The Andre Norton Megapack

by Andre Norton

  What if he had, though? To Johnny, Drew could loom as a threat. He might be baffled as to why the Kentuckian had not made a move to claim kinship with Hunt. How much of Rennie’s own past history was known to the people here? His escape from prison during the Mexican War was common knowledge. But, come to think of it, no one had mentioned his youthful marriage or the fact that he was a widower. Perhaps even Johnny had never heard that story, close to Hunt as he was. But Drew dared ask no questions.

  He was still puzzling over the situation when he returned an hour later. Nye, Anse, and a couple of the other riders had some of the recently broken mounts out, showing them off to Oliveri. There was shouting, noise, and confusion around the corrals and Drew slipped past without pausing. He had finished with Shiloh and was on his way to the bunkhouse when Hunt Rennie hailed him.

  “Drew!” An imperative wave of the hand brought him to join Don Cazar and to discover Anse already there, rolling his bed. For a second or two Drew blinked—the occupation fitted in too well with their worries of the night before. But Hunt Rennie was already explaining.

  “Teodoro tells me that they’ve found traces of shod horses being driven back in the canyons. This late the grass is beginning to brown, but there are still some sections where stock can be wintered. I want to know more about this. Since both of you are newcomers—” Rennie paused and then added: “Your riding away from here might appear to others that you had quit, were joining up with the mustangers on your own.”

  “To hunt horses?” Drew asked.

  “Not wild ones.”

  “Sounds like trouble.” Anse tied his bedroll.

  “In this country we expect trouble, from any direction—including up and down!” Rennie returned. “But I find it disturbing that broken stock is being herded back there. Such maneuvers can mean only one thing—stolen animals are being gathered for a run to the border. And some of them could be army owned; a remount corral was raided just before I left town. I would not care, just now, to have any army mounts located on this Range—no matter where they were hidden or by whom. If they are there, I want to be the one to find them and return them to the proper owners. It would please certain parties to find stolen stock hereabouts—particularly army.

  “Now”—he gave an order he obviously expected to be obeyed—“if you do find anything, don’t try to take over yourselves. That’s final. This is nothing to rush into just to burn powder. And above all I want no mixing it up with any army patrol riding south. Do you both understand?”

  Drew nodded.

  “Yes, suh,” Anse replied promptly. “We jus’ git high behind an’ take care. What the mustangers got to do with this?”

  “Nothing. Except they can show you the tracks, and with them you can cover a good part of the country in question. There’s been no Apache sign down there, and Running Fox will accompany you—only not so openly as to be noticed.”

  “You think someone may be watchin’ the Stronghold?” Drew asked as he buckled his saddlebags.

  “I don’t know anything for sure. But a couple of incidents lately have suggested that someone knows a lot more about what’s going on here than I like. It would be easy enough to lie out in the hills and keep field glasses on us down here. And when a man is familiar with the general routine of a place, he can guess a sight too much and too close just by watching the comings and goings. So—you’re going to ride out within the hour and be well along before you camp tonight. We can’t waste time.”

  The nights were chill and the cold made them huddle turtle fashion into the upturned collars of their short riding coats and jam their hats down as far as possible on their heads. Winter breathed across the land now with the coming of dark.

  They traveled at an angle, the pace set by Teodoro who led a pack mule. Somewhere out there in the dark the Pima Scout was prowling. But he had had his orders: no contact with the three travelers unless there was fear of attack. And both Anse and Drew were alert, knowing that the farther one went from the Stronghold the less one relaxed guard.

  “Kinda nippy, ain’t it?” Anse said. In the very dim light Drew could just make out that the Texan was holding his gloved hand to his mouth, puffing at the crooked fingers. “Ain’t as bad as ridin’ out a norther, though. I ’mind me how jus’ ’fore th’ war—I was ridin’ for wages for Old Man Shaw then—we had a norther hit. I’m tellin’ you, it was so cold th’ ramrod came out to give th’ mornin’ orders an’ his words, they jus’ naturally froze up solid. Us boys, we hadda go git th’ wood ax an’ chop ’em apart ’fore we knew what we was all to do. Now that’s what I call bein’ cold!”

  Drew laughed. “Don’t think it ever gets quite that cold hereabouts.”

  It was good being away from the Stronghold, out here with Anse. It was as if he had been let out of lessons, or freed from a sense of duty and responsibility which was a growing burden.

  “Nope. Texas sure is a lotta country, a whole bag with odds an’ ends stuffed in any which way. ’Course this is new range to me. But what I’ve seen of it, were you jus’ able to run off th’ bandidos an’ git th’ Apaches offen it for good—why, it might be a right respectable sorta territory. A man could carve hisself out a spread as he could brag on.”

  “You’d like it?”

  Anse blew on his fingers again. “Maybe—all things bein’ considered, as they say. I’ve heard tell as how all a man needs to start his own brand is a loose rope, a runnin’ iron, an’ th’ guts to use them. It’s been done, an’ is bein’ done all th’ time. Only I don’t think as how th’ Old Man would take to havin’ any such big-ideared neighbor here. Not much cattle, though, to interest a wide loop man. Now hosses—everyone says as how they’s plenty of wild stuff. You got you Shiloh, Drew, an’ you said you made a foal deal with th’ Old Man. Git some more good-lookin’ an’ actin’ wild ones an’ you’re in business—runnin’ your Spur R brand. Three-four years, an’ th’ luck a man has always got to hope for, an’ you’ve more’n jus’ a stake—you’ve got roots an’ a spread!”

  “We have,” Drew corrected. “Why’d you suppose I wanted that foal deal? There’s free land to be had in the valley. Some of the ranchers cleared out when the Apaches started raidin’ and they’re not comin’ back. We might look over what Trinfan has picked up as long as we are out here. I know the Old Man hasn’t contracted for anything but gettin’ rid of that Pinto stud. We could make an offer for any good slicks—put the Spur R on them and run them in on the Range. Rennie has already said that’s all right with him.”

  “Whoee!” Anse muffled one of the old spirited war yells into a husky whisper. “You an’ me, we’re goin’ to do it! Ain’t nobody can put hobbles on a pair of Tejanos as has their chewin’ teeth fast on th’ bit!”

  It was something to think about, all right. But future chances should not take a man’s mind off the job immediately ahead. Only tonight, out here, Drew had a feeling of being able to do anything—from touching the sky with his uplifted hand to fighting Kitchell man to man. That, however, was just what Hunt Rennie did not want and what Drew had promised not to do.

  Horses to be found back in the rough country, hidden away in the maze of pocket canyons where there was water and enough browning grass to keep them from straying. There must be hundreds of places ready to be used that way. But how come Kitchell could hide out in Apache country? Nothing Drew knew of that tribe fitted in with the idea of a white outlaw band sharing their hunting ground unmolested. It had never mattered to an Apache whether a man rode on the north or south side of the law—if his skin was white, that automatically made him prey. Drew said so now.

  Teodoro answered that. “Apaches want guns, señor. Their arrows are deadly, but guns are always better.”

  “I’d think,” Anse cut in, “that any guns Kitchell’d have he’d be hangin’ on to—needin’ them his ownself. Can’t be easy for him to git them, neither.”

  “Not here, no,” Teodoro agreed. “But south, that is different. There is big trouble in Mexico—this F
rench emperor fights Juarez, so there is much confusion. In wartime guns can be lost. A party of soldiers are cut off, as wasCoronel Oliveri almost—men can be killed. But a gun—it is not buried with a man. A gun is still useful, worth money, if he who picks it up from beside the dead does not want it for himself. So—such a bandido as this Kitchell, he could take horses, good, trained horses—maybe from the army—and he would run them south. He would sell them for money, sí, probably much money. But also he could trade for guns—two, three, five guns at a time. Not as good as those his own men carry—old ones maybe, but good enough for Apaches. He would then bring these north, give them as payment for being left alone.”

  “Why wouldn’t the Apaches just kill him and his men and grab what they have?” Drew pointed out what seemed to him the obvious flaw in the system.

  “Apaches, they are not stupid. Guns they could take. But once such a gun is broken, where can they get another? They cannot walk into Tubacca or Tucson to buy what they need. Kitchell’s men do, perhaps—it is thought that they do so. Also when he trades at the border it is with men who would meet the Apaches with fire and bullets. Apache war parties are never large. Perhaps in all this part of the country there are not more than half a hundred warriors—and those scattered in small bands. I do not say that this is truth,Señor Kirby. I only say that it would explain many things—such as why Kitchell has not been caught.”

  “Makes sense,” Anse commented. “Always did hear as how Apaches were meaner’n snakes but they wasn’t stupid. Keep a tame gunrunner to work for ’em—that sounds like th’ tricky sorta play they cotton to. If it is so, th’ man who gits Kitchell may jus’ rid this country of some of them two-legged wolves into th’ bargain.”

  “According to what I’ve heard,” Drew said, “this Kitchell claims to lead a regular Confederate force that hasn’t surrendered. If he wants to make that valid, he wouldn’t dare any such deal!”

  “I’ll bet you without waitin’ to see a hole card,” Anse replied, “that if that coyote was ever ridin’ on our side—which I don’t stretch ear to—he cut loose them traces long ago. There were them buzzards we had us a coupla run-ins with back in Tennessee, ’member? Scum…some of ’em wearin’ blue coats, some gray, but they was all jus’ murderin’ outlaws. What did they whine when they was caught? Did th’ Yankees run ’em in, then they was unlucky Reb scouts. An’ when our boys licked up a nest of th’ varmints—why, we’d taken us a mess o’ respectable Yank ‘Irregulars,’ ’cordin’ to their story. ’Course none of their protestin’ kept ’em from stretched necks.” His hand went to his own. “I oughta know, seem’ as how I was picked up with a parcel of ’em an’ was close ’nough to feel th’ wind when a noose swung by.

  “This here Kitchell—I’m takin’ Bible oath he’s th’ same mangy breed. Maybe so he started out to be Reb, but that was a long time ago an’ he crossed over th’ river long since. An’ some of them beauties back east, they’da lapped muddy water outta an Apache’s boot tracks, did it mean savin’ their dirty hides. Sounds to me, Teodoro, like you’ve some plain, straightforward thinkin’ there—a mighty interestin’ idea. An’ maybe we’re jus’ goin’ to attend to th’ provin’ of it!”

  “Not by ourselves,” Drew corrected. “We have our orders.”

  “Sure. But there ain’t no order ever given what says a man has to stand up an’ be shot at an’ he don’t shoot back. No, I ain’t sniffin’ up trouble’s hot trail like a bush hound. But neither am I goin’ t’ sit down an’ fold my two hands together when trouble hits as it’s like to do out here.”

  Drew agreed with that, though he did not say so. Rennie must know the circumstances. They would have to defend themselves if it came to a fight. But he could hope that, if Kitchell had stocked some hidden canyons with stolen horses, the outlaw leader had left no guards on duty thereabouts. With Running Fox prowling ahead and with him and Anse using all the scout tricks they had learned in war-time, they should be able to learn just how correct Teodoro’s suspicions were.

  CHAPTER 12

  “See, señores, the land lies so.…” Hilario Trinfan’s crooked body pulled together in a lopsided perch as he squatted range fashion beside the morning campfire. He had smoothed a space of ground the width of his two hands and was setting out twigs and stones to create a miniature relief map of the countryside. “Here is the water hole to which the Pinto comes. Above that we were—moving in from this side. To do so we crossed here.” A black-rimmed nail stabbed into the dust.

  “It is then we see the tracks—five ahead—all shod horses, but not ridden, save for one.”

  “Apaches could have been running them,” Drew commented.

  “No.” Trinfan shook his head. “This far from pursuit the Apaches would not have moved so. The Indio, he eats horseflesh. There would have been signs of a fire. Or one of the animals cut down. These horses were being moved with care—not pushed too hard. We trailed them on to here.” Hilario stabbed his finger into the dust again. “Then—Teodoro, now tell them what you saw.”

  The younger mustanger hung over the crude map. “I climbed, señores, up over the rocks. It is bad, that ground, high, steep—but with care one can reach a ledge. And along that one can go to look down into the next canyon. A good place for horses—there is water and grass. I stayed there watching with the glasses Don Cazar gave my father, the glasses which bring the far close. There were poles set up in the rocks through which they brought those horses—making it like a pen we build for wild ones. But those in it were not wild.”

  “How many—an’ what brands?” Anse wanted to know.

  Teodoro shrugged. “There are many trees, rocks; one can not see everywhere. I counted twenty head—there is room for more. As to brands, even the glasses could not make those plain to the eyes of one lying above. But there is no other ranchero who would run horses on the Range andDon Cazar’s manadas are not driven in here—does he want the wild ones to run off his mares? Horses would be kept so for only one reason, that they must be hidden. And in such a place as we found they could be left for maybe a month, or more. Don Cazar’s riders do not patrol this far away from the Stronghold. Had it not been that the Pinto causes so much trouble, even we would not be here.”

  “What about the Pinto? If he’s all you say, wouldn’t he try to get at this band?” asked Drew.

  “No reason if they are saddle stock—no mares among them,” Anse said thoughtfully. “But would those hombres who put ’em there jus’ leave—no guards or nothin’?”

  “That is what we do not know,” Hilario replied. “We took every precaution against being seen when Teodoro climbed to look into the canyon. And—this I believe—we were not suspected if there was any watcher. Otherwise, otherwise, señores, we would not have been alive to greet you when you rode in last night! This Kitchell, he is like an Apache—here, there, everywhere. Today I am easier because you have brought the Pima, because we have two more guns in this camp.”

  “Why didn’t you pull out yourselves?” Anse asked curiously.

  “Because, were we watched, that would have made our discovery as plain as if we stood out in the open and shouted it to the winds. For three days before we found that trail we had been building a pen for wild ones, casting about for the tracks and runs of the Pinto’s band. Having done so, we would not leave without completing our drive. And, should those out there suspect”—Trinfan shook his head—“we would not have lived to reach the Stronghold, and that is the truth.”

  “This is also truth, padre.” Faquita came to the fire and picked up the coffeepot, pouring the thick black liquid into the waiting line of tin cups. “It is time for us to finish and be on the move—not to just talk of what must be done.”

  Drew looked up in surprise. The girl was wearing breeches, ready to ride. In addition, instead of the gunbelts which all the men wore as a matter of course, Faquita had tucked a pair of derringers in the front of her sash belt. Their small grips showed above the faded silk folds.

  “She g
oin’ with us?” the Kentuckian asked, as the girl kicked dust over the campfire and stowed the empty pot in the cart. “Ain’t that dangerous—for her?”

  Hilario got to his feet with a lurch that made his crippled state only too plain. “Señor, to hunt the wild ones is dangerous. You see me, twisted like a root, no? Not tall and straight as a man should be. This was done by the wild ones—in one small moment when I was not quick enough. Among us—the mustangers—it is often the daughters who are the best riders. They are quick, eager, riding lighter than their brothers or their fathers. And to some it is a loved life. With Faquita that is true. As for danger—is that not always with us?

  “In war danger is a thing which one man makes for another. In this country the land itself fights man—war or no war. A cloudburst fills an arroyo with a flood without warning, and a man is drowned amidst desert sand where only hours before he could have died for lack of that same water. There is a fall of rocks, a fall of horse, a stampede of cattle, sickness which strikes at a lone traveler out of nowhere. Yet have you not ridden to war, and come now to live on this land? Sí, we have danger—but a man can also die in his bed in the midst of a village with strong walls. And to everyone his own way of life. Now we ride.…”

  They did indeed ride, following a trail which, as far as Drew could see, existed only in the minds of the mustangers. But the three Mexicans swung along so confidently that he and Anse joined without question or argument.

  At a distance they circled the waiting pen with walls of entwined brush and sapling, ready to funnel driven horses into a blind canyon. The Pinto’s band must be located, somehow shaken out of the rocky territory their wily leader favored, before that drive could begin. Water, Trinfan said, would be the key. Horses must drink and they were creatures of habit, never ranging far from some one hole they had made their own. Trinfan blankets already flapped about the Pinto’s chosen spring. They had seen the horses approach several times in the past two days and shy away from those flapping things with the fearsome man scent.