Catlow (1963) (18 page)

"Why, now, Rio, you're gettin' mighty democratic about things. You had you a vote, but without me. And I take it, without the Old Man and some others? Well, I want a show of hands. I want the men who want to go by the Pedradas to stand up."

There was a moment of silence and hesitation and then Jake Wilbur stood up. Kentucky and the Greek had already been standing. Nobody else moved.

"All right, Rio. You heard what I said. You go with us, or go for that gun ... and that goes for all of you." He stood carelessly. "Looks to me like we can almost double our shares right here, Old Man."

Bob Keleher spoke quietly. "Count me with Catlow, boys."

Rio Bray was tense, then slowly he relaxed. "I'll go along, Bijah. No use us shootin' each other to doll rags just when we're all rich."

"What I say," Bijah replied.

Jake Wilbur unrolled his bed and turned in without a word, and after a minute he was followed by the Greek, and then by Kentucky.

Pesquiera's name was not mentioned, and he did not appear.

Afraid to face Catlow after his plan to kill him had failed, Pesquiera drew back in the brush and went to the horses. For a moment he hesitated, wanting to get a muleload of the loot to take with him, but there was no chance of that. Catlow had known he was out in the brush ready to cut him down the moment Rio drew; and when day came, Catlow would certainly call him on it.

Yet there might still be a chance. Ride to General Armijo, claim he had been held a prisoner in his own home, and had escaped. And tell the General where the outlaws were. He might even come out of it with a reward. As for the treasure, he told himself they would have killed him as soon as they reached the border. He believed this because it was what he would have done in their place.

When they saddled up at daybreak, Pesquiera was gone, and no one spoke his name.

Catlow led off before the sun was up, riding due north toward Bisani, which lay twenty-eight waterless miles across the desert. Rio Bray was sullen, and angry with himself. He should have tried for his gun ... he had been a fool, and this morning his allies of last night held off.

They found Pesquiera's body lying sprawled in the sand less than a mile from camp, with a poisoned arrow through his throat. His face, neck, and the upper part of his body had already turned black with the effects of the poison. He lay there stripped bare. His clothing had been taken away by the Indians.

There was no need to worry about keeping bunched up now. Every man rode with a rifle in hand, and every eye was on the sandhills around them. Bijah Catlow's throat was tight with apprehension. He had never believed the stories he had heard about the Seris. He believed them now.

Mile after mile passed. The Tarahumara ran at Catlow's stirrup now.

They were well clear of the smoke trees and brush when one of the supply mules suddenly reared up, then collapsed in the trail. An arrow projected from its throat.

Keleher started to turn, but Catlow had seen the arrow, and knew that to stop would be fatal. "Keep going!" he shouted, and Keleher swung back to the end of the train.

"Move em!" Catlow yelled. "Faster!"

Shouting, and cracking the mules with ropes, they speeded up the train. Catlow and Old Man Merridew galloped back to help Keleher at the drag end of the line.

As they reached the rear of the train, two Indians broke from the sand where they had somehow concealed themselves and ran toward the dying mule, their knives in their hands. Already the nearest mule was a hundred yards from them.

The Old Man raced his horse toward them, and as the Indians leaped up, he fired. The nearest Indian screamed and plunged forward, falling over the dead mule.

Suddenly a dozen Indians broke from the sand within a few yards of the Old Man, and Catlow, slapping spurs to his horse, raced toward them, firing with his Colt. An arrow whipped by his face, and then the Indians were gone, disappearing among the low hills.

Merridew, his face sickly yellow, came up alongside Catlow. "Let's get out of here!" Catlow said.

They had gone less than a mile when Kentucky dropped back from the flank of the mule train. "Bijah"--he motioned toward the desert to the west--"they're still out there. I just saw one."

Only a few minutes later Bijah saw another, on the other side of the mule train, keeping abreast of it but a good four hundred yards off.

The day grew hot; shadows disappeared. Again the smoke cast a haze across the sun, across the distance where mirage tantalized with its shimmering lakes. The long marches were telling on the horses, and some of the mules were lagging more than ever. The mule train slowed to a walk.

Rio Bray was avoiding Bijah, but he worked as hard as any man to keep the train moving. There was no thought of pausing at noon. They had only one thought now--of reaching Bisani. They had even forgotten General Armijo, and his soldiers who would be riding all the trails, searching for them.

With every mile the danger became greater, but the border drew nearer; and among the weird rocks of the Churupates they would find fresh mules and horses awaiting them, ready for a fast march to the border.

They knew that the Indians were all around them. At times they heard weird calls from the distance, strange sing-song sounds from the sandhills. But they saw no one. The Indians never showed themselves, but from time to time their signals to one another sounded across the desert.

Another mule went down, struggled to get up, then stayed down. Ringed by rifles, two of the men stripped the pack and pack-saddle from the animal and distributed the load among the others. Then they started on, but only a few minutes later the mule was up and following them on wobbly legs.

Before the first shadow appeared on the eastern flank of a hill, three more mules had gone down--one of them did not rise again.

Now the going was very slow, for all the remaining mules were overloaded.

Catlow rode toward the top of a rise. A coarse stubble of beard covered his face, and his shirt was stiff with sweat and dust. He mounted the ridge, and there, beside the dry bed of Asuncion River, was the ruined church of Bisani. Among the ruins he could see the flickering green leaves of a poplar-- almost a sure indication of water.

"Here it is!" he called. "We're safe!"

From behind him came a ragged cheer.

Chapter
Twenty.

Deputy United States Marshal Ben Cowan had no need to trace the trail left by the fleeing outlaws and their mule train, for the route was marked by circles of flying buzzards.

From a low ridge crowned with rocks and a clump of elephant trees, Cowan studied the desert before him through his field glasses. He liked the spicy odor of the small trees, and they offered a limited but welcome bit of shade. Nearby the brown gelding cropped at some desert plants.

That the mule train was under attack was obvious. He could hear the distant sound of guns and could see racing horsemen, although where he sat he was too far off for him to identify any individual rider. Nor could he see the attacking Indians.

He watched the fleeing mule train and its accompanying riders. Suddenly a rider went down and others raced to his aid. There was a flurry of shots and white smoke lifting, and then they were racing off again with, he surmised, the rescued man.

The shooting continued, sporadic firing at targets invisible to him. It gave him a strange sensation to sit as at a show and watch men fighting for their lives against a ghost-like enemy. As for the Indians, he had no need to be on the spot to understand their strategy. They were following the mule train like wolves after a crippled animal, attacking, escaping, returning to attack again.

Mounting up, Ben Cowan turned his horse eastward, away from the fight. Obviously, Catlow was pointing toward a destination that could not be far off. Otherwise he would stand and make a fight of it. Topping another rise, Ben saw what they were heading for. Before him opened a wide vista of green fields, long deserted and converted by nature to pasture land. Beyond lay the river, and on higher ground nearby he saw a cluster of ruined walls and arches, and a few trees.

Suddenly, his horse snorted and shied.

Ben looked around swiftly, in time to see a Seri Indian step from the brush and draw his bow. Ben's right hand chopped down and swept up. The gun leaped in his hand and his bullet struck the Indian an instant before the arrow was released. The arrow shot away above Ben's head, and he saw the Indian falling. Abruptly, he leaped his horse between two trees. An Indian rose from the ground in front of him, and Ben saw his face writhe with horror as the forehoofs of the charging horse struck him.

Plunging free of the brush, Ben Cowan saw Indians springing up behind him, and he raced away toward the ruined walls. Even as he rode for sanctuary from the east, Catlow and his mule train came across the abandoned fields from the south. And none of them were prepared for what happened.

Ben Cowan, racing across the fields, caught a glint of sun on a rifle barrel, and with a shock of horror he realized that the fleeing bandits, escaping from the Indians, were charging into the waiting guns of an ambuscade.

Now he could see them, a dozen Mexicans in wide sombreros crouched behind the walls, rifles ready, and standing over them a woman ... Christina!

There was no time to think, no time for a choice. His Colt was in his hand, and lifting it, he fired. The shot struck near one of the waiting Mexicans and he jerked back with an oath just as Ben Cowan leaped his horse over the low outer wall of the enclosure.

The bulk of the ruin was now between him and the outlaws, and he dropped from his horse and, hitting the ground running, dove for shelter among the rocks. But even before he left his horse he had seen the riders from the mule train break stride, and when he hit the ground it was with Catlow's wild yell ringing in his ears.

Someone rushed him and he straightened up suddenly, firing at almost point-blank range into the belly of a charging Mexican.

The man struck him full tilt, and Ben was knocked back off his feet, the Mexican on top of him. All around were roaring guns, stabbing flame, and screams of fear or pain. Above it all he could hear the strident screams of Christina as she urged her men in the fight.

Ben threw off the body of the wounded man and lunged up to grapple with another Mexican. In an instant they were rolling on the ground. Then horses were leaping the walls around him, and the ruins of the ancient mission became a shambles.

Pulling free of his man, Ben saw the fellow grasp the hilt of his knife, and Ben's fist was swinging. The blow caught the Mexican with the knife half drawn, and he hit the ground as if struck with an axe.

And then suddenly the fighting was over. There was the sound of moans, the smell of powder smoke--and Bijah Catlow was grasping him by the hand.

"Man, oh man!" Catlow shouted. "If you hadn't shot to warn us, they'd have mowed us down! You saved our bacon, you old Souwegian, you!"

Old Man Merridew, on one knee behind the wall, fired at a Seri ... and then there were none in sight.

Cowan looked around him. Christina and four of her hastily recruited Mexican outlaws were prisoners. Three others he saw lying dead on the ground. Two dead mules and a horse lay in the field outside the mission walls, and at least one man--there might be another behind a horse out there. Catlow's force had been cut to seven, including himself. Two horses were standing in the field.

Catlow went to his horse and stepped into the saddle. "Cover me," he said; "I'm going to have a look. Maybe one of the boys is lyin' out there, hurt." And then he added, "While I'm at it, I'll pick up those horses and whatever else."

"I'll ride along," Ben said.

Together they rode out over the field. They walked their horses, and they went warily. There was no cover close by, but the Seris seemed to need none--they could spring from the ground where it seemed no concealment could be.

A man's body was lying half under one of the horses; it was Rio Bray. He had been shot through the skull and through the body.

"He gave me trouble," Catlow said, "but he was a good man to ride with ... only bull-headed.

They picked up the guns, gathered the horses and canteens. Beside one of the dead mules Catlow stopped to recover the pack.

"Bijah, why don't you surrender to me? You haven't got a chance, you know."

"What gives you that idea?"

"If Christina could make it here, General Armijo could."

"Nothin' doin'. Anyway, we ain't out of this fix yet. There's no water inside those walls, and there's plenty of Indians outside."

Back within the walls, Catlow dismounted, and glanced around at the loafing men. "All right--get busy. First off, you strip the gear from the horses and mules and give each of them a rub-down. Work on era good. We may have to run for it to get out of here."

"How far to the border?" Keleher asked.

"As the crow flies? Eighty miles. Rough miles, if you ask me.... Next, you boys clean your guns. Scatter around the walls and keep a sharp eye out. We ain't fresh out of Indians, you can bet."

Bijah took his hat off and wiped the sweat band, and dropped to a seat with his back against the inner wall of the ruined church. Under his breath he whispered to Cowan.