the Ferguson Rifle (1973)

by L'amour, Louis - Talon-Chantry

  So if there was a treasure, and if we could find it now, there might be enough to give Lucinda Falvey the advantages such a girl should have.

  The night wind stirred the leaves, down in the Indian encampment quiet had come at last, and my eyes closed. A few spattering drops of rain fell, and half-consciously I felt them, then turned in my sleep and awakened.

  The camp was still. Nothing seemed to move. The coals were red, with no tendril of flame remaining. I was awake, and wide awake, listening to I knew not what.

  Tonight we had posted no guard, trusting to our Indian friends and their dogs. Lucinda Falvey slept near me, and beyond her, the boy, Jorge Ulibarri. Davy Shanagan lay just beyond the boy, and Degory Kemble on the other side of me.

  My hand closed on a pistol butt, and I waited. What had awakened me? Suddenly, I knew. For as if a ghost, I glimpsed the faint outline of a man standing on the very edge of our camp, just beyond Davy Shanagan, and he was looking at Lucinda.

  He was a tall man, and I could see his face, which was extraordinarily pale, like the face of a dead man, yet his eyes were black, and he wore a black hat, the brim turned up leaving his features clear and sharp against the night.

  He did not see me, for where I lay there was shadow, and if he saw anything of me at all, it was merely a form half outlined in the darkness. He was looking at Lucinda, and he held a knife in his hand. He started to move, then hesitated. He must step past Shanagan as well as the boy, and he did not like it. The slightest wrong move or sound and those around her would awaken, and he would be caught.

  He did not like the odds. I could see the hesitation, the debate in his mind. One of them and he might have chanced it, but two he dared not chance, and with both Kemble and myself close by as well.

  The dogs had quieted. There was no sound but that brief spatter of rain. For a moment I was tempted to shoot, yet I did not know the stranger, and he might well be a friend, although not for a moment did I believe that.

  Who was he?

  He was no man I had ever seen before.

  Certainly he was not Fernandez or any of his men.

  He was a stranger, but that he was a man of evil I had no doubt. Nor had I any doubt that he wished to either kill or capture Lucinda.

  Gently I eased back the edge of my buffalo robe and thrust out the muzzle of my pistol. Yet even as I did so the tall man turned slightly and I saw his other hand held a pistol. He lifted it and aimed it not at me, but at Lucinda. His eyes were boring into the darkness as if he could actually see me.

  "You might kill me"--he spoke very softly -com?b I would certainly kill her." My pistol still covering him, I stood suddenly to my feet.

  But he was gone.

  Swiftly I stepped over the others to the edge of the woods, and there was no one there, nor was there any sound. At that moment the rain began to fall harder and I stepped into the woods. There was no one there.

  Davy Shanagan was sitting up. "What is it?" "There was someone here," I said. "Keep an eye out." A swift search of the small patch of woods brought me nothing. Wherever he had gone, he had done so swiftly and with no nonsense about it. Beyond the patch of woods, there was open prairie and there seemed no place where a man could hide.

  Skirting the woods, I returned.

  "Sure you weren't dreamin' then?" Davy asked.

  "He was a tall man, very pale... with black eyes." "Maybe it was a ghost you saw," Davy said.

  "What man could come to this camp without arousing the dogs? And never a yelp from them, not a yelp. Not from the horses, either." Had I been dreaming?

  "It was no ghost," I declared, "and he spoke to me." "I heard nothing," Davy said, "and I'm sure I would have." Both of us lay down again, but I slept fitfully from then on, disturbed that any man could approach our camp

  o easily. When morning came, I scouted around but found no tracks, nor did Davy. I began to doubt my own senses, and when I opened the subject at breakfast with Lucinda, she shook her head.

  Yet when I described the man, she turned very pale. "Why! Why, that's what my father looked like!" "But your father's dead?" "Of course, he is! At least I was told so, and I believe it. But if it were my father, he would have come into camp. He would have spoken to me." "A ghost," Davy insisted, "you've seen a ghost, man." "Bah!" Bob Sandy said roughly. "There's no such thing as ghosts. He had a dream... or a nightmare, if you like. I've had them myself, and often enough. But mine were mostly with Indians in them, and I had a many in the years after my family were killed by those screamin', howlin' redskins." "After this," Talley said, "we'll post a guard, tired though we may be. I want no man, nor ghost either, for that matter, coming into our camp unknown to us." Our plans had been made, and now we went among the Cheyennes to trade for extra dried meat, and to make our preparations for the north. We would ride north, skirting the eastern face of the mountains, and once past them we would turn east of the mountains toward the villages.

  "We will be coming out on the open plains in the winter," Kemble said. "It's asking for trouble unless we've more luck than we deserve." "I can take them alone," I said.

  Isaac Heath turned on me. "Are you more gallant than we are? I think not, Scholar. We will go with you, for alone you would never make it through. No offense intended." "I take none. I know it would be difficult." "We'll trap on the way," Ebitt said.

  "We must have something for supplies for another season." My eyes went from one to the other, knowing what this meant to the lot of them. This was their life. To me it might be my life, but also might be only an interlude. I was not dependent upon furs as they were. A little money remained in an eastern bank, and a profession whenever I wished to return ... if I ever did.

  "Thank you. I appreciate this, and so does Miss Falvey." "I do!" she exclaimed. "Oh, I do!" And so we prepared ourselves for the march to the north, and said nothing more of it.

  Yet I remembered the tall man with the pale face. Of one thing I was sure. He had been no ghost.

  CHAPTER 11

  There was no immediate taking off. There was planning to do, and equipment to put together. I sat long with Walks-By-night and talked of trails, of game, of mountains. He had often hunted far to the north, and had gone north on raids against the Crow.

  Finally, I showed him the map. After some thought, he recognized the place and gave me clear directions. Of this, I said nothing.

  Meanwhile Walks-By-night presented me with a lean, powerful Appaloosa, a horse he swore to me was the finest buffalo horse he had known. My own horse went to Feather Man, who traded me a buckskin and a zebra dun for packhorses.

  Finally, we put our packs together. The Cheyennes had little food to spare, but they let us have what they could, and it was noble of them, with a long winter to come.

  The morning was frosty but clear when we started out, a few stars still hanging in the sky. Solomon Talley led off, riding beside Degory Kemble, Sandy and Shanagan followed, and then the dozen packhorses, followed by Lucinda and I, with Ulibarri riding herd on the packhorses.

  Cusbe Ebitt and Isaac Heath brought up the rear.

  We rode out, down into the riverbed and along it at a good clip. We wanted distance between ourselves and the encampment, hoping our disappearance would not soon be known.

  We no longer feared pursuit by Captain Fernandez--we were going north, clearly out of Spanish territory--unless he was after the girl.

  And we did not think it was he who had followed her from Santa Fe.

  Leaves were falling from the trees that morning, yet many had only turned red and gold with autumn. We left our friendly stream bed and turned up another, strange to us, but one that flowed down from the north.

  Lucinda was silent, reluctant to go, yet appreciating the fact that we had no choice but to move and swiftly. As we rode, she became increasingly disturbed and I noticed her eyes going to the sun as if trying to determine our direction.

  "If you have anything to say, better say it now." "What?" Her eyes were suspicious. "What do you mean b
y that?" I shrugged. "It's obvious, isn't it?

  Someone follows you from the Spanish colonies.

  Why? Because he believes you have something he wants, or you can tell him where it is.

  "The man I saw, the one you said resembled your father, he didn't look like a man who would follow a woman for love. He might take a horsewhip to one, but follow her... no. He looked like a man interested in only two things: money and power." "I don't know him." "He knows you, and he'll be following us." "You don't think we've slipped away from him?" "That man? There isn't a chance. He'd be like a wolf on the trail. To be rid of him, you must give him what he wants." "I will not!" I chuckled. "And neither will I. But we must be prepared to run, to fight, and to run again. These men" -comI gestured at those with us--"they risk their lives as well as their season's trapping for you.

  You might at least tell us what we're fighting for." She was stubborn, and would say no more. Yet I was doing some thinking myself, and realized of a sudden that I might have the answer right in my pocket. I might have the answer in the items taken from the pockets of Conway, before we covered his body.

  Startled, I reviewed them in my mind. Aside from the map, there were the coins--and the buttons!

  We held to a good pace that first day, keeping in the bottom along the creek and under the trees.

  Twice we drew up to rest and each time one or more of us rode out to check our backtrail. We saw nothing, heard nothing.

  "If I didn't know I'd be dreaming," Shanagan said, "I'd guess we've escaped them." "Not the man I saw. He had the face of a cruel, relentless man, the kind who would never give up." Here and there we found a few currants still clinging to the bushes, and we ate them eagerly, pleased with a different taste. Twice we saw grizzlies, one group of three, an old she bear and two cubs, were feeding on a hillside a good hundred yards away. She stood up to inspect us, watching carefully as we slowly rode by and continued on our way.

  Twice we passed groups of buffalo skulls, all with the horns turned to the west, for the Indian believes this is good medicine for the future hunt. Yet we saw few tracks of horses, and no human tracks.

  We were pointed toward the mountains, and we moved steadily, holding to low ground and avoiding exposure. Lucinda was quiet, devoting all her attention to the country. Several times she drew up to study some rocky projection or outcropping and she seemed increasingly disturbed.

  When night came, we camped with the last light, dipping down off a bench into a grassy bottom where a swift-running stream found its way through a thick stand of aspen. The night was overcast with a hint of the rain that had been lingering all through the day.

  Nobody seemed disposed to talk. All of us, I think, were gripped by the seriousness of what we had done. Despite the hour, Davy and Isaac set traps. The place was ideal for beaver, and although we had seen no dam and it was late to look for it, there were beaver runs all about where they had dragged young trees or limbs down to the water.

  Over coffee I said to Lucinda, "If you have anything to tell us, it had better be soon, for we shall travel fast." "Why do you say that?" "Something's bothering you, and I believe I know what it is. You see, I was the first to find Conway." "He was alive? He hadn't died when you found him?" "He was quite dead. But there are formalities.

  One cannot just let a man die and be buried. There are people who must be notified. There would be someone inquiring about him, wanting to know what happened." "There was no one. He was an orphan. He was a friend to my father and my father is dead." "Perhaps. Nevertheless, I did not know that at the time." "What does that mean?" "I went through his pockets." Her breath caught and I thought her face went a little pale.

  "I took what there was for identification, or to pass them on to relatives." "I've said he had no relatives.

  You can give them to me." "Perhaps I shall. One of the items was a map.

  There were a few coins, and some buttons. Very unusual buttons." "I know nothing about them." For a moment I was silent. The others would be coming up to the fire soon. I fed sticks into the flames, and then said, "I do." She was startled. "You what?" "I recognized the buttons. You see, Miss Falvey, I'm a man of curious mind. I read. I also listen, and when interested, I inquire. When a man is dedicated to the search for knowledge, he may follow his quest down many strange paths.

  "Having followed my curiosity as far as I have, it's not difficult to put a few things together.

  Your father was an interested man also, that much is obvious. By what means he first learned of this treasure we may never know, but that he knew of it as did Conway is obvious. The buttons are an indication." "They were all there was left," Lucinda said.

  "When my father found the old church, the treasure was gone... already gone. He found a few buttons, the medallion... a few coins, and a gem the thieves had dropped in their hurry to be away." "No doubt that's true, as far as it goes, but what about the old Indian? He told your father something. Told him enough, in fact." She hesitated, her eyes searching mine. "I must have help. Can you trust these men?" "They're risking their lives to help you." "Or to find what I'm looking for?" "Not too many men are to be trusted when gold is a matter of concern, or a pretty woman, but I believe these men can be trusted. I've found them men of principle, and despite what many wish to believe, there are honorable men in the world.

  "However, think of this. If you go away now, without the treasure, how will you get back? There're a thousand stories of lost cities, lost temples, vast treasures. Why should anyone believe yours rather than any other? How many men will you find who'll go into Indian country with you?

  "There's another thing. Suppose someone finds it while you're gone? We don't know if that old Indian was the only one who knew. That man who looks like your father... what does he know?" What I said was true and she knew it. Her chance of ever returning to this area was slight, yet she hesitated, twisting her fingers and thinking.

  I could well understand how she felt. She was a young woman alone, far into a situation she had never expected or planned for, and even if she escaped from this wilderness, she faced abject poverty in a world without mercy.

  She found herself among strangers, with a group of rough-seeming men with no allegiance to anybody or anything. That I was Irish she knew, and Davy Shanagan, too, but there were rogues enough among the Irish so that might count for nothing.

  "I don't know what to do," she said helplessly. "I... I have no one. When I came to Santa Fe, I didn't expect this.

  Mr. Conway was going to help, and Jorge. I trusted them." "And now you must trust us." She looked at me, her eyes imploring.

  She must risk all or lose all. "You... you knew about the treasure?" "Yes. Such stories have always fascinated me, and this one had some peculiar aspects that we needn't go into now. It's actually two treasures, you know." "I didn't know." "It began in Malta. A renegade knight of Malta fled the island with a gold medallion, some silver buttons cut from a uniform, and a dozen precious gems. In Spain, fearing the knights of Malta whom he well knew would pursue him, he joined a force of Spanish soldiers who were going out to the Indies.

  "His idea was to buy a plantation on one of the islands and settle down there. However, his pursuers arranged for him to be arrested by the Inquisition. He was tipped off, and selling one of the jewels, he smuggled himself aboard a caravel sailing for Mexico. There he took service under an assumed name and led several slave-capturing expeditions among the Indians.

  On one of these, he came upon an abandone

  church in a deserted village. It was one of those ill-fated attempts that came to nothing because of the fierceness of the Indians, and by the time our man came upon it, the place was forgotten.

  "At about that time, an Indian trying to curry favor offered to tell him of a treasure if only the captain would release him from the group of Indians he was returning to slavery.

  "Our captain listened, and the Indian told him that when Montezuma was taken by the Spanish, much gold had been hidden to keep it fr
om them, and he knew where this gold was. He led our captain to it, the captain promptly killed him, then with the gems he already had and the treasure just taken, he made a cache in the ancient church and came away." "I didn't know how it happened," she said.

  "How do you know all this?" "Most of it's a matter of record. Nothing is as secret as men imagine. The Indian who tried to buy his way out had talked to other Indians of what he hoped to do, and when their companion turned up missing, one of them told of it.

  "One man likes the smell of gold as well as another, and where there is honey, the bees gather.

  At headquarters they had inquiries about a certain renegade knight of Malta, so the captain was called in for questioning on both counts.

  Unhappily for them, and for himself, he wasn't as tough a man as he imagined, and he didn't survive the questioning.

  "All they succeeded in getting from him was that he knew nothing, had hidden nothing, and was being persecuted by the knights of Malta because he knew their secrets.

  "The renegade died, but appended to the report on the case was information to the effect that he was believed to have hidden the gold in a church or mission chapel." "I knew none of this!" "It all happened long ago. I learned of it when I heard talk of it one night in France.

  Several of us were discussing lost treasures and vanished cities, the way people will.

  "One of the young men was from Madrid, and he knew the whole story. Later, from curiosity, we investigated a little." "But it was gone! My father learned somehow, or figured out, where the deserted church was, but the treasure was gone and even the few things he found were well hidden. Father believed the treasure had been taken out by night and the men taking it hadn't known they'd left anything." "Probably. But the story doesn't end there.