“It’s all part of this assignment, Corporal. The man who started all this, Major Wayne, will be meeting us at Camp Verde eventually. He’ll accompany us to California. I expect by the time…” Clay hesitated, squinting to see ahead. Far in the distance he noticed what looked like an old cabin, and he was sure he had seen some kind of movement there, and not like any animal he was familiar with. “Look up there, Corporal. What do you think that is?”
Mills followed his gaze, shading his eyes. “Looks like an animal…no, sir, I think it’s a man. Looks like he’s crawling.” He lowered his hand. “Maybe he was attacked by Indians.”
Clay put up his hand, calling out an order to halt the procession. Down the line men shouted orders to others to hold up. Clay called out for Sergeant Johnson to come forward, and the man rode up beside him. “There’s a man up ahead, Sergeant,” Clay told him. “Looks like he might be wounded. Could be Indians. I’m going ahead with Corporal Mills to check it out. Keep your eyes open. You’re in charge if anything happens.”
“Yes, sir.” Johnson turned his horse and rode back to the rest of the men while Clay and Corporal Mills headed for the person they had spotted, close to a half-mile ahead. When the man noticed spotted Clay and Mills, he managed to get to his feet and wave his arms.
Clay’s heart rushed with dread when he realized who the man might be. He was badly beaten, his clothes bloody, his face swollen and bruised and clotted in places with blood, but it was obvious he was young, and Mexican. “Emilio,” he called out as he approached. “Emilio Juarez?”
“Help!” the young man groaned, again falling to the ground.
Clay dismounted, running up to him. “Check around,” he ordered Corporal Mills. “And be careful! Whoever did this might still be around. Check in that old shack over there. This young man has a sister. She might be around somewhere needing help!”
“Yes, sir.” Mills pulled his rifle from its boot and proceeded toward the shack, all senses alert. Clay bent over Emilio, turning the young man onto his back. He asked for water. Clay hurriedly took a canteen from his horse and uncapped it, trickling a stream of liquid into Emilio’s mouth, then dribbling some over his face to help arouse him.
“My God, Emilio, who did this to you?” He knew instinctively this was not the work of Indians. This was a white man’s beating. He thought about the incident three days ago, when Emilio and Nina had ridden fast out of town with men on their heels. So, perhaps they were not part of a gang after all. Perhaps his other suspicion that the men had been after them was true. A sick feeling moved into his stomach. If they had done this to Emilio, what had they done to his beautiful sister?
“Por favor…Señor…Lieutenant,” Emilio managed to tell Clay. “My sister…she…needs help.”
Clay took a clean handkerchief from his back pocket and wet it, kneeling to move an arm under Emilio’s head and hold him while he gently washed his face with the cool cloth. “Where is she, Emilio? Have they taken her somewhere?”
Emilio’s eyes teared. “They are bad men…very bad. Outlaws. Horse thieves. They will…do bad things…to her. You must…find her…help her.”
He tried to get up again, but Clay held him fast. “Take it easy, Emilio. First we’ve got to get you fixed up. I can’t help Nina if we lose you.”
Mills came back to where Clay knelt with Emilio. “I don’t see any other signs of life, sir. There’s some gear in the cabin, all ransacked, things thrown all over. There’s places on the floor where the dust is all stirred up, like several men were in there. Some blood on the walls and floor, too. Probably his.” He nodded toward Emilio.
“No sign of the girl?”
“No, sir.”
“They…took her,” Emilio almost wept. “They took her…with them to San…Antonio. They will…sell her…to a bad woman. You can still catch them.” He grasped at Clay’s uniform. “It will…be bad for her, señor. Please…help her.”
Clay frowned, feeling torn. Poor, beautiful Nina was in the hands of outlaws, and he had the damn camels to think about. He looked up at the corporal. “Get out some supplies—something to wrap his ribs. Find a fresh shirt to put on him, even if it’s an Army shirt. We’ll clean him up and see what else we can do for him. Maybe we can get enough information to find his sister.”
“Sir, we’ve got the expedition to think of.”
“He says they took her to San Antonio,” Clay said with surprising anger and irritation. “We’re headed that way anyway. I see nothing wrong with some of us riding ahead of the rest.”
Their eyes held. It was obvious to the corporal that Lieutenant Youngblood had some kind of personal interest in this new development. Clay read his eyes and sighed. “I’ll explain later, Corporal. All I can say is, this young man’s sister is in a lot of trouble, and she’s too young and I suspect too innocent to be in her present predicament. Besides, the men she’s with are horse thieves, according to Emilio here. Major Keller won’t mind me straying a little from our original plans if I can catch some of the thieves we’ve been after in these parts.”
“Yes, sir.” The corporal glanced at Emilio, who lay in Clay’s arms. He was breathing heavily, in obvious pain. “Is his sister the young lady who came up to us in Indianola, sir, the one wanting to sell you some horses?”
Clay looked down at Emilio. “Yes,” he answered. “Now get those supplies.”
Corporal Mills nodded, going to his horse. He remembered the young Mexican girl. What man could forget her? Obviously Clay Youngblood had not forgotten. Apparently the pretty señorita had gotten into his blood in that one short encounter. He could see it in the lieutenant’s eyes. The man had never really explained what had happened after he had left with the woman to go and look at her horses. He had come back empty-handed and had said nothing.
Mills took some whiskey and bandages from his supplies and went back to where Clay was knelt over Emilio, asking no questions as they washed and treated the young Mexican man, wrapping his bruised body, sure he had a few cracked ribs. They helped him put on a clean shirt. Emilio managed to get to his feet, and Clay helped him walk over to a fallen log to sit down on it.
“Just sit there and gather your thoughts,” he told him. “Corporal, go back and get the others. Tell them we’ll take a rest right here. I want you and Private Hansen to go back to the shack and gather Emilio’s belongings and gear and pack them up for him. He said they had more gear out back of the shack. Check out there and make sure you get everything.”
“Yes, sir.” The man left to tend to his duties, and Clay turned to look at Emilio. He didn’t know the young man, but he was furious with him for apparently putting his sister in dangerous situations. He didn’t understand these two. One thing was sure—if Emilio knew the men who had attacked him and Nina were horse thieves, then he and Nina must run with such men. He had no doubt now that they were also thieves. He wanted to believe that whatever had happened to Nina was her fault and that she deserved it, but he could not convince himself. The thought of men abusing her tore at his guts, and that annoyed him. He shouldn’t care. He approached Emilio, sitting down on the log beside him.
“All right, Emilio, let’s have the whole story. Those horses you and your sister tried to sell me—they were stolen, weren’t they?”
Emilio sat shivering and holding his ribs. He hated having to turn to this gringo for help, but what choice did he have? There was no time to lose, not with Nina in the hands of Jess Humes. “Sí,” he answered quietly. “We have our reasons for what we do.” He looked at Clay, speaking haltingly through swollen lips. “You Texans…stole from us. Now we steal from you! There is nothing left to us…if we want to survive!”
“There are always other ways, Emilio.” Their eyes held, and Clay could see the hatred in Emilio’s. “Is your revenge worth your sister’s life?”
Emilio looked away. “I will not let…such a thing happen again…if I can just get her back.”
“It won’t happen again, because you’ll both probably
be in prison!” Clay told him, disgust in his voice. “But that isn’t the problem at the moment. The problem is to get Nina. Who has her? What happened?”
Emilio began rocking in pain, his face bathed in perspiration. “A gang of men was here…horse thieves. Their leader…is called Jess Humes.”
Clay’s eyebrows arched in a mixture of alarm for Nina and excitement at the news. “Jess Humes!” he exclaimed. “The Army has been after him for a long time.”
Emilio met Clay’s eyes again, looking both relieved and anxious. “Then you will help? I can lead you to him. I know the pathway such men take. We must catch up with them…before they reach San Antonio. They are going to sell Nina to a…a whorehouse…to some woman called Hannah. You know what will happen to her then.”
His eyes teared anew, and he looked at the ground. “It is true we…steal horses,” he admitted. “But Nina is not a bad person, Señor Lieutenant. She is…she is still like a little girl sometimes. She has never…you know…never been with a man. Already…yesterday when we were attacked, Jess Humes stripped her in front of the others…to see if she was hiding money. It was a terrible thing for her. When she was a little girl, during your war in Mexico, many Texans came to where we live near Guerrero. They raped our mother many times over…in front of Nina. She has not forgotten. To have it happen to her…”
“Jesus!” Clay fumed, taking off his hat and wiping at his brow.
“Jess Humes said he was going to…save her for the whorehouse so he could get more money for her. But I do not trust him and his men to keep away from her. She is…so beautiful.”
Clay rose, pacing for a moment to keep from exploding. Why was this bothering him so much? Of course it would bother anyone, but what he was feeling was different, something too personal for someone hardly knowing Nina Juarez. He felt almost as if it was his own woman Jess Humes had captured, and there was no reason for such an emotion. “Why did they attack the two of you in the first place?”
Emilio put his head in his hands. “We…stole their horses. We needed money. Jess Humes had insulted us once. We came…across his camp…and I decided to repay the insult by stealing their horses.”
Clay let out a grunt of disgust. “You should have known better than to steal from a man like that,” he grumbled. “Especially with your sister along!”
“I know that now. I do not care if we get sent to prison. Let them send me…but maybe they will let my sister go free. Right now we just have to…get her away from Señor Humes. He is a very bad man. He left me alive only because he wanted me to suffer, knowing what had happened to my sister.” He looked up at Clay. “I have never asked a gringo for anything. But now I am asking you…an American soldier…to help me. I have nowhere else to turn.”
Clay adjusted his hat, then put his hands on his hips in a stance of anger and disgust. “I’ll help, only because the Army is also after Jess Humes, and only because of your sister, not for you. You deserved a beating from Humes.” He sighed deeply, looking out over the distant horizon. “You really think you can ride? You look in pretty bad shape to me.” He turned back around to face the young man.
“Sí, I can ride. I…have no choice. We have to find her…before they reach San Antonio.” Emilio shifted uncomfortably as the rest of the men and their long train of horses, mules, and camels came closer to the site. He hated being surrounded by American soldiers, and he especially hated having to ask them for help.
“All right,” Clay told him. “But first I want you to eat something and rest for an hour or so.”
Emilio dropped his eyes and nodded. “Gracias, Señor Lieutenant. They are five men. You should take at least…that many.”
“I don’t have a lot to spare. I didn’t expect something like this. All I was supposed to do was get the camels back to Camp Verde, but if it means cornering Jess Humes and his men, I don’t think my commander would mind if I take my men on a little detour. I’ll use the whole regiment. It will be a good test of how fast those camels can speed up if they have to. Besides, I’m thinking there might be a way to use them. You had just better be telling the truth about all of this.”
“I do not lie…when my sister is involved.”
Clay studied him, an obviously confused young man, filled with hate. He could not fully blame him, since he secretly agreed that Texas had been stolen from the Mexicans. But that was water over the dam now and it had to be accepted. Seeing their mother attacked and raped was, however, not something easily forgotten or forgiven. “I’ll have someone get you some food. Drink a little of this,” he added, bringing over the bottle of whiskey from where Corporal Mills had left it sitting. “Not too much.”
Emilio reached up and took the bottle, uncorking it. Clay looked toward the shack, imagining the horror it must have been for Nina Juarez to be stripped in front of Humes and his men, let alone her own brother. Had Humes left her untouched as he claimed he intended to do? “How much time do they have on us?” he asked Emilio.
“Only a few hours. They stayed here and slept last night. They figured with my injuries and no horse…I could never follow in time to help Nina. It will not be hard to catch up with them…if we hurry. They will not ride hard. They do not think anyone will follow…so they will be in no…hurry.”
“Good. We have a good chance of catching them in time.”
Their eyes met, and Emilio’s teared. “You will not put her in prison, will you? She is too innocent for that.”
“You should have thought of that before you let her ride with you and help you steal horses,” Clay answered angrily. He turned away again. “I can’t make any promises as to what I’ll do,” he added. “First we have to find her.” Lord let me find her, he added inwardly. Don’t let them touch her. Again he felt the strange possessiveness. He told himself he had just been too long without a woman. If and when he ever took another strong interest in one, she certainly was not going to be a wild little Mexican horse thief who probably hated all gringos anyway, let alone the fact that she and Emilio had both made a fool of him back in Indianola. They had probably had a good laugh over that one.
He left Emilio to explain to his men what was happening. Emilio looked out over the horizon, hating Jess Humes, hating himself, hating being forced to turn to the gringo soldier for help. “Nina,” he groaned.
The sun was setting as Jess Humes and his men rode into the wide ravine. Nina had seen this place before. She and Emilio had hidden out here once on their way from farther north, heading toward Hernandez’s ranch with stolen horses. It was a good hiding place, with a meandering creek at the bottom where horses could be watered; a drop down from the otherwise flat land. It was a place known mostly just to outlaws.
Jess had kept her wrists tied, perching her on his own horse in front of him, letting his free hand roam over her breasts at will during the long day’s ride. She wondered how much longer she could keep from being sick. She wanted to scream. Most of all she wanted to kill. Oh, how she would love to put a bullet in Jess Humes’s head! She felt dirty and humiliated, and she knew that to get through another two nights without any of Humes’s men forcing himself on her would be nothing but a miracle. Even if she did survive that, what lay ahead for her in San Antonio?
“We’ll rest here the night,” Humes told the others. “Unload the horses.” He drew up and dismounted, lifting Nina down and turning her to face him. “That’s the most pleasant ride I’ve ever had,” he told her with a seedy grin. “You’ve got one hell of a body, little Nina. Once I get you to San Antonio, I look forward to taking full pleasure in it.” He laughed lightly and walked away, leaving her standing on legs weak from lack of food and water. Her blouse hung loose out of her skirt, and her hair was tangled. She walked over to an area of soft grass and sat down, watching the others, already planning how she might escape once they were all asleep. Maybe she could convince Humes not to tie her up tonight.
Again she fought tears. She had to relieve herself, but she was afraid to ask about it, afraid Humes w
ould watch her again as he had that morning. She was in pain from the need but fought it. The fewer times she urinated, the fewer times she had to suffer the humiliation of it. She looked around, taking inventory of the area, the horses, the men. She reasoned that if she could manage to get onto her own black gelding, she could probably outride them all. He was a swift horse, and he knew her well, obeyed her every command. Yes, she would try to get to her horse tonight. Even without a saddle she could ride well.
The thought gave her hope, but that hope was dashed when Humes returned, grasping her wrists and dragging her to a small tree to tie her to it. “Can’t leave any freedom to a little spitfire like you now, can I? You just might get ideas.” She lay on her back, her wrists over her head and tied to the tree trunk. Humes straddled her and knelt over her, slowly opening her blouse.
Nina drew in her breath and gathered as much saliva as she could muster, spitting it into his face. Humes’s eyes widened in rage. He backhanded her, landing a blow to her already bruised jaw. Nina gasped but still refused to cry. Humes grasped her hair and leaned closer, bending his face for a moment to wipe it off against her shoulder before speaking.
“You’re pushing your luck,” he sneered. “You need to be taught a lesson, little girl, and I just might decide not to wait until I get you to San Antonio. I don’t need the money that bad!”
“You are scum! A coward,” she growled through gritted teeth. “Such a man it takes to force himself on a helpless woman! I am impressed with the yellow-mouthed gringo! Is this how you get all your women?”
He pressed a knee against her stomach, unknowingly pressing the urine out of her. “Your words make no difference to me. You had better remember, my little Mexican whore, that your only chance of staying alive is to go to San Antonio and be sold to that whorehouse! If I decide to take you right here and turn my men loose on you, then once we all get our fill, you’re a dead woman! You wouldn’t be worth much to Hannah, not worth the fuss of taking you to her. I’ve got no qualms about killing a Mexican woman, so if you want to stay alive at all, you’d better watch your mouth!”
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