Until Darkness Disappears (A Saga of Texas)

by Will Cook

  “Only my purse,” Early said. “Fortunately I was carrying only ninety dollars in cash. Had I been carrying more, they might have thought I was rich and held me for ransom.”

  Ella reached out and patted his hand. “And the dear never said a word to me about it in consideration of what I’d been through.”

  “You’ve got breeding, Mister Early,” Manners said. “I knew that the first moment I saw you.” He motioned toward the roast. “Are you sure you won’t join me?”

  “Thank you, no,” Early said. “We’ve really intruded long enough. Don’t bother to get up, Major. We’ll show ourselves out.” He shook hands again. “When you come to town, drop in at the store. I’m going on another buying trip tomorrow, but I’ll be back before the week is out.”

  “I may do that,” Manners said. “By the way, have you seen that saddlebum, Hinshaw? When he left here, he was riding a company horse. I’d hate to slap a horse-stealing charge on him. So, if you run into him, tell him I said to bring the animal back, and we’ll forget it. He’s half wild and will get in enough trouble before he’s dead without adding this to it.”

  “It seems that I recall someone saying he had a job on a ranch,” Early said. “However, if I see him, I’ll tell him to bring the horse back.”

  They left, and Manners waited until they drove away, then motioned for the guard to come in. “Send for Corporal Anderson.” He then took the paper from beneath his plate, and read it. When he was finished, he sat there with his fists clenched.

  Anderson came in, and Manners waved him into a chair. “The Sanders girl slipped me this. She saw Hinshaw, and I guess we know why Grady’s horse came back alone. He’s dead. Murdered by one of Early’s men.” He tossed the note to Anderson who read it slowly. “That part about the new machine guns may just be the thing we’ve been waiting for. Damn it, I wish Gary were here. He’d know about those things.”

  “You want me to take Bill’s place near the Carlisle Ranch?”

  “No,” Manners said. “It’s too risky. Early will be on the look-out even more now that Grady was caught.” He slapped the desk. “I told Early that the horse Hinshaw was riding was taken without permission. Knowing how cautious Early is, it might bring Hinshaw here for a talk.”

  “How do you figure that?” Anderson asked.

  “Early may tell him to bring it back. He wouldn’t want a warrant sworn out. So we’ll sit tight until we see Hinshaw. Maybe by then he can give us a lead on that boat. If we knew the location, we could board it when it docks, or board her at sea.” He lit a cigar and paced up and down the office. “It seems to me that, if Early ever takes those wagons across the river, the weapons will get into Pedro Vargas’s hands, and there won’t be one solitary thing we can do to stop it. So we’ve got to do Early a favor and keep the guns on this side and make Vargas come and get them.” He looked out the window. “He’s camped over there somewhere, probably near enough so that he can see with a telescope. I say that because there must be some signal arrangement between him and Early, some sign used that’s big enough to be seen across the river.”

  “Yeah, and so ordinary that we’ve never noticed it.”

  Manners turned and looked at Anderson for a long moment. “You’ve hit on somethig real smart there, and I don’t see how I ever overlooked you for sergeant;” He slapped his hands together. “That’s what we’ve got to find out, that signal. I want every corporal in my office in a half hour. Somehow, if enough questions are asked, enough thought put to it, we may pretty well put down on paper just what Mister Early’s obvious habits are, and, out of those, something very commonplace is going to come up again and again, and we’ll find it. Now get out of here and pass the word.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Hinshaw grew tired of waiting, but he’d been told to wait, and he was getting paid to wait. So he smoked and sat on some grain bags in the rear of Fred Early’s store. Finally Early arrived. He went into his office and motioned for Hinshaw to follow him.

  “Close the door.” He lit a cigar and sat down. “Miss Sanders and I have been out to Ranger Headquarters. A little politicking.” He looked at his watch. “It’s later than I thought.” He took a twenty-dollar gold piece from his pocket and tossed it to Hinshaw. “Get yourself a railroad ticket to Corpus Christi. I’ll meet you at the depot just before train time. Get aboard after I do. Sit in the same coach but several seats behind me. I’ll be carrying considerable money in my valise, and I don’t want to lose it.”

  “All right,” Hinshaw said. “Is that all?”

  “You do the job right and that’s enough,” Early said.

  Hinshaw got up and went to the door. “In Corpus Christi what do I do?”

  “I’ll tell you what to do when the time comes,” Early said.

  Hinshaw left die store and went to the depot and bought his ticket. He put it in his coat pocket and walked back to the saloon where he nursed a beer and played solitaire to whittle away time. He kept watching the wall clock and the degree of the sunset and hoped that it would be fully dark before train time. After waiting as long as he dared, he left the saloon and, by the back alleys, worked his way to Ella Sanders’s house. She was in the kitchen, doing the supper dishes, when he scratched lightly on the screen door. He heard her step, then she unhooked the door, but, to keep her from opening it, he put his foot against it. He didn’t want to step in the light.

  “I’m leaving on the eight o’clock eastbound for Corpus Christi. Early’s carrying the money for the pay-off and….” He heard a chair scrape as someone got up from the table.

  “Run!” Ella screamed. “Run, Marty!”

  He knew it was Early, and he cursed himself for being such a damned fool, for being so careless, yet he wasn’t stupid enough to stay. He wheeled and dashed for the back fence and vaulted over it, ripping the leg of his pants as Early opened up with his .32 pocket pistol. The bullets came close, but not enough so as to touch Hinshaw. He sprinted on down the alley, all the time hoping that Ella would have sense enough to get out of the house before Early turned his attention to her.

  At the end of the alley he paused and heard Early coming up fast from behind. Hinshaw sprinted for the street, grabbed the first horse he came to, and went into the saddle. His rodeoing paid off, and he did an Indian sling, grabbing the mane and falling low along the horse’s, side as he fogged out of town. He didn’t think that Early would follow him to Ranger Headquarters, and, as soon as he cleared the street, he straightened in the saddle and let the horse run.

  A surprised ranger waved him on into Manners’s office. McCabe and Jim Gary were there, both unshaved and bearing the marks of hard miles traveled. They looked in surprise as Hinshaw burst into the room.

  “Major, I blew it!” Hinshaw said. “It was a fool thing to do, and I don’t have any excuse except that I got careless.”

  “Well,” McCabe said, “somewhere along the line you’ve learned how to be honest even when it hurts.”

  “Calm down,” Manners said. “What happened?”

  Hinshaw sat down. He explained that Early was going to Corpus Christi with the money to pay for the weapons. He told how he’d gone to Ella’s house to tell her so she could pass the information on and foolishly revealed both himself and her to Fred Early who had been out of sight, sitting at the kitchen table.

  Manners nodded, and scratched his chin. “Well, maybe we can save some of it. I have no doubt that you’d never have come back from Corpus Christi alive, Marty. Early surely would have had you killed and dumped into the sea. So you may have saved yourself a close one. Also we can assume that Early won’t be aboard the train since he knows I can telegraph ahead and have him arrested. It may mean that he won’t get to Corpus Christi on time, as he planned, but we might be able to.” He glanced at Jim Gary. “Colonel, do you want to bring Hinshaw up to date on developments across the border?”

  “We didn’t do well at all with the Mexican army,” Gary said. “They might be interested in a combined campaign late
r, but it will have to be cleared through diplomatic channels in Mexico City and Washington. Lord knows how long that will take. Three months. Maybe six. By that time Vargas will have sacked half of Texas.” He brushed some dust from his shirt sleeves. “We’ll have to get Vargas to come on this side of the river, Major. Your plan has a great deal of merit.”

  “Yes, and I’ve just had another idea,” Manners said. “Marty, do you suppose Early was going to meet that German in Corpus Christi?”

  “He might. Why?”

  “Suppose we detain Early as long as we can while you go on ahead and meet the German. He’s met you at Carlisle’s place, and he knows you’re an Early man. You just might be able to buy those damned guns in Early’s name. If we had them, it might be enough to draw Vargas across the river into a trap. Colonel Gary is familiar with that type of armament, and he agrees that such a weapon would be of great value to a fast, mobile army.”

  “Well, I’m game to try it, Major. But how’ll I catch the eastbound? It’s likely out of the station by now.”

  “A telegram will hold it at the tanks for two hours, and, by taking a spare horse along, you could make it.” He frowned. “Hate to send you alone, but….”

  “You don’t have to,” McCabe said. “I’ll go with him.”

  Manners shook his head. “Too many people know you, Guthrie.”

  “They don’t know me,” Jim Gary said, smiling. “Besides I’m an old cavalry soldier who can ride anything with hair on it.” He looked at Hinshaw. “Pick four good mounts, boy. We’ll be moving fast.”

  “In the meantime,” Manners said, “I’ll do everything I can to detain him in town, but I won’t promise too much. Better figure on him arriving in Corpus Christi a day after you do.”

  “You could arrest him,” Hinshaw said.

  “On what charge? Your word against his? A smart lawyer would have him free in twenty-four hours.”

  “He threw a cylinder of lead at me.”

  “Because he caught you snooping around his fiancee?” Manners shook his head again. “Who could ask for a better story than that? No, we’ll do the best we can. Give me fifteen minutes, then come back here for the money. How much was Early going to take?”

  “About thirty thousand,” Hinshaw said.

  Manners whistled. “I wonder if I have that much in the safe? It’s division payroll and expenses for a year. Well, let me worry about it.”

  Hinshaw picked horses with the legs for speed and the deep chests for show, and, to save the horses, he suggested that they ride bareback, for the weight of a Mexican saddle would tell over the distance of miles. Gary agreed to this, and they returned to headquarters. Manners came out with a leather dispatch case that Hinshaw put inside his shirt.

  “There’s twenty-six thousand there in bills. I’ve wired ahead, and the eastbound will be sided at the tanks until you arrive. Good luck, both of you, and bring me back those guns.” He extended his hand up. “Or at least get them on Texas soil. A full company of rangers will be on patrol near the waterfront. If you get to shore, we’ll surround you like bees around a hive.”

  “What’s going to keep Vargas from finding out we’re holding the guns?” Hinshaw asked.

  “Nothing,” Manners said. “In fact, we’ll do everything in our power to make sure he finds out. It might be an irresistible plum for a vain bastard like him… to take the guns away from the Texas Rangers.”

  Hinshaw laughed and wheeled his horse and rode out with Jim Gary a pace behind. They cut across country, riding fast, and the only time they stopped at all was to open fence gates. In two hours they reached the road and followed it for nearly ten miles, then they pulled to a walk to spare the horses.

  Gary checked his nose and suggested: “We ought to swap mounts now.” He looked back at the two horses they had been leading.

  “Too early,” Hinshaw said. He sniffed the air. “Do you smell dust?”

  “I don’t smell anything,” Gary said. “This pounding’s made my nose bleed. Guess I’m not as young as I thought.”

  They stopped for several minutes. “I still smell dust,” Hinshaw said. “Someone’s ahead of us and traveling fast.” He sniffed again. “Something else, too. Like hot oil.” He swore. “Damn it! Early’s automobile! He’s ahead of us in that damned automobile of his!”

  He drummed his heels against the horse, and they rode on at a trot, letting the miles fall back. Hinshaw kept smelling the dust and the hot motor oil. At midnight they swapped horses and turned the jaded mounts loose on the prairie. Hinshaw said: “That dust smell is getting stronger.”

  “How far to the tanks?”

  “Two hours. Maybe a little less. How do you suppose Early found out the train was sided there?”

  “Likely the telegrapher in town picked it up and passed it on,” Gary said. “Let’s go.”

  They rode for nearly three miles, then Hinshaw pulled up sharply, and sniffed the air. “No dust,” he said.

  “He couldn’t have left the road,” Gary said. Then he peered ahead. “What’s that? Looks like a light.”

  Hinshaw saw what had attracted Gary’s attention, a small glow of light, as though someone were standing in the road with a lantern.

  “He’s broke down,” Hinshaw said gleefully. “Come on!”

  They rode forward without regard for caution, and, as they drew near, they could see Early’s automobile in the middle of the road. Early heard them approach and dropped the lantern and ran across the road, hopped over a fence, and disappeared in a pasture. Hinshaw looked at the car. The engine cover was up, and it was not running. He drew his pistol and fired repeatedly into the mechanism as though it were the brain of some monster and he wanted to make sure that he killed it. Then he reloaded and shot out three of the wooden wheel spokes so that the hub collapsed on the rim. He went on, leaving the car sitting askew in the road.

  Gary sided him and said: “We ought to get Early, son.”

  “To hell with him. He’s got a long walk ahead of him.”

  The train sat at the siding, engine idly huffing, and they got aboard, and it pulled onto the main line. They went into the caboose and had some coffee and sat down. The conductor ventured back, and Hinshaw asked: “When’s the next eastbound due through Laredo?”

  “Day after tomorrow,” the man said. He looked at them, at their dusty clothes, and at Gary’s beard and bloody shirt front. “You don’t look important enough to hold up a train for.”

  “He’s the Grand Duke of Russia.” Hinshaw said, nodding to Gary. “You wouldn’t want an incident that would lead to war, would you?”

  “You can’t stay here in the caboose,” the conductor said, getting fussy. “It’s for railroad people.”

  “We don’t want to go up and sit with the peasants, either,” Hinshaw said. “Ain’t that right, your Highness?”

  “If you say so,” Gary said, smiling. “After all, your father owns the railroad.”

  The conductor wasn’t going to get anywhere and he knew it, so he went forward to take his irritation out on the passengers. Gary poured some coffee and stretched out in the seat. “This sit-down feels mighty good. It’s hell what years will do to a man.” He saw Hinshaw rolling a cigarette and took die makings from him. “When I was a second lieutenant many years ago, I didn’t smoke. But I got promoted and graduated to cigars. Actually, that was more important than the promotion, for you couldn’t keep a good sergeant unless you smoked good cigars that he could bum off you. When I made captain, I had to have cigars and whisky.” He smiled and sighed and closed his eyes. “Those were hard days, but good. They must have been, for I remember them so fondly.”

  “I hope I live through this so I can remember it,” Hinshaw said. “Colonel, if we carry this off and make Vargas swim the river, I’d kind of like to make a present of him to McCabe.”

  Gary opened his eyes and looked at Hinshaw. “What do you mean by that?”

  Hinshaw shrugged. “Well, McCabe’s chased Vargas quite a spell, and I get the
feeling that, if it was over, he’d retire to some front porch with a good dog at his feet and a newspaper in his lap. I guess an old he-bear like McCabe never quits on the down swing, so I’d like to run Vargas right into his arms.”

  “Son, you’re talking my language,” Gary said. “We’ll have to work something out. That’s for sure.” He studied Hinshaw most carefully. “I guess you figure on getting Fred Early personally?”

  “No,” Hinshaw said. “I don’t care who gets him. If it’s me, I’ll be sorry for it, because there’s a woman I’ll have to face afterward. Sure she doesn’t love him, but she thought she did, and it wouldn’t be right, me having to kill him.”

  “So that’s why you didn’t go after him across the pasture?”

  “I guess it is,” Hinshaw agreed.

  “That could have been a mistake,” Gary said. “He may get lucky and catch a horse or make some connections and throw a kink in your rope.”

  “It’s a chance I’m taking,” Hinshaw said. “But if you thought it was a mistake, Colonel, you could have done something about it.”

  “That’s right,” Gary said. “But I’ll tell you something, son. I’ve got you pretty well pegged, and I’ll take you along any time, anywhere. Back to back with you I’ll never worry about any yellow rubbing off on me, and, if we’re unlucky and catch a bullet, I’ll know that it’ll go in the front. Bill Grady knew that. So does McCabe and the major. You’ve finally made the grade as a ranger, squirt.”

  Hinshaw grinned and color came to his face. “Thanks, Colonel.”

  “You’ve earned it.”

  “Naw, I don’t mean that bull. I mean calling me squirt.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Batiste Rameras was in the saddle shop when he heard the back door open and close, and, since few people ever came in that way, he went to the rear of the store to investigate. Fred Early sat on a bale of leather. He had his shoes off and was rubbing his feet.