Abigail Crowder, wife of the Taos fire chief, raised her hand. When Smoke recognized her, she stood to ask her question. “Where will we get the food?”
“I have spoken with Mr. Hubbard at the general store. The city will purchase all supplies from him. There will be no charge for the meals. If you give of your time, it won’t empty the city treasury, what there is of it.”
Another woman stood. “How long will this go on?”
Smoke frowned, scratched at his jaw. “Hard to say. At least two or three days. The mayor and I have sent a message to Santa Fe. We’re asking the governor to call out the militia. But, politicians move slowly. Troops under arms move even slower. We’ll be on our own for a goodly while.”
She had another question. “Will there be enough to eat?”
Smoke nodded reassurance. “I reckon so. For the volunteer fighting men, I suggest you concentrate on fixin’ what there’s the most of. Such as corn bread, biscuits, potatoes, rice and beans. Hubbard has dozens of barrels of those. Plenty of pickles, too. If you can come up with some chickens from home, it would help. Now, if you’ll step over here, Mr. Dougherty, the town clerk, will sign you up, put down the times of day you want to work.”
* * *
Small columns of outlaws streamed down off the mesa. They spread out, and those tasked to the detail made ready to close off the roads. Others waited two miles from Taos to set up roving patrols to prevent anyone from sneaking out of town from houses on the outskirts. What Paddy Quinn did not know would soon prove to have fateful consequences for his plans.
Less than ten minutes earlier, twenty-five young Tua warriors, with Santan Tossa in the lead, had ridden into Taos and assembled outside the sheriff’s office. Their faces were set, emotionless, the stereotypical Indian visage. At the direction of their tribal police chief, they filed into the office and came out with far more animated expressions. Each of them clutched a rifle or a shotgun. Faces of horror flashed through the Mexican and white residents of Taos when they saw this. Enough so that Santan Tossa went inside and spoke briefly with Smoke Jensen.
Smoke came outside and went among the troubled citizens of Taos. He spoke briefly and earnestly to small groups. “They are here to fight Quinn’s gang. They can’t do that with bows and arrows. If more of you had volunteered, it would not be necessary.”
One indignant, pudgy man in a banker’s suit protested hotly. “It’s not our fault. You can’t blame us. We’re not lawmen. It’s your job to protect us.”
Such whining complaints quickly wore thin Smoke’s sparse layer of patience. After the third such outpouring of whining self-justification, he snapped hotly. “And if you had the brains of a gnat, you’d realize that is exactly what I am doing.”
“The governor will hear of this,” a voice warned darkly. The banker had slunk back to launch another feeble barb.
Smoke laughed in the man’s face. “Not until you can get out of town, he won’t.”
* * *
Diego Alvarado, along with two of his sons, Alejandro and Miguel, at the head of thirty-eight vaqueros, thundered up the long slope from the high desert flats where Rancho de la Gloria was located. All of the cowboys had heavily armed themselves. Twin bandoliers of rifle cartridges crisscrossed their chests. Obrigon .45s rode high in holsters on their belts.
Eight of their number cast frequent, nervous glances at their saddlebags, which had been packed full of crudely made grenades. The hand-thrown bombs were made of wine and tequila bottles, tightly packed with black powder and horseshoe nails, then fused and stoppered. The prospect of using them excited some of the more reckless among the vengeance-hungry vaqueros. Ahead waited the men who had murdered their compañeros and stolen their pride when they had stolen the cattle they tended. This would be a day for El Degüello. No quarter would be given. In the heads of some of the older ones echoed the brassy refrain of the “Cutthroat Song,” which their grandfathers had played outside the defiant walls of the Alamo. That these ladrónes they rode to fight were gringos only sweetened the revenge. Five miles from Taos, Diego Alvarado signaled a halt.
“Alejandro, Miguel, here is where we will divide into three groups. Miguel, you will take ten men and ride directly down the road to town. Alejandro, take fourteen and circle a short way to the north. Not more than half a mile, mind. I will take the rest and go to the south. When Miguel and his men open fire, we will sweep down on the bandido scum and kill them all.”
Alejandro and Miguel made their selections and drew the men apart. After signaling to their father, Diego stood in his stirrups and waved a gloved hand over his head. “¡Adelante, muchachos!”
With an enthusiastic, shouted cheer of encouragement, the indomitable company of vaqueros thundered off to bring the force of destiny to the unsuspecting outlaws.
* * *
Three members of the city council came bustling into the sheriff’s office while Smoke Jensen was spooning a plateful of beans into his mouth. From the fiery flavor, Smoke judged that the women cooks had found a ready and willing source of chile peppers among the Mexican households. A florid-faced man in a brown suit and matching derby hat spoke for the politicians.
“What is this we hear that you have actually armed the Indians?”
Smoke chewed and swallowed his most recent mouthful and gestured with the spoon. “Yes, I have.”
“Why, that’s outrageous. And, it is totally unacceptable.”
Smoke shook his head. “No, it’s not. Think about it, gentlemen.”
Agitation darkening the rosy color of his face, the spokesman yapped at Smoke. “We have thought about it. We do not intend to be massacred in our beds or our own homes. We demand—”
Smoke raised a hand to silence him. “Let me acquaint you with some very real, although unpleasant facts of life. When the gang and its hangers-on get here, Paddy Quinn will have between forty-five and seventy highly capable gunfighters at his command. The Tua warriors have come here and are willing to defend your town for you. They can hardly do so against such odds with weapons out of the Stone Age. The mayor agreed with me that we should properly arm them, and that has been done.”
“Why were we not consulted about this?”
Smoke Jensen smiled coldly. “To save time. Politicians, from the White House on down, believe that they can talk troubles to death. We could be arguing over arming the Tuas until winter came.”
The councilman cut his eyes to his associates and fired his last barb. “Banker Elwell tells us that you refused to notify the governor.”
Smoke lowered his gaze a moment. “I—ah—stretched the truth a little when I spoke with the banker. In the letter requesting the militia, I informed the governor of our decision. The mayor assured me it was all right to arm the Indians for—how does the territorial constitution put it?—‘the purpose of hunting game and for the defense of the common good.’”
Defeated, and hating it, the spokesman snapped at Smoke. “For a man with so low an opinion of politicians, you can sure quote law like one.”
Grinning, Smoke affected to preen himself. “A man of many talents, wouldn’t you say?”
Shocked at this effrontery, the senior councilman’s eyes bulged. “Well, I never!”
“Nope. Reckon you haven’t.”
Smoke’s mockery sent them to the door. Heads held high in indignation, the delegation had only reached the porch when they collided with Wally Gower and three other town moppets of about his age, who surged past them, into the office. “They’re comin’, Sheriff Jensen. The Quinn gang’s closin’ in on town. It looks like there’s enough of them, they’re gonna ring the whole place.”
NINETEEN
When the news the boys carried got out, it quickly changed a lot of minds. First to scurry into the sheriff’s office was the banker, Elwell. “You’re the undersheriff. Do something,” he bleated. “We need all of the protection we can get.”
Smoke Jensen could not resist a final tweak of this whining hypocrite. “You’ve changed your
mind about arming the Tuas with modern weapons?”
“Yes—yes, anything. Just save us from those vandals out there.”
“Well, then, I’d suggest you go home, get your rifle, and help us.”
Elwell eyed him with suspicion. “Sheriff Jensen, I’ve not fired a rifle in years.”
Smoke gave him a grin. “It’s like ridin’ a horse, Elwell. You never forget.” To Santan Tossa he suggested, “Let’s go out and take a look at the new arrivals.”
What they found, as they made their rounds, stunned even the usually unflappable Smoke Jensen. Instead of the expected forty-five to seventy outlaws, Smoke counted fully two hundred border trash, drifters, and genuine hardcases spread out around the town. All of them seemed to be cold, grim-faced, hardened killers. Smoke turned to a deputy who stood nearby nervously fingering his Winchester.
“Hardly what we counted on, is it? I want you to go back into town and get those volunteers to speed up filling sandbags. Tell them I want stacks built to line the outer walls of all wooden buildings to the height of a kneeling man. Then come back here and take charge.”
The lawman gulped and broke his fixed stare at the outlaws. “Right away, Sheriff.” Grateful to be away from there, if only for a few minutes, he hurried off.
Then Smoke advised Tossa and all the men within hearing, “Now all we have to do is wait and find out what the enemy has in mind.”
* * *
Back at the Sugarloaf, Mary-Beth Gittings worked industriously to load the valises they had brought into the fancy carriage. Her sons, red-eyed from yet another switching, dragged their own packed luggage from the house. Her face drawn and tight-lipped, she remained ominously silent as she walked past Sally Jensen, who stood on the porch and watched. Sally’s face revealed a poorly restrained expression of pleasure.
When the last piece had been loaded, Mary-Beth advanced on Sally, fists on hips, her face a study in self-righteous indignation. Her cheeks burned, not only with her umbrage, but from humiliation. She had allowed this woman to dictate to her how she should deal with the minor infractions her darling children committed. She was the first to admit they were not perfect. All children did naughty things from time to time. But to spank them? To viciously punish and degrade them—and one’s self—in such a barbaric fashion? It would have never occurred to her that when on another person’s property, and under their roof, one should abide by their rules. She should have never listened to Sally, her angry thoughts continued. Especially after she learned what she knew now.
It had come out only an hour ago, while she once again reluctantly put the switch to the boys up in the room they shared. Wailing in hurt and fright, their bottoms a cherry red, they had sobbed out how that monstrous creature had threatened their lives. Horrified, Mary-Beth had decided on the spot to leave. Now she let all her outrage boil out.
With a visible effort, she restrained most of her dudgeon as she addressed her hostess for the final time. “I never believed that such a dear old friend would be so shamelessly protective of such an ill-bred child.”
Her patience exhausted, Sally glowered back. “What is it this time, Mary-Beth?”
Mary-Beth let it spill out. “Why, it is about murder. My precious sons revealed to me not an hour ago that Bobby threatened to hang Seth and Sammy when they ran away.”
That banished the last of Sally’s sense of obligation. “Mary-Beth, don’t you recall that after all they had stolen horses? Horse thieves are hanged out here.”
Sally might as well have smacked Mary-Beth in the middle of her forehead. Shock silenced her to a small squeak. Then she hoisted her skirts and turned away. Briskly she walked to the carriage and boarded the driver’s seat. She picked up the reins and snapped them. Without a farewell or a backward look, she and her troublesome children rolled down the long lane. At the last moment, only Billy Gittings turned back and gave a friendly, forlorn wave to Bobby Jensen.
Soberly, Bobby returned the gesture. The next instant, Sally and Bobby fell into one another’s arms in relief and joy. “They’re gone. They’re finally gone,” Sally shouted happily.
* * *
For the defenders of Taos, the wait to see what Quinn had in mind proved a long one. Both sides restlessly eyed one another from across the separating distance. Tension increased among the besiegers when the faint drumming of many horses came from the southwest. Paddy Quinn and a dozen of his immediate subordinates lingered on the far side of a bridge that spanned a narrow creek in a deep, red rock gorge. They conversed quietly there with the men assigned to operate the roadblock. It was toward them that a party of eleven men, dressed as vaqueros, cantered in midafternoon.
Quinn trotted forward a few lengths and raised a hand in a gesture to halt. “Turn back. No one enters town without our leave.”
Several seconds went by before their identity became clear to Quinn. Then he shouted over his shoulder. “B’God, it’s that Diego Alvarado’s outfit. Turn about, boys, an’ give ’em hell.”
Miguel and the vaqueros had anticipated that. At once their weapons blasted in a volley. They fired again, and three of the outlaws left their saddles. Paddy Quinn barely escaped with his life. Bullets cracked past his head, and one grazed the shoulder of his mount. He turned first left, then right, only to see a swarm of more cowboys appear on both sides of the road. Determined to salvage what he could of his subordinate leaders and the men, he put spurs to his horse as he shouted to his underlings.
“Follow me! It ain’t worth it; let ’em in.” Then he cut off at an oblique angle between the hostile forces.
At once, the vaqueros converged on the road and cantered into town in a column three wide. Diego and Alejandro waited at the side until the last of the cowboys got through. He halted six of them.
“Stay here and keep the road open,” Diego commanded.
One of the younger vaqueros looked nervously over his shoulder. “Sí, patrón. But you saw what they did when we rode in. There are so many of them.”
Diego nodded. “They cannot all come against you. They are here to close the town. When some of them come back, use your rifles. Keep them at a distance.”
With that Diego rode on into town. He stopped at the sheriff’s office and was greeted by Smoke Jensen. “It’s good you’re here, Diego. How many men did you bring?”
“Thirty-eight, and two of my sons.”
Smoke laughed and wrung Diego’s hand. “Make that three. Pedro insists he is healed enough to take part. He wants a rifle.”
Diego nodded his understanding. Then he asked the question foremost on his mind, “How many of them are there?”
“By my count, close to two hundred.”
Diego frowned. “That is a formidable force.”
A smile bloomed on Smoke’s face. “We have nearly as many, thanks to you and our Tua friends. Come, I’ll show you how we’re set up.”
Smoke Jensen set off on a tour of town, explaining the defenses to Diego Alvarado. They had covered two sides of town when a flurry of gunshots broke out.
* * *
Being run off from the barricade rankled some of the gang. A dozen of the outlaws on the east side received a blistering lecture from their section leader on holding their place at all costs. Being of the criminal class, they saw any orders, especially those couched as criticism, as an affront. It made them restless, and eventually their patience wore out.
One hothead gave his opinion. “I say we can take that town full of sissies just by ourselves.”
Another slightly more intelligent one disagreed. “Those Mezkin cowboys are in there now.”
“Don’t matter. Mezkins is dumb like Injuns. They think it’s the noise that knocks a man down, so they don’t aim.”
A third piece of trash had news that slowed them for a while. “These must; they done knocked two of the boys outten their saddles.”
“Lucky shots,” the first insisted. He kept on for another ten minutes, until he had them all convinced.
They trotted
their horses to the east road and passed through the blockaders without restraint. Then the reckless hardcases spurred their mounts to a gallop and, with six-guns out and ready, rode like a whirlwind into Taos. They met immediate opposition. A hail of lead came from the second-floor windows in buildings near the center of town. Rifle fire, they soon learned to their regret. Two of the frontier trash left their perches and sprawled in the dirt of the street. A third gritted teeth and clapped a hand to a hole in his shoulder.
From closer at hand, more guns sought out the survivors. Bullets clipped through the air around them. For all that the defenders had been instructed to take good aim, the fact remained that there was more air out there than meat. Nine of the outlaws managed to reach the Plaza de Armas, which they proceeded to ride around, firing into the building fronts. They had made half the circuit when Smoke Jensen and Diego Alvarado arrived on the scene. The situation changed abruptly.
* * *
“That shooting is coming from the Plaza.” Diego Alvarado announced something that Smoke Jensen already knew.
“We’d best get there the fastest way,” the last mountain man opined.
Diego pointed to an alley that cut through several blocks at a sharp angle “Take this callejón.”
They set out at a fast trot, both men with six-guns in hand. At the far end, Smoke could now see the fountain in the center of the square. A horseman obscured his view a moment as he rode by in the Plaza de Armas, firing into buildings as he went. Another followed, then another. One block to go. Smoke held his fire as another of the Quinn gang—he figured it could be none other—rode by the alley mouth. In another three seconds they came out into the open.
“Here’s a couple of ’em,” a strange voice brayed from behind Smoke Jensen.
He crouched and whirled in the same move. The Colt in his right hand bucked, and the outlaw who had called to his friends took a bullet in the right side of his chest. To Smoke’s other side, the Obrigon in the hand of Diego Alvarado belched flame, and a .45 slug struck another bandit in the gut. His eyes bulged, but he kept coming. The odd, foreign-looking revolver—the barrel, cylinder and frame had not been blued—in his hand raised to line up on the chest of Diego Alvarado.
Live by the West, Die by the West Page 44
