Taggart (1959)

by L'amour, Louis

  In reality, he might be an outlaw, a thief, a murderer. He might be a renegade white man living among Apaches; and if he was any of these things, to disclose her presence here would be to place herself in jeopardy, and not only herself but Consuelo and Adam.

  Yet in the night’s vast quiet there was between them this invisible link, forged by some mysterious bond of stars and stillness. They were drawn together by the silence, the loom of mountains, and the deep shadows where the cliffs stood tall. Was he feeling what she felt? Was he, too, sensing that this moment was the stuff of dreams? That here, for the moment at least, each belonged to the other?

  She put her hand to her hair in the darkness, feeling suddenly untidy. She had not prepared herself to meet a lover this night, even one who would in a moment touch his horse with a heel and ride on, moving out of her life and away from her consciousness, like all those other faceless, featureless men of whom she had dreamed in the past.

  He was there, close to her, a tall, still figure sitting on his saddle, and a man who might be … anyone.

  He might ride on … Suddenly, desperately, she wished to say something, some magic word, some phrase that would make him stay, that would draw him to her and keep him close. She knew suddenly that he must not ride on … it was here he belonged, beside her.

  It was fantastic. The desert night had taken her good sense … was she a silly, romantic girl to be lured by shadows?

  She was.

  The dream gives its magic until the dream is realized, but even then something of the dream remains … the aura, the nostalgic, half-realized longing, that stays.

  And this silent rider, dark upon his horse, until a word was spoken he was hers, and hers alone.

  Moments passed, and she was motionless, and the rider sat on his saddle. She saw him replace his hat and her throat tightened at the thought that he might now ride on, that replacing the hat was preliminary to a touch of the heel. His cigarette glowed briefly again like a campfire’s spark arrested in flight.

  “A night like this is like no other night. There is a beauty in it that is scarcely real.”

  It was a moment before Miriam realized the rider had spoken, and she was startled … for in this brief standing still of time he had become almost a creation of her fantasy.

  “It is the desert.”

  There was a silence then that neither broke for minutes. Then he said, “It is late for you to be out.”

  It was something that might have been said to a young girl in New England, in some village there, after midnight. In this place, under the circumstances it bordered on the ridiculous. “I am not a child, you know.”

  “You are a woman … an Apache would even brave the dark for a young woman.”

  “I am not afraid. “

  “Fear is not a bad thing. It is fear that saves men’s lives … it prepares a man for trouble.”

  “How do you come to be here? At this place, I mean? Why did you stop?”

  “My horse told me you were there. He also told me you were a woman.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “No. My horse does not like the smell of Indians, and he knows that smell, but he likes women because he was raised by a woman who made a pet of him.

  “When he stopped I knew it was for a reason, and I had been looking for you. My horse was curious but not afraid, and he looked toward you with his ears up, so I knew you were a white person. Had it been a lion or a wolf he would have indicated it by his fear or by his willingness to fight; and of an Indian he would have been afraid, and pulled away. But he was eager to go toward you, and from that I knew you were a woman. “

  “You said you had been looking for me?”

  “I found your wagon, and figured you would be close by.” “You must be hungry.”

  “Yes. ‘

  “We can offer food, but not much more.”

  “Wait … there will be time enough to eat, but who knows how long it will be again before I talk to a woman in the night?”

  Bats swirled in the cool night sky, and a few scattered clouds obscured the stars, and the man on horseback vanished in the greater darkness.

  “We saw you earlier today,” she said tentatively, as if to test his presence.

  “You were on the mountain then,” he said. “Yes … we saw Apaches, too.”

  He offered no explanation, and she valued him the more for this. It was enough that he was here, and must somehow have eluded them. The reason for his presence here at all remained unanswered, and her curiosity prodded her to ask, but she waited, feeling that he would explain in his own time.

  “We thought our trail was hidden.”

  “I have lived among the Shoshones and the Nez Perce.” He paused to inhale, then snuffed out his cigarette against a boot and dropped it into the sand. “It is well hidden, but there are trails that do not lie upon the ground.”

  Beyond the mountains there was a moon, and the sky across the sawtoothed ridges grew pale, long shadows reaching out toward them, darker by reason of the growing paleness from where the moon would be. A faint wind stirred among the mesquite and cedar, a faint testing push of wind that died away almost at once as if it was not worth the effort.

  “I may bring trouble,” he said then. “You are followed?”

  “Yes.” She accepted that … there could be no other reason for a lone man in this wild land. So he was an outlaw. But who would follow a man into such an area? The Army?

  He swung down from his horse and stood still beside the saddle for a moment, feeling a sudden faintness. Then he turned and led the horse toward her. “We had better go in,” he said. “I do not trust the night.”

  He was close to her, and she smelled the staleness of sweat, the smell of horse and old leather, of sage, cedar, and wood smoke. She sensed suddenly that this man was very near to collapse; she could almost feel the tiredness of him.

  The thought came to her suddenly as they started to walk inside the canyon. It was a startling, shocking thought but even while she knew it could not be true, she was afraid, and had to ask.

  “You aren’t … you aren’t Tom Sanifer?”

  “No,” he said. “Tom Sanifer is dead. He was killed at Fort Bowie by a man named Adam Stark.”

  Chapter Five.

  W hen he had closed the door behind him he said, “I’m Swante Taggart.”

  “You’ll be wanting to wash,” Adam said. “There’s water in the bucket, and a basin beside it.”

  Taggart did not move, but stood, hat in hand, ashamed to invade this quiet place.

  “No aim to barge in,” he said, “only I played out of grub … three days back.”

  Adam noted the size of the man, the faded Army shirt and the worn shotgun chaps.

  He noted also the hang of the gun and the way the man carried a Winchester as if born with it. “You’ve come far.”

  “I’ve a man behind me.”

  “We’ve asked no questions,” Adam said. “You’re hungry. You’ll eat.”

  “I can go on … I’ve no right to bring you trouble. That man who’s behind me … he’s the Law.”

  “You didn’t have to tell me that,” Adam said quietly. “My sister will get you food.”

  Taggart dipped up water in the gourd dipper and poured it into the tin basin, liking the sound of it. The bucket was full, the water clear and dark in the shadows at the side of the room, but it was more water than he had seen since he left the Verde.

  Miriam put a plate of beef and beans on the table, with a small dish of squaw cabbage, and then brought the blackened pot from the fireplace. As she filled his cup he looked at her hands. They were not dainty, but slender, long-fingered woman’s hands, and somehow the seeing of them made him go all quiet inside.

  They were gentle hands, strong hands, capable hands; they were the hands of a woman, a mother, a woman to walk beside a man, not behind him.

  He looked down at the food before him with sudden helplessness. He bowed his head, not in prayer, but only
to prevent their seeing his emotion, and when he picked up his fork he did it almost with reverence. He put a few of the beans into his mouth and began to chew slowly, savoring each taste.

  It is only those who have never been hungry who picture a starving man as gorging himself when he first finds food. Taggart was terribly hungry, but he had been so long without food that his stomach had shrunk, and for this first meal he would be able to eat very little. Tomorrow and the next day he would be unable to get enough, but now it was taste he wanted, and flavor. He ate slowly, pausing from time to time to drink great gulps of coffee.

  The beans had been baked over a fire of creosote wood and had that extraordinary flavor that only creosote smoke can give. The coffee was strong, hot, and black, and it seemed to bring new strength to him.

  After a dozen bites he sat back and rolled a smoke. He felt the eyes of the Mexican girl upon him, dark, magnificent eyes, and she was a woman who made a man conscious of his maleness.

  “This is Consuelo,” Adam Stark said, “my wife. And,” he gestured to Miriam, “my sister, Miriam. I am Adam Stark.” Swante Taggart’s head came up and Miriam was beside him with the coffee pot and she nudged him slightly. The question half-formed remained unasked.

  Adam Stark … the man who had killed Tom Sanifer.

  Stark had walked into a saloon where Sanifer stood at the bar, and had told him he did not fight before women, but if he wanted to die, to make his fight there. And Tom Sanifer had backed down.

  An hour later, when Stark left the saloon, Sanifer had been waiting for him in the dark, but he had missed his first shot. Adam Stark had not.

  Taggart put his cigarette on the edge of his coffee saucer and cut off a small bite of the beef. He chewed slowly, taking his time.

  “You’ve had a rough time,” Stark said. “Pete Shoyer is behind me.”

  “Ah … there’ll be shooting then.”

  Taggart emptied his cup. “I’ve never fired on a badge-wearing man,” he said, “but I’ll fight if it comes to that.”

  “Shoyer is a bounty hunter. You’ll fight or you’ll die.”

  The candle on the table held a steady light. Miriam filled his cup once more and sat down at the table near him.

  He ate a little more, feeling the tenseness leaving his muscles and the quietness come into him, a slow, pleasant, luxurious feeling, dangerous for a man with far to go; but tonight, for this one evening, he would relax.

  At the same time his awareness remained with him to the extent that he realized much of what went on here. There were six rifles on the rack in the room, and a shotgun as well; and several boxes covered over in a corner would be ammunition. These people had come to stay, and to defend themselves if attacked. The canyon itself was a little stronghold, and the chances of their being found were slight.

  Obviously, from their settled comfort here they had not just come, and they were planning to remain a while longer, and as no cattle were around it had to be mining.

  Globe was not far south and there was mining there … this man had found gold.

  He saw no samples in the room, so it must be that Stark was no longer looking for gold; he had found it. And if it was worth staying in this country for, with two women, he had found plenty.

  That, then, was why the wagon remained where it had been left, because of the women, and because of the gold he hoped to take out. Gold can be heavy, and he must plan on taking out a lot.

  “You can bed down on the floor tonight,” Stark suggested. “It is the best we have to offer.”

  “There are other buildings. It would be best if I slept in one of them … in fact, I’d better. I believe Shoyer is far behind, but a man can’t know.”

  “He will not find you,” Consuelo said. “Nobody find this place.”

  “He will find it,” Taggart drew in his long legs and got up. “He’s a wolf.”

  “You will be safe here,” Consuelo said. “There is danger to go … there are Apaches.”

  He gathered his gear, avoiding the promise in her eyes. “I’m obliged. “

  Stark rose. “The stable is the place … there’s hay there. Although you might prefer the chapel.”

  “A chapel is no place for me,” Taggart replied dryly. “I’ll take the stable.”

  Outside, they crossed the narrow space under the stars and went into the darkness of the overhang that shelved above the stable. Taggart spread out a thin bed of hay in the light from the lantern. From where he would lie he could look down the canyon toward the entrance.

  “That’s scant hay you’re using.”

  Taggart said quietly, “A thin bed makes a light sleeper. I’ve learned a hard bed sleeps lightly, but safely.”

  Adam Stark knocked out his pipe on the outside of the door. “If you want to stay on, you’re welcome. It’s a trying thing to work and worry about this place, although the girls are both handy with guns.”

  “And Shoyer?”

  “Your problem. I’d be offering you nothing but shelter here, and a place to rest up. If you make no tracks, Shoyer can find none. “

  Taggart stepped outside and went to his horse, who stood near the pool of water.

  He had not cared for the horse until he knew he was staying on … a man might have to travel fast, and he knew the steeldust would drink. Now he stripped off the saddle and bridle and while the big gelding stood patiently, chewing at a bundle of hay Stark dropped for him, Taggart rubbed the horse down with handfuls of hay.

  “You’ve a neat place here.” “I found it.”

  “Old Spanish stonework. I’ve seen it before.”

  “The Lost Mine of the Padres,” Stark said briefly. Only the padres never found it … I have.”

  “I’m not a mining man,” Taggart said, “although I’ve worked mines off and on for others. Started using a single-or doublejack when I was a kid. I’m a cattleman.”

  “Own a ranch?”

  Swante Taggart stared bleakly into the night, remembering the cabin in New Mexico, the green meadows of hay, the cattle. “I did,” he said. “A big outfit moved in and there was trouble. “

  “Gun trouble?”

  “A fair fight, but I beat the wrong man. Now Shoyer is after me. “

  It happened … Adam Stark knew it had happened more than once. It was the day of the cattle baron, not of the small rancher or farmer … but he wanted cattle himself.

  “I’m no miner, myself,” Stark admitted. “Studied geology a little, prospected some.

  It’s cattle I want, and I’ve a place in mind down Tucson way.”

  “A man needs water. If he has water he has it all. Longhorns will make a living almost anywhere if they can find water within three days’ walk. “

  “Lots of water on this place I have in mind,” Stark said. “Four good water-holes and a small stream. No place on the outfit is more than four miles from water.”

  “You own it?”

  “I can buy it … that’s why I’m here.”

  Adam Stark returned to the house, thinking about the ranch. It was a comfort to talk to a man again. Woman-talk was all right, but a man needed men. Suddenly he found himself hoping Taggart would stay on, and if Shoyer came, he could settle that here as well as anywhere. There was no use in a man running.

  He went inside … Connie was already in bed. Miriam sat by the candle reading.

  “What do you think of him?”

  Miriam looked up, wondering what to say. “He’s a good man, I think.”

  “I’ve been trying to remember where I heard that name, and now I know. He rode shotgun on the stage out of Cheyenne to Deadwood.”

  “Will he stay?”

  Adam Stark did not know, and said as much. He pulled off his shirt, thinking about it. If he did stay on he would be a help here, but he must not go up to the mine.

  If he saw what it was like …

  He really worried very little about that mine. Anyone might try to go in there, but not one in a million would be foolish enough to swing a pick
in there. He just hoped nobody would try it until he was safely out with the hundred thousand he wanted.

  Perhaps he had been a fool to tell Taggart so much, but the man was no tenderfoot and he would understand as soon as he looked around in the morning. The old arrastra was still there, and no man would be fool enough to remain in such a place unless he had found gold, and lots of it.

  Forty miles to the north Pete Shoyer got up from behind a clump of rocks and looked out over the moonlit desert. The horse was still there, standing ground-hitched as he had been for the past hour. By now Shoyer was confident that no one was around.

  Behind him in the arroyo where they had taken shelter lay the body of Mark Billings, the last man of the posse he had gathered in Crown King. Until three days ago three men had stayed with him after most of the group had turned back as they started into wilder country.

  The four remaining had run into a running fight with Apaches, and of the four only Shoyer remained alive.

  One man had been shot from his horse, and the others had holed up in a cave and fought off the Apaches through a day-long battle. At the end of the day one man was dead and Billings wounded.

  During the night Shoyer had slipped from under the overhang that formed their cave, and with Billings over his shoulder he had climbed the cliff. Shoyer was a squarely built, powerful man of tremendous strength, and Billings’ weight was nothing to him.

  When they abandoned their horses for shelter in the cave Shoyer had been afraid they would be found, but they had not. Only one was dead, killed by a stray bullet.

  Pete Shoyer knew he was in trouble. In the hard life that lay behind him he had often shaped up with trouble, but this time he knew it would require all his ingenuity to escape from the Apaches, to survive, and carry on to capture Swante Taggart.

  He went through the saddlebags and gathered all the food and ammunition on his own horse, as well as the extra canteen. There was a spare pistol now, and he took that and they started off.

  Then the Apaches found them again, killed Billings’ horse, and shot it out in a bitter fight … after which Shoyer got away again, and again took Billings with him. But now Billings, who had done his share in that last fight, had taken two more gunshots.