Callaghen (1972)

by L'amour, Louis

  After a few minutes they dipped through a dry wash, came up on the other side, and found a dim trail leading southwest, the one they had followed the evening before along the face of the mountain.

  They traveled an hour... perhaps four miles at the pace they were taking, and then a gap opened in the range. He dropped back beside Ridge. "Wait here."

  He rode ahead swiftly, and when well into the opening he dismounted and struck a light. He found tracks, going and coming, and he had an idea that it was a pass. A little further on he found the tracks of wheeled vehicles. He rode back to the stage, and it followed him into the pass. On his left the cliff rose steeply for several hundred feet; on the right it was just as high, but not quite so steep.

  It was darker in the pass. Callaghen kept well ahead of the sounds of the moving stage so that he could listen, but he heard nothing. The sky overhead was growing gray. Before them loomed a tremendous rock wall, blacking out the sky ahead of them but the trail curved around it, straightening out to a general northeast direction.

  He had no idea how far they were from Marl Springs, but it must be at least several hours away. He looked around. The stage was coming on, Ridge tooling his teams over the trail, saving them wherever possible. Callaghen dropped back.

  "Want to give them a chance to rest?"

  "I'd better." Ridge drew them in, and then as they stood, stamping and blowing, he asked, "We going to have to run for it, Sarge?"

  It was light enough to see now, and within minutes the Indians, if they had not already done so, would find their trail. They had gone about eight miles, and with luck it would take the Indians an hour and a half to come up with them though less if they cut across the mountains to gamble on heading them off. The Indians were not trail-bound as were the stage and Callaghen himself. Make it two hours to come up with them, for the stage would be moving.

  "How far to Marl Springs?" Ridge asked. Callaghen hesitated, trying to remember all he had heard and what he believed. "Twelve... maybe fifteen miles," he answered.

  "Then we'll have to fight. All right, let's go." They moved out, Callaghen scouting well ahead. The coolness of the deeper canyon was behind them and the space between the mountain ridges was widening out. A long, comb-like ridge about four hundred feet high and very steep, cut them off. They must follow the trail around it.

  The sun came up, and it grew warm. A quarter of a mile ahead of the stage, Callaghen drew up to rest his mount. The stage was coming on; the Indians might be hidden back in the canyon, if they were coming that way. If they had chosen to cut across the mountain they would have to travel no more than three miles while the stage was doing almost ten. In that case they would be waiting up ahead, where the pass opened out into the desert.

  Up there it was no more than three hundred yards wide, and there was a good ridge of hills on their left, offering excellent cover. Straight ahead, beyond the opening of the pass and a few miles of desert, he could see the black of cinder cones rising up.

  Once, perhaps a thousand years ago, this had been a volcanic area. There were dozens of those cinder cones, some of them several hundred feet high, each with its crater; most of the craters were blown open on one side. He waited for the stage to come up to him. The Delaware swung down and walked up to where Callaghen stood with Ridge and Becker. Without pointing, he indicated with a movement of his head the ridge he suspected.

  "If they've cut across, that's where they'll be... some of them anyway."

  "You think some followed us, an' the rest cut over the mountain?" Becker asked.

  "Wouldn't you? They must have guessed we're trying for Marl. We need water... they know that. And there are or were soldiers there."

  "All right," Ridge agreed. "I'll stake a claim on that. What do we do? A run-by?"

  "Yes... and turn sharp at the end of the ridge. The trail will be right back in line with where we now stand, I think. Turn sharp and take them to the main trail."

  Callaghen dropped back beside the coach, ignoring Wylie inside. "Keep down," he said to them. "In a few minutes we're going to start a run, and there's liable to be some shooting."

  Wylie peered out. "Indians?"

  "You won't see them," Callaghen said. "If they're waiting for us, we've got about a mile and a half before anything happens." With a look at Wylie, he added, "If you're any good with that gun of yours, now's the time to show it."

  Wylie produced his gun. "I'm good," he said. "You'll see."

  The stage started again and Callaghen rode on, not so far ahead this time. He checked his carbine to be sure it was not gripped too tightly by the leather, and opened the flap on his belt gun.

  Ridge handled his team perfectly. The grade was slightly uphill. Passing under a looming rock tower on their left, Callaghen glanced up at it. For an instant he found himself looking straight into the eyes of an Indian. The man was a good hundred yards off, but they saw each other at the same instant; then the Indian vanished.

  Callaghen allowed the stage to overtake him. "They're here," he said. "They're waiting for us."

  His mouth was dry. Ahead of them the pass was still narrow, and the rocks on either side seemed ready to close in on them like the jaws of some primeval monster.

  Chapter 12

  Ridge walked his horses, saving them for the run. Callaghen felt the sweat on his forehead, and he could sense the excitement in the horse he rode. "All right, boy," he said quietly, "easy does it."

  At this point the pass widened somewhat, and the cliffs farther back were out of rifle shot. But ahead the pass narrowed again, and for at least a half-mile they would be exposed to fire from the cliffs.

  Callaghen looked at them, considered the situation, and decided that the Indians would likely be bunched at the entrance to the narrower passage, hoping to stop or cripple them there, then finish the job before the stage could get around the point and out of range. Beyond the mouth of the pass he could see those cinder cones, with a black flow of lava at their base. He saw no movement on the cliffs, but he had expected none.

  He dried his palms on his shirt front, and pulled his hat down a little lower. They would probably not shoot at him, but wait for the stage to get into the jaws of the trap. He started to walk his horse a little faster, glanced back and motioned to Ridge. Instantly, Ridge cracked his whip, and the team lunged into their harness and began to run.

  Callaghen heard the sharp spangof a rifle bullet as it ricocheted from a rock nearby, and then his horse was running. The point of rocks was some distance ahead, but once around it... More shots were striking near, and then, suddenly, with a wave of sheer panic he realized the shooting was simply not heavy enough... not enough Indians were firing.

  He pulled in, saw a bullet strike the sand in front of him and to the right, and then he pulled over to let the stage come racing up. Running his horse abreast of the driver's box, he yelled, "Pull wide around the corner! There's more of them on the other side!"

  Ridge raised his whip in acknowledgment, and then they were racing up to the point of rocks.

  The trail turned sharp around it, and the wall of rocks would cut them off from firing in the pass. But the instant Callaghen had realized that, and knew that there were too few Indians firing, he had guessed where they would be: waiting in the rocks for the stage to round the point and then they would come running right up to them.

  He rounded the point just one jump ahead of the stage and led off into the desert, away from the trail, running due east. Leaping and bounding, the stage came after, dodging boulders and veering around clumps of brush, the maddened horses running with all they had.

  Shots rang out behind them, and looking back, Callaghen saw the Indians running from the rocks at the base of the cliff. He ran his horse for another quarter of a mile, slowed to a canter, and then to a walk. The stage rolled up to him.

  Far behind they could see the Indians, and then they vanished, the color of their bodies becoming one with the mountainside along which they moved.

  Ridg
e pulled up to let his horses blow. "Good thinkin' there, Callaghen," he said. "We almost run right into their trap."

  "They'll cut across the mountains, I think. They'll try to get to Marl ahead of us."

  After a minute or two he led off. The desert around them was empty. To the north he could now see half a dozen of the cinder cones, and to the south the Kelso Mountains. The trail ran along the base of the mountains, and the route they were now taking across the desert would take them back into the trail a mile or so farther along.

  Callaghen's mouth was dry, his lips were feeling stiff and sore. He squinted his eyes against the sun, studying the desert over which they were advancing. Indians could be anywhere. They had lived long in this country, hunting, raiding, and food-gathering across it in every direction. They knew what possibilities it offered far better than he did better than even the Delaware did.

  It was a slight upgrade toward the trail, and Ridge took his time. From the top of the stage he could see well ahead, and Becker was keeping a sharp eye out for trouble, but no Indians followed them.

  "We need that water," Callaghen said to Ridge, "and they know it."

  "What if there's none of our men there?" Becker wanted to know. "What if somebody pulled the sojer boys out, an' the Injuns are waitin' instead?"

  "Then we'll have some shooting to do," Callaghen replied, and they rode on.

  The sun was high now, and the horses were laboring on the rough desert. Twice they passed through deep belts of sand; often they bumped and jolted over rocky areas. The desert was littered with chunks of lava, all the way from fist size to boulders as large as the stage, blown out by the violence of the upheaval.

  "She must have been hot around here, one time," Ridge said, awed by the sight. "Imagine how it must've been when all those holes were blowin' at once!"

  "It might not have happened at one time," Becker said. "Could have been from time to time, but even so, I'm glad I'm here now instead of then."

  They drove on, and at last the horses bumped over the last stones and pulled the stage back to the trail once more. Several miles ahead the trail again cut through a narrow pass, this time through the Marl Mountains. Though it seemed unlikely the Indians were there, they would have to chance the possibility. It was a narrow, dangerous place, but they evidently had reached it before the Indians, and they drove through without trouble, and turned right around a point of rocks toward Marl Springs.

  The redoubt at Marl Springs was only a few months old. Lieutenant Manuel Eyre, of the 14th Infantry, had directed the building of it; at the time he had been the officer commanding at Camp Cady. The corral, twenty-four feet on each side, was built of strong cedar logs cut in Cedar Canyon not far from Rock Springs. At each of the opposite corners there was a stone house twelve feet square and just over six feet high. The largest spring issued from a tunnel between the fort and the mountain.

  The redoubt was too close under the mountain for comfort, unless a sentry was kept on the small peak as a lookout. Originally it had been planned to have a sergeant and eight men at this post, but this had rarely been done. To the best of his knowledge there were three or four men holding the position at present. There were several horses in the corral, and as they approached he caught a glimpse of a blue uniform at the gate to the corral.

  Callaghen studied the area carefully as they approached, and scanned the country around. He walked his horse on ahead of the stage, a gun ready to his hand.

  A man wearing sergeant's stripes came out to greet them. "Ah, Sergeant O'Callaghan is it? Sure 'n' when I last saw you, man, you wore something better than stripes."

  "MacBrody? I'm damned if I can believe it's you. I thought you were dead, man killed in the fighting at the war's end. I saw you go down under three men."

  "And if you'd waited you'd have seen me come up with only one, and he didna last long. They were only boys, Morty, good boys but young to the fighting, and I'm afraid they did not live long enough to grow wise in their days."

  He looked past Callaghen. "And what is it you have here? A stage?"

  "Bound for Vegas Springs, but there's been trouble along that route. They'd left the trail, so I brought them here... Any word of Sprague? I'd gone on ahead of his patrol."

  "We've seen nobody but skulking Indians, and a-plenty of them to trouble us." He glanced at Callaghen. "We're short-handed here. One man took a horse and left us in the night... I hope he made it through, although I'd not say as much in the hearing of the others."

  The stage rolled up to the gate, which was opened to allow it through. "We can use water," Ridge said. "The horses, and all of us."

  "There's water here," MacBrody said. "Although it is slow to come, it never stops at least it never has. But you'll have a drink, all of you, and by daylight the trough should be full again, and the canteens can be filled."

  He stopped close to Callaghen. "Is it true about Major Sykes? If it is, you'll be having no good luck."

  "It's true, but I'll be paying out soon."

  Ridge was helping the women down and Callaghen went over to the stage. Becker walked up to him. "Thanks, friend," he said. "Without you we wouldn't have made it."

  MacBrody approached the women. "We've little enough for you, but we'll do our best."

  Malinda smiled at him. "Thank you, Sergeant. Whatever you do will be appreciated, and whatever it is will be better than a dry camp out there."

  He gave her a quick glance. "Ah, 'tis of the frontier you are? Well, it is better than. The eastern ladies ar lovely now, but they expect too much. I will have couple of the boys rev it up in yonder."

  Callaghen looked around the corral. He saw that it was strong, and the water was close. Leaving here might present something of a problem, but they could face it when they came to it.

  "How many men do you have?" he asked.

  "Three and myself, and one of them the mail man who should be riding on. They ran him into this place and he's not very anxious to be out again for a while."

  "Let him wait. There's nothing in that mailbag that I'd lose a man for."

  Four soldiers here... the Stick-Walker and himself, Becker, Ridge, Wylie, and his friend. The Indians would not be wise to come against them now ten men and a good strong stockade, with plenty of water.

  "How are you for rations? The usual emergency stuff?"

  "No." MacBrody spat. "The train's overdue and we're running short. That's not to say we can't manage a day or two."

  Malinda crossed the corral to Callaghen's side. "Mort, will we be able to go on? Tomorrow, I mean?"

  "No."

  "You think they will still be out there? That they will wait?"

  "Why not? The desert can provide them with most of what they need. There is food out there if a man will work hard enough to gather it, and the Mohaves grow food... they grow corn, melons, beans, and a lot of other stuff on land flooded by the Colorado. But their hunting, gathering, and planting can't give them guns that will kill at the range of ours, can't provide them with needles as good, clothing as well made... so they ride land they raid. The stage represents more wealth to them than several seasons of planting. They will eat the horses, use the harness, trade some of the items in the stage for other things, and will keep some of them.

  "When Sir Francis Drake captured a Spanish galleon loaded with gold it meant no more to Elizabethan England than a stagecoach or covered wagon does to these Indians... Drake was a hero to his people, and so will the warrior be who brings back the loot from a wagon."

  "I think you like these people, these Indians."

  His eyes looked across the wide valley. Beyond was a age of mountains, sheer rock reaching up for a thousand et or more. "Like them? I do not know them, but I believe I understand them to some extent. They are fighting men, and one fighting man always has some understanding of another. All down through the pages of history the warrior has been venerated. Only Solomon is respected for his wisdom. Most leaders have been respected for their skill or their success in war. It i
s the same with the Indian."

  "You sound as if you believed in war." '

  "No... I've seen too much of it. But I don't know what to believe. This is a young land, its people love freedom, and by and large they are tolerant; but we must not become tolerant of evil, simply because it exists.

  "Do you suppose we could escape at night?" Malinda asked. "Isn't it true that some Indians do not believe in fighting by night?"

  "That is true of some. They believe the soul of a man killed at night must wander forever in darkness; but there are skeptics among the Indians as well as among ourselves. I've never paid much attention to such generalities, and it would be just my luck to run into a non-believer with a good rifle."

  He looked again at the mountain range across the valley, feeling drawn to it by some urge he could not name. It was a rocky ridge, sharp against the sky. He tried to estimate the distance, which was difficult in such clear air. Ten miles? No... closer to twenty.

  "My uncle will be worried," Malinda said.

  "Yes, I know. But one should never expect too much of time. No man who begins a journey knows how it will end. Nor when."

  Chapter 13

  Southwest of the redoubt was a small pocket in the hills where a little grass and brush grew. A trickle of water came out of a hole in the rocks and disappeared into the ground, but its subirrigation kept the grass alive. The pocket was surrounded by low rocky hills.

  Under ordinary circumstances there was sufficient grazing there to handle a few horses for a short time, but supply trains brought grain for the stock. As a rule, aside from the horses of the troopers, if they happened to be cavalry, there would be no more than four to six extra horses at the post. Now there were only four besides the one belonging to the mail rider.