It soon became evident why the barn was empty. Small droplets of water began coming down from the roof. The droplets quickly became streams, landing on the dusty floor and making small craters where they pounded onto the dust layer. There were not many leaks, but enough so that any use of the barn for storage would not be wise. Homer had to move his saddle horse and packhorse a few feet to escape the leaks. He watched the balls of dust covered drops sliver here and there as more water fell nearby and disturbed them.
Homer's thoughts wandered to Billy and he wondered what sort of girl the Elias daughter might be to attract Billy enough to put his life in such jeopardy to have a powerful man like Juan Elias angry enough to put out a reward for his capture. His thoughts went to Gus, and he wondered how Gus was doing as a Buffalo Soldier chasing after Apache raiders. After his experience in the military, Homer questioned why a runaway slave would join the army because Homer looked on the military as a life close to slavery since a soldier had to obey all the orders of the officers no matter how stupid those orders might be.
As the rain slackened, Homer poked his head outside again and looked to the sky. The black storm clouds that had been pouring out rain a few minutes before were now sailing northward. He saw a small patch of clear blue sky that peeked out between the clouds. His boots sank slightly as he walked out away from the barn to see if a second storm might be advancing. Seeing a few white thunderheads but mostly blue sky to the south, Homer walked back to his horse, mounted and left the barn leading the packhorse. He returned to the trail that he hoped would lead him eventually to Tubutama.
After the rain everything smelled freshly washed. Rivulets made braided patterns as they descended from atop the hills bordering the river. Homer noticed that the smaller arroyos had running water in their channels. One large arroyo that came from the western hills was still dry and the tracks of cattle and horses remained in the sand. It was not long before he arrived at a crossing over an irrigation ditch that curved around to miss the Saric Plaza. He crossed the ditch and rode into the plaza, looking around at the adobe buildings that formed the plaza's border. They were all single storied dwellings and their walls had not been plastered, therefore showing the erosive powers of rain when it arrived toward the fronts of the houses. Some of the walls had been patched. The house at the far corner had been plastered but that effort looked as if it needed another attempt. There were a few children playing in front of the small church that fronted on the plaza.
Homer did not stop in the village of Saric. He spotted the trail that went south and reined toward it, wondering how long a ride it was to Tubutama. After leaving Saric, the trail curved around a field and again followed the river's winding course. The landscape changed from the almost total rangeland north of Saric to a broader flood plain dotted with small plots of farmland with a few small adobe houses nestled between corrals and animal pens. As Homer rode past some of the houses, dogs ran out to meet him, barking, and then ran back to the shade under the trees around the houses. Homer showed the dogs no notice so that they would retreat on their own. The trail split at one point in order to go around a large rock boulder that looked like it had once been the top of a lava peak. Not far after that Homer rode through another village, smaller than Saric and not big enough for a church. A small roughly made sign told Homer that he was riding through La Reforma. Still he did not stop, and returned to the trail going down along the river.
It was not long after leaving La Reforma that Homer heard a rumbling sound that seemed to come from upstream. He reined in his horse and waited to see what was causing the noise. Suddenly what looked like a wall of water came downstream pushing a pile of brush, tree limbs and balls of uprooted grass. Homer watched the scene until the channel smoothed out, glad that he had not been any nearer to the channel. Then he rode on further anxious to get to Tubutama before darkness set in. Arriving at the point where the river crossed in front of the trail going up the hill to the mesa upon which the town of Tubutama sat, he saw that he could go no further until the stream flow subsided. There was nothing more he could do but wait.
Chapter Fifteen
Rosa Samaniego opened the front door to her small house at the edge of the town of Tubutama. She had wondered who had knocked on her door because most of the children in the town just walked in with hopes of receiving a tasty cookie or an empanada from the woman who was childless yet loved all children in Tubutama. She stepped back into the room when she saw her niece, María, standing with a big smile on her face. Rosa regained her composure and the two embraced, patting one another on their shoulders.
"Diós Mío," Rosa said. "You are all grown up, María. How long has it been?"
"Aye, Tía, too much time."
"Come in. Come in," Rosa said. "And, who is this you have brought with you?"
María and Billy entered the house where María introduced her aunt to Billy, and told her that they wanted to marry. Rosa put her hand over her mouth then dropped it to her side. "I will bet that your father is not happy with you," she said.
"We did not wait to see how he feels, and we really do not care. Tía, you know how my father is. He would have me wait until the King of Spain comes to Rancho Sopori and asks for my hand in marriage."
"I never could understand what my sister had in her mind when she married Juan Elias," Rosa said. "I remember very well when she brought you here to live with me that there was something not right about her and her husband."
"Whatever that was, I am glad I lived here with you. Those were wonderful times for me," María said.
"You and Billy must have things to unpack and horses to take care of," María said. "Why don't you take care of everything and I will heat up the pot of birria that I made yesterday. You must be hungry."
María and Billy brought their meager belongings into the house, and Rosa directed them into the guestroom. "Remember, this is the room where you lived for all those years," Rosa said.
"I remember it well, Tía," she said. "I will show Billy where the corrals are so we can put up the horses."
Billy and María led the horses around to the corrals in the back of the house. They unsaddled them and María found a sack of grain in the small tack shack that had been added to the back of the house before she had been born. She filled a coffee can full of grain and poured it into the feed trough. The horses crowded each other as they went for the grain.
"We can water them down at the river before we go to bed," María said.
"Your aunt seems like a really nice lady," Billy said.
"Yes, Aunt Rosa is almost like a mother to me. My mother told me that when I was young she brought me here to Tubutama to live with my aunt. Neither my mother nor Rosa ever told me the reason for this, but I have thought it might be because of my father's attitude toward women. He has said from time to time that he wanted a son, but after I was born, Mother could not bear any more children. I think my mother was so afraid of my father that she brought me here to live with her sister."
"I am glad that you went back to Rancho Sopori so I could meet you. And, now we have started a life together. It all seems like one of those stories my mother used to read to me when I was a youngster."
Billy and María settled in with Rosa, spending their days getting acquainted with some of the people in the town and also looking around at the surrounding ranches and farms. When María showed Billy the many gold coins she had taken from her father he was amazed at the amount she had, and they talked more and more about finding a ranch where they could raise cattle for a living.
Within a month after their arrival in Tubutama they had gone to Altar and been married in a civil ceremony in spite of Rosa's entreaties for them to choose the old Spanish mission, San Pedro y San Pablo de Tubutama, for a church wedding. Billy became engrossed in looking for a small ranch that they could buy to get involved in the cattle business. He had found that not many families wanted to sell their land holdings because they were not sure if they could ever become landowners again. Mex
ico City was far from Sonora, but the arm of the government had a long reach, and some strange laws that the people accepted in spite of their lack of understanding.
On the day Homer arrived, Billy had been looking north of Tubutama at an old hacienda that had fallen into disrepair. Homer was waiting on the north bank for the river's flooding to subside. Billy was more surprised than Homer when he rode down the trail and found him watching the river and waiting.
"What brings you south of the border, Homer?" Billy asked.
"I came down here to find you, so I guess I accomplished my mission. How long does this river stay flooded like this?"
"It varies," Billy said. "Last week it stayed at flood for half a day."
"It seems to have gone down a little since I arrived, but it is difficult to tell."
"So, how have you been, Homer?"
"I can't complain much. I am keeping busy and that is something to say for my work."
"What kind of work are you doing? I thought you had a job as deputy marshal."
"I guess I didn't see you after I turned in my badge. That Deputy Marshal business is close to being in the army again. That's what you and I ran away from."
"I must have already gone to the Empire Ranch when you quit," Billy said.
"The reason I quit when I did is because the bartender at the Lucky Dollar squealed to the Marshal that I was drinking with you while I was on duty. The Marshal commenced chewing me out. I suddenly felt like he was some sergeant and I was again a private, so I quit. It was shortly after that when I decided to become a bounty hunter."
"How do you like doing that?" Billy asked.
"Being a bounty hunter suits me fine, Billy. I am my own boss. I don't take orders from any man, and I can come and go where I please. If I pick up a dodger and don't think I want to chase that particular fellow down, I leave the dodger on the table and look at others that suit me better."
"Are you chasing somebody down here in Sonora?" Billy asked.
"I suppose I could be, but this is a case in which I choose to hunt and warn rather than hunt and capture. I came to Tubutama to warn you, my friend."
"What about? Did someone say I killed someone?"
"Hell's fire, nothing like that. Your former boss, Juan Elias, has a reward dodger out on you for kidnapping and burglary."
Homer pulled the folded dodger from his pocket, unfolded it and handed it to Billy. "I guess he couldn't find a picture of you, so it just says what he is accusing you of doing."
"That old snake," Billy said, squinting his eyes. "I didn't kidnap his daughter, she came with me. In fact it was pretty much her plan since she didn't like living under her father's strict iron hand. And I didn't burgle a nickel from that skinflint. María took his stack of gold coins so we could make a start down here and not be bothered by the Big Man Elias. Juan Elias doesn't know is that his daughter and I are now married. I'll bet he would birth a bull calf if he knew that piece of news."
"That surprises even me," Homer said. "Congratulations!"
"Thanks. I hope this river goes down soon so you can come with me and meet my wife," Billy said.
"That will be a pleasure I am sure. I did not care for her father when I met him at Rancho Sopori. He is much too domineering a man for my likes. He doesn't know that you and I are friends. All he knows is that I am a bounty hunter. What he thinks will not hurt us as long as he thinks I am chasing you."
"That man is crazy," Billy said. "I am staying here. I don't want anything to do with Juan Elias. I am coming from my latest look at an old hacienda that has pretty much been abandoned except for the irrigated farmland."
"Are you figuring on farming?" Homer asked.
"The old man who owns the place has twenty mares and two Jackasses. He has been raising mules for years. I wish I knew where someone like Gus was. I can skin a team of mules farming or haulin', but I need someone to break the mules to ride and pack. I cowboyed long enough at that Sopori outfit and learned cow work, but a mule is another critter."
"As far as I know Gus is still a Buffalo Soldier, but there might be someone around here who knows mules."
"Probably, but I know Gus knows mules better than anyone I would ever meet."
"Have you decided to buy this hacienda?"
"I am close to it. I need to ride the range country more and figure out how many cattle I can run there."
"I can stay around a little while so I could ride with you, Billy," Homer said.
"That would be great to be together again. Let's figure on tomorrow morning. This river is about down as far as it is goin'."
They started their horses across the flooded river and found the ford shallow enough for crossing. Once on the other side they rode up the hill to the top of the mesa where the town had been for more years than anyone could remember. Billy introduced Homer to María and her aunt. They all sat down to a supper of steak cooked with red chile and frijoles.
Homer told María all about his meeting with her father and how he was determined to find her and Billy. He also told her about her mother giving him directions on how to find Tubutama and where her daughter probably had taken refuge with Billy.
Homer found Billy's new circumstances comfortable, although Rosa Samaniego's house in Tubutama was too small to accommodate Homer. He made a camp outside of the town at the far end of the mesa that lead to the surrounding mountain range. Homer was used to camping while on the trail of wanted men in Arizona Territory. Rosa invited Homer to take his meals in her house.
After supper, Homer and Billy took a stroll around the plaza, taking advantage of the cooling evening after the hot summer heat. They sat on a bench to talk.
"Tell me more about this hacienda you are looking at," Homer said.
"Well, it has farmland that gets irrigation water from the river, and the old man out there says there is about ten thousand hectares of rangeland for cattle. The hacienda runs two hundred head of cows."
"What is a hectare?" Homer asked.
"That spooked me at first, too. A hectare is almost two and a half acres. Rosa told me that. I am finding some differences in Mexico and the United States, and that''s one of them. They measure weights with kilos, or kilograms, instead of pounds and I haven't figured that out yet. But, there's one thing that happens close to the border as we are; lots of people in Sonora use both and understand both systems."
The following morning, the two friends saddled their horses and started for the hacienda on which Billy was close to making an offer. The river had calmed down to its normal channel. They crossed it and rode up the road that led to Saric. Passing through La Reforma they rode another mile until Billy pointed to a road that was more like a trail, overgrown with shrubs and tall bunch grasses. They followed the road and, within a mile, they came to an old adobe house that needed new plaster and some repair on the woodwork around the doors and windows. An old man with a tattered straw hat sat on the porch beneath the sagging roof. He remained in his chair and waved at Homer and Billy.
"That's old man Romero," Billy said. "He's the owner. María came out with me the first time to translate for us. He knows who I am so we can take our time looking around."
"That old man looks as old as the house," Homer said.
"He might be, but the original house is up ahead and it is in complete shambles. There is nothing left except the rock foundation. If I get this place bought, I figure to build a new adobe on the old foundation because from the looks of its condition it will be fine to hold up new walls."
They arrived at a large irrigated pasture that was like a green oasis amidst a surrounding desert. Off to the northeast corner they saw the band of broodmares from which came the annual mule crop. They rode over to inspect them.
"I wish Gus was here to tell me about these mares," Billy said. "Those mule foals look good to me, but I'll bet Gus would have some thoughts about them that I don't even think about."
"I know what you mean," Homer said. "Gus sure knows his mules. I know horses pretty well
. At least I can tell a horse with good confirmation and one that is not worth breaking. Mules are a different story. I think you need to have been raised around mules to become a real mule-man."
"I wonder how I could get in touch with Gus," Billy said. "I would know better about this ranch deal that includes the mares and Jacks along with this year's mule crop. Gus could tell me if it was worth the effort and money."
"I would say you should decide whether or not you want to go into the mule business and then figure out if this place is where you want to operate. I am looking at twenty broodmares so you can probably figure eighteen foals a year, maybe seventeen to be safer in your calculations. How much can you sell the foals for? Then figure how much they would be worth trained to harness and trained to saddle. But, don't forget that the longer you keep them, the more chances there are for them to get sick and die. And, as time goes by, there are more chances to have them stolen from your pasture. Remember, you have to feed them as long as they are yours."
"Golly, when you add all that up it makes me wonder if the mule business is worth going into," Billy said.
"Well, my father taught me that there is more to everything than first meets the eye. Hell's fire, if I had gone by my first view of you in that Johnny Reb uniform, I would probably have either moved on or shot you. Then, I got to know you and we have been friends ever since."
They rode close to the broodmares with their mule foals and reined in their horses to look over the band.
"Those foals look good to me, but I am sure Gus would have some comment to make about their confirmation," Homer said. "I have seen a lot of mules before we came west, but I never paid too much attention to them. I do remember a lot of what Gus said about the mules that pulled those freight wagons."
"I worked a few mules before I joined the Confederate Army, but I never studied them like Gus has," Billy said.
Along the Trail to Freedom Page 11
