She picked up both of their saddlebags and headed back to the shack, her heart feeling strangely heavy, as it had ever since fleeing Indianola. Mostly she was afraid, and secretly angry with Emilio for taking the risk of stealing from a man like Jess Humes. But it was more than their present danger that bothered her. Deep inside she knew that she actually felt bad for riding off with no explanation to the handsome gringo, Lieutenant Youngblood. What must he think? Her intent had been to trick him into buying their horses, but now she felt almost ashamed, not only for trying to take advantage of him, but for leaving so suddenly.
She scowled, wondering why on earth she should feel this way. It usually gave her great joy to lie to and to cheat a gringo, especially a Texan—and a soldier at that. But there was something about the lieutenant, a sincerity she had never felt around any other white man, a gentleness to him, in spite of his size and strength and obvious skill.
She couldn’t imagine why she should still be thinking about him. There was no reason for it, and it went against everything she had believed before now—that all gringos were bad, out to rob and rape and plunder, that all of them were hungry for more Mexican land, and that all of them hated Mexicans. There should be no difference between the lieutenant and a man like Jess Humes, she said to herself.
She headed back inside, digging through the saddlebags for a couple of the remaining potatoes, which were sprouting eyes. “I will wash these and we will eat them raw,” she told Emilio. “And there is a little dried meat left. We will not be able to have coffee, since we cannot have a fire.”
“It will have to do. We cannot risk Humes and his men seeing the smoke or the light of the fire, in case they are in the area.”
Nina’s heart quickened at the thought. She knew what would happen to her if they were caught, but she tried not to show her fears to Emilio, who had enough on his mind. She knew he was doing his best, yet she still felt a deep anger that he had gotten them into this mess in the first place. She understood his pride, and refused to wound it by accusing him of doing a wrong thing by stealing from Humes.
“We have fooled them, I am sure,” she told her brother. She washed the potatoes, and they made a meager meal out of them and the dried meat, though they longed for a hot meal and coffee. Nina wondered how she must look, after riding all day yesterday and into the night, sleeping fitfully on the hard ground, then riding again most of today, much of the ride through water. She realized she needed to change clothes and bathe, but for now there was time only for resting, before another hard ride began.
Brother and sister ate as best they could, then spread bedrolls out on the floor. “It will be dark soon,” Emilio told her. “Try to rest. We will leave before sunup.”
“And we will go home?” she asked.
Emilio sighed. “Sí, mi hermana. We will go home. There is not much to go back to, but I suppose we can call it home.”
“It was home to Madre y Padre. Their bodies still lie buried there. It is time to go back, Emilio, at least for a while.”
“To land that grows nothing, a house no better than this shack. We will be reduced to begging for jobs again in the streets of Guerrero.”
“At least we will be alive and unharmed.”
Emilio stretched out, putting his hands behind his head. “We will come back, Nina. We will find another buyer, or find a way to sell the horses on our own. I am sorry for the bad luck we had this time. You know yourself that we can make a lot of money at this. It is better than working like a slave for others, and there is always the satisfaction of stealing from those who took this land from us. Things will get better again. I have heard of something called the Outlaw Trail. It is farther north and west in the places the Americans call Arizona and Utah. I heard some men talking one night when I was in a whore—” He hesitated. “When I was drinking in a tavern. They said there are many places to hide along this trail, and many men looking to buy stolen horses. Perhaps we will go there when we come back.”
Nina shivered at the thought. “If it is called the Outlaw Trail, then it is a place where there are many bad men, Emilio. Gringos. It would not be safe for us.”
“Maybe. But they would bring us no harm if we are thieves just like them. We could get rich—stealing from gringos and selling right back to them. It would be like taking from them twice. Besides, we need the money.”
“Do you promise to save it next time, to use it to settle down?”
Emilio breathed deeply, sounding restless. “Sí, we will save. But we have never really made enough to save before, Nina. It always took all we had just to feed and clothe ourselves. That is why we have to try something different, perhaps move to a different area. There has been too much horse stealing going on here. Men like that lieutenant will be looking for us. He probably already knows by now that the horses we tried to sell him were stolen. I just hope he is too busy with those stupid camels to care.”
Nina closed her eyes, thinking about the lieutenant again, wondering why he disturbed her so. She finally drifted off into a restless sleep, wondering what the future held for her and Emilio, reminding herself she hated men like the lieutenant, for it was his kind who had put her and her brother in this situation.
Outside a soft wind grew stronger, rustling the leaves of the trees outside, shrouding the sound of men approaching on foot to surround the shack.
Both the front and back doors of the shack burst open, startling Nina and Emilio awake. Nina screamed, she and Emilio both lunging for their rifles, but not soon enough. One of the men who had barged in on them held a lantern so that the attackers could easily see as soon as they got inside; and by the light of the lantern, guns seemed to be leveled at Nina and Emilio from every direction. One man quickly grabbed Nina, forcing her arms behind her back painfully, while two more men lit into Emilio, kicking and punching at him while Nina watched in horror.
“Where’s our horses?” one of them growled as Emilio went down, his face already bloody. The man landed a heavy boot into the young man’s ribs.
“Stop it!” Nina screamed, struggling to get free.
“You’ve got no say in this, little girl!” the man holding her said. She knew before she even turned to look at his eyepatch that it was Jess Humes. “It’s just like I said the night you took our horses. You and your brother made a big mistake.” He crooked his left arm through both her arms, keeping them behind her back. He moved his other hand across her breasts, squeezing one painfully. Horror engulfed her, ugly memories of her mother’s attack. Her stomach turned at the reality of her predicament, and her heart felt torn, for at this moment she hated her brother, yet loved him so, hardly able to bear the sight of Humes’s men beating him mercilessly.
“Please make them stop!” she begged Humes. “We do not have the horses.”
“Leave him be for a minute,” Humes ordered. “Let him get a second breath. Then you can start all over again.” He jerked Nina around. “If you don’t have them, then you sold them! Where’s the money?”
Nina faced him squarely, her dark eyes blazing. “We did not have the chance to sell them!” she sneered. “We were just about to sell them when we saw you in town and we had to flee. We left the horses at Indianola.”
Humes, his face sporting a three-day stubby beard, grinned at her through yellowing teeth. “You’re not only a whoring little thief, but a liar to boot!” He backhanded her, sending her sprawling across the dirty floor. Emilio groaned her name but was too badly hurt to help her. Humes grasped Nina by the hair and jerked her head back, kneeling over her, enjoying the sight of blood at the corner of her mouth. “Now, where are the horses; and if you don’t have them, where’s the money?”
Nina prayed that he would just shoot her, that he and his men would not do to her what the Texans had done to her mother. “It is…as I told you,” she answered, refusing to show tears. “We took them to Indianola. We tried…to sell them to an Army lieutenant.” She could feel the right side of her face going numb, and she swallowed blood
. “He left us…to check with the sheriff…for reports of stolen…horses. Then we…saw you and we…ran. We left the horses.”
Humes jerked Nina to her feet. “Hayden, go through their gear. Everything. See if they have any money.” To her horror, and with no warning, the man suddenly grasped Nina’s shirt and ripped it open, tearing it away from her. “I’ll make sure she’s not hiding it someplace in her clothes,” he said as he yanked at her riding skirt.
Nina could think of nothing but her mother. She began struggling wildly, scratching and kicking until Humes landed several more blows, knocking her back to the floor. She felt her boots coming off, her underclothing. No! Not this! She heard Emilio calling her name, heard him cry out as two of the others began beating him again. She heard other sounds, too. Tearing, slamming, someone searching through their personal belongings.
“Go find their horses and the rest of their gear,” she heard Humes saying, his voice sounding very far away. “There’s nothing on the girl.” She felt hands touching, grasping, feeling every part of her. She waited for the worst, expecting to be shamed and humiliated beyond the desire to live. Already her shame was great, for they all had seen her nakedness. “She’ll bring a good bundle, won’t she?” Humes was saying. “You ever see anything prettier than that? Hannah will pay a fortune for her. She’s a better prize than a herd of mustangs.”
“You sure you want to leave her untouched, boss?” someone asked. “That’s a damn good piece to waste.”
“I think we ought to blow both their heads off,” another growled.
Nina felt vomit rising from her stomach and she struggled to keep it down. Someone yanked her bloomers back on, jerking them to her waist. He sat her up, and she felt him putting her blouse back on. Did this mean they did not intend to rape her? Who was Hannah? What did Humes mean about the woman paying a fortune for her? Was she going to be sold? For what? She got her answer in Humes’s next statement.
“That would be a waste of money,” he was saying. “Work the boy over some more but leave him alive. I want him to live with the knowledge that his sister has been sold to a whorehouse. Maybe someday he’ll go to San Antonio and find her when he pays to visit a prostitute—find out the whore is his own sister!”
They all laughed. Nina no longer heard any sound from Emilio. Humes kept hold of her, telling her to step into her riding skirt. “Hold it for her, John.” She felt the closeness of another man, felt him touch her breasts, which were covered only with her blouse now. Humes had not bothered to put her camisole back on.
“Damn, Jess, I don’t know if I can go all the way to San Antonio without getting a feel of her.”
“You’ll wait. Hannah likes virgins. After we’ve sold her, we’ll just turn around and be her first customers. It will be worth spending part of the money we make on her to have the chance at her. Even at that, we’ll make more in the long run than we will if we take her in all used and broken.” Someone buttoned her skirt at the waist. “Besides,” Humes added, “Hannah will get her all bathed and perfumed for us, put some of that nice oil on her. We’ll have us one hell of a celebration when we get to San Antonio. Maybe we can pick up some horses on the way and sell those, too. I know a man there who’ll take them.”
“There’s nothing in any of their gear, boss,” someone else said.
To Nina the night had become a horrible nightmare. Surely none of this was real. She was just dreaming her worst fears, wasn’t she? She would wake up soon, and she and Emilio would head for Mexico.
“We’ll take their horses,” Humes was saying. “That black gelding of the girl’s ought to bring a pretty penny. We can sell their gear, too. We’ll bed down here for the rest of the night and get an early start. Come morning, throw some water on the boy and teach him another lesson about stealing from Jess Humes. We’ll leave him here on foot. And make sure he knows what’s going to happen to his sister.”
“What about for now? Should we tie him?” one of the men asked.
“Go ahead.”
Nina managed to open her eyes to see her brother dragged to a corner. One of the men rolled him onto his stomach and wrapped rawhide around his wrists, drawing them behind his back and bending his legs to pull up his ankles and tie his wrists and ankles together. Emilio groaned in black pain, and Nina looked away. Never had she had to utilize such willpower to keep from crying, but she vowed not to break down in front of Jess Humes. She told herself to keep calm, that maybe she could find a way out of this. She had one thing to be grateful for, in spite of the humiliation of being stripped naked. Humes had dressed her again. He had some devious plot in mind for her, but apparently he intended to leave her untouched until they reached someone named Hannah in San Antonio. That gave her some time.
The man kept her arms behind her back while the others spread out bedrolls. The looks they gave her made her feel numb with fear and dread.
“How did you…find us?” she asked Humes.
“Your trick of riding in the river is an old one, you little Mexican bitch,” Humes answered. “We’re old hands at tracking.” He looked at one of the other men. “Spread my bedroll out there by that old iron stove,” he ordered. The man obeyed, and Humes dragged Nina to the bedroll, shoving her down onto it. He took some rawhide from his pocket and tied her wrists together painfully tight, then secured them to the leg of the iron stove. “That ought to hold you for the night.” He knelt over her, enjoying the terror in her eyes. “It’s not going to be easy to stay off you, girl, or to keep my men away. You’d best cooperate and not do anything to rile me, or I just might change my mind about leaving you untouched until we reach San Antonio.”
“I am not afraid of you,” she sneered. “Serpienta. Zorrillo!”
He only grinned. “Now which is it you want to call me, a snake or a skunk? Make up your mind.” He laughed, settling down beside her and drawing her close, wrapping one arm around her. She twisted to get away from him, but to no avail. She shivered, breathing deeply to keep from screaming and crying at the feel of him against her.
Again she told herself to try to stay calm and think. What was the best way to handle this animal? Intuition told her that if she fought him, it would only arouse him more. She had to keep her wits about her, had to allow herself a chance to escape. Surely there would be a way before they reached San Antonio.
She forced herself to relax, praying to a God she feared had deserted her, asking Him to please help her. In the corner where he had been thrown Emilio groaned again, his pain tearing at Nina’s heart. She curled her hands against the rawhide strips that bound her, but it was useless. She would have no choice for tonight but to lie here next to the smelly, bearded Jess Humes, her only hope being that he would keep his vow not to rape her. Somehow, between here and San Antonio, she would find a way out of this. If she didn’t, she would find a way to kill herself before she would be turned over to the woman called Hannah, even if suicide was against her religion and meant she would spend her afterlife in hell!
Chapter Five
Clay turned to look at the strange procession behind him, laughing at the comical sight. He could relax a little more, now that they were away from Indianola. “Did you ever think we’d be a part of something like this, Corporal Mills?”
“No, sir, I sure didn’t,” Mills answered. He rode beside Clay. “Kind of like being part of something out of a storybook.”
Clay turned forward. “So, what do you think?”
“About what, sir?”
“The camels, of course. Do you think it will work?”
“I don’t expect it matters much to the Army what I think, sir.”
“Well, this is just between you and me. What do you think?”
Mills, a young, slim man of about twenty-five, took another look. Two of the Arabs were riding camels, their sway making it obvious that the ride was far from comfortable. He grinned, looking forward again. “One thing is sure,” he answered. “I wouldn’t want to ride one of those things at a full lope. Not th
at they’re very fast, from what I’ve seen. Have you noticed when they run they raise both legs on one side at the same time? Makes for a horrible jostling gait. They’re obviously no good for cavalry use…no good for use in a running chase against Indians.”
“True.”
“I suppose as pack animals, maybe they are better than mules or horses, as far as being able to carry so much and go so long without water. They are pretty damn hardy beasts, I’ll say that. It’s just that…” The young man hesitated.
“Say it out, Mills. I have to give a full report of their capabilities when we reach Camp Verde.”
“Well, sir, it’s just that I don’t think they’ll ever really be accepted, by the average man in these parts. They’re just too…I don’t know…too ugly and awkward and comical. I know they have their value, but sometimes people just don’t take well to accepting new things. I mean, in these parts men are used to their beautiful horses and dependable mules. Heck, you saw how that one camel spit at that man back at Indianola, even bit at him. Men in these parts, they don’t want an animal with a mind of its own. They’re a rugged, independent lot. They like an animal that obeys more readily and…well, one that can be a friend and kind of a pet, too. From what I’ve seen, camels aren’t the friendliest sort. They don’t seem too concerned about who they please.”
Clay nodded. “I know what you’re saying. I’ve had some of the same feelings. But then, we’re new to this. Maybe by the time I’ve finished the trek to California, I’ll have a different opinion, but for now I tend to agree with you.”
Mills straightened a little. “Thank you, sir, for respecting my opinion.”
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