“She knows.” Harbin jerked his head to indicate Nora. “She told us about a place.”
“A fat lot of good that will do you until you get there…and maybe that was a rain pool. It might all be gone by now. How long do you think an exposed pool will last in this heat?”
Tom Badger had been sitting his horse watching, withholding comment. He had nothing to lose if Harbin died; but, because of the water, a great deal to lose if Rodelo was telling the truth.
“Hold off, Joe,” he said at last. “Dan’s right. This here country is hotter’n the floors of hell, and dryer. How long d’you think we’d last without water?”
Joe Harbin touched his parched lips, the cold hand of truth warning him as nothing else might have done. And there was no turning back now. It was go through or die.
“Aw, forget it!” he said. “Let’s get on.”
The trail showed plainly enough and Dan Rodelo watched him start off, followed by Gopher and Badger. Nora fell in beside him.
“He’ll kill you, Dan,” she said.
“Maybe.”
“He’s killed quite a few men.”
“And someday he’ll get killed—maybe by me.”
She studied him. “Have you ever used a gun—like that, Dan?”
“Some,” he admitted.
No use telling her how much, nor where and why. He knew far too little about Nora Paxton, and little enough about the others. As long as Joe Harbin felt he could kill him whenever he wanted to, Rodelo was sure of a fair chance. At this stage of the game, if Harbin guessed it might be a contest he would shoot him out of hand.
Rodelo mopped the sweat from his face and turned to look back. He could see nothing but dancing heat waves, shimmering their watery veil across the distance. If the Yaquis were back there, they were beyond those heat waves….He rode on.
Only he himself knew what a chancy game he was playing, only he could know how much was at stake, and how wild the gamble he was taking. Yet what he was doing had to be done, for himself, at least. For in the last analysis a man must be true to himself first, and what was at stake in this was his own estimate of himself, and much, much more.
He rode with men he knew would kill, men who he knew had only hate for him, the interloper. Hate, and a question. Badger and Harbin, and maybe Gopher…any of them would kill him if the time was right. They would kill him for a canteen, a horse, a gun, or just because they hated him.
At the moment Harbin wanted to kill him because he talked too much to Nora, but Rodelo knew that within hours that would no longer be important. In the last hours it would be his own life that each man thought of and fought for. Beauty faded under the hot sun, and even sex came to nothing when one was faced with the raw and bloody face of death.
They all knew something of the country ahead, some by experience and some by hearsay. But only Dan Rodelo knew it well, and even he did not know it perfectly. No one did. No one wanted to remain there long enough to know it. There was no worse country anywhere than what lay before them. They did not have water enough. There were very few water holes, and those might not have water for more than one man, or one man and his horse.
Rodelo thought of the men riding ahead of him. Tom Badger was calm, cool, dangerous. Joe Harbin was a man of sudden, terrible passions, of long, brooding hatreds leading to sudden moments of killing fury. Gopher was not so much like a gopher as like a rat, quick to run, quick to squeal with fear, but if he was cornered he would be ready to slash out at anything, even himself.
And what of Nora? Rodelo was mystified by Nora. Who was she? How had she come to be with these men? What did she want? Where was she going?
He had watched her. There were little refinements about her that puzzled him. She was, despite what one might have imagined, a girl with the instincts and perhaps the training of a lady. Her language was good. She had none of the careless, often rough talk of drifting frontier women. She was obviously not Joe Harbin’s woman, although he had plans in that direction. Tom Badger resented her, and that was because she represented a threat to their escape.
Badger knew they dared carry no excess baggage. He knew their escape was going to be touch and go, and there shouldn’t be anyone extra to worry about. Above all, Nora was another mouth that drank water.
They rode on through the blazing afternoon, heads hanging, mouths dry. Several times they drank a little water, and from time to time they stopped to sponge the mouths of their horses.
The mirages vanished, and the mountains far off to the south turned blue, then purple. The sun declined, the shadows grew long, and canyons bulged with darkness, ominous and threatening. The sky was streaked with flame; a few scattered clouds were edged with gold.
Dan Rodelo turned in his saddle and looked back. There was nothing. No sign of dust, only the quiet beauty of a desert when the sun has gone.
Tom Badger had slowed his pace. His face was streaked with dust and sweat. “How far to Tinajas Altas?” he asked.
“Too far.” Rodelo gestured toward the low mountains along which they rode. “We’ll cross over here and take a chance. There’s a tank over there by Raven’s Butte. Sometimes it has a little water.”
He led the way. The going was no better and no worse than they had had before—a dim, rocky trail to be followed single file. They found the tank in a canyon southwest of Raven’s Butte.
Rodelo swung down. “There’s not enough here for the horses,” he said, “but it will help.”
He led each horse to drink, counted slowly while they drank to allow each horse an equal amount. When the horses had finished, the tank held no more than a cup of water.
When they left Raven’s Butte, going south, they walked the horses. It was about seven miles, Dan Rodelo decided, to Tinajas Altas. There would be water there, and they could fill their canteens, then water the horses again. They would need every drop they could get.
“No Injuns,” Gopher said triumphantly. “We lost ’em.”
Harbin glanced at him contemptuously, but made no comment. It was Badger who spoke. “Don’t you fool yourself, kid. They’re back there, and they’re comin’ on.”
“Do you really think they’ll catch up with us?” Nora asked Rodelo.
“They’re in no hurry,” he said. “They can catch up all right, but they will wait until the desert has had time to work on us.”
It was full dark by the time they reached Tinajas Altas, where they camped on the flat desert in a cove in the ridge. They built a small fire and made coffee. Nora sliced some of the bacon from a slab they had bought, among other food supplies, from Sam Burrows. They were not hungry, only exhausted from the heat and the savage travel over the blistering desert.
Presently the moon rose, and Tom Badger took up several canteens. “Let’s see if there’s water,” he said.
Rodelo went ahead. He had been here only once before, but he found his way to the place where some traveler had left a rope trailing to help climbers. “The lowest tank is usually half full of sand, but there’s water under it,” he explained to Badger. “We’ll try the upper tanks.”
The water lay in basins of solid rock, hollowed by centuries of tumbling water in a stream channel, which was actually more of a waterfall. “There are dead bees in it sometimes,” Rodelo explained, “but they’re no problem.”
Badger dipped up some of the water in his palm. It was cold and fresh. “Can’t knock that. Anyway, I heard there were some rains down this away a few weeks back.”
They filled the canteens, and then sat down on the rock beside the pool, refreshed by the coolness and drinking again and again.
“I just can’t figure you,” Badger said after a minute or two. “You don’t size up like the law, but you sure ain’t on the dodge. You done your time.”
“Put me down as a man who likes money,” Rodelo replied carelessly. “And where els
e could I get a piece of fifty thousand dollars? For that matter,” he added ironically, “where could you?”
Badger chuckled. “You got me there, amigo. A piece of fifty thousand….What we’re all wonderin’ about is how big a piece?”
“A three-way split, what else?”
“You think Joe will settle for that? After all, he was the one who pulled off the holdup.”
Dan Rodelo got to his feet. “We’d best get back to the horses. We’d be in fine shape now if Joe was to take a notion to ride out and leave us, wouldn’t we?”
They climbed down the way they had come, going hand over hand, their feet against the steeply slanting rock wall. On the ground below, Rodelo added, speaking softly, “Tom, you know as well as I do, the size of that split is going to be decided by the Yaquis, not us.”
“Yeah,” Badger said gloomily. “They could trim us down a mite.”
The night was cold, and they took turn and turn about standing watch. In the last hour before dawn, Joe Harbin shook them awake. Over a small, quick fire of dried-out creosote wood, they made coffee and finished the bacon. Before the desert was more than gray, they were in the saddle once more, horses well watered, the desert stretching wide toward the border, now only a short distance away.
The rocky ridge of the mountains was their guide line; the desert floor was broken here and there by black, ugly outcroppings of ancient lava. There was creosote brush, occasional agave, and cholla.
The sun was not yet above the horizon when Joe Harbin rode up from the rear. “We got comp’ny,” he said.
They drew up and turned to look. Far off they saw a thin column of smoke pointing a beckoning finger at the sky.
“Well, we expected it,” Badger said. “They must’ve tried several routes. The smoke will call ’em in.” He glanced back again. “No use waitin’ for ’em.”
They went on. The sun rose, the day’s heat began, and they deliberately slowed their pace. Gopher wanted to get on, to run. “It would kill your horse, kid,” Badger said mildly. “You’ll need that horse.”
They saw no Indians. Rodelo looked only occasionally to the rear. He watched ahead and on both sides, for Indians could come from anywhere, and there might well be Yaquis somewhere ahead, returning from the Gulf, for instance.
“You’re bearing east,” Harbin said suddenly. “What’s the idea?”
“Pinacate,” Rodelo replied. “Some of the roughest country this side of hell, but some tanks of water, too…and some places to fort up if need be.”
“Won’t that give us further to go?”
“Very little. The Gulf is south of us now. Adair Bay is due south.”
Nobody talked then for a time. Later they saw another smoke, off to the west. The horses slowed to a walk, and when Rodelo swung down and led his horse, the others did likewise. Again, Nora fell in beside him.
She was showing her weariness now. Her face was drawn, her eyes hollow. “I had no idea it would be like this,” she said.
“Whenever you can,” Rodelo advised her, “drink. Dehydration begins to dull your senses before you realize. Some say you shouldn’t drink at all the first twenty-four hours in the desert, but that’s insanity. Others say to make your water last. But it’s better to drink plenty when you’re close to water, and keep drinking. You’ll stand a better chance of getting through.”
“Will we make it, Dan?” It was the first time she had called him by his name.
He shrugged. “We’ll make it…some of us will. But we’ve got pure hell ahead of us, and don’t you doubt it.”
He gestured to the east. “This is the Camino del Diablo…the Devil’s Road we’ve been talking about. Between three and four hundred people died along it during the Gold Rush.”
Here the desert was sprinkled with creosote bush, clumps of cholla, and an occasional sahuaro or ocotillo. They found their way through it, usually riding single file, maintaining a generally southerly route.
When they came to a small rise Joe Harbin halted. “Why don’t we just lay up and ambush ’em?” he asked. “We could be rid of them once and for all.”
“And have them ride around us?” Dan answered. “They could cut us off from water.”
“What water?” Tom Badger had turned his head and was watching Rodelo.
“There’s Tule Wells, but it’s a mite far east, I’d say. We can save time by striking right for Papago Tanks.”
And now the desert began to be broken and rugged. Volcanic cones stood up in half a dozen places; and Rodelo, swinging wide, indicated a deep crater to the others.
This was the edge of the Pinacate country. To the south it grew worse, with miles of pressure-ridge lava, sand dunes, and broken country almost devoid of water. Through all that country there was only a trail or two, so far as he knew. Miles and miles of it were broken rock, razor-edged lava that could cripple a horse or a man on foot within hours. There was no life out there except occasional bighorns, coyotes, and rattlers. But they must weave a way through, then make a run for it across the sand to the bay.
They made dry camp among the black rocks, forting up for a fight that did not come. At daybreak they moved out again, drinking often from their canteens, seeing their water supply dwindle, bit by bit.
Tempers grew short. Joe Harbin cursed his horse, and Gopher muttered under his breath and glowered at everybody. Dan fought to keep his temper. Nora alone seemed assured, calm. Her face was haggard, her eyes hollow, and at night when she dismounted she almost fell from her horse, but she did not complain.
That night the Yaquis closed in, but not to fight.
They came swiftly, suddenly, as Harbin was selecting a camp, another dry camp.
From out of a seemingly empty desert the Indians came in a swift short charge, a flurry of shots, and then disappeared down a draw toward the desert ahead.
Flattened out among the rocks, they waited, guns ready, but the Yaquis did not return. After a while, Badger got to his feet, expecting a shot.
All was still. Twilight shadows were deep, the desert held no sound. Badger walked to the horses as the others slowly got up.
He spoke suddenly, his voice oddly strained, high-pitched for him. “Look,” he said.
A bullet had struck their largest canteen, and the water had drained out on the sand. Only a dark spot remained where it had soaked away.
“We’ll make coffee,” Rodelo said, “there’s enough left for that.”
CHAPTER 6
DAN RODELO LOOKED at the stars, felt the coolness of the desert night, and was thankful. There was not much in the life that lay behind him that had been pleasant or easy. Only there was a memory of his mother long ago, and of a home where all was comfort. How long had that been?
Now he rode a desert trail with men of violence, and he himself had been a man of violence, living where the weight of a fist and the speed of a gun were all that spelled the difference between life and death. And now he fought out this last, desperate fight among desperate men.
Desperate men…and a girl.
What kind of person was she? Why did she want to make this trip into the desert with such men as these? Dan Rodelo had thought out every step of what he had to do. The one thing he had not counted on was Nora Paxton.
Four men and a woman, ringed with death, a death that might come from the Yaquis in pursuit, but could just as likely come from the desert itself.
Their biggest canteen was holed, the others almost empty. The horses would need most of what there was, and at best, there would be a swallow for each of them. When they rode out at daybreak there would be no water left.
Without water, how long could a man live and travel under that sun, in that parching heat? A day, perhaps…or two days. He knew of one man who had lived three days beyond the point where he should have died, lived by sheer guts, by hatred, by the driving will to live a
nd get revenge.
There was water enough for coffee, and when the coffee was made they sat together and drank it, each busy with his own thoughts. Dan Rodelo knew what might be done in these circumstances, but he was no murderer, and he could come to only one conclusion, the same one he had arrived at in the beginning: to see the thing through to the end…and at the end he must tell them the truth.
It would mean a shooting, of course, and he was not the gunman that Joe Harbin was. Possibly he was faster than Tom Badger, but even of that he could not be sure. He had been a fool to try what he was trying, but that was the sort of man he was—not very wise, not very shrewd, using only what he had, which was a certain toughness, a stamina, a stubborn unwillingness to quit.
“What about it?” Joe looked up at Rodelo. “You are the man who is supposed to know where there’s water.”
“We’ll try. We’ll move out by daybreak.”
“If they let us,” Badger said.
“They will,” Rodelo said.
He was somehow sure of that, sure of it because he had known Indians before. There was something in the Indian that made him torture, not only to bring suffering to an enemy, but to test how much he could stand. To the Indian bravery was all, bravery and stamina, so it was like him to test his enemies, to know how great his victory had been.
And Hat was no fool. Time was on his side, and he could afford to hang back, to let the heat and thirst and the fierce tempers of the men they followed do their work.
The shooting they had done was only a preliminary test, a plumb line into the well of their resistance. The pursued men had reacted suddenly, sharply, so the Yaquis knew the time was not yet, and they would follow for another day, perhaps two days.
“Do you know where there’s water?” Nora asked.
“I know where it might be. Don’t expect a spring. If there are springs in this country I never met anybody who knew of them. There are tanks like those at Tinajas Altas or at Raven’s Butte…there’s Papago Tanks, Tule Wells, and some isolated places. I think I can find them.”
Kid Rodelo (Louis L'Amour's Lost Treasures) Page 5
