Taggart (1959)

Taggart

Louis L'amour

Chapter
One.

Adam Was Not Sure Why Miriam Had Joined Them, But No Doubt she had her reasons. Durin
g
the years since their childhood he had come to possess a considerable respect fo
r
the quality of her judgment ... yet she often startled him with her sudden decisions.

There was between them more than th
e
natural affection resulting from relationship. They were good friends also, eac
h
appreciating the qualities of the other.

The gold he panned had been taken from a spot on that alluvial fan which left smal
l
doubt that the source lay higher up the mountain, for there was no other way th
e
gold could have reached the place where he had discovered it.

Two further pans taken from higher up the fan confirmed his belief, convincing hi
m
that if he could not find the lode from which this gold had flaked off, he coul
d
make a stake placering the debris from the fan itself.

Yet every moment they were in danger, and if discovered by Apaches they would surel
y
be killed. Nonetheless, the quest for gold had brought him here, and he meant t
o
have what he had found. The women were in even worse danger than he, but they ha
d
elected to come along ... Moreover, Adam Stark was a man who knew his own strength
,
his own capabilities, and he felt that with reasonable care he could keep his presenc
e
here unknown.

His reasons for wanting the gold were two. He wanted the gold to buy and stock
a
ranch for himself and his wife, and he wanted the gold so that he might take Consuel
o
to San Francisco and give her the taste of luxury and easy living she seemed so muc
h
to want.

For himself the desert was enough, the desert and that ranch and the freedon it offered.

But he enjoyed the giving of pleasure to others, and to Consuelo whom he loved, h
e
could not give too much. Adam Stark knew himself thoroughly, and he knew that hi
s
wife did not know him. Despite the fact that she now insisted she no longer love
d
him, he was sure she was mistaken, and he did love her. She had wanted a more obviousl
y
strong man, one with flash and demonstration. He suspected that Consuelo accepte
d
the appearance of strength for its reality ... and there was considerable difference.

Adam had been in love with her from their first meeting, but he had been amazed whe
n
she accepted him.

Miriam ... he was never sure what it was Miriam wanted of life, but he was sure Miria
m
knew and that was all tha
t
mattered. A man was part of it, but a man for Miriam must be stronger than she, an
d
she was a strong woman. He would have to be a lot of things, and Miriam was not on
e
to accept less than her desires.

Adam Stark turned his thoughts to the immediate problem. Their supplies, if augmente
d
by game and what herbs they could gather, would last them, at most, two months. Conni
e
knew the plants the Indians used for food, and whatever faults she might have, sh
e
was not lazy. She was, as old Fritz at Tucson had said, "a lot of woman."

The first requirement was shelter, a place of concealment, relatively close to water;
a
nd the second thing was to eradicate, so far as possible, the tracks left by thei
r
wagon and horses and mules. And then he must establish a pattern of operation.

Adam Stark was a man of method, and half of his success here would result from prope
r
habits of work and movement. He must plan for their protection and their food, an
d
for getting out the gold itself. It was too easy to become careless, and to becom
e
careless in the desert, in Apache country, meant one would die suddenly.

The desert can be a friendly place, but the rules of life in the desert are harsh
,
calling for understanding of certain fundamentals. Without that understanding, deat
h
could come quickly from heat, from thirst, from exhaustion, from rattlesnakes o
r
Apaches. The rule of desert survival was to live wit
h
the desert and not against it, for all desert life is an accommodation to condition
s
that exist.

Rising from the place where he sat, Adam Stark climbed Rockinstraw Mountain.

It was the highest point in many miles. To the west the great mesas of Redmond Mountai
n
and Squaw Peak dominated the landscape, but neither was as high as the mountain upo
n
which he took up his position.

To the northwest and just beyond the Salt River was the ominous-seeming bulk of Blac
k
Mesa. To the north, and les
s
than three miles away, the Salt River took a deep horseshoe bend into which severa
l
dry washes opened.

The western approaches to his position were walled off by the mesas except for tw
o
gaps, through one of which the Salt River flowed. To the east the country was broke
n
by many canyons, most of them small, but from the top of Rockinstraw an observe
r
could study most of the country in that direction. He started to turn away when hi
s
eye caught an odd shape among the canyons to the east, and not far off.

Getting out his field glasses, over the end of which Stark had arranged a hood o
f
stiff leather to prevent the sun from reflecting off the glass, he directed the
m
at the canyon where he had seen that odd, straight-edged rock.

The canyon itself was narrow, scarcely more than a wide crack in the earth, and nondescrip
t
in appearance, but from his place on top of the mountain he could see what appeare
d
to be not a rock but the edge of a roof, and beyond it something that might be
a
church tower.

He was suddenly excited. It was absurd, but there were stories of the Lost Mine o
f
the Padres supposedly somewhere in this area. The Southwest was filled with storie
s
of lost mines, and most of them pure myth, yet there was gold here, and this wa
s
supposed to be the proper area ... although it might be anywhere in a vast regio
n
several hundred miles square, some of the roughest country in the world.

It was typical of Adam Stark that he remained where he was until he had carefull
y
checked the country around for any movement, any smoke, any sign of Indians. Th
e
more he studied the terrain from this vantage point, the more he realized that thi
s
must be the lookout they would continue to use.

Few would suspect a lookout on top of Rockinstraw, and from here almost the entir
e
country could be searched. If either white men or Apaches were seen approaching
,
all activity at the camp or the mine workings would cease until the strangers wer
e
gone from the vicinity.

There were springs below the mountain. He located Sycamore Spring, of which an Apach
e
friendly to white men ha
d
told him several years before, and he found what must be Mud Springs, of which h
e
had also heard.

Taking careful sightings and establishing landmarks from the top of the mountain
,
he went down, mounted his horse, and began his search. Yet even after locating th
e
canyon from the tip of the mountain, it took him more than an hour to find it, s
o
hidden was it.

It required another hour to find a way to descend into the canyon, but by that tim
e
he had decided. This was to be their home.

There was a tiny chapel, only large enough to seat ten or twelve persons, and ther
e
was a long building constructed of stone slabs and roofed with cedar timbers. Ther
e
was also an adobe stable, partly in ruins. Nearby was an arrastra where the ore ha
d
been broken up to extract the gold.

Ghostly silence gripped the canyon. No sound could be heard but the soft footfall
s
of his horse as he rode along the canyon in the sandy bottom.

He dismounted and went into the long house. Pack rats had nested here, an owl slep
t
on a low beam. The house was still dry, compact, perfect.

Beyond the chapel in a corner of rocks he found a trickle of water falling into
a
basin some six feet in diameter. It was good water, clear, cold, and sweet.

The following day Adam Stark brought his wife and sister to the canyon and they move
d
in. The wagon he concealed in the brush some three miles away, and covered it wit
h
brush in a clump of prickly pear.

Miriam Stark put the bucket under the trickle of water and then straightened to wai
t
until the bucket was full, shading her eyes toward Rockinstraw Mountain. It was tim
e
for Adam to be returning.

In the three weeks they had lived in the canyon only Adam had been to the diggings
,
and when either of the women suggested going, he persuaded them to forget it fo
r
the tim
e
being. Each day he returned with a sack or two of ore which he broke up for the highgrad
e
they contained. He had found the mother lode ... the very gold for which this settlemen
t
had been constructed, but which the padres themselves had never found.

Methodical as always, Adam Stark devoted four hours each day to mining, and fou
r
hours to hunting or searching for food; the remainder of the time he gave to wor
k
around the canyon itself. In all his movements he was careful to avoid using th
e
same route or leaving any tracks. Some part of each day was spent studying the countr
y
and its approaches from the top of Rockinstraw.

Often that was done by Miriam, who had come to love the place and the far horizon
s
it offered. Their brief periods of observation were not fool-proof. It was stil
l
possible for an enemy to approach the area without being seen, during a time whe
n
no watcher waited on top of the mountain. However, this would not be easy to do
,
for the possible approaches could be studied with care, and most of them could b
e
covered to such an extent that a traveler could be seen when still far away.

Miriam was a tall girl who stepped out in easy strides and had never known what i
t
was to be tired from walking. At twenty-eight she was of an age to be considere
d
an old maid by everyone but herself, but to herself she felt no older than she ha
d
at twenty, and the fact that she was unmarried worried her not in the least.

Long ago she had decided that marriage was not worth the trouble if one was marrie
d
to any but the right man, and she was content to wait. The passing of years sinc
e
she was sixteen had not dimmed her enthusiasm in the least.

Several times men whom she respected had wished to marry her, and once she had eve
n
met a man more exciting than she would have wished, but she had good sense enoug
h
to know he was the wrong man, and he like the others had been sent away.

Shading her eyes toward Rockinstraw she saw no sign of Adam, although it was abou
t
this time, at the end of his day, that he went to the peak for a last look aroun
d
the countr
y
before dark. She knew just where on the mountain to look for him, though there wer
e
plenty of other places too on the mountain which offered concealment, and even som
e
caves that had once been inhabited by cliff dwelling Indians. Tonight there was n
o
sign of him.