Lost in Laredo

by Vivi Holt

  “How much longer, señor?” a short man in farmer’s garb asked. He sported a thick drooping mustachio, peering at him from behind a woman with a basket full of fruit on her head.

  Alton frowned. “The doctor wants every single one of you to get a shot before you enter Laredo. So you’ll just have to pipe down and wait until he gets here to do it.”

  The man spat over the handrail to the water far below and scowled. “I no gettin’ a shot! I just want to visit my madre. You gonna stop me?”

  “Yes,” retorted Alton with a smirk, lifting up his shotgun. The man took the hint. A few others shook their heads, stepped out of line and returned to Mexico.

  “How much longer ya think he’s gonna be?” whispered Harris.

  Alton shrugged. “Don’t matter much to me. We’re either doin’ this, or we’re over in the barrios with the lieutenant roundin’ up Tejanos. No thank ya. I’ll stay here, even if it is swelterin’ – at least I ain’t chasin’ Pedro ‘round in the dust and dirt all the livelong day.” He chuckled.

  Harris joined him. “Ain’t that the truth. But what if they get rowdy?”

  “We got guns, and we know how to use ‘em. This lot’re just a bunch of farmers and folks visitin’ family. They won’t cause no trouble.”

  Harris nodded. Alton watched him out of the corner of his eye. He could tell the lad was nervous – first month on the job and he’d never seen an angry mob of Tejanos before, not like this. He shook his head. Harris had a lot to learn before he could call himself a Ranger.

  A buggy drawn by two shining bay horses pulled up behind the two Rangers. “Here he is now,” murmured Alton.

  A man in a pale suit stepped from the buggy with a black medical bag under his arm. Two nurses climbed out behind him and hurried with full bags in each hand, following the doctor toward Alton and Harris. “Good morning, Rangers – how are you this fine day?” he chirruped.

  Alton arched an eyebrow. “Good mornin’, sir. Just dandy, thank ya.”

  “Good, good. I see the bridge is full. But I want you to make sure no one crosses today without my approval. Is that understood?”

  Alton and Harris both nodded. “Yes, sir,” Harris added.

  “I’m leaving these two capable nurses here to give these folks a physical and a shot. They must have both before they can enter the United States of America. If they’re deemed unfit for entry, it’ll be up to you to ensure they return the way they came.”

  “Will do, sir,” Alton sighed.

  The doctor’s pale brow creased. “I know it seems a bit much, but I’ve got Texas Health Officer Hank Brady from Austin breathing down my neck over it. He’s got the mayor fumigating homes, vaccinating everyone and taking any infected over to a barn outside town near Fort McIntosh. Calls it ‘the pesthouse’.”

  Alton’s eyes widened. This was bigger than he’d realized – they’d need reinforcements. He hoped Danny Suarez would get here soon. Danny was a friend from years back – they’d signed up to be Rangers at the same time back in Austin. They’d need all the help they could get to manage what the doctor wanted them to do. And even then, it would be a long day.

  6

  Alton stepped aside and let the next family, a father and mother with a small girl, through to see the nurses. The father’s face was stony and the girl was crying into her mother’s skirt. He frowned. It sure did feel like a whole lot of trouble just to make sure some illness didn’t take over the town. From where he was standing, the cure seemed almost as bad as the disease. A boy screamed as one of the nurses plunged a needle into his arm, and Alton grimaced. Heaven Almighty!

  Just then, Danny Suarez arrived with another new recruit in tow. “Hey, Alton, the lieutenant says he wants you to head on over to the east barrio. They’re havin’ a hell of a time gettin’ folks to cooperate over there.”

  Alton frowned. “Fine. Ya step in here, then – I’ll ride over. Though I don’t see why ya didn’t just head that way instead of sendin’ me.” As he walked away, he heard Danny chuckling to himself, which only stoked his ire. “Why I always have to be the one to do the heavy liftin’ …,” he grumbled under his breath

  His horse was hitched to a post outside the Lucky Dollar Saloon, and he stared longingly over the swinging doors to see if he could catch a peek at Ginger. She worked there most days, and he’d much rather have her seated on his knee telling him a tall tale about some incident than doing what he was about to.

  He mounted his chestnut gelding Jeff Davis and dug his heels into the beast’s sides, sending it into a canter. The street was almost empty – most folks hiding out at home, it seemed. He shook his head again, wishing he was anywhere but there.

  He’d signed up to be a Ranger five years earlier, after his Ma died and left him to feed five sisters – not a brother among them. Didn’t seem right a man had to support so many sisters on his own. How would he ever manage to find a wife and settle down to have his own family? If only a couple of them would hurry up and marry, perhaps he could keep some of his wages for himself.

  He spat to one side of the horse and kept riding.

  Almost at the barrio, he passed a man and woman heading the same direction and glanced at them curiously. The man was walking a bay horse, and the woman led a scrawny burro. It wasn’t them being there that piqued his interest, but the man looked like a common Tejano and she like a European belle of the ball, with her white-blonde hair and curvaceous figure beneath a fitted blue dress with petticoats and all that getup. She was no señorita, that was for sure.

  A look at their faces had him thinking he’d seen them before. He wasn’t sure – there was just something about them that made him look twice. It took a few minutes, but then he remembered a wanted poster he’d seen a week or two earlier. A couple fitting their description was wanted for questioning over the disappearance of a man somewhere else in Texas. They’d stuck in his mind for the same reason he noticed them now – they didn’t belong together, like putting honeyed yams together with scrambled eggs on a plate.

  He pulled up on the reins, bringing the gelding to a halt, then spun it around. “Hiya!” he cried, slapping the ends of the reins against the horse’s shoulder. It set off at a gallop. The boss wouldn’t be happy when he showed up late, but surely rounding up two suspects from a wanted poster would more than make up for that. He retraced his tracks, but didn’t see them, so he stopped at each intersection and stood in his stirrups, staring up and down the cross streets.

  Finally he saw them. They’d turned and were headed north down a narrow road. He spurred his horse after them. “Stop! Stop right there! Texas Ranger!” he shouted after them. But before he reached them, they’d ducked down an alleyway.

  When he next spotted them, they were both on foot, headed for the barrio. Had they heard him? They hadn’t given any indication. He yelled at them again, but they still didn’t turn around or show any sign of slowing. He groaned. Why didn’t anything ever go easy for him? Now he’d have to chase them down and he was sure he had a fever coming on. He mopped his brow with his neckerchief and groaned again.

  And now a wave of Tejanos was headed his way. They ran up to him, shouting and crying out like a stampede on a cattle drive. His horse was surrounded in moments and he had to hold it still, battling against its pull on the reins. It danced sideways, unhappy with the jostling it was receiving from the crowd that washed around it with a roar like the ocean.

  “Steady there, boy, steady there,” cried Alton. His eyes roved the crowd for the man with the blonde woman he’d been chasing. He couldn’t lose them now. But how to find two heads in this mess? He should be able to find her for sure – she’d stand out like a lighthouse beacon among the brown and black heads of the Tejanos.

  Soon, the crowd thinned and a line of Rangers rode up to greet him. “What are you doin’, Ranger Phillips?” his red-faced superior shouted. “Get that horse turned around and help us drive these folks over to the medical facility at Fort McIntosh.”

  “But, Lie
utenant …”

  “Get movin’, Ranger!”

  Alton sighed and turned his horse around with a shrug. He’d lost the fugitives anyway, if that’s even what they were. The poster said they weren’t considered armed or dangerous, just wanted for questioning. And he had another job to do right now. The couple from the poster would just have to become someone else’s problem.

  The pushing and jostling of the crowd made Lotte’s head ache. It was as if she had no control over the direction she took. She straightened the scarf she’d tied over her hair, then put her arms out to steady herself. The group stumbled toward Fort McIntosh – she could see a flag waving high on a parapet in the distance. It wasn’t the way she wanted to go, but she had no choice in the matter.

  She struggled against the current, then was shoved hard by a man with wide-set eyes and a flat nose. “Hey!” she cried as she fell to the ground. Feet pounded around her as the crowd continued surging forward. She lifted her arms to shield her face. “Help!” She tried to get back on her feet, but was knocked down again by the group’s momentum.

  She could hear Antonio searching for her. “Lotte!”

  “Antonio!” Her voice sounded strangled and she sobbed, tears winding down her cheeks. “Antonio!”

  Two strong hands looped beneath her armpits and tugged her to her feet. Antonio! He wrapped his arms around her and held her close to his side as they continued toward the fort. She stumbled, but he held her up. “You all right?” he asked, glancing anxiously at her.

  She nodded. “Thank you.”

  Just then, she felt another hand clamp around her arm, yanking her free of Antonio’s embrace. She lost her footing and landed with a thud against a man’s leg. She cried out and held a hand to her cheek where she could already feel a bruise forming.

  “Lotte?” Antonio cried as the crowd separated them.

  The man who’d grabbed her pulled her to her feet and leered at her with a wide grin. “Hola, señorita.” He was tall, and muscles bulged beneath his shirt sleeves. His grip on her arm tightened and he began pulling her toward the edge of the group. She tried to struggle free, but he backhanded her across the face. “No, you follow me.”

  She stifled a sob and tried to look back. “Antonio!” She kicked her abductor in the shin, and he hit her again, making everything go black for a moment and sent stars of pain across her vision. Unable to fight any longer, she followed meekly behind him.

  He drew her out of the crowd and ducked into a doorway to watch the rest of the Tejanos disappear down the street. But Antonio spotted them and came toward them, his face creased with worry. “Lotte!”

  She screamed his name, and an enormous hand clamped down over her open mouth. “Shhh …,” admonished the brute, anger flashing in his eyes. Then he grunted as Antonio grasped the back of his shirt collar, pulled him back into the street and freed her from his grasp.

  Her attacker found his footing and stood tall, fists clenched at his sides. “¿Qué pasa?”

  Antonio faced him, one hand on Lotte’s shoulder, the other on his holster. “No quiero ningún problema.”

  The man laughed. “No trouble, eh? Well, you just turn around and walk away then, hermano.”

  Antonio shook his head, his face grim. “No. You turn around and walk away.”

  “Why? This your woman or something? She don’t look like no Tejano’s wife.”

  Antonio’s eyes narrowed. “It does not matter why. That is my concern. But she does not wish to go with you.”

  The man faced her with a smirk. “You no wish to come with me, chica?” He laughed.

  She shook her head. “No, I don’t, you rotten scoundrel!”

  His grin faded, he raised a hand to slap her again – and froze as Antonio’s hand flexed over his holster. “Now, señor …”

  “Go now, while you can still walk,” Antonio hissed.

  The man towered over Antonio, and Lotte’s breath caught in her throat. Her attacker chuckled and took a step toward Antonio. “I think I will keep her –”

  Antonio let go of Lotte, stepped forward and kicked the man in the groin, doubling him over. He gasped as he fell, and Antonio punched him hard in the nose. The man dropped to his hands and knees on the road, then roared in rage. He lunged for Antonio, who skipped out of his way and stomped down on his leg. The sound of the man’s shinbone snapping made Lotte wince. He cried out in pain and fell onto his back, grasping at his broken leg.

  Antonio held his hand out to Lotte. She ran to him and took it, and they sprinted for a nearby alley, running as fast as they could until they’d left the noise of the crowd and the wails of her would-be abductor behind. Finally they stopped, lungs heaving, and leaned against the wall of a drugstore to catch their breath.

  Antonio peered around the corner, then straightened, his nostrils flaring. “I do not see him.” He shook his head, breathing hard. “I do not see the Ranger either. I think we lost them both.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief and closed her eyes. “I thought we were headed to jail,” she said.

  He nodded. “It is not over yet. We still have to get out of Laredo, and with the Rangers there is no way of knowing whether they will trail us. We cannot say for sure why the one wanted us to stop – perhaps he only meant for us to join the rest of the Tejanos for the shots. But we have to assume it was about the teamster.”

  She frowned. Maybe the lawman was more interested in crowd control than investigating a murder, but she didn’t intend to stay around and find out. She couldn’t spend the rest of her days, however brief they might be, in a cell. It wasn’t right, but she didn’t like the odds of the Rangers seeing things her way, that she’d acted in self-defense. And her experience of Laredo so far had left a foul taste in her mouth.

  Antonio put his hand in hers and led her at a run down another darkened lane. They found Hans and Lars where they’d left them, mounted in silence, urged them into a trot and headed north out of town. Her heart pounded and her pulse raced as they passed the general store and the saddler, the plaza and the outskirts of town where adobe and board buildings crowded the roadside, then thinned to a trickle. Before long, they were surrounded by fields of dry waving grasses, mesquite and dust.

  Lotte turned in her saddle to look back. No one was following them, and the landscape was still and quiet in the afternoon heat. She filled her lungs, then exhaled slowly, glad to be leaving Laredo behind.

  Lotte yawned, covered her mouth and plodded on, pulling Lars behind her. The poor animal looked as though he didn’t have many more miles left in him, but she knew she couldn’t do without him and couldn’t leave him by the side of the road to fend for himself. She’d grown quite fond of him in the weeks since she’d joined Antonio on their trudge north through Texas.

  And a trudge is what it had become. In the week since they’d left Laredo, they’d marched along straight roads and through dry fields, hidden out of sight from fellow travelers, especially any that looked official from a distance. So far they’d had no further incidents. Now cotton fields stretched away from the road in every direction, the full white bolls bobbing in the hot, dry breeze.

  Antonio walked ahead of her with Hans. Since she liked to walk to give Lars a rest, he’d often do the same. It meant that they traveled more slowly, but she wasn’t sure how to change that outside of getting a horse of her own. Which, given the state of her finances, wasn’t likely. She wiped sweat from her brow and shut her eyes. She’d be glad when summer was over – this heat sapped every last reserve of energy she had.

  The outline of a town broke the monotony of the horizon. “That must be Mason,” said Antonio.

  She nodded. “Oh, look, there’s a fort,” she exclaimed, pointing to their left. On top of a small rise, she could see the distinct wooden fencing and parapets of a United States Army fort. It looked out over the town like a sentinel keeping watch.

  Antonio scratched his head. “Must be Fort Mason. I heard about it from the priest in Laredo.”

  She f
rowned. “Really? When did you talk about it? I don’t remember that.”

  His cheeks flushed pink and he grunted. “Uh, well … he suggested we come to Mason. You know, just to take a look. He told me it was a nice town to … well, here we are.”

  Her eyes narrowed. Whenever he got nervous or didn’t want to talk about something, he’d stammer and cough and do just about anything other than deal with it. She didn’t know what was making him so uncomfortable – Mason was just a town, like a dozen they’d ridden past in south Texas already. “Why would he suggest we come to Mason anyway?”

  He glanced at her from beneath hooded eyes. “No reason. He heard it was a nice place.”

  She frowned. What was he up to?

  The town seemed like any other they’d visited. Antonio had decided that when they entered a town they’d keep their distance from one another, in case the local sheriff was on the lookout for a couple. So far it had worked just fine – no one else had shown any suspicion.

  Antonio climbed onto Hans’ back and rode on ahead of her, while she and Lars continued to plod through the town on foot. She huffed – why couldn’t she get Hans just once? It didn’t seem like it would be such a big sacrifice for Antonio to give up his horse for a few hours, or even a day. She sighed – no, she was being ungrateful. She was just so bone-tired from walking all day every day in the heat, or riding on Lars’ bony back. She wasn’t sure which was worse.

  She saw Antonio hitch Hans to a post outside a general store, and led Lars to a storefront with a sign that read “DENTIST”. Below that, a smaller sign swayed in the breeze with red lettering: “Haberdashery.” She smiled – that was an odd combination.

  Antonio went inside the store – they took turns purchasing supplies, and this time it was his turn. She wrinkled her nose – more beans, no doubt. She preferred sausages and potatoes. Both of them were weary of the same fare day in and day out, but it was what they could afford. She sank down onto the boardwalk to sit in the shade and wait while Lars filled up on water from a trough.