Hays protested. “But, boss, what about us?”
I said, “Those horses go down, we go down. You understand? We can stand a little thirst for a few more days, but those horses are packing us, not the other way around. Now do like I tell you.”
I set the example by taking my hat and pouring it as full as I could get. My young bay gelding took after it with eagerness and appreciation. I yelled down the line, “Get as much water in them as you can. It could be forty miles before they water again.”
Off to the north, through the shimmering heat waves, I could see the track running straight as a die toward the Texas border. I thought, what the hell, we might as well follow it. At least we wouldn’t get lost. We were about to run out of the little hummocks and ridges, and the only protection left was the stunted underbrush and small trees and our own guns.
I looked down the line of horsemen. Some of them were still watering their horses. Hays come up to me with a worried look on his face. He said, “Boss, I hope you know what you are about. We got exactly two canteens left. Two gallons of water.”
I patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Ray. You’ll probably be dead before you get a chance to be thirsty again.”
He said, “Oh, well, then I—”
Then he stopped and looked at me. I yelled out, “Mount up. We got to get this caravan moving.” I took a look at Jack and Señor Elizandro. Jack appeared to be picking up, but the señor was going the other way. Well, there wasn’t a thing could be done about it. I swung in the saddle.
Just about the time I was set to move out on my refreshed mount I heard Ben say from behind me, “Justa, take a look to the west, to your left. Breaking out from behind that brushy
barranca.”
I wheeled in the saddle and looked where he was pointing. A half dozen men had broken clear of the scrubby underbrush a half mile to the west of us. They were coming full tilt. Even as I watched I saw another small party come from around the other side of the little hummock, another half a dozen men, and come charging.
I stared, not quite knowing what to make of them. From behind me, sounding like he was speaking through clenched teeth, I heard Miguel say,
“Rurales.
Very bad. Very bad. They won’t stop.”
“Lew!” I yelled.
9
Lew was beside me even as I was dismounting. I said, “We got to lure them on. There are too many of them and if we get caught in a running fight they’ll dog us all the way to the border. We got to lure them, decoy them.”
“What you want me to do?”
I said, “Get up there in the middle of the tracks with Davilla. Get behind him and get a pistol in his back but not where it can be seen. I want him to wave those riders on in. I want them close enough so that we can take the biggest part of them out with our first fusillade.” I looked at Lew. “I know I’m asking a hell of a lot. I’m asking you to expose yourself to extra danger.”
He spit on the ground as if to say it didn’t amount to that much. “Hell, I’ll have Davilla in front of me. They ain’t gonna shoot at him. And I got a uniform on. Them
rurales
will just think we’re a couple of
federales
officers with the prisoners. If we get lucky they’ll just come riding right on in.”
I said, “We’ll be sheltering down behind this grade. We can’t get the horses down, but they ought not to be too exposed. When we let go with that first barrage you jerk Davilla down and get behind cover yourself.”
The others were already dismounting. Ben and Hays were helping Señor Elizandro off his horse and propping him up against the bank of the railroad grade. Lew was forcing an unwilling
capitán
of
federales
up the steep slope and onto the railroad tracks.
The
rurales
were coming on, converging as they did until they were just one group. I estimated they were still a good quarter of a mile off. I yelled out, “Men, you got to make these first shots count. We got to get all of this bunch. I mean every damn one of them.”
But I didn’t know if I had the guns for it. With Lew more or less out of it there was only me and Ben and Hays. I didn’t know how well Señor Elizandro’s men could shoot but I damn sure knew about Norris, even though he had a rifle in his hands.
I saw Lew jab Davilla with his pistol in the back. They were just over my head and to my left. With obvious reluctance Davilla began to wave to the
rurales,
making come-on-in motions. I could see but couldn’t hear Lew talking in his ear.
Then it seemed to me as if the riders slowed up, became more cautious. They were only a couple of hundred yards away, but it was still too far for really accurate and rapid firing. Finally they came to a halt a full one hundred yards away. One of them yelled something in Spanish at Davilla. Davilla didn’t reply. Lew jabbed him with the pistol and talked in his ear. My heart was in my throat. If they got spooked now they’d lay out on our flanks and pick us off at their leisure. I prayed for Lew to do something, but I didn’t know what he could do. If Davilla didn’t say something soon it would be too late.
Then Lew stepped out from behind Davilla. He was still holding the pistol in Davilla’s back but it wouldn’t have been apparent to the
rurales.
He yelled something in Spanish. It was too fast and too complicated for me to follow, but it got the
rurales’
attention. Their leader shouted something back and then Lew fired something back at him. Finally the
rurales
started forward again. Only this time they appeared to be coming with greater caution, coming at a walk. Lew shouted something else at them and I was wishing mightily that he’d get back behind Davilla where he’d have some cover. I knew the officers could see the backs of our horses and they must have wondered who else was in the party. Lew kept up that taunting kind of hollering. It must have been working, for the party broke into a trot. They were seventy-five yards away, and then fifty, and then forty.
At twenty yards, with them almost in our laps, I suddenly raised up, rested my rifle on the near rail, and snapped off a shot at the leader. The others had seen my motion and they were doing likewise. Our fire was having a deadly effect. The
rurales
were dropping like a giant hand was sweeping them off their horses. I felt a motion to my left and Lew came tumbling down the embankment dragging a screaming
Capitán
Davilla after him. With one swift motion he hit the
capitán
over the head with his revolver, grabbed up his carbine, and joined me at the top of the grade.
Riderless horses were running everywhere. A few
rur
ales were on the ground, trying to return fire. But their positions were totally exposed and they didn’t last long. Then two riders suddenly broke from the rapidly diminishing pack and headed back from whence they’d come. I tried a shot but they were quickly getting out of range. Ben raised up, sighted a long second and then fired. One fell but the other kept going. In a moment he was well out of range.
We stood up to look. I counted eleven men down, including the one Ben had shot at long range. A couple of them were moving. I did not know what to do about that, but Elizandro’s two men quickly resolved it for me. Standing up, they quickly—before I could say a word—pumped bullets into the two men until they were still. I wanted to stop them, but, to my shame, I was glad they’d done it. I had no idea what I would have done with two wounded policemen. I had enough wounded to worry about as it was.
Lew said, shouting into my ear because of all the noise, “We ought to try and ketch some of them horses.”
But I didn’t know about that. They were scattering in every direction, some of them galloping in fright from the noise of the guns, some trotting, stepping on their trailing bridles every so often. I said, “We’d just wear our animals out trying to chase them. Besides, they are a pretty poor looking lot as it is.”
Lew said, “Well, we better figure to do something plenty fast. That one that got away is going to have a mighty pretty story to tell. We ain’t seen the last of these boys. I guarantee you we ain’t got enough ammunition to kill all the
rurales
in this state if they was to line up for us.”
I looked down to where
Capitán
Davilla was sitting on the ground with a dazed look on his face. I said, “Looks like your friend didn’t want to help.”
“Yeah, he taken a bad case of the tongue-tied at the wrong time.”
“What was that you were yelling at those boys to get them to come on?”
Lew shrugged. “The
rurales
and the
federales
hate each other, mainly because the
federales
think they are the superior bunch. So I yelled at them that they was just the two of us plus one more had captured all you prisoners and would it be asking to much, considering we was out of food and water and I knowed their bellies was stuffed with beef and beans, for them to give us a little help. He yelled back to ask if I was begging for help and I said if I was to ever beg for help it would be from some quarter where I might expect to get some, not from no
pinche rurale.
And so on like that. The more I jawed, the closer they come.”
I nodded. It had been about what I’d expected. I said, “Well, y’all better get mounted up. Like you say I reckon we ought not to homestead this place. Every mile we make north today is one less we got to make tomorrow.”
He left, but I just stood there staring at the dead men and horses. After a moment Ben joined me. He said, as if he knew what I was thinking, “You didn’t have no selection, Justa.”
I sighed. “I know that. This just ain’t my kind of fighting.”
“What choice did you have? They’d have shot the hell out of us or throwed us in a prison somewhere. And like you say, the majority of the Half-Moon family is here.”
I shook my head. I said, “I hate it about those two wounded men.”
“C’mon, now. That wasn’t your doing. And even if it had of been, what could you have done, taken them with us? Don’t talk loco. And they’d have died a hard death on that desert floor before any help came from their people. Hell, Justa, life’s cheap in this country or haven’t you taken notice?”
I said, “I guess.” I turned and started down the embankment. “Let’s get mounted up and get moving.”
We trailed down the east side of the railroad tracks, keeping the embankment between us and where I expected trouble to come from. Miguel was looking worse and worse, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. For that matter wasn’t any of us looking all that well. I glanced up at the sun; it was nearing its highest place in the sky, beating down on us like a boiling rain. I had dropped back in the pack so as to better observe horses and men. Hell, nobody had to lead, all we had to do was follow the damn railroad tracks. Looking at our party I could see the damage the sun and the miles and the hard use was doing. I could see the way the men were slumping in the saddles; I could see the sag in the horses’ backs and the way they drug their legs. About one more day of such going was going to finish us.
Ben dropped back and rode alongside me for a moment. He glanced up at the sky. It was coming one o’clock. He said, “Ain’t we better call a halt and take a rest, Justa? Get some water and what food we got left?”
I shook my head. My mouth was so dry I didn’t want to waste saliva talking. We had planned our water and provisions for just our party. We hadn’t planned on the surprise visit of Señor Elizandro and his boys. But who was going to deny them out in the big middle of nowhere?
I said, “In a bit. Maybe an hour. We got to make some distance.”
So we kept riding. About three o’clock I called for a halt. It didn’t matter where I did it; the terrain was the same in all directions, just barren plains covered with nothing much anyone would want. Even the horses, hungry as they were, just nosed at the greasewood and bramble bushes and mouthed a little bit of it for moisture without really swallowing. There wasn’t a tree in sight.
We had no more water for the horses, but Hays passed around one of the two remaining canteens and we all had a drink. Canned tomatoes were all that was left of his stock, but I didn’t hear nobody complain. I certainly didn’t.
After we’d rested for a time I called a conference between me and Ben and Lew. It was mean of me to leave Norris out, but I did it. He took one look at us palavering and then turned his back. I knew he felt the slight and I intended it. I said, “Anybody know what date it is?”
They both shook their heads. Ben said, “Feels like about a week since we run out of Monterrey with the devil chasing us. But I know it hasn’t been.”
I looked around. “Gentlemen, we ain’t equipped for this kind of country. Much longer and we ain’t going to have to worry about the
rurales
getting us. This goddam barren son of a bitch will do us all in.”
Ben said, “I don’t think Elizandro is going much further. He’s got a fever, I reckon.”
“Already?”
“Feels like it. Anyway, he ain’t going to be sitting a saddle a hell of a lot longer.”
I said, “Well, anybody got any ideas?”
Lew shrugged. “I don’t see what we can do except keep plugging away.”
Ben looked around. “I can’t believe there ain’t a goddam village or at least a little
ranchito
somewheres around here.”
Lew said, gesturing, “There are, but they’re back toward those mountains, back where it rains every once in a while.”
“But all those peons getting on and off the train coming down here. Hell, they got to live somewhere.”
Lew gestured again. “They do. Back up near the foot of those mountains.”
Ben said, “But, hell, those mountains must be fifteen, twenty miles away.”
“They are,” Lew said. “Which is about what a peon can do in a day on a mouthful of water and a handful of corn. But even if we reached one of those pueblos
chiquitos,
those small villages, it wouldn’t do us much good. They ain’t got no horses and they ain’t got a hell of a lot of anything else. Boys, you better face it, this is rough country.”
I said, “Well, I don’t know what to do—push the horses and have them crater or have the
rurales
catch us up by going slow.”
Lew let a handful of dust run through his fingers. He said, “The
rurales
are going to catch us anyways because they is in front of us. All they got to do is wait. They are strung out from here to the border and I don’t reckon you got that line cut in time to keep them from being notified. We going to have to fight our way through.”
I sighed and shook my head. “Don’t try to cheer me up, Lew. You know I never cared for that sugar-tit way of thinking of yours.”
He laughed. “Might not be so bad. Maybe you’ll get kilt in the next couple of hours. That way you won’t be thinking of how thirsty you are.”
We kept going as afternoon stretched into night. I knew I should have rested the horses but I figured it took less out of them to plod along through the night than under that relentless sun. Though, truth be told, there wasn’t that much difference between the night and the day except you couldn’t see as well at night.
If there had just been some kind of shelter—some small trees, a shack of some type. But there was nothing.
The only advantage to that was that you could see the enemy coming as far off as he could see you. But through the balance of that afternoon and on into dark we fortunately did not catch sight of another living soul. Hell, we didn’t even see any buzzards. I figured that was because there wasn’t enough life on that desert to die and feed them. It wasn’t a handy thought.
Somewhere around nine that night I called for a rest. I asked for volunteers to stand guard while the rest caught a few hours of sleep. Norris immediately struggled up. I ignored him. I said, “I’ll take the first watch. Ben, you’ve got a timepiece. I’ll wake you in an hour. Then you do the same for Lew. After that comes Hays. We ain’t going to be overlong in this one place.”
We made a cold camp, without a fire and without any food. Hell, even if we’d had wood to make a fire we wouldn’t have needed one because there was nothing to cook over it. Everybody made do with a good drink of water and turned in. I helped Miguel to get as comfortable as he could on the hard ground. Jack Cole was doing better, but Miguel wasn’t. He felt mighty warm to me. I took a look at his shoulder by the light of a match. It was swollen all to hell, but the outside didn’t look too infected. I figured what was killing him was the inside damage that bullet had done to the bone in his shoulder. He whispered to me, “Can you not do anything?”