Once the horses were watered Daniel set off again. The night was moon-lit and the dry landscape stretched out endlessly ahead of them.
“Why do we not stop for the night, Daniel? The Indians do not travel at night.”
“They do when they are looking for revenge. I want to get into those hills over there on the horizon. There is some grass there for the horses and we can see anyone coming for miles away. I will let you sleep for four hours while I watch then you can watch and wake me if you see anything suspicious.”
Daniel gave her some jerky to chew on to ease her hunger pains until they could make a secure camp.
They found a good spot: a basin with dry but ample grass and a cliff face from the crest of which Daniel would have a commanding field of fire. He left Teresita to make a small smokeless fire with bone dry brush and put the coffee pot on while chili beans bubbled in his small pot. They had no sooner eaten when without warning the sky clouded over blanking out the moon and it began to rain heavily.
Daniel and Teresita huddled together under his slicker in the lee of a large boulder.
“This rain is terrible. It is like a shower-bath.” Teresita complained.
“No, it is wonderful. It wipes out all our tracks and leaves water for the horses to drink.” Daniel told her. “You sleep now. I will awaken you in four hours.”
He left her wrapped in his blanket with his slicker over the top and he went to the crest of the cliff to watch. Now that the clouds had rolled in the plain behind them was no longer a clear stretch in the moonlight but he could still see movement and darker shadows against the light coloring of the desert sand. He watched carefully but apart from a few coyotes he saw nothing until his watch was up.
He shook her shoulder gently and she sat up with a start. “Oh! I dreamed that I was still with the Indians and one of them wanted me to be his wife.”
“Did you accept?” He asked in jocular vein.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I am promised to Don de Tudo y Alemany. I shall be the lady of a very large hacienda. Why would I accept a smelly savage?”
“What sort of a man is this Don de Tudo y Alemany?”
“I do not know. I have never met him.”
“How can you know whether you love him if you have never met him?”
“He has seen me when I was at the convent for my schooling and I have seen a miniature portrait of him. He is very handsome.”
“People in portraits are as handsome as the artist is paid to make them.”
“My father has assured me that the portrait was a very close likeness.” She said stiffly.
“In Spain it is customary for the father of the bride to pay a dowry, is it not? How much did your father pay?”
“My father is not a rich man. Our bloodline is excellent but our pockets are empty.”
“So what you are saying is that your father has sold you to a rich man?”
“How dare you say such a thing? My father loves me and he would never do that. He is the kindest of men and.....”
“Shhh!” Daniel held up a hand for silence. “Listen!” He hissed into her ear.
They listened for a moment. There was the click of a hoof upon a stone.
Daniel grabbed his rifle and squirmed up to the edge of the cliff and peered down. Shadowy figures moved on the plain below and the moon peeped through a crack in the clouds. He saw an Indian on horseback with a bow slung over his back. As he watched another moved behind the first bearing a feathered lance.
Daniel watched as they moved silently in single file across the base of the cliff. At least they were not coming his way. He slid back to the girl as quietly as he knew how.
“Indians!” He whispered to her. He checked their fireplace but the fire was cold ashes.
“It is my turn to stand watch.” Teresita whispered to him.
“No,” He replied. “I will continue the watch. Stay where you are.”
He went back to his watch point but the plain below was now empty. He watched until the sun came up and then he went to the highest point with his telescope and looked for smoke. He found some a mile or two to the west of their position. They were not trying to keep their position a secret and that was a good sign. It probably meant that they were not a war party.
They ate cold chili beans with stale bread for breakfast and did without coffee.
Daniel led them east for some miles before he turned south again. He could see water glinting in the distance and the horses could smell it so they angled off toward it.
Daniel did not speak much. His concentration was on the country around them. He did not want to run into another band of Indians while herding a bunch of tempting horses across their path. He would have been happy to let the horses return to the wild by simply releasing them but for all he knew the Indian horses could return directly to their owners and he did not want that to happen.
Teresita was still upset at his suggestion that her father had sold her to a rich man. She kept a frigid silence unless he spoke directly to her. He was such a frustrating man. He was very attractive but she knew him to be a liar and yet on the other hand he had gone out of his way to rescue her and had even bought a lot of horses to trade for her.
She did not know the customs of this country. Did the fact that he had negotiated with the Indians for her make her his woman? The thought did not fill her with dread as being possessed by the Indians had. There was dependability about him, a feeling that when she was with him she was protected. She was still in this silent reverie when he suddenly held up his hand and they stopped.
She listened and she heard voices ahead of them. They did not sound Indian but she not make out what was being said.
Daniel drew his pistol and signaled for them to move forward. They advanced slowly as the voices became louder and louder.
Suddenly they came over the rise and there beneath them was an army fort.
Chapter Thirty One
The fort was the next in line to the one commanded by Major Brad Younger. This one was commanded by a Major Corlett who was so taken by Teresita Rozas that he sent a cavalry troop under the command of a Lieutenant Horsley to escort them and Daniel’s horses to Comanche.
Neither Major Corlett nor Lieutenant Horsley could speak Spanish so Daniel found himself in the awkward position of having to translate gallant compliments to the lady and to deliver her replies.
“These men are all shameless.” She told Daniel. “Do they not know that I am due to be married as soon as I get to Laredo?”
“She says,” Daniel reported blandly. “That all American men are charming and obliging.”
“What did she say about Laredo.” The major pressed inquisitively.
“She said that she regrets having to go on to Laredo so soon.” He replied untruthfully.
The translations also worked the other way.
Lieutenant Horsley said to Daniel whilst the three of them were riding at the head of the cavalry troop.
“Sir, you will not remember me. I am sure you have changed your name for the purpose of traveling through the deep south but I trained under you. You are Brigadier Daniels not Daniel Beauregard. I made soldiering my career because of you, sir. You inspired me.”
“I understand a few words of English, Daniel. Why does he say that you are not Daniel Beauregard?” Teresita asked curiously.
“It is as I have explained to you once before: I served in both armies during the war. I was a Brigadier in the Union army and a Major in the Confederate army.”
“Ohhh! You are incorrigible! I do not know why I bother with you.” Teresita said coloring prettily.
“May I ask what the lady said, Brigadier?” Horsley asked.
“She said words to the effect that I am the biggest liar she has ever encountered.”
“I think
that you have taken her eye, Brigadier. I do not think that she will be going to Laredo. You said that you were bound for El Paso did you not, sir?”
Teresita was not talking to Daniel at the moment but she had noted the mention of Laredo and El Paso.
After Teresita and Daniel were safely delivered to Comanche, Lieutenant Horsley went on to the fort to deliver his commanding officer’s felicitations to Major Younger.
Daniel installed Teresita in the best room above the saloon, there being no hotel in the little town.
“Now this heah man is whut this county needs.” Jim Forrester announced to his customers as Daniel descended the stairs. “He goes ter trade with the injuns with ten hosses and he come back with the most beautiful gal in these heah United States and twenty hosses. Don’t that beat all?”
“When’s the next poker game, Dan?” One of the men at the bar called out.
“Anybody here know of someone in town that speaks both American and Spanish fluently?” Daniel asked the assembly.
“Sure thing, Dan.” Jim Forrester called out. “Mah daughter sure enuff does. Mah woman is Mexican and speaks broken English but mah daughter was born heah in Texas and she speaks both lingos.”
“Would she like a job looking after Senorita Rozas?”
“In this heah town would she like a job? I’m gonna tell the world she do! When’s she gonna start?”
“Right away. Senorita Rozas does not speak English so she needs someone to translate for her. I have to go back out to find the Senorita’s aunt. The Indian band split up and each band took one woman. I was lucky to find Teresita Rozas first. Are there any men here that are prepared to come out with me? I am paying two dollars a day.”
Ten men immediately responded.
“Any of you speak the Comanche language?”
“Ah c’n git by with Injun sign language.” One said.
“What’s your name?”
“Ah go by Pawnee on accounta ah wuz raised by ‘em.”
“Very well Pawnee. That makes you our Indian expert. I’ve got sixty horses in the corral in back. You men go make your choices but bring your own saddles and hardware.”
While the men were choosing horses, Daniel went upstairs to talk to Teresita.
“Senorita, I am taking some men to go looking for your Tia Maria. You will be safe here in Comanche. Anything you want or need you, ask the bartender downstairs and he will get it for you. Do not worry about money, it will all be taken care of when I get back.”
“But Daniel, how can I ask this man you call ‘baah tainda’? He does not speak Spanish.”
“I have a girl coming up here to look after you. She speaks Spanish and English well. She will speak to el barman for you. When I return with your aunt I will personally conduct you to Laredo to make sure that you arrive safely.”
She held his arm. “Daniel, it is dangerous out there. How can you be sure that you will return?”
“If I don’t then you will not be any worse off than before you were taken by the Indians. Write to your fiancé in Laredo and ask him to make arrangements to collect you from Comanche.”
“But Daniel, I am scared to be on my own. If you do not return then I will have lost my dear Aunt and also my best friend.”
“Do you count me as your best friend, Teresita?”
“Of course, Daniel, you saved me from the Indians and risked your life to do it.”
“Do not fear, Teresita. I will return but when I do I will expect you to make some important choices between Laredo and El Paso.” She saw him go with tears in her eyes as she wondered what he meant by this remark.
Daniel went to see Jim Forrester and paid him five hundred dollars.
“Jim, that’s an advance against whatever Senorita Rozas needs and also for the fodder for the horses in the corral. In case I do not return the horses are yours to defray any unpaid costs.”
“Dan, Ah’m bettin’ on you-all. Ain’t nothin’ in this world gonna keep you-all from that beautiful lady up them thar stairs.”
Chapter Thirty Two
Daniel rode out of Comanche on his stallion Star with his ten men, all well armed. He rode hard to the west looking for the tipis of the Comanche community.
The war bands left women and children at home and rode out to see what they could find to raid or steal. It was part of their culture in which every young man became a warrior through coups counted and horses and women stolen. Horses were valued higher than women. They thought the white men crazy to see things the other way around but that worked well for them because whites would pay many horses to recover their skinny worthless women.
Fortunately for Daniel one of his men had a good idea where the Comanche tipis were located and after three days ride with constant vigilance they came to the settlement.
The Comanches were going about their daily affairs with peaceful normality. Eleven armed riders coming into their camp did not even cause a stir.
Pawnee took control at this point as he signed to a Comanche brave requesting an audience with the ‘chief’.
They were brought to an old man sitting in the sunshine wrapped in a blanket and smoking a long stemmed pipe.
“Greetings, honored one! We come in peace.” Pawnee signaled.
“Eleven men with many guns do not signal peaceful intentions.” The elderly one said in passable Spanish. He did not want to expose his hands to the cold morning air.
Daniel stepped forward.
“Senor,” he said in Spanish. “I see that you speak Spanish and are an educated man. We come armed with guns because your young men will attack us if we do not. Two women from our community were taken by your young men and we wish to recover them.”
The old man gestured for them to be seated and the eleven white men sat in a circle around him while he spoke.
“I know of the women of which you speak. They were brought to our tents by some of our troublesome young men but I am the man of peace in this settlement and I sent them away to exchange the women for horses which are useful. White women are not useful. They are always unhappy and they do not know how to work. They cannot dress hides. They cannot make clothing. They do not understand our customs. Horses do not give such trouble. Horses know how to be proper horses but white women do not know how to be proper women.” He stopped and stared into the distance while he puffed upon his pipe.
“I would be happy to exchange horses for these women. Where may they be found?” Daniel responded as soon as he was sure that the old man would not speak again.
“They have gone to the east.” He said vaguely.
“Senor, is there some place in the east where I may find these women?”
The old man shrugged.
“Where does the wind blow? To where do the clouds drift? Men will always go where there is water.” After this the old man seemed to lose interest in responding to questions.
Daniel and his men withdrew and moved about the village bartering for jerky and pemmican to supplement their supplies.
Arthur Corning, the man that had known the whereabouts of the Comanche settlement, said that he thought that he might know where the war bands had gone. It was the only waterhole in a veritable desert to the north east of the Comanche settlement.
“Onliest trouble is, they c’n see us comin’ fer miles. We is like as not gonna git oursel’es shot at and theah ain’t no cover on that theah plain.”
“How can they trade the women for horses if they shoot at everyone that approaches them?” Daniel asked.
“Ain’t no use axing me how an injun thinks. Ah got enough trouble tryin’ ter figger out what mah wife thinks!” Arthur responded.
Daniel pondered the matter for a while.
“I need to approach that place with horses and no men. Arthur, do you think that you can lead the men close to
their hideout on foot?”
“Theah is a heap o’ desert out theah, boss. Gonna take three-foah days o’ marchin’ at night to git near to ‘em. Cain’t move in daylight, they see us fer sure.”
“Whut about daytime?” Pawnee asked. “They’s gonna see us camping on the sands eve’y day.”
“Not if you dig in before daylight and sleep under ground level.” Daniel pointed out. “Even making a shallow depression and covering yourself with sand will do.”
“Ah guess we c’n do that.”
“Here’s my plan.” Daniel said. “You take dry food and plenty of water. You set out at night and ride as far over the desert as we can make in that one night. I leave you dug in under the sand and lead the horses back out of sight. That should leave you only a another night maybe two to get up close to them. You signal me by flashing a mirror at me when you are in position. I come over the desert with all the horses in a string. I am one man alone so they’ll let me come in to trade, knowing that they could always kill me and take the horses anyway. You men move up and surround the place while I am holding the pow-wow. If anything goes sour you blast the hell out of them.”
“Thet ain’t gonna work, boss. Y’need me fer the pow-wow.” Pawnee pointed out.
“No, Pawnee, I believe I can get by with Spanish. Quite a few of them seem to be able to understand it. I would prefer a ten man surprise to a nine man surprise, particularly as, this way, I am the only one that will be exposed.”
Pawnee was disappointed. He would have preferred to ride in rather than walk in.
Daniel timed it so that they set out across the desert plain so that the buttes where the Indian war parties were hold up were just in sight when darkness was falling. They then rode hell-for-leather all night until an hour before dawn. They had reached a spot where a litter of boulders thrust through the desert sands so the men were able to sleep behind them instead of digging in. Daniel gathered the horses and rode hard until he was out of sight. He made camp and slept all day leaving the horses hobbled to eat the tough desert vegetation.
The Texican Way Page 24
