"He is such a handsome baby," Leticia said. "I am so glad I came down here even though your father doesn't know how to be nice to people. I am glad that Gus was there to stop him from doing something really bad."
"I was surprised at how Gus sprang to Billy's aid. He has always been so gentle with people, just as he is around mules."
"I wonder when your father will wake up."
"I really don't care. Homer and Gus will be here in case he hasn't learned his lesson."
"Do you have a spare room for me, dear daughter?"
"Yes, Momma, there is a spare room next to ours."
"I think I will go out to the buggy and get my things. There is something there that I want to give to you."
Billy, Gus and Homer had returned from carrying Juan Elias into the bedroom where they left him. Billy accompanied Leticia to the buggy and carried her valise into the house.
"I'll unhitch the buggy and put up the horse," he said.
He was almost out the door when María, with the baby in her arms, hurried to his side.
"I think you need to come and look at my father," she said." "He has thrown up all over the floor of the spare room and is groaning terribly."
"He spoke to Gus and Homer. "Let's go see what is going on with the old devil."
The three went to the door of the room where Elias now lay on the floor in the middle of what had been in his stomach. He groaned in a way that sounded serious to all three.
"He sounds like those men that had been shot up at Antietam," Homer said. "I see blood in that puke, too."
"Mebbe we take dis man to Tess and see what she can do. She curandera."
"I think that's a good idea, Gus. Is she at home?" Homer asked.
"She be home awright."
They carried Elias out to the buggy and propped him up and tied him so that he wouldn't fall out on the way to the bosque and Tess' house. Gus volunteered to ride the horse that was hitched to the buggy. Billy and Homer went quickly to the barn and saddled two mules. They followed Gus and the buggy so that they could help carry Elias into Tess' house.
Tess came out of her house when she heard the buggy and two riders arrive and the dogs starting to bark.
Billy rode up to her.
"This man is María's father," Billy said. "He pulled a gun on me at the house. Gus took it away and beat up on him some. Tell us where you want him put."
"Take him into the house," Tess said. "There is a plank bed before you get to the stove. Put him down on that and I will start what needs to be done. Who is this man?"
"This is Juan Elias, María's father," Billy said. "He started trouble at the rancho and Gus calmed him down."
They carried the limp Elias into Tess' house and put him down on the plank bed.
"You men can go back to the Rancho. I can take care of everything here all right by myself," Tess said. "Gus, you might as well go with the other two, because I am going to be very busy with this cure."
Gus got into the buggy and Billy and Homer got back on their horses. They returned to Rancho Romero. Once inside the house they sat around and talked with Leticia and María. They noticed that Leticia did not seem worried in the slightest about her husband's condition or even whereabouts. She and her daughter talked together so much that the men went back to the barn and corrals to work with the mules and discuss what an awful man Elias was.
Leticia went to the guest room and brought out her valise. Opening it, she took out the turquoise necklace that her husband had taken from the neck of Tess' dead mother at the Arivaipa Massacre. She handed the beautiful piece of jewelry to María.
"I want you to have this necklace as a gift from me," Leticia said. "Your father brought it back from Arivaipa."
"Momma, this was Tess' mother's necklace. You haven't met Tess yet, but she is the curandera that is treating Papa. She will probably come here when she has Papa back to normal. You need to give this necklace to Tess."
As Tess hovered over the unconscious body of Juan Elias, there was fire in her eyes; fire of hatred and revenge that Apache can show so well. Someone once described Geronimo the same way after the Mexican soldiers had killed his wife and family in Janos. Tess went over to the shelf containing her herbs and powders that she used with her curing powers. She sorted through the small bottles and took one that contained a ground up greenish gray substance. She removed the small cork from the mouth of the bottle and brought it to her nose for a smell. Then, she shook her head up and down affirmatively and put the cork back into the mouth of the bottle, leaving it on the counter away from the rest of what she called treasure that her mother had accumulated over her years as a curandera. She took a small saucepan and emptied all of the greenish gray power into it. Then, she poured a small amount of water from the burlap-covered jug into the saucepan. She stuffed the stove with fresh wood and placed the saucepan on the rear of the firebox to heat. She poured out a cup of warm coffee that she had made from coffee beans roasted in sugar. It was strong and she hoped strong enough to awaken Juan Elias so that she could force him to drink the deadly datura that was heating on the stove. She returned to Elias' reclined body that was still asleep, but breathing. With some difficulty, she lifted him so that she could put several pillows behind his back so that she could possibly awaken him and get him to drink the coffee.
She was determined to make sure he knew exactly what was happening to him, and why, once she had gotten the datura into his stomach. She touched the coffee cup to his lips.
"Wake up, Juan Elias. This coffee will make you feel much better," she said, and slapped his cheeks to get him moving toward waking.
His eyes blinked slightly. He groaned. She reached over and touched his lips with the coffee cup again.
"Take some coffee, Señor Elias. It will make you feel better and then I will be able to give you the best cure of all that will cause all your pain to vanish."
He blinked again, and again Tess brought the coffee cup to his lips. His eyes stayed open momentarily. She tipped the cup and he opened his mouth and let some of the coffee enter.
"That was good," she said. "Now, let's drink some more of that good coffee."
She saw his eyes open wider than before and she tilted the coffee cup to let a good swallow go into his mouth. She was glad to see him swallow the coffee.
"That is good coffee, don't you think?" she asked, but not to expect an answer. But he grunted slightly. "I am glad you like my coffee. I roasted the beans in sugar myself."
A few minutes later she was happy to see that he had finished the coffee and was lying there with his eyes open. She reached over to the stove and removed the saucepan. Testing the bottom of the pan to determine if it was too hot to drink, she put it down on the small table next to the bed where she had placed the empty coffee cup.
As she looked at her patient she saw him squint his eyes with pain and listened to him groan again. She took the saucepan from the table and poured the contents into the coffee cup. She smiled what might be called a wicked smile as she brought the coffee cup over to Elias' lips that he opened slightly.
"All right, it is time for the real medicine that will drive away all your pain," she said. "Open wide and drink as much as you can all at once. The more that gets to your stomach the sooner the pain will disappear."
She put her left arm in back of his head and lifted it enough so that he could drink the datura without choking. She tilted the cup and watched closely as the liquid entered his mouth. She looked down at his throat and saw him swallow. One more time and he had finished what was in the cup. She let his head go back to rest on the pillows again. She returned the cup to the sink and put the saucepan there as well, pouring water from the jug to rinse it out. She turned around and looked at the man who had murdered her mother. It was only a matter of a short time before he would lose consciousness again and stop breathing because of the deadly amount of datura that she was able to get into his stomach. She went back to sit next to Juan Elias. His eyes were open and she cou
ld tell that he was feeling better. But she also knew that he was not long for the world.
"Señor Elias, I am Tesuquilla. I am the daughter of Caratewa, the woman you shot in Arivaipa Canyon during that massacre that you commanded. You were so evil that you stole her turquoise necklace from her neck. I am happy to tell you that you are dying as you listen to my words. Your court applauded your behavior in Arivaipa Canyon when the Arizona court should have condemned you to the hangman's noose. I do not have a hangman's noose, but I had datura. Now you have my datura that is killing you as we sit here. Some take datura in small amounts for crazy feelings, but I have given you enough to kill you. I have only one regret. That regret is that you will not be able to witness your own death. I will get no satisfaction from it because I will have to live with the memory of seeing you die. You are an evil man. And, now you will not be able to cause unhappiness for your daughter, María. I have just one more thing to say to you: Thank you for making this so easy."
She watched Elias closely. His eyes closed soon after her speech to him. She saw his chest still moving as he breathed. Suddenly he went into convulsions and began thrashing around on the plank. She held him onto it so that the men would not have to lift him up from the floor. In spite of knowing how they felt about Juan Elias, she didn't want them to know what had happened. Once he stopped breathing she planned to ride to Rancho Romero and give them the news that there was nothing she could do to save the old man. She looked at his chest again and saw that it did not move. She put her hand on his chest and felt no movement. It was time to ride to Rancho Romero.
Tess did not bother to saddle her appaloosa gelding. She slipped the hackamore onto his head, jumped on his back and rode away toward Rancho Romero. She had strange feelings about what she had just done to Juan Elias. The fact that she had taken advantage of his condition to take away his life bothered her, but on the other end of the scale she felt justified that she had paid him back in full for murdering her mother, Caratewa. Banishing her thoughts when she arrived at the ranch house, she went in and announced that her efforts to cure Juan Elias failed and that he was dead. She paused after her announcement and found it interesting that nobody in the room, including his now widowed wife, Leticia, showed a bit of sorrow at the news of the man's death.
"I must ask a favor of the men. Please to go to my house and remove the body to another place that is more appropriate," Tess said.
The three friends glanced at each other, went to the door and left for the barn to hitch up the buckboard to take Elias' body away from Tess' house.
Leticia excused herself from the women, left the room and returned with the turquoise necklace. She walked over to where Tess stood and showed it to her.
"My husband came back from that terrible massacre with this necklace. I am told that he took it from your mother's neck after he shot her. I am returning it to you even though I wish I could give it back to your mother. I have never worn it."
Tears ran down Leticia's cheeks as she talked to Tess. She spread the string of turquoise and put it over Tess' head and around her neck. Leticia wiped the tears from her eyes.
"I must say that I have had terrible feelings of hatred toward Juan Elias since he returned from that awful happening at Arivaipa. I was told that after he shot and killed your mother, he said, 'There's one that won't breed any more to birth more vermin.' It is a strange and even wonderful feeling of relief that I have right now after you told us that he is dead."
"I have the same feeling, Mama," María said. "I have had bad thoughts about him for most of my life. When he pointed his revolver at my Billy, I wished that I had had a gun with which to kill him. He was evil."
The men returned to Rancho Romero with the dead body in the buckboard. Billy suggested that they take it to the cemetery outside of Tubutama for burial.
"I think you had better talk to Tia Rosa about that," María said. "She might not want him near her, even dead."
"There's another cemetery near La Reforma," Billy said. "Let's just go down there and dig a grave, put him in it and cover it all up without saying anything to anybody."
"That sounds like the best idea," Leticia said. "It is too far to haul the body to the Sopori without it smelling badly. Besides, I would just as soon have it all over with as soon as possible. I suppose I should go back to the Sopori to tell his brothers that their brother is dead. But, before I go, I need to talk to my sister, Rosa, and see if it is all right with her if I stay with her until I can arrange for my own place in Tubutama. It will be nice to be home again and without the burden I have carried for so long a time."
"Whenever you are ready to go to the Sopori I will be happy to drive you in your buggy," Homer said.
"Thank you, Homer," Leticia said. "I think I will need someone to be there with me when I tell his brothers."
"Gus," Tess said. "I would like for us to go home now. All this has been a lot to deal with."
Gus took her arm and they left the ranch house. Tess rode bareback again and Gus saddled his favorite mule. When they went into the house by the bosque Tess stared at the plank bed. "Help me take this outside, please, Gus," she said. "I don't want to have this in the house any longer because this is where that horrible man died."
They lifted the plank and carried it outside to where Tess had a woodpile for her stove wood. The plank would make good firewood even if it had been a deathbed.
"I neva kilt a man afore," Gus said, when they were back inside.
"Gus," Tess said, as she put her arms around him. "You didn't kill Elias. I killed him and I am happy that I did. He killed my mother at Arivaipa."
"I had da wantin' to kill dat man when he put dat gun on Billy."
"I was not there, but I can imagine how you must have felt with your friend in danger. Now, put it out of your mind that you killed him. He was alive here, but hurting badly. I gave him a drink of datura that would have easily killed one of your mules."
"Da peoples at da rancho seems happy dat da man be dead."
"Elias caused many people a lot of suffering during his lifetime. I feel so free without him on my mind anymore. Him being dead releases me of the desire to kill him that I have harbored since he killed my mother. I am now having other strong feelings."
"What kinds?" Gus asked.
"I would like you to take me to the cave in the Sierra Madre where you lived for a while. I have heard about that place where Geronimo went to stay away from the White Eyes. I would like to go and live with my people again."
"Dat be fine wid me, Tess. I loves you all da way and wud do any ting fo you."
Tess put her arms around him and kissed him.
"I love you, too, Gus. You are the finest man I have ever known. Let's get going tomorrow."
"I go to rancho and get pack mule to carry stuff," Gus said.
"I am not taking anything except a few clothes that I can tie in back of the cantle. But, you should go and tell Billy what your plans are. I know you will want to get back in the spring to work with the new foals."
Gus rode back to the ranch and told Billy about Tess wanting to live with her people. He said that he didn't think she was going there for good, but that it seemed very important to her.
The following morning Gus and Tess started out for the Sierra Madre. Two days later when they were breaking camp to continue the upward climb, Tess went over to Gus and put her head onto his chest.
"Already I feel better," she said. "I needed to get away from where I killed Elias. I needed to get away from everyone because I suddenly felt like I didn't belong there with those people. The only one I wanted to be with is you. Thank you, Gus, for being so gentle and understanding."
Gus smiled his usual broad grin and went to Tess to kiss her. They saddled the horse and mule and continued up to the cave. Two days later they arrived, and Gus told the lookouts that Tess was his wife. The lookouts laughed and told Gus that they both had known Tess when she was a baby living in Arivaipa Canyon. Nobody had taken over Gus' sleeping p
lace so they went there and settled in. Gus was happy that the hides he had used for a bed were still there as if the people in the cave expected him back. Tess asked him how long he had lived in the cave with her people.
"I doan 'member jes how long, but I knows dat it twas long nuff to be ma home."
When they went to the hides to sleep that night, Tess put her arms around Gus and put her cheek next to his.
"There's another reason I wanted to come here to be with my people," she said. "You and I are going to have a baby."
Gus, startled by Tess' revelation, jumped up and stood over her.
"Dat da troof?"
"I am almost certain, Gus. And, I am very happy about it. I wish my mother could be here for the birthing."
"From what you tole me 'bout yo mama, she might be somewheres else, but she knows."
Tess reached up and pulled Gus back down beside her on the bed of hides.
Chapter Twenty-Three
By the time Gus and Tess were halfway up the mountain, Homer had the buggy hitched to the Elias horse, Leticia's valise in the back and Leticia waiting to be helped into the seat. She had spoken with Rosa and her sister was delighted that Leticia had decided to move to Tubutama so that she could be close to her grandson. Homer had his saddle horse and a pack mule with his supplies and gear hitched to the rear of the buggy so that he could drive to the Sopori with Leticia. From there, after letting her off and leaving the buggy, he planned to ride to Tucson to pick up some dodgers at the sheriff's office and decide what criminals he would hunt for to collect the bounties.
After saying goodbye, they left the Rancho Romero headquarters and Homer drove the buggy out to the road that followed the Altar River to Sasabe and eventually to Rancho Sopori. As they passed the small graveyard outside of La Reforma, Leticia put her hand on Homer's arm.
"Is this where you buried my husband?"
"Yes," Homer said. "Nobody saw us so nobody knows."
"That is good. Nobody must know. Nobody knew he had come here and nobody needs to know that he is still here."
Along the Trail to Freedom Page 16
