"If it ain't bears, it's Indians." That night Call was placed in the center of the company, for his own safety; even so, he slept badly, and was troubled by dreams in which Gomez was carrying Buffalo Hump's great hump. One moment the Apache chief would be aiming an arrow at him, so real and so close that he would awaken.
Then, the minute he dozed off again, it would be the Comanche chief that was aiming the arrow.
In the grey morning, cold but glad to be alive, Call remembered that a long time back Bigfoot had had a dream in which Buffalo Hump and Gomez rode together into Mexico, to take captives.
"Didn't you dream about Buffalo Hump and Gomez fighting together?" he asked.
"Yes, I hope it don't never come true," Bigfoot said. "One of them at a time's plenty to have to whip." "We ain't whipping them," Call pointed out.
"We ain't killed but two of them, and they've accounted for most of our troop." "I admit they're wild," Bigfoot said.
"But they're just men. If you put a bullet in them in the right place, they'll die, just like you or me. Their skins ain't the same colour as ours, but their blood's just as red." Call knew that what Bigfoot said was true.
The Indians were men; bullets could kill them.
He himself had fired a bullet into Buffalo Hump's son and the son had died, just as dead as the three Mexican boys who had fallen to Apache arrows.
"It's hitting them that's hard," he said. "They're too smart about the country." So far the Indians had won every encounter, and not because bullets couldn't hurt them: they won because they were too quick, and too skilled. They moved fast, and silently. Both Kicking Wolf and Gomez had taken horses, night after night--horses that were within feet of the best guards they could post.
"The Corporal is right," Salazar said.
"We are strangers in this country, compared to them.
We know a little about the animals, that's all. The Apaches know which weeds to eat--they can smell out roots and dig them up and eat them. They can survive in this country, because they know it. When we learn how to smell out roots, and which weeds to eat, maybe we can fight them on even terms." "I doubt I'll ever be in the mood to study up on weeds," Gus said.
"This is gloomy talk, I guess I'll walk by myself awhile, unless Matty wants to walk with me," Bigfoot said. He didn't like to hear Indians overpraised, just because the Rangers found them hard to kill. There were exceptional Indians, of course, but there were also plenty who were unexceptional, and no harder to kill than anyone else. He himself would have welcomed an encounter with Gomez, whom Call described as short and bowlegged.
"I expect I can outfight most bowlegged men," he remarked to Long Bill Coleman, who found the remark eccentric.
"I wish I still had my harmonica," Long Bill said. "It's dreary at night, without no tunes."
The next day they saw a distant outline to the west--the outline of mountains. Captain Salazar's spirits improved at once.
"Those are the Caballo Mountains," he said.
"Once we cross them we will soon arrive at a place where there is food. Las Cruces is not far." "Not far?" Gus said. Even with his eyesight the distant mountains made only the faintest outline, and his stomach was growling from hunger.
"What does he think far is?" he asked Call. "We might walk another week before we come to them hills." Call's shoulder had become so sensitive from the rough crutch that he had to grit his teeth every time he put his weight on it. His foot was better--he could put a little weight on it, if he moved cautiously--but he was afraid to discard the crutch entirely. The mountains might be another seventy-five miles away, and even then, they would have to be crossed.
That day, despite Captain Salazar's optimism, the Mexican troops began to desert. They were hungry and weak. At noon the Captain called a rest, and when it was time to resume the march, six of the Mexican soldiers simply didn't get up. Their eyes were dull, from too much suffering.
"You fools, you are in sight of safety," Salazar said. "If you don't keep walking, Gomez will come. He will kill you all, and you may not be so lucky as the three he killed with arrows.
He may make sport of you--and Apache sport is not nice." None of the men changed expression, as he talked. After a glance, they did not look up.
"They're finished," Bigfoot said. "We've all got a finishing point. These boys have just come to theirs. The Captain can rant and rave all he wants to--they're done." Captain Salazar quickly came to the same conclusion. He looked at the six men sternly, but gave up his efforts at persuasion. He took three of their muskets and turned away.
"I am leaving you your ammunition," he said.
"Three of you have rifles. Shoot at the Apaches with the rifles. If you do not win, drive them back, then use the pistols on yourselves.
Adios." Leaving the six men was hard--harder than any of the Texans had expected it to be. In the time of their captivity, they had come to know most of the Mexicans by their first names--they had exchanged bits of language, sitting around the fires.
Bigfoot learned to say his own name, in Spanish. Several of the Mexican boys had started calling him "Beegfeet," in English.
Gus had taught two of the boys to play mumblety-peg. Matilda and Long Bill had taught them simple card games. On some of the coldest nights they had all huddled together, moving cards around with their cold hands. As the weary miles passed, they had stopped feeling hostile to one another--they were all in the same desperate position. One of the Mexicans who had some skill with woodwork had, the very night before, smoothed the crack in Woodrow Call's crutch, so that it would not rub his underarm quite so badly.
Now they were leaving them--Salazar and the other Mexicans were already a hundred yards away, plodding on toward the far distant mountains.
"I'm much obliged," Call said, to the boy who had smoothed his crutch.
Several of the Texans mumbled brief good-byes, but Matilda didn't--she felt she couldn't stand it: boys dying, day after day, one by one. She turned her back and walked away, crying.
"Oh Lord, I wish we'd get somewhere," Long Bill said, "All this walking on an empty belly's wore me just about out." That afternoon the company--what was left of it--stumbled on a patch of gourds. There were dozens of gourds, their vines curling over the sand.
"Can we eat these, Captain?" Bigfoot asked.
"They're gourds," Salazar said. "You can eat them if you want to eat gourds." "Captain, there's nothing else," Bigfoot pointed out. "Them mountains don't look no closer. We better gather up a few and try them." "Do as you like," Salazar said. "I will have to be hungrier than this before I eat gourds." That night, though, he was hungrier than he had been in the afternoon, and he ate a gourd. They made a little fire and put the gourds in it, as if they were potatoes. The gourds shriveled up, and the men nibbled at their ashy skins.
"Mine just tastes like ashes," Gus said, in disappointment.
"It might taste better if it were served on a plate," Long Bill said, a remark that amused Bigfoot considerably. Though he had strongly recommended gathering the gourds--after all, there was nothing else to gather--he had not yet got around to tasting one.
Several of the men were so hungry they ate the scorched gourds without hesitation.
"Tastes bitter as sin," Gus observed, after chewing a bite.
"I wouldn't know what you mean," Bigfoot said. "I'm a stranger to sin." Matilda stuck a knife into her gourd, and a puff of hot air came out. She sniffed at the gourd, and immediately started sneezing. Annoyed, she flipped the gourd away.
"If it makes me sneeze, it's bad," she said.
Later, though, she found the gourd and ate it.
One of the Mexican soldiers had gathered up the gourd vines, as well as the gourds. He scorched a vine and ate it; others soon followed suit. Even Salazar nibbled at a vine.
"When will we hit the mountains, Captain?" Bigfoot asked. "There might be game, up there where it's high." Salazar sighed--his mood had darkened as the day wore on. He had scarcely any of his company left, and only a
few of his prisoners.
It would not sit well with his superiors.
"The Apaches may not let us cross," he said. "There are many Apaches here. If there are too many, none of us will get through." "Now, Captain, don't be worrying," Bigfoot said. "We've walked too far to be stopped now." "You'll be stopped if enough arrows hit you," Salazar said.
The night was clear, with very bright stars. Salazar could not see the distant mountains, but he knew they were there, the last barrier they would have to cross before they reached the Rio Grande and safety. He knew he had done a hard thing--he had crossed the Jornada del Muerto with his prisoners. He had lost many soldiers and many prisoners, but he was across. In two days they could be eating goat, and corn, and perhaps the sweet melons that grew along the Rio Grande. None of his superiors could have done what he did, and yet he knew he would not be greeted as a hero, or even as a professional. He would be greeted as a failure. For that reason, he thought of Gomez-- it would be worth dying, with what men he had left, if he could only kill the great Apache. Then, at least, he would die heroically, as befitted a soldier.
"I think the Captain's lost his spunk," Gus said, observing how silent and melancholy the man had been around the campfire. Even the amusing sight of his whole company attempting to eat the bitter gourds had not caused him to smile.
"It ain't that," Bigfoot said--then he fell silent. He had been around defeated officers before, in his years of scouting for the military. Some had met defeat unfairly, through caprice or bad luck; others had been beaten by such overwhelming numbers that survival itself would have brought them glory. And yet to military men, circumstances didn't seem to matter--if they didn't win, they lost, and no amount of reflection could take away the sting.
"It ain't that," he said, again. The young Rangers waited for him to explain, but Bigfoot didn't explain. He drew circles in the ashes of the campfire with a stick.
The next morning the mountains looked closer, though not by much. The men were weak--some of them looked at the mountains and quailed. The thought that there was food on the other side of the mountains brought them no energy. They didn't think they could cross such hills, even if the whole plain on the other side was covered with food. They marched on, dully and slowly, not thinking, just walking.
When the mountains were closer, no more than a few miles away, Call saw something white on the prairie ahead. At first he thought it was just another patch of sand--but then he looked closer, and saw that it was an antelope. He grabbed Gus's arm and pointed.
"Tell the Captain," he said. "Maybe Bigfoot can shoot it." When the antelope was pointed out to Captain Salazar, he immediately gave Bigfoot his rifle. Bigfoot was watching the antelope closely. He cautioned the troop to be quiet and still.
"That buck's nervous," he said. "We better just sit real still, for awhile. Maybe he'll mistake us for a sage bush." All the men could see that the antelope was nervous, and a minute later they saw why: a brown form came streaking out of a patch of sage bush and leapt on the antelope's neck, knocking it down.
"What's that?" Gus said, startled. He had never seen an animal run so fast. All he could see was a ball of brown fur, curled over the antelope's neck.
"That's a lion," Bigfoot said, standing up.
"We're in luck, boys. I doubt I could have got close enough to that buck to put a bullet in him. The cougar done my work for me." He started walking toward the spot where the cougar was finishing his kill. The rest of the troop didn't move.
"He's bold, ain't he--that lion might get him next," Gus said.
Before Bigfoot had gone more than a few yards, the cougar looked up and saw him. For a second the animal froze; then he bounded away. Bigfoot raised his rifle, as if to shoot, but then he lowered it. Soon they saw the spot of brown moving up the shoulder of the nearest mountain.
"Why didn't you shoot it?" Call asked, when he came up to Bigfoot. He would have liked a closer look at the cougar.
"Because I might need the bullet for an Apache," Bigfoot said. "We got a dead antelope--that's better eating than a lion.
When there's food waiting to be et it's foolish to be wasting bullets on cats you can't hit anyway." They skinned the antelope, and soon had a fire going and meat cooking. The smell of the meat soon revived the men who had been ready to die.
Next day, they jerkied the meat they hadn't eaten, lingering in camp between the mountain and the plain.
The more they ate the better their spirits rose; only Captain Salazar remained despondent. He ate a little of the antelope meat, silent.
Bigfoot, confident that what remained of the troop would now survive, tried to draw Salazar out about the future, but the Captain answered him only briefly.
"El Paso is not far," Salazar said.
"We are all about to end our journey." He said no more.
Bigfoot was allowed to leave and seek the best route through the mountains--in four hours he was back, having located an excellent low pass, not ten miles to the south. The troop marched all afternoon and camped in the deep shadow of the mountains, just at the lip of the pass.
That night, everybody felt restless. Long Bill Coleman, unable to abide the lack of tunes, cupped his hands and pretended he was playing the harmonica. Gus kept looking at the mountains--their looming presence made him a little apprehensive.
"Don't bears live in mountains-- I've heard they sleep in caves." "Why, bears live wherever they want to," Bigfoot told him. "They go where they please." "I think most of them live in mountains," Gus said. "I'd hate to be eaten by a damn bear when we're so close to all them watermelons." No one slept much that night. Matilda rubbed Call's sore foot with a little antelope fat she had saved. Call was walking better-- his stride was almost normal again. He hadn't abandoned the crutch, but mainly carried it in his hand, like a rifle.
A blue cloud, with a rainbow arched across it, was over them when the troop started through the pass. It snowed for an hour, when they were near the top, but the light flakes didn't stick. Ahead, as they approached the crest, they could see brilliant sunlight, to the west beneath the clouds.
By noon the cloud was gone, and the bright sunlight shone on the mountains. The troop walked through a winding canyon for three hours and began to descend the west side of the mountains. Below them, they saw trees, on both sides of the river. To the south, Gus once again saw smoke, and this time he was not merely wishing. There was a village beside the river --they saw a little cornfield, and some goats.
"Hurrah, boys--we're safe," Bigfoot said.
Everyone stopped, to survey the fertile valley below them. Some of the Mexican soldiers wept. There was even a little church in the village.
"Well, we made it, Matty," Bigfoot said. "Maybe we'll see a stagecoach, heading for California. Maybe you'll get there yet." He had continued to carry Captain Salazar's rifle, in case he encountered game. When they started down the hill, toward the Rio Grande, Captain Salazar quietly took it from him.
"Why, that's right, Captain--it's yours," Bigfoot said.
The Captain didn't speak. He looked back once, toward the Jornada del Muerto, and walked on down the hill.
When the tired troop made its way into the village of Las Palomas, the doves for which the village was named were whirling over the drying corn, its shuck now brittle from the frost. An old man milking a goat at the edge of the village jumped up when he saw the strangers coming. A priest came out of the little church, and immediately went back in. In a moment, a bell began to ring, not from the church, but from the center of the village, near the well. Some families came out of the little houses; men and women stopped what they were doing to watch the dirty, weary strangers walk into their village. To the village people they looked like ghosts--men so strange and haggard that at first no one dared approach them. The Mexicans' uniforms were so dirty and torn that they scarcely seemed like uniforms.
Captain Salazar walked up to the old man who had been milking the goats, and bowed to him politely.
"I am Captain
Salazar," he said. "Are you the jefe here?" The old man shook his head--he looked around the village, to see if anyone would help him with the stranger. In all his years he had never left the village of Las Palomas, and he did not know how to speak properly to people who came from other places.
"We have no jefe," he said, after awhile.
"The Apaches came while he was in the cornfield." "Our jefe is dead," one of the older women repeated.
The old man looked at her with mild reproach.
"We don't know that he is dead," he said.
"We only know that the Apaches took him." "Well, if they took him, he'd be luckier to be dead," Bigfoot said. "I wonder if it was Gomez?" "It was Apaches," the old man repeated.
"We only found his hoe." "I see," the Captain said. "You're lucky they didn't take the whole village." "They only take the young, Captain," the bold old woman said. "They take the young to make them slaves and sell them." "That is why we are all old," the old man with the goat said. "There are no young people in our village. When they are old enough to be slaves, the Apaches take them and sell them." "But there are soldiers in El Paso," Salazar said. "You could go to the soldiers --they would fight the Apaches for you. That is their job." The old man shook his head.
Larry McMurtry - Dead Man's Walk Page 39
