they?”
“I’ll get them. I can repay you—”
“Quit worrying. You need to eat.”
She took him across the street to their wagon, and two small children there acted bashful.
“This is Harry, he’s five. He’s my big man.”
Slocum kneeled down and spoke to him. “Harry, you doing all right?”
He nodded, rather reserved. “You made Mother stop crying, didn’t you?”
“I tried.” Harry ran over and hugged him.
His three-year-old sister, Lena, came behind him, not to be left out. One in each arm Slocum carried them across the street.
They had lunch in the café, and the kids were friendly to him.
Slocum said, “I have some friends at St. David who will care for them. Then we can go see about things at the ranch.”
“I don’t want to be a burden to you. I’m just—”
“We’re going to get it all straight. I’ll find a horse to match your other one. Then we can park the kids, go up there, and straighten things out. I have nothing else I need to do right now, so I am your helper.”
“My savior. Thank you. I have been at a loss to do anything.”
“No, I’m just a friend. Your name is?”
“Jena. I am sorry. I was so upset I have considered some crazy things to get out of here.”
“Slocum is mine.”
She nodded. “I have lost some of my senses. I knew your name when I saw you.”
“Let’s take the children up to my friends Gordon and Alma Morales at St. David. They have no children and will treat them well. Then we can go down and see about your ranch.”
“But I have no horse.”
“That is going to be cured in an hour. I’m going to hire some teenage boys to help you load it. By dark or tomorrow we will be up at St. David.”
He paid for their lunch and told Jena to go back to the wagon and start loading.
“I’ll try,” she said, shaking her head.
“Work those boys I send you.”
She agreed, and he kissed Lena as he set her down. “Harry, you help her too. I’ll be back.”
He found two boys loafing around at the livery. “There is a wagon up on Main Street needs two loaders. Mrs. Reed wants to go home. I’ll pay you a dollar apiece to go help her do that. Her name is Jena Reed.”
After sending them to help her, he found a decent team and harness and bought them for a hundred dollars. He drove them down to Jena’s wagon.
Her face was flushed, but she and the boys about had the wagon loaded. “We’re near ready.”
He handed her a towel to wipe her wet face. “You were working too hard. Get up on the wagon. You must try this team and see if you can handle them. I’ll hand you the kids.”
“Are you hooking them up?”
“No. The boys can hook them up.”
They were soon ready, with everyone on board, including the calico cat named Susie.
Slocum stood in the front of the covered wagon, and the boys brought him the lines. Quietly, he spoke to the horses. They danced a little, but he clucked to them and they went forward slow-like, feeling the load. Then he swung them around and they acted fine. He halted them and gave Jena the reins.
He climbed down. “Jena, drive them out. I’ll ride my horse and lead your extra one.”
She agreed and took the reins. He quickly decided she could drive the team. There was lots of tomboy in her. That evening they made camp short of St. David because of the darkness. The tired children in a bedroll, the two adults sat cross-legged on the ground at the small fire and talked.
“I am in your debt, Slocum. I was so desperate without a horse and trapped there. I know he’s dead, but how and why I may never know.”
“Did they say anything?”
“Yes. ‘Mrs. Reed, we buried your husband two days ago.’ He was a polite cowboy, but I didn’t get his name. I had seen him before, but I couldn’t recall the name.”
“Nothing we can do about it now. Gordon and Alma can babysit the kids until we make some sense of this. They are fine people.”
“That might be best.”
“It will be.”
“Can I impose on you some more?”
“How so?”
“Could I sit on your lap?”
“Heavens yes.”
“I feel so shaky, my skin is crawling.”
He went and found a chair in the wagon and set it up. She used her hands to brush off any clinging grass or sticks on her rump. She was light on his legs and he hugged her tight. “We’ll get it all straight.”
Her shoulders shook and he hugged her tight. She turned and he softly kissed her. That was a spark, and they soon were getting worked up.
He whispered, “I am not here to take advantage of you.”
“No. No. I need it. Can we go to your bedroll?”
“Only if you are sure.”
“I’m not sure of much, but I am spoiled. Earl and I had a great marriage. I know he is gone but—”
His mouth closed on hers and she hugged his neck. He carried her to the bedroll, and they undressed under the stars. He went easy, letting her lead, and by the time they were coupled she was on fire. A wiry, muscled, slender woman, she had a fiery spirit in sex, and in the end she near fainted.
They slept until before dawn, then had a short session before leaving the bedroll. When they finished, she swept the hair from her face and smiled. “I’m better.”
• • •
When they drove in, Alma met them in the yard and had to pick up both children when she learned their purpose. The children had Alma stop for Susie to follow them. In a few hours, Jena was satisfied Harry and Lena could stay there and be happy. After lunch, when Gordon came in and met everyone, he was as proud as Alma at having the children in their care.
Slocum and Jena left for her place. They passed through bustling Tombstone and by sundown reached her ranch. She found the front door of the house broken down. The inside was a mess of scattered flour and rampaging. With a candle lamp she surveyed the damage while Slocum put up the horses. He saw the grave they’d marked with a crude cross. There would be few answers for her questions about what happened. Would she stay there? There were not many choices for a woman with two children. Slocum left the four horses in a trap with water and went to the house.
“Oh, you must be hungry,” she said. “I don’t see much that can’t be cleaned up and fixed. They didn’t burn the place down. I don’t know if I am lucky or what.”
“Can I make a fire?”
“Yes, when the weather was like this, I cooked in that open building.”
“What do you think?”
“I have some oatmeal I can boil.”
“That sounds all right.”
“Slocum, should I sell this place or try to find a few hands and run it?”
He held her around the waist and swung her back and forth as the fire in the sheet-metal cooking range began to catch. “If you think you can stand it, I’d ranch. We can find a couple of cowboys, and you have cows and calves to sell. The beef market at Tombstone will help you. The army will have to settle the Apaches. But you have no trade like being a seamstress, and you don’t want to cook for a café. This ranch should raise your children.”
“Let me put the water on for the oatmeal.”
They sat together on a bench by the range and talked more about her future. They kissed and she smiled. “I am getting myself back in gear. I miss him and will, but I need to get my life on too. You said I was not a seamstress. That is not an exaggeration. Don’t rip your clothes, I can’t fix them.”
They kissed as the sun went down. In a short while they ate her oatmeal and he went for his bedroll. “We can sleep in it.”
“Sounds lovely.”
He spread it out on the floor inside. They undressed and, naked, went under the first cover. They were soon in each other’s arms, and she cried some.
“It’s not you. I had such a serious life. A great husband, two children, and a growing ranch. My house was nice and not white with flour and turned upside down.” She sniffed. “Love me and maybe I can forget.”
They made soft, quiet love in his bedroll, and when they were through, she whispered, “You are a wonderful treatment for an insane woman.”
“You’re great to treat.”
• • •
The next day he caught two horses and saddled one for her. They rode part of the range looking at her longhorn-shorthorn cross cows and their roan calves. They found a few of their shorthorn bulls that stood up and stretched their backs, while the spookier longhorn cross cows and calves left when they rode in.
“You have some great cattle,” he said to her.
“Earl was a good cattleman.”
“I think you can hire some men and make this ranch business work.”
“Could you stay for a while and get things settled here?”
“Sure. But you never know when I may have to leave.”
“I knew you have troubles from your past. But I want this place set up so I can operate it.”
“We will need a bunkhouse built for your crew. I can go down on the border and get a building crew. Do you have any money?”
“No. Earl handled all that. They never mentioned finding any money on him. Surely they would not have buried it with him.”
“He keep it somewhere?”
“In a coffee can. I never saw it in that messy house.”
“Let’s ride back and look for it.”
Back at the ranch they searched the house for the can. It was nowhere in sight. They sat down and shook their heads. It was gone.
“In his last hours, knowing his fate, he may have hid it.”
“Where?”
“Jena, I don’t know this ranch like you do.”
“Let’s search the saddle shed. Why didn’t they burn the buildings?”
“I don’t know. They burned most of these places they raided.”
“There is no sign they even tried.”
They found cans of horseshoe nails and bits, harness hardware, and some saddle pads, plus three saddles untouched by the raiders. There was no coffee can with money in it.
Outside, Jena leaned with her butt to the wall, and Slocum squatted on the ground. “No money anywhere.”
“No, but why they didn’t take all this or scatter it is beyond me.”
“Would you know the man who told you they buried him?”
“I think I have seen him before. I would know him if I saw him again.”
“We need more information on Earl’s death. He is the only man who knows how he was killed.”
• • •
The next day they started checking on other ranchers in the area. At the Jeb Douglas Ranch, Jeb told them how he learned about Earl’s death.
Jeb said, “Shorty Branch told me at the cantina that they found him facedown. Never said much else. We speculated it was the Apaches done it.”
“Who else spoke about it?” Slocum asked him.
“Why’re you digging this up?”
“She and I don’t think Apaches killed him. But we never saw his wounds. They never stole anything but money. Just scattered flour all over hell.”
Jeb scratched his ear hard. “Why do that?”
“Someone wanted his ranch bad enough to kill him?”
“By God, you think he was murdered for his ranch?”
“I don’t think anything. I just want questions answered. Her husband is dead. The killers never stole his horses. They were in the trap. Does that sound like Apaches?”
“By God no.”
“Someone did steal the coffee can that had our money in it,” Jena added.
Jeb frowned. “You going over and see if Behan will come arrest him?”
“We don’t have any proof who it is. Besides, Behan hardly gets out of Tombstone.”
“I know that, but damn, it does sound funny blaming Apaches when they more than likely didn’t do it.”
“We’ve got more checking to do.” Slocum made a head toss toward their horses.
“Keep you ears open, Jeb,” Jena said. “Thanks.”
“I will, Jena. I sure will.”
They talked to two more small ranchers and didn’t get back until after dark. When they dropped off their horses at the saddle shed, Slocum slipped around and cut Jena off from speaking with his hand over her mouth.
In her ear, he whispered, “Company.”
Her eyes grew wide, and he pointed for her to stay there between the two horses. Grasshoppers were chirping in the night, along with crickets. He tried to make soft steps as he headed for the house. No one in sight, but a strange horse nicker had alerted him that there was someone there.
At the door, he stood aside, pulled the latch string, and the door fell open inward. Three shots from inside broke the night’s silence. Then someone went to coughing on the gun smoke and staggered to the door all bent over. Slocum coldcocked him with his pistol butt.
He grunted and that was cut short.
“You all right?” Jena asked, sounding shaken.
“I’m fine, Jena. You can come now.” He bent over and disarmed the intruder of a knife and his gun. “Light a lamp and we’ll see if you know him.”
The man was groggy when Slocum jerked him up by the collar and hauled him inside the cabin. “What’s your name?”
The man didn’t answer.
Jena lighted a candle lamp. “I never saw him before. He’s Mexican.”
“Get some rope. He’ll talk to us in a short while. His memory will get better.”
“I have some,” she said and went to a trunk for it.
Slocum bound the Mexican’s hands behind his back and the back of the chair, then tied his ankles to the chair legs.
“Tell us your name?”
Stone-faced, he never said a word.
“Heat some water,” Slocum told Jena. “He’ll find his tongue.”
“I’ll make us some supper too.”
“Good.”
“He would have shot us when you opened the door, wouldn’t he?”
“He’s a sorry hired pistolero. I heard a strange horse nicker at ours when we rode up. He wasn’t in the trap, so there had to be someone here. I just stumbled on the notion that he was inside.”
“Did he kill Earl?”
“He will talk in a little while.”
“How are you so sure? He’s like a cigar store Indian sitting here.”
“When we pour boiling water down his throat, he’ll talk.”
“You savvy boiling water?” She had stuck in his face a large knife to slice off salt pork.
“I did nothing.”
“No, you just tried to shoot him.” She put the edge of the knife on the tip of his nose. “Did you shoot my husband?”
“No.”
“Who hired you?”
He shook his head. “No one.”
“You better tell me.”
His arms folded on his chest, Slocum said, “I bet the horse he rode in on has a brand on him.”
The man closed his eyes and shook his head in defeat. “Sherman Riddle.”
“Sherman? You must be lying. He owns the wagon wheel brand.”
“He hired me.”
She stopped and squeezed her chin. “Come to think of it, that same cowboy who told me that they had buried Earl, I saw him at roundup. Never thought no more about that. I knew his face was familiar, but I was so wrought-up over the news I must have lost my mind and forgot it all.”
“Be calm, Jena. I want you to go in the morning and gather folks that we talked to today. Tell them to get some more honest people, and we will take José here and call Riddle out.”
She shook her head. “There isn’t any law here to do this?”
“I wouldn’t trust them. I don’t know Riddle, but I bet he’d hire a fancy lawyer and get away with it.”
“Then by God I’ll do it. Let’s eat. We’ll have plenty to do then.”
She hurried about making supper. When it was done, they sat down and ate. They had some biscuits and gravy left, with some fried potatoes. Slocum untied the man, set his pistol on the table, and told him to eat fast. After the meal, he took him to the saddle shed, tied him up good, and tossed him a saddle pad for a blanket.
“I will freeze.”
“Naw, you’ll be fine,” Slocum said, and going out, he locked the door with a padlock Jena had given him.
In bed, she was shaking in his arms. “Why did he want this ranch? I never trusted or liked the way he looked at me from time to time. Earl said he didn’t know any better than that. But to have shot Earl and then buried him like the Apaches did it is bad.”
Slocum kissed her hard and raised her nightgown.
“Oh hell. I don’t need to wear anything in bed with you. It will get in our way, huh?”
“Sure will.”
She sat up and shed the nightgown. “Now let’s get to serious things.” And she kissed him, lying on her side facing him.
“Good. I am glad that is settled,” he said and pulled the covers up. Even with his own heater and her body, it felt like it might really be real cold overnight. Their coupling made it feel warmer.
• • •
Before dawn Slocum saddled her horse, and gave her the small derringer that Dan had given him. She knew how to use it.
“Just be careful,” he said and clapped her on the butt before boosting her onto the horse.
In the saddle, she said, “They may send him reinforcements.”
“I’ll be ready.”
She galloped off.
Having taken his prisoner out of the shed and led him up to the outside kitchen, Slocum fed him and then asked him more questions.
“How much did he pay you to kill her?”
“A hundred pesos.”
“He know that I was here?”
“He knew someone came back with her.”
“They got someone watching me now?”
The man shrugged.
Slocum tied him back up in a chair, then went to heat water and separate frijoles from sticks and rocks on the tabletop. He found some onions to chop up, fry, and add later. Then he chunked up some bacon, small fried it, and tossed it in with the beans. They’d have plenty to eat. If she didn’t get back soon enough, he’d make some biscuits in her Dutch oven.
• • •
Mid-afternoon, the neighbor men started to arrive. Those who didn’t know Slocum shook his hand and then acted grim about having heard Jena’s story, but they’d come to help settle the matter.
“That’s the worst thing I ever heard. What’s Riddle thinking, hiring this worthless pile of shit here to kill you and Jena?” one of the men said.
“He wants her ranch, and cheap,” Slocum replied. “Jena needs this ranch to raise her kids. I hope you will all help her.”
“We damn sure will,” the man said. “She said you couldn’t stay?”
“She’s right, but I want this matter settled before I ride out.”
“We can settle it in short order. The rest get here, we’ll do like the Texas Rangers do and ride in on him in the early morning. Your beans sure smell good.”
“Get a bowl. I made a big batch.”
He didn’t need to say more; the heavily armed outfit of older and younger men went to eating. Next he set into making sourdough biscuits and visiting with various men that came by and joined them.
Jena was back by mid-afternoon. She jumped off her horse, saying hi to everyone. One of the men took the horse and put it up for her. She stirred Slocum’s beans with a paddle in the big pot and nodded her approval of his cooking venture. “You’re doing great.”
“You did good too,” he said and made a wave at all the men already there.
She agreed with a little show of pride. “Lots more coming.”
“These men would be enough, but the more there are, the better it will be.”
“They told me we should ride up at dawn and confront him.”
“Sounds all right to me.”
There were twenty-five men and older boys eating his beans and biscuits for supper. Afterward they spread bedrolls on the ground. A few had a bottle or two they shared, but it was quiet after sundown. Slocum and Jena retired to the house, and in bed they snuggled and enjoyed themselves.
“You have spoiled me,” she said and stretched slowly with her arms over her head, lying beside him.
“You’ll get over it.”
In the room’s dim light, he saw her shake her head.
Then she said, “I borrowed enough flour and sugar from Jeb to make pancakes and syrup in the morning.”
“We’ll feed them all right. Wake me when you get up.”
She agreed and crowded close to his back to hug him tight, and they slept. They rose in the night and made coffee and pancakes. Several of the men came over to help them. Others went to saddle their horses. By four A.M., they were ready to ride, with two hours to get to Riddle’s ranch.
• • •
The posse rode in quiet with their prisoner, who had been silent despite the questions shot at him. Armed with rifles, they surrounded the house and Slocum said aloud, “Riddle, get out here. You resist, we’ll shoot you down!”
“What the hell do you want?” He appeared half-dressed in the doorway.
“Who else is in there?” Slocum said.
“Jimmy, get out here. There’s a hundred crazy people out here.”
A tall, younger man came out without a shirt. Jena nodded at Slocum. “He’s the one told me.”
Slocum booted his horse up closer. “We have your man with us.”
“‘With us,’ what the hell does that mean?” Riddle demanded.
“He said you shot Earl.”
“How does he know? He wasn’t there.”
“But you and Jimmy were.”
Riddle turned white over his words. “We . . . found . . . him dead. Apaches killed him.” He looked at Jimmy. “Tell them.
“It wasn’t my idea, I swear. He shot him, and he told me what I had to do.”
A voice from the posse spoke out. “I say hang the whole damn lot of them.”
That was word enough, and men rushed in to tie up both of them. “Get that Mexican! We’re cleaning up this deal. Where we going to hang them?”
Slocum quieted them down. “We have witnesses,” he said. “We can take them to the law. Let’s vote.”
Arms shot up. “Hang them!”
“Then do it right. Tie nooses and everyone here is sworn to secrecy. There will be questions.”
“We need to bury their bodies and burn the nooses,” one of the ranchers said.
“Good idea!” called another.
“I want to thank you for serving this cause,” Slocum told them all. “I am taking Jena back to her ranch.”
Men came and shook his hand, and then the two of them rode off. They were well away from the scene when they began to talk. He said, “There is never enough in vengeance to repair the damage done to you.”
She agreed. “But now I can go get my children and start my life over.”
“Yes, my friends may not want to let them go.”
She laughed. “Before we go over there, will you spend a few days with me and we can check the ranch cattle?”
“I am in no rush.”
“I am selfish.”
“I understand. It has been trying.”
• • •
They spent the next two days on a honeymoon and then went after the children. In Tombstone slocum bought an Epitaph to read the headline story.
AREA RANCHER IN A GRAVE?
Investigations continued when three fresh graves were discovered on a ranch in the Mule Shoe Mountain district. Sherman Riddle and Jimmy Nolan his ranch hand are all suspected to be buried up there, with a third person unknown. Sheriff John Behan calls it an ongoing investigation and says his men are questioning everyone. If you have any information on their disappearance, contact the sheriff’s office.
“I guess they did it right.” Slocum rolled up the paper and stuck it in his saddlebags.
“Where will you go next?” she asked.
“Oh, somewhere.”
“Don’t you ever get tired of moving around?”
“I am still alive.”
“I know, but I’ll be glad to be back to the ranch with my kids. I’ll hire a couple of neighborhood boys to look after the cattle for me.”
“You have any money?”
She shook her head. “I can borrow some till I sell some cattle.”
He felt in his saddlebags and lifted out the heavy pouch of gold he’d taken off the prospector what seemed now so long ago. “Man that found this was killed by Apaches. He’d want you to have it. Enough in there to tide you over till you can make it.”
She frowned and pulled the drawstring open. “This is all gold.”
“No rocks either,” he said, teasing her.
“How can I repay this?”
“No repayment. It is for you and the kids.”
She began to cry.
He rode in close and hugged her shoulder. “Jena, the giver was killed by Apaches. He’d have wanted you and those kids to have a new start.”
• • •
In late afternoon they reached the outskirts of the Mormon community. When they got in sight of the Morales farm, she said, “Oh no, that is Harry riding a pony.”
He came out of the yard on his Shetland and waved at her. “Mom, Mom, look what they got me.”
“I see it, Harry. I see it. I hope you are ready to go home?”
Alma was carrying Lena and came to meet them. Gordon got up from watching the boy ride the pony.
They had lots to talk about. Then the three females went inside, and Harry rode his pony around the yard.
“I got some information,” Gordon began. “Two strangers were in St. David this week asking if you were around here.”
“Thanks. I have one more mission. Will you be sure they get home all right?”
“I’ll drive her wagon up there. She need anything?”
“No. She’s fine. Her neighbor shot him, not the Apaches. But that’s been handled. I’ll see you again. You can tell her I had to leave.”
“I understand.”
• • •
He made the ride to her schoolhouse going across country. When he stopped and surveyed the country short of the whitewashed building, he hoped she had not left the school. There was no sign in the yucca-and-century-plant cover of anyone being around.
At the open door he dismounted, and hat off, he swept his hair back.
“Slocum, you’re here,” she said and came hurrying from the front of the empty classroom.
They kissed, and he herded her inside. His back against the wall inside, they kissed some more.
“There were two men here asking me about you a few days ago. I said you were down in Mexico.”
He smiled down at her. “I heard about them. After this school session is over, you are going back to Kansas?”
“Yes, I think I can hold my head up there, and my father can use me.”
“You will find a real man. You are too much woman not to find a real one.”
She looked around, chewing on her lower lip. “I wish we had time and a place—”
“Thanks. You’re a sweet woman. I am on my way out of here.” Her faint perfume in his nose, he rocked her in his arms and savored her glorious body.
“God be with you, big man. I will pray for you.”
They went outside, and he kissed her on the cheek. Then, before he stepped into the stirrup, from her pocket she took a new gray silk neckerchief and tied it around his neck. She waved good-bye as he rode off.
He rode long into the night. No woman to share his bedroll that evening. He studied the North Star and Big Dipper. There were times when it became inconvenient for him to remain in the same spot. Damn shame.