Cunning of the Mountain Man (12 page)

“They’re around,” his boss replied. “Only we just don’t see ’em. Apaches don’t usual get seen unless they wants to.”

“Gol-ly, Quint, what if they’s warriors?”

Stalker paused to give Randy a cold grin. “Then, I’d reckon as how we’d already be missin’ our hair.”

Half an hour later, Quint Stalker rounded a bend in the creek with an armload of stones for the last marker. He came face-to-face with two startled Apache boys about thirteen or fourteen years of age. The rocks clattered to the ground, and the youths bolted like frightened deer. Quint knew he dare not let the boys get back to their village with news of the presence of white men. His hand found the butt of his Merwin and Hulbert, as he shouted a warning to his followers.

“Heads up, boys. We got us a couple of rabbit-sized bucks headed your way.”

A pistol shot cracked loudly a moment later, followed by a thin wail. Quint pushed himself to a lumbering run and caught up to the surviving Apache boy in time to put a bullet through the youngster’s right knee. Eyes wide with pain, the youth fell down, lips closed against any show of pain. Stalker shot him in the other leg.

“Never could abide a damn Apache brat.”

“Why’s that, Quint?”

“They turn into growed-up Apaches, Randy.”

“I can fix that quick enough,” Randy offered, and shot the boy in the groin.

Intense pain and the horror caused by the nature of the wound brought a howl of agony from the little lad. “He sure ain’t gonna have any git of his own,” Randy laughed.

“Awh, hell, finish him off,” Marv Fletcher encouraged. “Plum cruel geldin’ even an Injun.”

Quint Stalker turned away indifferently. “You want to do it, go ahead. I’d as leave play with him a little more.” The fatal round sounded a second later. It presented another surprise to the outlaws. A high, thin gasp, followed by a sob, drew their attention to a clump of deer berries on the bank of the creek. Quint Stalker walked to the screen of vegetation and reached in. He yanked out an Apache girl, of an age with the dead boys, her slim forearm firmly in his big-handed grasp.

“Well, lookie here,” Randy Sturgis gloated, advancing on the terrified child. “We got us some rec-re-a-tion.”

“I get seconds,” Marv Fletcher blurted.

Sky Flower had never known such intense pain in all her life. She knew, of course, what men and women did together. Had known for a long time. Only there was no pleasure for her in what was happening. Tears streamed from her eyes, and she felt like being sick.

Her thought became the deed. It earned her a fist to the jaw, when she vomited on the bared chest of the
Pen-dik-olye
who rode her. With all the pain within her, she never noticed the new source.

“Little bitch, puked all over me,” Randy complained.

“No more’n’ you take a bath, we’d never notice, Randy,” Quint Stalker jibed.

“Go to hell, Quint.”

They had all visited her body twice. This one, called Randy by his fellows, had come back for a third encounter. It went on forever before the youthful white outlaw finished.

“Anybody else?”

“Naw,” Stalker answered for the others. “Finish her off.”

Sky Flower did not hear the gunshot that robbed her of her life.

Walt Reardon and Ty Hardy rode into the small valley with important news. They joined Smoke Jensen and Jeff York at a small, smokeless fire, and eagerly accepted tin cups of steaming coffee.

“The Widow Tucker was mighty grateful for the return of her cattle,” Walt drawled.

“Walt told her we worked for you, Smoke. She flew off the handle at first, but calmed down some when Walt an’ me explained how you had taken the stock from rustlers and sent us to bring them back.”

Walt offered a new possibility. “Way I see it, she might even be willin’ to consider the chance you didn’t kill her husband.”

Jeff York reacted to it first. “I think that’s something worth looking into, Smoke.”

“When I can prove who
did
kill her husband then I’ll be glad to talk to the woman,” Smoke replied stubbornly.

“Wait a minute, now,” Jeff urged. “You need a secure place to operate from, right? My reading of our Sheriff Jake Reno tells me that when brains were being passed out, he was behind the door. When we start stirring things up around Socorro, there’s bound to be some real serious hunting around for you. The last place Reno would think to look for you, has to be the ranch of the man you’re accused of murdering.”

Jeff’s words received careful consideration. “You may have a point, Jeff,” Smoke allowed. “At least it might be worth looking into.”

“If a lawman vouches for you, and a famous Arizona Ranger at that,” Jeff added with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, “it might get the widow to see you in a different light.”

“You reckon to handle this yourself?”

“Why not, Smoke? It’s the strongest card we’ve got to play right now.”

Smoke Jensen took a final sip of coffee. “Walt and Ty are going to poke around a little, see if they can get a line on Stalker. I’m headed south of Socorro. We’ll meet in San Antonio three days from now. Between now and then, Jeff, see what you can set up.”

Martha Tucker studied the silver badge pinned on the vest of Jeff York. He wore clothes a cut above the average range hand, was well-spoken, and no doubt was who he claimed to be. Still, she considered his proposal outlandish.

“I’m not certain I’m ready for what you have told me, Ranger York.”

“Mrs. Tucker, I’ve known Smoke Jensen for years. In all that time I’ve never known him to do a dishonorable thing. What motive would he have to kill a total stranger?” “But he was found beside my husband’s bod—body.”

“Unconscious, as I understand it. Tell me everything you know about . . . what happened.”

For the next ten minutes, Martha Tucker related all that she had been told about her husband’s death. Jeff York listened with intense interest. When she had finished, Jeff pondered for a moment before speaking.

“Taken with what Smoke told me, there’s no doubt that someone arranged things to make him look guilty. For one thing, your husband was shot with a .45. Smoke carries twin ,44s. Always has.”

Martha nodded. “Go on.”

“Smoke was found with the single holster strapped around his waist. Yet, when he escaped from the jail, his own guns and their holsters were found in the sheriff’s desk. How would you suppose they got there?”

“I have no idea.” Martha sighed heavily. “It doesn’t appear that the sheriff, or the man he sent out here to tell me about it, has been entirely honest with me.”

Jeff grinned in anticipation of success. “Not in the least.”

“But why would you come over here from Arizona to look into it?”

“Like I told you before, Mrs. Tucker, Smoke Jensen is my friend. We’ve fought together before. And he’s always stood up for what’s right. At least, couldn’t you hear him out? Give him an opportunity to tell you what he knows.”

Martha Tucker’s face lightened, and a soft smile of acquiescence lifted the corners of her mouth. “Yes. I suppose it’s the least I can do.”

Cuchillo Negro’s face darkened with the fury of his outrage. They had been running off the
Pen-dik-olye
for three suns now. But to come upon such a scene as this threatened to make him break his resolve to keep their actions on the reservation. Three children, killed without reason, the girl ravaged before she died. He looked up sharply as Tall Hat spoke.

“I know their village, their families.”

“You will carry the message to them?”

“Yes. They will want to come and care for their children.”

“We will find the white men who did this. Their end will not be easy,” the war chief declared flatly.

He sent men out looking for signs. They soon found plenty in the cairns of stones and stakes that marked the boundary of a claim. At the direction of Cuchillo Negro, the warriors scattered these items over a wide area. Faint traces of shod hoofprints pointed the way the interlopers had left the creek bank.

“Follow the trail,” Cuchillo Negro ordered two skilled trackers. “We will come along behind.”

“If they leave the reservation?” Ho-tan asked.

Black Knife looked back at the ruined face of the little girl. “We will go after them.”

The sign left by the white men meandered through the White Mountains, roughly eastward, and downhill toward the land of the Zuni and Tuwa people. Diligently, the Apaches followed. They came upon the site of a carefully disrupted night camp. When Cuchillo Negro saw it, he spoke his thoughts aloud.

“These men know us well. They took care to see that no sign of their camp could be noted. Your eyes are clever,
Waplanowi
. Now see if you can bring me to them before this day is over.”

White Eagle beamed with pride at the chief’s compliment. “
Zigosti
is wiser than I. He says their fire burned two sleeps ago. We will not find them before
nolcha
sleeps.”

Cuchillo Negro frowned. “We travel together from now on. The
Pen-dik-olye
seem in no hurry. By tomorrow we might catch them.”

Wink Winkler mopped his brow with a large bandanna. “I’m shore glad we’re shut of them mountains. I began to see an Apache behind every tree.”

“There ain’t that many Apaches around these parts, Wink,” Randy Sturgis replied. “Though I’ll admit I’m glad they prob’ly not follow us into New Mexico.”

The two hard cases sat on a red-orange mesa that overlooked the Rio San Francisco outside Apache Creek, New Mexico. Randy, who could read on only a third-grade level and had quit school at the age of ten, was fortunate not to know how the small community had acquired its name. If he had, he would not have been nearly so confident. Quint Stalker stood with them, giving his horse a blow and considering their remarkably good luck in escaping the Apaches, who had no doubt set out after them.

“We’re not out of it yet, boys. We’d best put more miles between us and the White Mountains.”

“Awh, we’re safe enough here, Quint,” Randy protested. “These critters is near to run into the ground. They gotta have a rest. Us, too. From up here, you can see for miles. No way any Injuns could sneak up on us.” Quint worried that around awhile, then nodded, his mind changed. “Right. We can rest the horses and catch our breath. But no fires after dark, hear? Be sure what you do build is small and smokeless.”

For all their precautions, Quint Stalker and the three members of his gang learned the extent of their error in judgement shortly before midnight. A dozen Apache warriors rose up in the darkness and fired a shower of arrows into their camp. The first volley failed to find flesh, but awakened two of the targets.

“What the hell?” Randy Sturgis blurted. Then by weak starlight, he made out the familiar silhouette of an Apache. “Ohmygod! It’s Apaches, Quint, it’s Injuns!”

“I know that, damnit. Make a run for the horses.”

“Injuns ain’t supposed to fight at night,” Randy wailed.

Quint Stalker’s .44 Merwin and Hulbert barked and produced a flare of yellow-orange that illuminated more of the warriors. “Someone forgot to tell that to these bucks.”

By then the other pair had been roused. They added to the volume of fire and momentarily held the Apaches in check. Another volley of arrows hissed and moaned through the air. Wink Winkler howled and came to his bare feet.

“My arm! There’s an arrow shot clean through it.” Quint Stalker put a bullet in the chest of the Apache nearest him, snatched up his bridle, and ran for the horses. If they lived through this, he reckoned, they’d face a lot more hell, being barefoot and without saddles, food, or a change of clothing. Another Apache materialized out of the gloom at the picket line. Quint coolly pumped a .44 round through the warrior’s heart. Low, menacing whoops and the soft rustle of moccasins added haste to his fumbling efforts to slip the headstall over the twitching ears of his horse, and shove the bit between fear-clamped teeth.

Randy Sturgis appeared at his side. “Wink’s bad hurt. There’s three Apaches jumped him.”

“I’ll fix your bridle, go back and help him.”

Doubt and fear registered clearly in the dim light. “That’s a hell of a lot of Injuns back there.”

“Do it anyway. I never leave a man who ain’t dead,” Stalker snarled.

“Might be that’s already the case,” Randy opined. Gunfire erupted from two locations on the small mesa, which disproved for the moment Randy’s expectation. A hard shove from Quint Stalker sent him back to the melee. Halfway there, he encountered Wink Winkler and Vern Draper.

The arrow still protruded from both sides of Wink’s left forearm. He had been cut across the chest and a chunk of meat was missing from his right shoulder, where a war hawk had bitten deeply. Vern cut wild, glazed eyes to Randy, and gestured over his shoulder.

“Damn near got myself punctured back there,” he panted. “But I freed Randy from those devils.”

“Let’s make tracks,” Randy urged.

Quickly they rejoined Quint Stalker. Bridles fitted in place, the outlaws made ready to mount. Randy and Vern lifted Wink astride his mount. Then Vern gave Randy a leg up. Quint Stalker got Vern Draper on his horse, then vaulted to the back of his own. By then the Apaches had maneuvered into position close enough to see their targets in the dark.

More arrows sung their deadly songs as the white men rode fearfully away toward the trail that led off the mesa. Cuchillo Negro raised his trade musket to his shoulder and squeezed off a round that ended the evil career of the first to violate little Sky Flower. The big .64 caliber ball drove a hand-width chunk of shattered spine through the lungs and heart of Randy Sturgis.

Back arched suddenly, Randy did a back flip over his mount’s rump. He landed hard on the reddish soil of the nameless butte that overlooked the San Francisco River at Apache Creek.

Five of Quint Stalker’s ne’er-do-well hard cases lounged in front of the Tio Pepe cantina in the little town of San Antonio, New Mexico. They listlessly passed a bottle of tequila from hand to hand, drank, spat tobacco juice, or rolled smokes. One of them, Charlie Bascomb, perked up somewhat when a stranger rode into town on a big-chested roan.