by Lou Cameron
Greystoke raised a superior eyebrow at the much younger man and said, “We’re keeping an eye on the young Kaiser too. But you seem to think you can foresee the future better than your elders, eh what?”
Churchill said, “Good Lord, I hope so! It’s about time someone used a little common sense, and your generation seems as dotty as the poor old Queen!”
Fortunately, Captain Gringo and Ciboney were dressed when a guard opened the curtain covering the side passage they’d been sharing in more than comfort to announce that the general wanted to see him, but not the girl.
Captain Gringo followed the guard to the main chamber of the cave. It was crowded with weary troops. Some of them wore fresh bandages. All had spanking-new Krag rifles and were festooned with ammo bandoliers. Captain Gringo made his way to the now much friendlier looking Garcia, who looked up and said, “I have sent a man to fetch your sidearms, Captain Gringo.”
“Were my guys there when your guys reached the shipment, sir?”
Garcia shook his head and said, “No. There were dead Spaniards on both sides of the river. Your Gaston took any of his casualties with him as he apparently made an orderly retreat. I do not know how to get word to him so far behind the Spanish lines. As you may have assumed, they are now gathered in considerable numbers in the area near the bridge. My muchachos had a time cutting their way back with the guns. The medical supplies came in most handy too.”
Captain Gringo nodded and said, “Knowing Gaston, he’ll be okay. If the hit-and-run raiding behind their lines gets très tedious, as he calls it, he can always hop a boat out. I’ve shown him how it was done more than once. What happens now, on this side of the lines, sir?”
“You are a machine gunner. The first thing you must do for me is teach my men how to handle such modern weapons. I now have nine, it would seem.”
“Sorry about that, General. Gaston probably still has some we broke out of the supplies to get the rest as far as we did. In a day or so I can teach your guys how to man a machine gun without blowing their own heads off. Teaching them all the new tactics that go with new methods might take longer.”
Garcia said, “We do not have longer. I mean to march on the enemy within the week with my old tactics, before they can recover from the confusion you just caused them. As of the moment, the ones at this end of Cuba are cut off from replacements and supplies by rail. Since they now must communicate with Havana by sea, and Havana still has no idea what could be going on over here, I can guess at the local commander’s tactics for the next few days. What would you do if you were a Spanish officer in Oriente Province right now, Captain Gringo?”
“Dig in deep, husband my rations and ammo, and hope for the best?”
“That is how I see it too. We know where all their positions are at the moment. We know they won’t shift them for at least a week, and they do not know we now have as much or more ammunition as they do. I was finding this cave damp and gloomy, in any case.”
Captain Gringo nodded a silent thanks as a dirty paw reached out of the crowd to return his gun rig. As he strapped it on, he said, “I don’t want to be a killjoy, General, but do you really think ten tons will get you to Havana?”
Garcia smiled wistfully and replied, “No, but it will get me out of this corner and free to raise some hell, as you say, all over Oriente and Camaguey Provinces. The government will still be able to hold the strong points and more important towns for some time, I fear. But if I can only keep my army alive and together, making the other side look silly as we hit them here, there, and everywhere …”
Captain Gringo grinned and said, “Yeah, you’ve already been getting a lot of publicity in the international press. Feel free to take full credit for wrecking the Cuban railroad system as well.”
Garcia smiled back and said, “I intend to, as well as all the wires you ripped down and your rather wild gunfights along the way. By now the Spaniards must be most confused as to how many men I have, where, doing what, eh?” Captain Gringo nodded and said, “I’ll get right to work on training some machine gun crews for you so we can confuse the bastards even more.”
He did, but in the end Captain Gringo was not to take part in the savage battle of Bayamo, even though it made headlines around the world. For, the night before the rebel army was to pull out of the Sierra Maestra, Garcia sent for Captain Gringo again. He wasn’t led to the cave from the tent he now shared with Ciboney. The general was waiting for him on a hilltop, well away from camp. The old man seemed nervous as he dismissed the guard.
As soon as they were alone, Captain Gringo asked how come, adding, “I’m sure things will go well in the morning, sir. Those boys you gave me to train are good. I was even able to teach them a few basic tactics. So you won’t have to worry about them hosing ammo at nothing much or, worse yet, the wrong targets.”
Garcia sighed and said, “You have done wonders, both before and after you reached me, Captain Gringo. Cuba shall always owe you a debt of gratitude, whether it goes in the history books or not.”
He took out a thick wad of Spanish bills and handed it to the big Yank as he added, “Alas, I do not write the history books. I am only a man who must take orders from my government in exile. But at least, by God, I can still be a man, no?”
Captain Gringo put the bankroll away uncertainly as he asked just what they were talking about.
Garcia said, “Politics. I hate the sound of the word, but to have any kind of government one must have politics, I suppose. As you know, my cause is being funded by Americano interests. Some who, in fact, are already in power. Certain yanqui military leaders as well as a discreet branch of your own country’s secret service are already, how shall we say, acting with the gloves off?”
“I didn’t think those guns I brought you came free, General. Are we talking about other Yanks already on the scene here in Cuba?”
“Alas, we are, and it seems they have heard about you being here as well, my badly wanted young friend. I have been asked—make that ordered—to turn you over to the U.S. Secret Service. But as you can see, I see no such people around us at the moment. So how can I?”
A big gray cat stood up in Captain Gringo’s guts, turned around a couple of times, and when he refused to vomit settled down to see what happened next. But he was aware it was still there as he shrugged and said, “I get the picture. My services are no longer required. Any suggestions on how I invest my severance pay, General?”
Garcia said, “Look, if it was up to me alone, I would tell them to go to hell and promote you to full colonel, Ricardo. Cuba needs men like you. A lot of men like you, but—”
“But you can’t have me and the U.S. Marines at the same time. I said I got the picture, sir. Could you at least give me a hint which way I should start running?”
Garcia said, “I can do better than that. Down in the valley to the south you will find a mule path leading to Santiago. You will also find two mules and the courier I am sending to the underground in a seaport still occupied by the enemy. It is vital that the rebels in Santiago do not, how you say, jump the gun when they hear I am out of the mountains and on the offensive. A full-scale general uprising must await future events in Washington. My courier knows the way. Santiago is still lightly guarded by a few roadblocks enterprising travelers should have no trouble getting around. But I shall still feel safer about my message getting through with a man of your talents guarding my young courier. Once the two of you get through, my people in Santiago will hide you, a very wicked professional forger who now works for the cause of Cuba Libre will prepare the papers you may need to go with a new identity, and then, of course, you shall be free to make your way by neutral steamer to the safety of Costa Rica.”
Captain Gringo smiled crookedly and said, “I’m not sure Costa Rica’s all that safe yet. But I have to look for Gaston somewhere. I guess we start with getting to Santiago alive. You say your courier and the mules are down there in the dark somewhere, General?”
“Yes, along with repeating
rifles and plenty of ammunition. Go with God, my yanqui renegade. I cannot tell you how much I think things were different.”
Captain Gringo smiled bitterly, saluted, and turned away to trudge down the slope, muttering, “He wishes things were different?”
He tried to cheer up. At least, this time they’d paid him off when they fired him. But he still felt used and abused, and shit, he hadn’t even got to kiss Ciboney good-bye.
He could see the silvery dirt track below now. Better yet, he could just make out two dark blurs that had to be the mules. As he crunched a twig with a boot heel, the bigger blur called out in a pleasant contralto voice, “Is that you, Captain Gringo?”
He said, “Yeah, call me Dick. How are you called, señorita?”
She replied, “I am called Margo. Hurry, we have a long way to go.”
He mounted the mule that didn’t seem to be occupied. As he swung into the saddle, he bumped the stock of his new Winchester with his knee. He settled in, moved the saddle gun’s boot to a more comfortable position, and turned to the courier to suggest she take the lead. As she nodded to him in the moonlight, he could see she was a willowy teenager, or built like one anyway. Her voice sounded a little more grown-up as she said, “First we agree on our cover story. I do not wish for to shock you, but it might be better, should we meet anyone, to say we are newlyweds on our honeymoon after, eloping from severe parents, eh?”
He grinned at her and asked, “Whose parents objected, Margo, yours or mine?”
She said; “Silly, you are an Anglo traveling salesman my strict Spanish father would never approve of. He would be Don Diego Fernandez, and he is most devoted to the Santa Fe and His Most Catholic Majesty. So let us hurry. I know he shall never forgive us, but I doubt his vaqueros will be able to find us in the big city, querido. By the way, what is my new name, should we have to register somewhere?”
He grinned and said, “Margo Martin sounds good. You people have trouble with Smith or Jones, and I don’t think I’ll be using Walker for a while.’’
She sighed and said, “Es verdad. Everyone has heard of the desperate outlaw who was once known as Ricardo Walker.’’
She started to swing away to take the lead. He still hadn’t had a good look at her face, but who worried about such petty details when a dame had a shape like that? Then she turned in her saddle to look back at him as she asked soberly, “Does it not bother you to be so casually dismissed after all you have done for Cuba, Dick?”
He laughed and said, “To hell with ’em. Let ’em fight their own dumb war.”
And this time he meant it, for the tilt of her head had at last given him a good view of her face in the moonlight, and following her anywhere had to be a lot more fun than following an army into battle.
About the Author
Lou Cameron (June 20, 1924 - November 25, 2010)
Was an American novelist and a comic book creator. The film to book adaptations he wrote include None But the Brave starring Frank Sinatra, California Split, Sky Riders starring James Coburn, Hannibal Brooks starring Oliver Reed and an epic volume based on a number of scripts for the award winning CBS miniseries How the West Was Won (not to be confused with the novelization by Louis L’Amour).
Between 1979 and 1986, using the pseudonym “Ramsay Thorne”, Lou Cameron wrote 36 Renegade adult western novels featuring as protagonist Richard Walker, better known as “Captain Gringo”.
He has received awards such as the Golden Spur for his Western writings. He wrote an estimated 300 novels.
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The Renegade Series by Lou Cameron, Writing as Ramsay Thorne
Renegade
Blood Runner
The Fear Merchant
Death Hunter
Macumba Killer
Panama Gunner
Death in High Places
Over the Andes to Hell
Hell Raider
The Great Game
Citadel of Death
The Badlands Brigade
The Mahogany Pirates
Harvest of Death
Terror Trail
Mexican Marauder
Slaughter in Sinaloa
Cavern of Doom
Hellfire in Honduras
Shots at Sunrise
River of Revenge
Payoff in Panama
Volcano of Violence
Guatemala Gunman
High Seas Showdown
Blood on the Border
Savage Safari
The Slave Raiders
Peril in Progreso
Mayhem at Mission Bay
Shootout in Segovia
Death Over Darien
Costa Rican Carnage
The Golden Express
Standoff in the Sky
Guns for Garcia
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