“Are we ever going to stop, Waco?”
She saw Waco turn to her. He wore a wide-brimmed Stetson with the top creased and filling up with water then running down over the brim. “We’re not far from where I told Gray Wolf to meet us.” He gave her a slight grin. “You ready to stop and rest?”
“Who could rest in rain like this?”
“It’ll stop pretty soon. Look. The clouds there, they’re about blown away.”
His words came true. Within half an hour the air cleared, and it smelled clean and pure, unlike the dusty smell she was accustomed to in the rolling plains of Oklahoma. She was wearing a lightweight divided skirt that had soaked through, and the rain had now run down into the tops of her boots so that she was miserably uncomfortable.
She was glad when he finally lifted his arm and said, “There’s where we’re going, right over there.”
Sabrina lifted her gaze to follow his gesture and saw, no less than a mile away, a rising cone-shaped hill. The hills of Oklahoma were rough and irregular, but this one seemed to be shaped by human hands. “That’s a funny-looking hill.”
“Yes, everybody travels this way uses it for a landmark. Come along. We’ll try to get some dry wood to light a fire and dry ourselves out.”
They rode at a slow pace, the horses’ hooves making splashes in the puddles left by the driving rain.
Waco looked around and said, “You know, this’ll be pretty in a couple of days. Rain like that always brings out the wildflowers. You wouldn’t know this place. The prettiest time of the year, I do think.”
The rain had stopped completely, and finally they reached the foot of the cone-shaped hill. It was much larger than it seemed in the distance, and there were lower hills around the base of it.
“We’ve got to get dried out,” Waco said. “We’ll freeze to death. You got any dry clothes?”
“Yes.”
“First we’ll fix a fire. I’ll rig something to dry these wet ones out. The blankets are pretty well soaked, too.”
For the next hour they gathered firewood, such as could be located. Waco found an old tree, broke it open with his knife, and dug out the inside. “This is called punk. It burns real good. You see if you can find some small branches. Shake ’em out until they’re as dry as we can get ’em. I’ll look for something larger.”
That was the way they built the fire. She found a double handful of small branches that seemed to be fairly dry, and he came back with several larger chunks. He laid the punk on the ground, surrounded it with the branches she had, then took a box of matches out of his saddlebag, struck one of them, and held it to the punk. The yellow tongues of fire leaped up immediately. He carefully added wood, and finally they had a large fire going. Taking his knife, he trimmed off two of the saplings that were close to the fire and tied a piece of string to each of them. “There. We’ll tie the blankets on these and get them dry. It’s gonna be cool tonight.”
After they had hung the blankets up, he dug into his saddlebag and pulled out two cans of beans and then reached into her saddlebag and got a large chunk of bacon. Taking out his knife, he sliced it into thick portions, put the frying pan on the fire, and let it all begin to simmer.
The odor of the cooked food hit Sabrina almost like a blow. She had not known real hunger, but they’d had only a small breakfast and nothing for lunch. She watched eagerly as the bacon sizzled and the beans began to smoke.
He stirred them occasionally with his knife, adding a little water from his canteen. Finally he said, “Okay, let’s eat.”
“I’m starved.”
“Pretty hungry myself. Here.” He dumped half of the beans in a tin plate, added some of the crisp slices of bacon, then handed her the plate and a fork. He fixed his own, and Sabrina did not wait but began eating at once.
They had finished eating when suddenly a voice scared Sabrina. “Food.” She looked up and saw that even Waco was startled as Gray Wolf stalked in. “You better start givin’ some warning before you walk into a camp, Gray Wolf.” Waco grinned. “You might get shot.”
“You white eyes can’t hear anything. You don’t have any ears. I want something to eat.”
“Well, we have to fry up some more bacon and beans. Sit down, and while it’s cookin’ I’ll tell you what the plan is.”
Waco prepared more meat and beans and handed them to Gray Wolf on a plate. “Here. I’m gonna write some notes. I’ve got a jug hid where only you can find it, a glass jug with a top, but I’ve got to write some notes.”
He took out a pencil and a small pad of paper and began to scribble. He looked up once and said, “Here’s the first one. I want you to put this in the glass jug as soon as we leave.”
“What does it say, Waco?” Sabrina asked.
“Says I won’t pay until you give me evidence that my daughter is safe.”
“I see. That’ll give us some time, won’t it?”
“Yes, we take that note in and prove to LeBeau that we’ve got a good thing going. The second one is supposed to be written from her father. It says the gold will be shipped on August 3 on the 2:20 train out of Lake City. The gold will be in a locked car, and you won’t be able to get inside. I’ll have one man on the train. He’s short, stocky, and will be wearing a gray suit and a white hat. As soon as you turn my daughter over to him, he’ll go and tell the man inside to open the door. Then he and my daughter will leave and you can get the gold.” He folded it over and said, “We’ll put the other one in before we leave. They’ll send me out with somebody to find it, but then after we get this one out, you put the second one in.”
Gray Wolf listened stolidly but ate furiously like he was a starved wolf indeed. He got up and said, “Sleep now.” He lay curled up away from the fire, wrapping up in a blanket that looked sodden, but it did not bother him.
Sabrina looked at Waco. “You think this will work?”
“It better. It’s the only chance we’ve got.”
“What if something goes wrong?”
“Nothing we can do to make sure everything is right.” He got up, felt the blankets, and said, “Well, these are nice and warm. Better wrap up, and I’ll keep the fire going pretty well all night.” He got up and came back with some larger wood and built the fire up so that it blazed, sending golden sparks like stars into the sky.
She sat there thinking what a strange thing it was that she would be out in a place like this with a man she ordinarily would not trust for a moment. She stared at him, but he was looking at the fire and appeared to pay no attention to her. He sat with his elbows on his knees, his head dropped forward, and his lip corners had a tough, sharp set. She watched him with the closeness that could come only of deep personal interest. Everything about him fascinated her, his expression, his mannerisms, the way his long fingers hung down. He had a man’s resilience and a rough humor she had seen at times. She was relatively sure she saw in his face the marks of old wounds and a white scar from some encounter with horses, cattle, or even men.
She picked her blanket off the string, and moving back a little from the fire, she rolled up in it. She was exhausted. She continued to think about him as her eyelids grew heavy, and she knew that for some strange reason she could not explain, she was attracted to him in a way that no man had ever drawn her. It’s just that he’s different, she thought wearily. And then she thought no more but fell into sleep.
It was one of those strange dreams when consciousness is there… but not there. Sabrina felt herself dreaming of a huge man coming toward her, his hands held out, a cruel smile on his face, and she cried out, “No, leave me alone!”
Suddenly she felt hands on her arm, and when she opened her eyes, she was instantly awake. She saw Waco bending over her. Freeing one of her hands, she clawed at his face and raked her fingernails down his cheek.
He grabbed her wrist and said, “Wake up! You’re having a bad dream.”
Waco released Sabrina, and she sat up at once, trembling and staring around her wildly. “I—I thoug
ht somebody was—”
“I can imagine what you thought. No wonder. Not many women would try what you’re doing. You’re a nervy one all right, Sabrina.”
She glanced over and saw that the light from the fire was enough to reveal a bloody track down his left cheek where her fingernails had raked him. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to do that.”
“No problem. You just had a nightmare.” He got up, went to the canteen, washed his face off, and dried it.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered again.
“Don’t worry about it, Sabrina. If we get out of this with no more damage than that, I’ll be happy. We got enough grub left for breakfast. I gave Gray Wolf the notes he’s supposed to put in the jar and told him where to find the glass jug. Let’s eat a bite, and then we’ll get on our way to find Mr. Trey LeBeau.”
They had made their way across the broken land until they finally came to a deep valley that sloped downward and then rose again. Up on the top of the hill was an ancient house made of unpainted wood and capped by a tin roof that was red with rust.
“Well, there she is. You sure you want to do this, Sabrina?”
Sabrina gave Waco a steady glance. “That’s my sister we’re talking about.”
“Okay. Just remember I’m gonna have to treat you roughly. We’ll be lucky if they give us a chance to say anything. I didn’t make this plain to you, but LeBeau and I didn’t part on the best of terms. He did me a bad turn, and I expect he knows I haven’t forgotten it.”
Sabrina suddenly wondered what would happen if they killed Waco. She had no other source of safety. “Be careful,” she said nervously.
“Okay. They’re not going to believe me. The only thing we can do is convince them that we’ve got a scheme that’ll make them money. Money is all they care about.”
She nodded, but he could see she was nervous. Suddenly he turned and said, “What would you do if I slapped you?”
“I—don’t know. Nobody ever slapped me.”
“Well, I may have to do that. You can’t be what you have been, Sabrina. You’re a young woman who’s been protected all your life. Now you fear for your life. That’s the role you have to play. You’re not strong. You’re weak, and you’re scared to death of LeBeau, and I don’t think that’s all bad. If you’re scared enough, you won’t have to do much acting. You’ve got to convince these outlaws you’re terrified.”
“I’ll do it, Waco. I’ll do it.”
“All right. Let’s go.” He spurred his horse, and the two of them rode down the slope. When they were halfway across the bottom of the valley, Waco said, “There they come. I told you we wouldn’t sneak up on ’em.”
They started up the hill, and when they were halfway up the rise, a group of men rode quickly down and framed them in by forming a half circle around them.
Waco spoke first. “Well hello, Trey. I haven’t seen you in a while.”
Trey LeBeau scowled. “If you’ve come to get even with me, you picked a bad way to do it. We’ll shoot you out of the saddle if you make one move, Waco.”
Waco shook his head and grinned. “No, I’ll admit I had a pretty bad feeling about you. You left me in bad shape on that train robbery.”
“Didn’t plan it that way. It just happened.”
Waco shrugged his shoulders. “Water under the bridge.”
“Who’s the woman? You haven’t up and got married on me, have you?”
Waco laughed. “Not likely, and if I did, it wouldn’t be this one. We’re pretty hungry.”
“You didn’t accidently come this way. You knew about this hideout,” LeBeau said. “What do you want?”
“I want to make you a business offer.”
Suddenly LeBeau laughed. He was an attractive man and could charm anyone when he wanted to. “That’s like you, Waco. Come in makin’ boasts that you can’t carry out. What kind of business could you throw my way?”
“Not just you. All you fellows.” Waco leaned back in his saddle, shoved his hat to the back of his head, then said, “I’ve got a good thing that I need help with.”
“What kind of help do you need?” LeBeau demanded.
Al Munro, Trey’s most trusted man, suddenly drew his .45. “I say kill him here. He’s just trouble.”
“I guess you just don’t want to be rich, Al,” Waco said. He looked around and saw Zeno Shaw, Rufo Aznar, and two men he had not met. Both of them were large men, and one of them appeared to be half-Apache. The other one was a strong-looking man who watched Waco steadily.
It was Rufo Aznar, a trim man with an olive compexion and dark eyes and a terrible scar on the right side of his face, who said, “Hold on, Al. Maybe you don’t want to be rich, but I do. We ain’t had no luck lately.”
“I heard about that train, Trey,” Waco said. “Didn’t you get rich off of that?”
All the men suddenly looked disgusted, and LeBeau said, “We got some gold watches and a few wallets, but there wasn’t any gold.”
“Why don’t you invite us in, and we can make some medicine together.”
“Take his gun, Al.” Al spurred his horse forward. He reached out and plucked Waco’s gun and stuck it in his belt.
“Okay. We go up to the house, and we’ll listen to what you have to say.”
Waco and Sabrina had both been worried about Marianne. The sight of her sister might be the end of the plot. If she called out Sabrina’s name and showed that she knew her, there was little chance for any of them to get out of this alive.
As they rode up to the house and dismounted, Waco saw a young woman come out and knew this was Marianne. He held his breath, but after one glimpse at him and then one no longer at Sabrina, she just stood and watched.
“Get off that horse, Helen!” Waco said. Sabrina/Helen did not move, and he reached up, grabbed her by the arm, and cuffed her. “Didn’t you hear what I said?”
“You’re not treating her like a lady friend,” Trey said. “Who is she?”
“That’s part of the business deal, but we need something to eat.”
“All right.”
“But I’ve had to take a quirt to her once or twice.”
“Take it easy, Waco,” Al said suddenly. “If you really got somethin’ that’ll make us rich, let’s have it.”
“After we eat.”
“We’ll have to cook somethin’ up.” At that moment, a woman left the house and walked toward them. She stopped dead still and stared at them. “What are you doing here, Waco?”
“Hello, Callie. Maybe just came to visit you.”
“You’re a liar! Who’s the woman?”
“We’ll talk business after we have a little something to eat.”
Trey watched the scene between Calandra Montevado and Waco with obvious interest.
Waco knew Callie had been Trey’s woman until he had come along and she had turned from Trey.
Trey’s eyes narrowed. “We’ll get something to eat, and then we’ll know what you’re here about—and whether we let you live or not.”
Waco laughed and seemed totally relaxed. “You love money too much to let anything happen to me. I’m your one shot at getting you enough money where you can live like you want to instead of out here in this hole.”
After they entered the house, two of the men started stirring up the fire, and Marianne began cooking a meal.
“That’s a good roast,” Zeno Shaw said. He was over six two, a brute of a man, with scars of fights of the past on his face. “Got some taters left over here, too.”
Soon Waco started to sit down and said roughtly, “Sit over there, woman.” He was glad to see Sabrina had somehow, although she had not spoken a word, showed her fear. It wasn’t all acting he knew. She was afraid. He reached out, grabbed her by the arm, and threw her into a chair. “Eat something.”
“I’m not hungry.”
He reached out and grabbed her by the hair and said, “Eat something or I’ll shove it down your throat.”
Callie was
watching all this. “She’s not your woman, I take it.”
“Well, in a way she is. I’ll introduce you to her after we eat.”
The cabin seemed to be charged with electricity. Only Waco seemed to be at ease. He kept slicing pieces of the roast off and eating it with great enjoyment. “Your woman is a good cook, Trey. We’ve been eatin’ prairie dog lately. About ready to eat a hawk.”
Calandra was watching Sabrina carefully. “She’s scared to death of you. What are you doing with her? Did you steal her?”
“Now Callie, don’t be hasty. This is going to be a long night. I’ve got lots of business to talk to you.”
They ate, Waco eating heartily and Sabrina picking at her food.
As soon as Waco was finished, Callie sat down across from him and said, “All right. What’s all this about, Waco?”
“He’s threatenin’ to make us rich,” LeBeau said. “I think he’s just a lot of hot air.”
“You won’t think so after I tell you the whole story. Let me have some of that coffee, and I’ll lay it out for you.” Waco smiled as if he had not a care, but he saw the hatred in Trey LeBeau’s eyes, and understood that with one false move he and Sabrina would be doomed.
CHAPTER 20
From the moment she had faced Trey LeBeau, Sabrina had been truly afraid. It had occurred to her for the first time that since LeBeau had been in her home, he might well have seen one of the pictures of her, for there were many in the house. But when he stared at her with no sign of recognition, she suddenly realized, I don’t look much like I did then. Indeed, the trip had worn her down and her hair was now stringy and she looked very little like the Sabrina Warren who had come on this quest.
She noted that Waco, after one glance at Marianne, paid her little attention, but finally he put his gaze on Marianne and said, “Well, Trey, I see you got yourself a new lady friend.” His glance went to Callie, who merely smiled at him. “It looks like you got your time beat, Callie.”
The Western Justice Trilogy Page 44
