“Perhaps tomorrow I will find us a rabbit. Once we get a herd together and sell them at the Gulf, we will have plenty of money to stock up on food.”
He took the meat from her and bit into it, pulling at it to break off a piece. Nina did the same. They chewed quietly, waiting for night to come and for the men down by the creek to fall asleep.
Chapter Three
“There are five of them,” Emilio whispered. He and Nina lay on their bellies watching from a high bank that overlooked the stream where the men sat around a campfire. Most were already stretched out in bedrolls. One rose and threw some coffee onto the ground, grumbling about how strong it was. He lit a cigar and sat back down again.
“Look!” Emilio exclaimed. “He wears a patch over his right eye. It’s that man called Jess Humes, that horse thief who gave us trouble the last time we took horses to Hernandez.”
Nina’s stomach tightened. “He is a bad hombre, Emilio. We had better get out of here.”
Emilio grasped her shoulder. “No, wait,” he whispered. The sound of crickets filled the air. Their singing, mixed with a soft wind that carried their voices away from the campsite, made it impossible for the gang of men below to hear their whispers. “This is our chance to repay them for their insults. Don’t you remember how that gringo Humes insulted me, calling me a greaser and saying we were nothing compared to him?”
“What I remember is the way he looked at me. He is a bad man, Emilio.”
Emilio looked back down at the camp. “Humes thinks he is the best at stealing horses. And he is one of those who would be happy if all Mexicans were dead.” Even in a whisper, Nina detected the sneer in the words. “We will show him who is best, and get our hands on some horses at the same time!”
“I do not like this, Emilio. What are we going to do?”
He grasped her wrist and urged her to scoot back down the other side of the bank until they could stand up without being seen. “We will get our horses,” he told her softly. “We will wait until they are all sleeping. Then we will ride into their camp. I will hold a rifle on them and make them give up their guns. You untie all their horses and ride out first. I will give you a head start, then I will follow.”
“No, Emilio! This is crazy!”
“We can do it, Nina. We will pay that man back for his insults, and we will show him who are the best horse thieves. They have two extra horses down there. Seven horses, Nina! And if we can gather up a few more on the way to the coast, we will have many to sell! There are a lot of buyers in the harbors, remember? We will find someone to take them.”
“Emilio, Jess Humes will come after us!”
“Not without horses. We will have such a head start that he will never catch us.”
“I do not like it.”
He raised his chin. “Do you doubt my ability? We are the best, Nina, and we will prove it! Wouldn’t it feel good, stealing from a man like that, a man who insulted us and who hates Mexicans?” He squared his shoulders. “We can make a name for ourselves, Nina. Working on our own, selling directly, we can make much money and become known as the best. Someday we can have a big ranch like Hernandez; we will have men like Humes coming to us to buy their stolen horses. We can do it, Nina!”
Nina sighed. It was true she hated these gringos as much as Emilio did, and Emilio had always looked out for her. She still felt a little guilty for their not getting paid for the palominos, and the fact remained they were presently broke and hungry.
“Sí,” she agreed. “But as soon as we sell the horses, we will go back to Mexico for a while, until we feel Jess Humes has stopped looking for us.”
“I am not afraid of Jess Humes, but we will go back for a while if that is what you want. Let’s go!”
They quietly hurried over to where they had left their horses tied, then began checking their weapons. “I will have them throw their guns into the stream,” Emilio said excitedly. “As soon as I have them disarmed, you ride over and cut down the line where their horses are tied. Keep hold of the whole line and leave them tied to it. You ride off. As soon as I know you have the horses at a good run, I will follow. It will be easy to disappear into the darkness before any of them are able to get to their guns and shoot at us. With them on foot, the rest will be easy.”
“You make it sound so simple.”
“It is simple! Check your rifle and make sure it is ready to fire.”
“It is ready. It is always ready.”
“Do not be afraid to use it if you have to. They are bad men who no one will miss. I am going back to watch until they are all bedded down. Wait here for me.”
Emilio disappeared for close to two hours, while Nina waited and worried. Finally he returned, and her heart began to race with the danger of what they were about to do. They mounted their horses, and Emilio reached over to grasp her shoulder. “We can do it, Nina. This will make up for their insults, and for the loss we suffered from Hernandez. He and Jess Humes both made us look like fools. Now we will pay Humes back by taking his horses right out from under his nose; and we will show Hernandez by going into business for ourselves.” She could see his smile in the moonlight.
“Let’s go,” she answered, forcing an encouraging smile. Ordinarily this raid would not upset her. She would be just as bold at taking the horses as her brother, but Hernandez’s attack had left her more shaken than she cared to admit, and she could not forget the way Humes had looked at her when Emilio had had a run-in with him several weeks earlier. She knew he was not a man who would take this lightly, or who would have any mercy with her if she and Emilio failed.
“We have to be fast—surprise them. Most of them are already asleep. Ride quietly until we reach the bank,” Emilio was saying. “Then charge in fast. Ready?”
Nina had pulled her rifle from its boot. She cocked it, breathing deeply for courage as they rode toward the outlaw camp.
Jess Humes slept lightly, his mind filled with worry over where he and his men should go next to find horses. The Army had been hot on his heels for several weeks after his last job, and he didn’t doubt they were still eager to find him. He thought perhaps he and his men should head into Indian Territory and lay low for a while.
He turned on his side, pulling a blanket over his shoulder, allowing the long day’s ride to settle in on him and take its toll. A deeper sleep finally overcame him, but was suddenly interrupted by the sound of horses crashing down through trees and brush along the bank. He jumped awake, and leaped to his feet just as a horse charged into the firelight, pushing dirt right into the face of one of his men.
“Don’t move—any of you!” a young Mexican man ordered. He brandished a rifle. The man with dirt in his face began spitting and coughing, shaking his hair and rolling to his knees.
“What the hell—”
“Pick up your weapons and throw them into the creek!” the young man ordered. Humes became more alert when he noticed the Mexican accent. He was a handsome young man, his face familiar.
The other men were on their feet, looking bewildered. One of them reached for a handgun, but a shot was fired from beyond the firelight, and the man yelped when a rifle bullet grazed his arm. “Boss, what should we do?” another man hollered.
A beautiful young Mexican woman rode into the light then, and Humes felt a pull at private places at the sight of her. Now he remembered! She was Nina Juarez, and the man with her was her smart-mouthed brother, Emilio. “You’re making a big mistake, Juarez!”
“It is you who made the mistake—the day you insulted me!” Emilio startled them all and made his own horse snort and rear slightly when he shot at Humes’s feet, spraying dirt on his pants. “I told you to throw your weapons into the creek, all of you! Do it now before someone dies!” He cocked his rifle, hate showing in his dark eyes.
“Do what he says,” Humes told the men.
“I ain’t givin’ up my weapons for no damn greaser still wet behind the ears,” one of them grumbled.
Emilio shot again, catchi
ng the man in the left thigh. He cried out and went to his knees, and the others looked at him and Nina in shock, not really expecting the young duo to make good on their threats. “Dump your weapons now, or you will each get a bullet!” Emilio demanded.
Reluctantly, the men all leaned down to pick up rifles and handguns, stepping closer to the stream to throw them in. “Get the horses, Nina!” Emilio ordered.
“You’ve just made the biggest mistake of your life, Juarez,” Humes seethed. “We’ll come after you and we’ll find you, and when we do, it’s your sister who will suffer, not you!”
“You have a long walk ahead of you, gringo,” Emilio sneered. “And if I catch you anywhere near us, I will kill you! It is that simple. I have just proven who is the better man…and the better horse thief. You would be wise to stay out of my territory from now on!”
“I’d say it was the other way around, you sonofabitch! You’re in my territory! You should have gone back to Mexico where you belong! You’ll live to regret this, and so will your sister.”
Nina’s heart tightened at the words, and she refused to look at Humes, whose dark eyes frightened her.
“Get going, Nina,” Emilio ordered.
She did not like leaving him there alone, but she did as she was told, riding off with the seven horses belonging to the Humes men. Emilio gave her a minute or two, keeping his rifle trained on Humes. He looked down at the man he had shot, who was lying on his side, groaning and holding his leg. The man Nina had shot held a badly bleeding arm. “I am not so wet behind the ears after all, am I?” Emilio bragged. “Maybe now you understand I do not like being called names.” He looked back at Humes. “And as far as I am concerned, I am in Mexico,” he added. “You white bastards stole this land from us, so now we steal from you, even from gringo outlaws. Gracias.” He nodded. “Adiós, amigos!” He backed his horse slightly, then yanked the animal around and kicked its sides, quickly disappearing into the darkness.
Humes watched after him, his blood boiling.
“What do we do now, boss?” one of the men asked.
Humes turned and kicked at a tin cup, sending it flying. “Tend to Billy and Hayden! Reef, get those guns out of the creek, if you can find them! There’s a ranch about a mile back. Brad and I will walk back to it and find some horses. I have one six-gun left in my gear. I’ll use that if we have any trouble. We’ll bring the horses back here, and come morning, we’ll follow that sonofabitch and his pretty little sister, all the way into Mexico if we have to! They should have thought of the fact that we had a good rain yesterday. The ground is still soft enough that it should be easy to track them.”
“My horse has that one funny-shaped shoe,” the one called Hayden put in. “You can’t miss the tracks it leaves.” The man winced with pain as another began tying off his bleeding arm.
Humes rubbed at his lips. “We’ll catch up to them. And when we do, they’ll both pay! Little Miss Nina Juarez ought to bring a pretty penny at that whorehouse in San Antonio, don’t you think, especially being a virgin.”
“How do you know that?” Reef asked.
“You can tell just by looking in her eyes, seeing the scared way she looks at men.”
Brad rubbed at himself. “Yeah, but how are you going to keep her a virgin till we get her there?”
Humes grinned. “Won’t be easy.” He looked at Brad. “Let’s go round up some horses.” He leaned down and fished in one of his saddlebags for the handgun, while another man cut open Billy’s pant leg to tend to his wound.
“To hell with the whorehouse,” Billy grimaced. “I’d just as soon kill both of them, the smart-assed little greasers!”
“You’ll do what I say,” Humes grumbled. “There are other ways of suffering, better ways of punishing people. Letting that little wench learn the hard way about men will be one of them, and leaving her brother alive to know what’s happening to her is another. Don’t worry, they’ll regret this for the rest of their lives.”
Humes grabbed some ammunition and started walking west, toward a ranch he remembered passing earlier that day. Brad followed, rubbing at himself again at the thought of getting his hands on Nina Juarez.
Clay waited along with his men and their horses, watching the storeship Supply settle into her designated port. Sailors jumped to the dock and quickly wrapped ropes around the dock posts to secure the ship, while others furled sails.
None of the men were aware at first of a beautiful young Mexican girl approaching them, leading a shiny black gelding. Their eyes were on the ship until she spoke up. “Podria Ud, señor. Are you the head man, the leader?”
“What?” Clay turned, meeting her eyes. Clay had seen a lot of Mexican women in Texas, but this one far outshone the others. All his senses were immediately aroused, as were those of the other men, their attention quickly drawn away from the ship.
Nina was in turn surprised at the sudden stir deep inside her at the sight of the handsome gringo soldier. This was the kind of man she hated, but this particular one…such blue eyes! Such fine features! Her reaction startled her so that she was at first speechless, until she reminded herself that men like this soldier were her bitter enemy.
The dock bustled with activity as other ships unloaded, and friends and relatives of passengers waited for their loved ones to disembark. Negro slaves carried barrels and gunny sacks heavy with coffee and flour.
“I asked if you are the leader here,” Nina repeated.
Clay straightened, finding it difficult to keep his eyes on the young woman’s face rather than letting them roam her voluptuous figure. Her suede riding skirt neatly fit her slim hips, and her full bosom brought a tempting roundness to her white shirt, while a concho belt accented her tiny waist. Her face was exquisite, the kind that needed no makeup or false powder to make it more beautiful. Every feature was perfect, from her full lips and delicate jawline to her big, dark eyes. He cleared his throat. “Yes. I am Lieutenant Clay Youngblood. Is there something I can do for you?”
She smiled, and Clay nearly forgot why he was waiting at the dock. “Sí, señor. Do you ever buy horses for the Army? My brother and I, we have some fine horses for sale.”
Clay looked around. “Where is your brother?”
“He is at the corral not far from here watching the horses. Would you like to look at them?”
Clay glanced at his men, noticing them all staring at the young woman. “Keep your eyes on the ship,” he ordered. “They could bring those camels out anytime now.”
They reluctantly tore their eyes from Nina and watched the ship. Clay stepped away from them, taking Nina’s arm, and a strange, new feeling swept through Nina when he touched her.
“Ma’am, I’ve bought horses for the Army a time or two,” Clay was telling her, “but that’s not why I’m here. I have a very important matter to tend to. I’m afraid you’ll have to do your selling to someone else.”
Clay noticed the young woman looked suddenly nervous and upset. “Por favor,” she pleaded. “My brother and I, we need to sell the horses, Señor Lieutenant. We worked very hard rounding up good mustangs. Just come and look at them. You will see what fine animals they are.”
“Ma’am, I’ll have my hands full seeing to the camels coming off that ship there.” He pointed to the Supply as a side hatch door opened and was lowered like a plank.
“Camels? What are these…camels?”
He grinned. “They’re strange-looking beasts from another country across the ocean. The Army is going to use them for an experiment, as pack animals. They can carry a tremendous amount of weight, and they can go for weeks without water.”
Nina frowned, trying to picture what he was talking about. An animal that could go so long without water? It seemed impossible. For the moment she was so concerned about getting rid of their stolen horses, and now fascinated by the talk of these things called camels, that she hardly realized she did not feel the bitter animosity toward this white soldier that she usually felt around gringo men; nor did she full
y realize she was actually carrying on a conversation with one.
“An animal that can go many weeks without water? I do not believe this.”
“Well, it’s true,” he told her. “Stay and watch.”
Since the ramp had been lowered, Clay had no choice but to pay attention to duty, although every nerve end of his body was aware of the beautiful Mexican woman standing beside him. He wondered how well the camels had traveled, if they had all lived, and he had a brief vision of Noah’s Ark as a couple of sheep came down the plank.
Nina stood feeling awkward and unsure. Emilio had been convinced they could easily sell the horses they had stolen once they reached a port city, where all kinds of animals stood around in pens waiting for bids from buyers. But no one, not even other Mexicans, would do business with them; they were so young and they were unable to prove the animals belonged to them.
Emilio had urged Nina to go out alone and try to charm someone into buying the horses. Nina had chosen the soldiers because they didn’t dare harm her, at least not here in town. She pondered again the risk of trying to sell stolen horses to the Army, but she was feeling desperate now. They had to sell the horses and get to Mexico before Jess Humes could catch up with them. For nearly two weeks they had managed to avoid the man, using up almost all their money to board a flatbed boat that floated them down the San Bernard River toward the Gulf, hoping that if Humes tracked them to the river, he would lose them there.
Her anxiety was temporarily forgotten when two strange-looking men wearing robes and turbans emerged from the ship’s hole, one of them leading the oddest-looking and ugliest animal she had ever seen. Lieutenant Youngblood left her side and approached the men. Nina just gawked at what she knew must be one of the camels the lieutenant had described. Others on the docks did the same, the strange beast quickly drawing a crowd. A few people began to snicker, then broke into harder laughter as two more camels emerged from the ship.
Youngblood ordered one of his men to mount up and come forward. “Lead these men to the holding pen, Corporal Mills,” he shouted to the soldier. Corporal Mills rode forward to greet the men in robes. The lead camel craned its long neck, then darted its head at the horse, making the animal rear in panic. Mills tumbled from the horse, which ran off, stumbling over a wooden cage full of chickens and breaking it open. The chickens, in turn, grew excited, squawking and flapping and quickly exiting the cage to scatter themselves about the dock. A few people screamed and ran as one of the camels snorted and spit saliva at the chickens; others just watched the show with hearty laughter. Pigs in a nearby pen began squealing wildly in fright, and the rest of the Army men had a difficult time hanging onto their own mounts.
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