Tess's Trials

by C Wayne Winkle

  Unlike most men who rode for a living, whether on the right or wrong side of the law, the raider didn’t mind walking. The other men with him in Snake Eyes’ camp often made fun of the low heel boots he wore instead of the traditional high heel boots. That day, he was glad of the ones he wore.

  The raider figured he had about five miles of rough country to cover to get back to camp. His chances of coming across other riders who would help him were small. He kept a close watch behind him for any sign those two they tried to ambush were coming up on him.

  It was full dark before he saw the glow of fires ahead that told him he’d made it to the camp. Both his water and the jerky were gone two hours before. Travel over that rough ground was much more difficult on foot than it had been on horseback.

  The raider’s legs felt like lead and his feet swelled in his boots when he stumbled into the light around the cook’s fire. Once there, he fell flat on his face on the ground.

  “Sam!” the cook cried out. “What happened to you?”

  “Water,” he croaked.

  The cook rushed to bring him water. The raider drank slowly, the way men starving for water will, enjoying every drop of the liquid.

  “Where’s Snake Eyes?” Sam asked when he had drunk his fill.

  “He’s here. I’ll go get him.” The cook stood and hurried off to get Snake Eyes.

  Three minutes later, the cook returned with Snake Eyes and Whitehorse. Snake Eyes looked like he hadn’t slept in a week. Darkness painted under his eyes. The eyes themselves were veined with red. The head raider stared at Sam for a minute, then said, “What happened?”

  “Me’n Slim, Potter, and Jenkins went north like you said. Slim saw somethin’ movin’ ahead of us, so we got into these hills an’ waited.” He took another drink. “Jenkins said we’d ambush ‘em. They was a man an’ a woman, walkin’ along like they was lookin’ for somethin’.”

  “A woman, you said?” Snake Eyes interrupted him.

  “Yeah. She an’ the man with her both had guns an’ good horses.” Sam took another drink. “Like I said, Jenkins wanted to ambush ‘em. But somehow they got behind us. I went to check on th’ horses an’ got hit over th’ head. When I come to, I heard shots. Th’ belt around my hands was loose, so I got out of it an’ grabbed my horse. He stepped in a prairie dog hole, an’ I shot ‘im. Then I walked here.”

  Snake Eyes stared at him another few seconds, then turned and walked away a few steps. He stood there, thinking. He stepped back to the little group in another minute.

  “I don’t know who that man is, but I’ll bet he’s after me. After us. But that don’t matter. I want that woman. We’ll kill him an’ catch that woman. I want her.” To Whitehorse, he said, “Tomorrow, get all the men together. We’ll send ‘em all after that man an’ especially that woman!”

  Chapter Thirty

  Spring in West Texas always brought surprises, sort of like a lottery. Beautiful and clear one day, cold and cloudy the next. Warm enough to sweat on Monday, by Friday, coat weather again. At times, the flowers that bloomed so readily in the spring might have snow around them for a day.

  Yes, West Texas weather in the spring was fickle. As Tess knew and experienced once again.

  She walked from early that morning, making good time on relatively level ground. The makeshift shoes she fashioned from the hide of the drowned cow she found worked well. Relatively soft ground with fewer than usual rocks made her going easy. She found a spring along the way and drank all she could hold.

  Once, she saw cattle in the far distance. No riders she could see, however.

  In the middle of the afternoon, walking through a stretch of broken country, she felt the wind on her face.

  Did I get turned around? She stopped and looked around her. No, I know I didn’t. But the wind was from the south, blowing from behind me . A glance to her left showed the sun halfway down the sky. I’m still headed north, so what’s going on?

  Another brief gust hit her in the face. Noticeably colder.

  She scrambled up the side of a low hill in front of her. At the top, she turned her face to the north. There, low on the horizon, a long cloud bank stretched from one side of the sky to the other. Blue-black in color, the cloud bank grew as she watched, eating up more of the sky.

  Blue Norther!

  Tess knew what a blue norther could, and would, bring with it. A sudden, dramatic drop in temperature, rain, freezing rain, sleet, and/or snow. Sometimes all of the above.

  She didn’t want to, couldn’t, get caught out in that. Weak as she was from lack of food and rough travel, she would die.

  Shelter , she realized. I’ve got to find shelter!

  Turning her gaze from the specter of the blue norther, she focused on the land around her. About a half mile in front of her, a large arroyo sliced through the earth going east to west.

  If I can get to that arroyo, maybe I can find a cut in the northern bank. That would shelter me from the wind and at least most of the wet.

  Another glance at the cloud bank showed her it now covered almost a quarter of the sky to the north.

  It’s moving in fast, so maybe it won’t last long . She looked again at the land between her hill and the arroyo, picking out what looked like the easiest route. But I’d better get going. Don’t want to be caught out in the open.

  Tess hurried down the hill. Walking as fast as she could without ruining those hastily-made sandals got her to the arroyo just as the much-colder wind set her teeth chattering.

  Just climbing down into that arroyo and getting out of the worst of the wind helped. She knew, though, getting wet with freezing rain would kill her.

  I didn’t escape those raiders who kidnapped me, get away from that Indian, and walk all this far to die in a blue norther this close to home .

  At the bottom of the arroyo, she searched the north side for a suitable overhang or undercut of some kind. She saw nothing.

  Which way to go to try to find a place? She’d only have time to cover one direction before the storm caught her. Already, the clouds ate up half the sky over her.

  For no particular reason, she turned right.

  She trudged a hundred yards, not finding what she needed. As she walked, it looked like the arroyo made a shallow turn to the left. If that turn continued, the wind would blow right down the arroyo.

  For a moment, she stopped, looked back the way she came, looked up at the clouds that now covered the entire sky she could see. No time to go back. She had no choice but to go on.

  The turn to the left turned out to be shallow. No more than fifty feet later, the arroyo went back to the right, lining up across the north wind. That wind blew colder as she headed into it for the short space it hit her face. By the time she got to the next turn, her teeth chattered uncontrollably.

  Just past the point where the arroyo turned across the wind, she found exactly what she needed. An overhang, really a small cave, hollowed out by years of spring and fall rain rushing down the arroyo provided the perfect place for her to shelter from the freezing rain and sleet sure to come with the norther.

  Sand covered the floor of the arroyo here, deposited by those years of rains. No tracks showed in the area in front of the shallow cave.

  “I hope that means I’m the first here,” Tess muttered. Her voice sounded like barbed wire scraped across a rusty gate to her ears. “Just shows how dehydrated I am.” She stooped to glance into the low, shallow cave. “Don’t see anything; guess I’ll go on in.”

  Still, she hesitated, thinking a snake might not leave tracks of any kind. Then, borne on a gust of that frigid north wind, a patter of sleet pelted down around her and even bounced off her head.

  That made up her mind.

  She got down on all fours, hiking up the remnants of her dress to free her legs. Nobody’s around to see ‘em anyway , she told herself. Quickly, she crawled into the shelter.

  Once inside, she scooted to the back wall, about eight feet from the entrance. The cave opened u
p slightly, and she could sit up there. It made a tiny room about six feet across. She scrunched up in a far corner. Already it felt warmer. But Tess knew the real cold would come later, and she had no way to cover herself to keep warm.

  She sat there, hugging her knees to her chest and watching the sleet and freezing rain fall just outside the entrance to her cave. In her exhaustion, she simply could not think.

  A few minutes passed with Tess just staring and shivering. Then a small movement caught her eye. Just a flash of something darting across the floor of the arroyo.

  She stared in that direction, saw the movement again. Almost a shadow on the sand.

  It darted toward the cave where she sat!

  A coyote!

  It stopped just outside the opening of the cave. Stopped and sniffed the air, then the tracks she left. Those tracks now filled with sleet. She, for Tess could clearly see the coyote was female and likely had just recently delivered a litter of pups, seemed confused by the tiny bit of scent she could pick up under the sleet. The coyote shook herself, sniffed Tess’s tracks again, then slipped into the cave.

  As soon as the mama coyote got inside the cave, she stopped and stared at Tess. Clearly she caught the human scent inside the cave. The coyote froze and tasted the air.

  “It’s all right, Little Mama,” Tess crooned to the concerned animal. “Come on in out of the weather.”

  The coyote gave a low throaty growl, cut off quickly. From Tess, she glanced out at the sleet which fell harder now. She took a small, tentative step back toward the arroyo, but took another long look at the sleet.

  With a glance at Tess again, she stepped two more feet into the cave and as far over to the side opposite Tess as possible. The coyote dug a shallow hole, stepped into it, turned around three times, and lay down. She curled herself into a tight curl and stared at Tess.

  “Good idea, Little Mama,” she said softly. “Glad you stopped by.”

  Tess began scooping out a hollow for herself. The coyote lifted her head to see what this crazy human did, but settled back down after a minute. She did keep her eyes on Tess, however.

  It took Tess about ten minutes to scoop out a place for her to lie in. She lay on her side, her back against the back of the cave, and pulled the sand up close to her.

  Still the cold seeped into the shallow cave as the sleet continued to fall outside. “Little Mama, you’re lucky,” she muttered to the coyote. “A fur coat would feel really good right now.”

  The coyote offered no comment other than a contented sigh.

  Tess pulled the sand over her legs and up to her waist, piling it up as deep as possible. Then she pulled sand up around her body, also, to hold in as much body heat as possible.

  The combination of shared body heat, her own conserved heat, the exhaustion caused

  by lack of food and water, and the stress of her circumstances brought sleep quickly.

  Outside the cave, where both Tess and the coyote slept, sleet and freezing rain continued. It fell the entire afternoon and into the early evening. The frozen stuff accumulated to a depth of three inches. Tess awoke once well after dark. The sleet stopped, and it looked like the clouds were gone. Outside, the ice seemed almost to shine in the night.

  She closed her eyes again and slept.

  Cold increased as she and the coyote slept.

  When next she awoke, clouds returned outside and the cold felt intense. As she stirred, the coyote also woke up. After a long stare at Tess, the coyote turned her face to the opening of the cave. Her nose worked for a minute, then she shook her head as she would to fling water from it. After a good scratch from her hind leg under her chin, she curled up again with a sigh, and went back to sleep.

  While Tess watched the coyote, she became more aware of the great cold. Shivers shook her body and brought chatters to her teeth temporarily.

  “Good idea again, Little Mama,” Tess muttered. She pulled more sand up close to her sides, crossed her arms over her chest, and slept.

  The two of them slept the day away, getting up only once to crawl outside to empty their bladders. Both of them found the going very difficult outside. Once, when she slid coming out of the cave, Tess looked up to see the coyote staring at her, mouth open in a coyote-grin.

  “It did look funny, I’ll bet,” she muttered.

  The coyote sat there, unmoving in the cold, until Tess finished and returned to her place

  in the cave. Then, the coyote returned to her depression, dug it out some more, circled three

  more times, and lay back down.

  Tess covered herself up again, whispered, “Good night, Little Mama.”

  Both of them slept.

  Tess’s body jerked, her eyes moved rapidly back and forth. She dreamed.

  At first, she saw a field of beautiful flowers of many colors. Flowers such as never seen in her part of Texas. Through the flowers rolled a huge wagon drawn by multiple horses. As it advanced, it crushed the flowers in its wake. Sitting on the seat of the wagon was Snake Eyes, laughing at her attempts to get him to stop. Then, following the wagon, she saw someone on a large buckskin horse. Not knowing who this was, she nevertheless felt he was coming to stop the wagon.

  That ended the dream, and she slept quietly again.

  The next time Tess awoke, the sun shone outside and it felt warmer. A glance told her the coyote was gone. She dug herself out of the sand and crawled out of the cave. The air, while noticeably warmer, still raised goose bumps on her skin. The sleet had already melted.

  A couple more hours , she told herself. And I’ll start on .

  Chapter Thirty-one

  That same afternoon the blue norther rushed through, Rafe and Merita rode warily. Since the attempted ambush, when one of the attackers got away, they figured Snake Eyes would send more men after them. They figured the men who attacked them had to be his; no one else was in the area as far as they knew. Only the Indians they’d seen briefly.

  Rafe studied the ground as they rode, trying to pick up the trail of the wagons again. He thought they had gotten away from where they last saw the tracks.

  “Let’s pull up ahead an’ rest th’ horses,” he said over his shoulder.

  They stopped in the shade of a small grove of willows growing beside a seep. Both dismounted and let their horses drink. The seep was a strong one. It only took minutes to refill once the horses finished.

  Rafe first noticed the weather change when he saw Merita shiver. He turned his face to the wind, saw it now blew from the north. When he walked out from the trees a little way, he saw the blue line of clouds to the north. As he watched for half a minute, the clouds covered more of the sky. He turned and strode quickly back to where Merita held the horses. They seemed to sense some change coming also. Both of them held their heads high and tasted the wind.

  “What is it?” Merita asked as Rafe hurried back to her.

  “Blue norther blowin’ in,” he said, grabbing the reins to his buckskin.

  “What’s blowing in?” The young woman glanced back the way he’d come. Then she turned her eyes to him.

  “Blue norther,” he repeated with more emphasis. “Strong weather change. There’ll be sleet or freezin’ rain at first. Then, it’ll get really cold.”

  Merita glanced back to where Rafe came from, then over at him. Her expression said she didn’t know whether he was kidding her. A tiny half smile formed on her lips.

  “Are you telling me …?” she began.

  Rafe interrupted her. “Yes, I’m tellin’ you a big storm’s comin’, and it’s gonna get real cold. Now, tighten your cinch. We gotta find a place to ride this out.”

  He mounted and headed out across the path of the storm. Hopefully, she followed.

  She did, and trotted her horse up beside him. “Tell me what we’re looking for, and I’ll help.”

  Without slowing from the fast walk, he replied, “Someplace out of the wind. An’ with a roof if possible. We gotta stay dry an’ as warm as possible.”

&
nbsp; Rafe knew their best bet would be in an arroyo if they could find an overhang to get under. Second best would be a blow-down of the right kind.

  They rode on with Rafe keeping an eye on the fast-encroaching storm. The wind grew colder as they rode.

  An arroyo opened up in front of them, but it ran north and south. That would just funnel the wind right to them. The next one ran east and west, but was much too shallow, just a dip in the land.

  Another glance at the clouds showed Rafe they were in trouble. Half the sky was covered by those blue-black clouds which advanced even as he watched.

  In the near distance, he saw the tops of trees whipping back and forth in the wind.

  “Let’s ride over there,” he said as he chin-pointed to the trees. “If we can’t find somethin’ there, we gotta put somethin’ together – and soon.”

  With only about a quarter of the sky not covered by clouds, Rafe touched the buckskin’s flanks with his heels. The tough, plains-bred horse immediately broke into a slow gallop. Rafe didn’t want to push him any harder because of the chance of stepping in a hole and breaking a leg.

  Besides destroying a great horse, such an incident would likely doom him to a slow death either in the storm or on the prairie later. He didn’t know how much he could count on Merita to help him in that kind of situation.

  They made it to a small grove of trees that grew in a shallow depression. The trees grew large due to a spring-fed pool covering an area about ten feet across.

  “Well, we’ll have plenty of water,” he said, pulling the buckskin to a halt.

  “That’s something, at least.” Merita looked around the pool. Then her head stopped in the direction straight across the pool from where they stood. “Is that a downed tree over there?” She pointed at something in the shadows across the water.

  “Looks like it. Might’s well go see.” Another glance overhead. “We gotta do somethin’ real quick.”