The Devil's Staircase

by Randy D. Smith

  Ortiz shook his head. "It will be night soon. If he does not make it back by moonrise, I think we should ride on."

  "And the packs?"

  "They are in order, senora. Nothing was lost."

  "They are coming. I see them in the pinons," a vaquero said.

  "Go to them. Show them where we are," she said.

  As the vaquero rode away, Ortiz spoke quietly to her. "We are few in number, senora. Perhaps we should not go on with him. I am afraid he will take the gold."

  "No, Don Antonio. We will not go on without him. The Capitan is not interested in the gold. He will not betray me. We are united by a blood oath."

  "How can you be so sure? He is a Tejano known for his hatred of our people."

  "Yes, I know. But I trust this Tejano. I can see it in his eyes. He is a man of his word. I have his pledge and we are united by blood."

  Ransom’s men rode in quietly led by the vaquero. Segundo swayed in his saddle as his horse was led by Tad Cole. Only one vaquero was left.

  "Where are the rest?" Dona Elaina asked as she stepped to Ransom.

  Ransom hesitated when he recognized Dona Elaina in a poncho and cotton pants. He shook his head. "They didn’t make it."

  "So few of us left," Ortiz muttered as he helped Segundo from his saddle.

  "We have enough to get through," Ransom said as he studied her features for a reaction.

  "Yes," she said grimly. "We have enough."

  "Has anyone checked the trail, ahead? Are the Comanches still with the caravan?" Ransom asked.

  "I rode ahead," Ortiz said. "They have left. Only the bodies of the dead and the burned carriage remain."

  Ransom dismounted. "Good. Tonight after moonrise we will go through the pass. We need to patch up Segundo as best we can or he won’t be able to ride on. I don’t want to leave him."

  "I can ride," Segundo said. "Do not wait for me. I will make it."

  Paco Torres shook his head and motioned for Earnesto to get his canteen. "Not until I dress this wound, amigo. You have lost a lot of blood and need to rest."

  "He’s got maybe five hours," Ransom said as he eyed Segundo. "I’m sorry. That’s as long as I can wait. Wilkes will be coming."

  "Wilkes?" Dona Elaina asked. "I thought he was your man."

  "So did I. Someone betrayed us. Patch is the likely candidate. Until I know different I figure it was him. He’s smart and he’s trail wise. You can bet that he won’t back off if he has the scent of blood."

  He turned to face her. Even in the peasant clothing she appeared frail and feminine. "It’s not too late to turn back, senora. There are only eleven of us left. Segundo is wounded, the boy, the old man and you. That leaves only seven fighting men."

  "Do you turn back?"

  "No, I’ll go on with Tad. His blood is up and he wants someone to answer for his brother and Toby. You know what I want. I can deliver the ransom. You can send the vaqueros or Ortiz on with me. They can make sure your daughter is returned safely."

  "No. I will go on as well. I am not what you think I am. I told you that at the creek. I was not always the wife of an aristocrat. I am descended from one of the first families of New Mexico. My family fought the Indians and held the land with little more than crossbows for a hundred years. I knew years of terror and starvation when I was a child. My family fought the Comanches hand to hand to hold our land. My mother was killed when I was only eight years old. From that day onward I was the first lady of the Hildago family. I know what it is to work and to struggle. I can fight and ride with any man here."

  "It is true, Capitan," Paco Torres said. "I have been with the senora all my life. Her father, Don Joaquin, sent me with her to Texas as her personal bodyguard. That was more than twenty years ago. When she was young, she could ride and shoot with any man in Albuquerque."

  "Then Colonel Valverde had a lot of woman," Ransom said.

  "More woman than he knew what to do with," she said with a smile.

  Ransom was surprised. He had never heard a woman of her position speak in such a manner. "Well, then hell. Somebody give her some pistols. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover is a short time."

  They worked by the massacre site in the moonlight and up the pass without incident. The bodies were stripped clean of clothing or weapons. Dawn found them on the plains to the west of the Glass Mountains. They rode throughout the day and into the night with only stops to water and rest the horses. They covered forty miles but their mounts were too exhausted to go on. That night they camped at the base of Sierra Blanca and built a cooking fire. Ransom immediately ordered night guards while the others rested.

  Dona Elaina was resting alone by the campfire when Ransom sat across from her and cut a piece of jerky. He smiled. "I wish someone had saved some coffee. I miss my coffee in the morning and evening. This is a far cry from fancy table cloths and soup, huh?"

  She smiled. "Si, it is not the same."

  "How did this Rafael character get his hands on your daughter?"

  "She was stolen from my house. They came in the dark of night and took her. They were very good. No one heard them."

  "I wonder why they didn’t take you instead."

  "Because I would not have given them anything. They knew that. They took the one thing more precious to me than my own life."

  "Yeah, it must have been tough."

  "I love her even though she is not my natural daughter."

  "Oh? I thought…"

  "I was Don Francisco’s second wife. His first died in childbirth. He was nearly twenty years my senior. When his wife died, he contacted my father and the marriage was arranged. I was only fourteen when I married him. Sonia was nearly five."

  "No children of your own, then?"

  She stared into the fire, lost for a moment in her thoughts. "No, no children of my own. I was little more to him than his housekeeper and mother for his daughter while he served in the army."

  Ransom threw a stick into the fire. "Figures."

  "I am sorry, senor. I do not understand."

  "It figures. I mean you didn’t leave Texas after the rebellion. You didn’t join your husband."

  "And?" She suddenly seemed offended.

  "Normally, a woman would join her man. That’s all I meant."

  "And you know what a woman would do?"

  Ransom’s eyes narrowed. "I’ve only known one woman. She was something. She went wherever I did and wouldn’t have it any other way. I…I talk too much."

  She smiled. "And I am too easily offended. Tell me about your woman."

  He relaxed. "Elizabeth? I called her Beth most of the time. She was small with red hair and green eyes. Her folks came to Texas for cheap land after the rebellion. I met her in San Antonio de Bejar. She had thirteen brothers and sisters. There was a passel of them Morgans. Anyway the Rangers were pretty loosely organized back then. There was only one company riding the Nueces Strip and I was never in one place for long. I met her at a social and three days later we were married. I figure old Pop Morgan saw a way to have one less mouth to feed so he let me have her on short notice. I had a couple of sections of land due me for service in the rebellion, so I packed her up and we settled on it." He smiled and stared into the fire. "She was something. Barely bigger than a minute. But she was tough. More than once she gave me what for. We had a son born a year later. He was red headed and loud, just like his mom. His name was Benjamin." He hesitated for a moment, his eyes on the fire. "God, I loved that woman."

  She hesitated, afraid he would anger. "And she was killed?"

  His face turned cold and dark. His eyes remained on the fire. "She was butchered. There weren’t no reason for them to have done that to her. No reason at all. If they had it in for me, they should have taken me. But no, they killed her and the boy. They’ve all paid but one." His eyes shifted to hers. They were black and cold. The hatred poured from them. "And he will pay. I’ll do him like he did her. I’ll skin the bastard alive before I hang his head in the tree with the others."


  She shuttered and looked into the fire. "I am sorry. I shouldn’t have asked."

  He softened. "It’s all right, senora. I guess I needed to talk about it. You and I need to clear up some things and now is as good a time as any to do it."

  "I do not understand."

  "The gold. Santa Anna’s gold. I know about it. I was sent by Houston to take it from you."

  "Why are you telling me this?"

  "Because I don’t give a damn about it. I want Rafael and nothing else matters. We made a bargain back there at the creek. I doubt your daughter is alive. If she is she’ll never be the same as before. I am talking plain to you but that’s the way I figure it. I know what it is to lose the people you love to a cold-blooded killer. I mean to have his hide and I believe that you and I have much in common. Maybe not now but later."

  She smiled. "There is no gold. I have heard rumors of the stories. Santa Anna had no treasure and Francisco did not leave it with me as so many have said. What I have packed on those mules is everything I have left in the world. I sold the ranch, the cattle, everything to pay the ransom. It is not enough but it is all I have."

  "Still, it is quite a bit. It has to be."

  "I have five thousand dollars. That is all I could raise on such short notice."

  "Then where will you go? What will you do?"

  She smiled. "I am going back to Albuquerque and my family. I have had enough of Texas and Tejanos. Once I am able to get Sonia, I am taking her to my family’s home. And I will never set foot in Texas again."

  "Five thousand dollars is still a lot. It’s sure as hell a lot more money than I’ve ever seen."

  "Yes, but not nearly what they think I have. I did not deny the story when I first heard it. If the Tejanos thought I had great riches, it worked to my benefit. I did not care. I know it helped me secure credit and hold the ranch together after Santa Anna was defeated. But it became a curse. It has cost me Sonia and like you, I do not believe I will get her back."

  "Then why are you here?"

  "Because I will not bend to them, no matter who they are. I will not live in terror because some Tejano presidente or anyone else believes I have some treasure. I know your Houston and I have never trusted him."

  "Then why did you go to him in the first place?"

  Her face turned cold. "Because I did not know for sure that he had not taken her. It was the only way that I had to test him. If it were a trap and he had her, he would not waste the time following me to Santa Fe and he would not have sent someone like you."

  "I don’t understand."

  "Don’t you see, Capitan. He sent his best. He sent a man of honor. A man he thought he could trust to bring back the gold. His mistake was that he underestimated your hatred for Rafael."

  Ransom sat quietly for several moments absorbing what she had said. "Then where the hell is your husband?"

  "I do not know. I have not heard from him since before San Jacinto. For all I know he died there and someone else claimed to be him in turn for mercy from you Tejanos."

  Ransom thought for a moment. "I doubt that. Claiming to be the "Butcher of Goliad" is not my idea of hoping for mercy from a bunch of Texans."

  "I have heard nothing. I do not know if he is alive or dead. You have my word on that, Capitan."

  Ransom studied her face and smiled. He believed her. "And you have my word, senora. We need to do some thinking and planning. It may be that we can get your daughter without paying them. As long as I can get Rafael…nothing else matters."

  Chapter 12

  Ransom awoke suddenly from a sound sleep and jumped from his blankets. Tad Cole, Paco Torres and several vaqueros were startled awake by his movements.

  "Who’s on guard duty?" Ransom asked.

  "Ortiz, why?" Tad answered.

  "Where is he?" Ransom asked as he grabbed a revolver and ran to the picket line. Dona Elaina, Cole, Torres and the vaqueros followed. The horses were gone.

  "I suppose he took the gold," Ransom said.

  She nodded. "Yes, the money was hidden in a leather case. It is gone along with some supplies."

  "We’ll never catch him on foot," Tad said.

  Ransom turned to retrieve his gun belt. "He just left. That’s what woke me. We might be able to run him down."

  "In the dark?" Dona Elaina asked.

  "What choice do we have? Without those horses, we’re dead. I need a good man."

  "Esteban, go with him," she ordered.

  A young vaquero grabbed his carbine and a canteen before joining Ransom.

  "Stash the saddles. Pack up what you can carry and follow our trail at first light," Ransom ordered. "We’ll not wait for you."

  Ransom and Esteban disappeared into the darkness following the horse prints toward the west. For an hour they struggled to follow but as the dawn light slowly increased the trail became clear. After that they broke into a jogging pursuit over rolling hills and mesquite canyons.

  Several hours later they found sign that the remuda had been scattered and Ortiz had gone on with only his own mount and a pack mule. Ransom decided that finding the horses was more important than Ortiz for the moment. They turned into some low canyons to the north and followed the horses along a dry creek bed. They found them watering at a shallow pond still wearing their halters. Ransom captured his horse with little effort and cut a length of rope dangling from one of the mule halters. He tied it to the halter lead ring to create a single rein. Esteban gathered his horse and made a rein from his belt.

  "Drive them back to the others," Ransom ordered. "Go back for the saddles and follow my trail. I’m going on after Ortiz." He jumped on his pony’s bare back. "Ortiz should have pulled the halters. He could have delayed me more if he had."

  Esteban nodded. "Where should we look for you?"

  "Just keep working toward El Paso. I’ll find you, if I’m able." Ransom dug his heels into his horse’s flanks and rode back to take up Ortiz’s trail.

  * * * *

  Ortiz worked his way up a low rocky hill and stopped to rest his horse. He looked across the horizon to the east to see if anyone was following. When he was certain no one was close he remounted and topped the crest. He rode throughout the day and decided to camp along a dry arroyo for the night. After watering and hobbling his horse and mule, he took out the leather case and emptied the contents on the ground beside his saddle. He shook his head and began searching through the mile pack.

  "Lose something?" Patch Wilkes asked as he stepped from the mesquite smiling. Tanto Corrello followed close behind, his carbine pointed toward Ortiz.

  Ortiz swore softly and shook his head. "I did not think of you. How did you find me?"

  "We were following Ransom. We noticed the ruckus this morning in their camp and realized that the horses were gone. We followed the trail and here we are. Old Jacky is going to be mighty pissed when he catches you. He’s liked to ran his ass off following you."

  "Will I be alive?" Ortiz asked.

  "Sure, I got no reason to kill you. Why should I? Black Jack will be more than happy to do that little chore for me. He’s going to be mighty pissed."

  Ortiz nodded. "And you can go on while he follows me."

  "That’s the idea, amigo. You’re a greedy man, Don Antonio. You shouldn’t have tried this little stunt on your own."

  Ortiz smiled. "I decided that I would be better off with the money than a bunch of Tejanos. It was a plan formulated when I realized I was the only one awake in the camp. Perhaps I should have been more careful."

  Wilkes motioned for Ortiz to step away from his carbine and hand over his pistol and knife. "And a good plan it was, amigo. It sure helped me and Tanto out. We were having a hell of a time figuring out how we were going to steal the money from Black Jack without getting our asses shot off."

  "You would not consider an alliance for a share?" Ortiz asked.

  Wilkes laughed. "Hell, no! You’re a thief and an outlaw. You can’t be trusted. I figure me and Tanto can spend all that fortu
ne by our own selves."

  Ortiz smiled and offered the money with a sweep of his hand. "It is yours, Senor Patch. Try not to spend it all in one place."

  Wilkes hesitated as he reacted to Ortiz’s gesture. "What is this?"

  "One hundred and twelve pesos." Ortiz laughed and sat in the dirt shaking his head. "One hundred…" He hesitated for the full effect. "And twelve pesos. The rest is just paper and washers."

  "What the hell? What are you talking about?" Patch asked as he stepped to the money and gazed down on it. "Where’s the rest?"

  "I should have known," Ortiz said as he watched Patch count the money. "I have known that woman for years. I should have guessed that she would do something like this."

  "Gott damn it! Gott damn it to hell!" Patch pounded the ground with his fist. "You mean to tell me that it was all a hood wink! Where is the treasure?"

  "Quien sabe? She has it sewn in her petty coat for all I know."

  "Dust to the east. There’s somebody coming," Tanto said as he looked toward the horizon. "Riding hard, alone."

  Patch nodded. "That would be old Black Jack. He’s going to be mighty pissed."

  "What do we do now?" Tanto asked.

  "Well, we’re going to have to shoot him. I’m going to have to shoot it out with the best friend I ever had and the most notorious gunman in the Texas Rangers for one hundred and twelve pesos. Ain’t this a hell of a note?"

  "Perhaps we could join forces?" Ortiz asked. "For a share of the fortune, of course."

  Patch nodded. "Yeah, I think I’ve changed my mind. How about for a share of our hides? He’s going to be mighty pissed."

  "With him out of the way, we could go back and find her. I am going to enjoy making her talk," Ortiz muttered.

  "Let’s get Black Jack before we start planning ways of carving her up." Wilkes made a quick study of the area. "I think our best bet is to use this camp to draw him in. You willing to act as bait so Tanto and me can get the drop on him?"

  Ortiz nodded grimly. "You are certain you will cover me?"

  Wilkes smiled wickedly. "Sure, old compadre. We’re pards now. Amigos. Having old Patch backing your play is like having money in the bank, right Tanto?"