by Ralph Cotton
The old woman turned slightly, pointing a trembling finger in the direction of the foothills. “Please do not hurt them, señor. They are tired and scared—”
“Shut up now,” Payton Parker said. “It’s best to say no more than you’ve been asked. I might yet decide to pump a few bullet holes in you folks if you make me mad.”
On the dirt floor, old Ramon clutched the wooden table leg and with all his effort, managed to pull himself up. “That’s right, old man, get on up, show some manners here. We’ve got us some talking to do. Then you’re gonna go with me. We’ve got to roust out everybody in this little buzzard’s nest and have us a nice town meeting over at Juan’s cantina.”
“Do not…do not hurt…the boy,” the old man gasped.
“Oh, but I truly will,” Payton Parker said. “I’ll hurt him really bad. Then you…then this old hen of yours if you don’t do like I say. Com-pren-de?”
“Sí, por favor. I understand.”
From their dark perch in the foothills, Maria and Prudence had seen the lantern grow brighter in the window. They’d sat tense for a few minutes, watching and listening, until behind them farther up among the loose rocks on a higher path, a faint sound came down to them. Both women looked around without saying a word and sat still as stone. When they heard no more sound from above them, Maria looked back toward the adobe below. But her breath stopped in her throat when she saw the light in the window had gone out, the black of night lying flat and unbroken now as if the town of San Carlos had vanished.
“Santa Madre,” Maria whispered, her hand tightening around her rifle stock.
“Oh, no,” Prudence whispered. “They’re there. They know we’re up here.”
“Be still,” Maria said, her eyes darting behind them, upward into the darkness. Only silence came from up there. Maria turned back to Prudence and without a sound took her by the forearm and pulled her along, the two of them slipping across the rocky ground a few feet until they crawled behind an upthrust of rock.
Close to Prudence’s ear, Maria said, “I must get down there and see what has happened to the boy and his family.”
“We’ll both go.” Prudence replied, clutching Maria’s forearm.
“No. You are free. Stay here, stay hidden.” Maria’s voice was little more than a faint breath in her ear. “No one can find you here if you stay quiet.”
“What about you?” Prudence’s voice was the same soft wisp of breath in reply.
“I will be all right. Lie still.”
Maria crawled away to the burros, glancing back only once into the higher darkness. Perhaps it was a cat they’d heard up there. Perhaps it was nothing. This was not a place familiar to the Parkers, she thought, or else these people would have warned her. Besides, in the darkness, behind the rocks, all Prudence had to do was keep her wits about her—and she’d proven she knew how to do that.
Maria crept up between the burros, took the rope hobble off the hooves of the one she’d ridden up the path, and with its reins in her hand, she moved it off to the path. She sliced a worried breath with each short, soft chop of its burlap-covered hooves on the loose rocks beneath them. At the bottom of the winding path, where the last turn spilled out onto the flatland between there and San Carlos a hundred yards away, Maria swung her leg over the burro and let it carry her through the night.
No sooner had she started out on the burro than Paschal, higher up above the women’s dark campsite, raised his head and listened for the sound he’d heard earlier. He knew the atmosphere of the foothills at night, what sounds should be here and what sounds shouldn’t. At night the foothills should be full of coyote and elk, and even wolves in search of prey—but not tonight, at least not on the path beneath him. Farther back he could hear the occasional brush of padded paw over rock, the quick breath of a bull elk, but not down there. All he heard down there had been the muffled click of a hoof and nothing more.
They were down there, those women. It was time he made his move. He slipped the knife from his dirty boot well and wiped it across his trouser leg. He would soon have them…them and the gold, and everything he’d ever dreamed of. If he got lucky, he might even get a chance to catch Payton Parker somewhere in the future…reach down below Payton’s crotch with a good sharp skinning knife and lift him up on the tip of it. He smiled to himself, moving down into the darkness. That might be too much to hope for. He’d settle for the gold.
At the sound of the burro’s breath in the surrounding stillness, Paschal inched forward until he laid a hand on the animal’s neck and felt its skin quiver. Only one…He crouched close to the ground and slid his hand a back and forth gently, feeling for footprints in the dark the way the Indians of the high Northwest had taught him to do. But this loose rocky ground revealed nothing. He had started to work back up the path when close behind him he heard the faintest rustle of someone shifting in the darkness.
As soon as Prudence made the slightest move, she knew it had been a mistake. She froze and listened, but the sound of someone lurking a few feet away had stopped now. Had they moved away, or had they heard her and stopped, and now lay in wait for her? The burro made a blowing sound under its breath and scraped its burlap-covered hoof on the ground. Prudence relaxed. Maybe it had been the burro she’d heard all along.
Yes, that was it. She’d been too spooked. She needed to settle down a little. In the darkness she’d started to get up an inch when Paschal’s big arm swung around her and pinned her to his broad chest. “Easy, cheri,” he whispered close to her ear. She felt cold steel edge press against her throat. Her breath caught in her chest. For a second it seemed her heart had stopped beating. “Where is your friend?” Paschal breathed in her ear, liking the smell of her and the way she had gone dead still at the touch of him against her. When she did not answer right away, he pressed the steel blade more firmly, felt her tremble, rigid against him.
“She…she left me,” Prudence said, thinking fast, reaching for something inside herself—a trick, a lie, a plan, anything. “God, she left me here alone. Who are you? Are you one of them?”
Paschal waited for a second, considering. After all, there was only one burro. “One of them?” He chuckled, his big belly rolling against her back. “Perhaps I am…perhaps I am not. Where is the gold from the federales!“As he spoke, his voice rose above a whisper, and his knife hand eased down a bit.
“I…I think I know where she hid it. She didn’t trust me. I think she wants to keep it for herself.”
“I see.” Paschal relaxed his grip around her, but still held her against his chest. “Which one are you? You are the Vanderman woman, eh?”
Prudence’s voice sounded shaky, yet her mind clicked like a well-tuned clock. “Why, no…I’m not her. I’m…I’m the other one. I’m, uh, Maria…yes, Maria.”
“The other one? Now that is so cute of you.” He chuckled. “But you are not a good liar, cheri. The other woman is some sort of half-breed. I can tell by your voice who you are. Now do not lie to me again, or I will have to kill you. Do you understand? It would be terrible to kill a beautiful, rich woman.”
“Yes, I understand. I’m sorry.” Her voice still trembled, her mind still fast at work. “I’m just so frightened…all those horrible men, then her, the way she has treated me.” She sobbed. “God, what will I do? Please don’t kill me.”
“Shhh, be quiet now.” Paschal raised the knife from her throat, then sheathed it. “So, she has left you alone? She wants the gold to herself?”
“Yes…I think so.” Prudence sniffled, collecting herself. “But…but I don’t care about the gold. My father has enough gold to pave this desert. He would gladly give it to see me return home safely. I’ve tried to make people understand. Why won’t anyone listen?”
“Hush now,” Paschal said. “I am here. I am listening.”
“You are?” Prudence sniffed again, her voice childlike.
“Yes, of course. You see?” He turned her facing him, the two of them only catching a shadowy image
of one another. “I have not come to harm you, no, no.” He shook his head. “I have come to save you…from Payton Parker and the others.”
Prudence rubbed her throat, Paschal’s big hand still holding her shoulder. “But, the knife…?”
“Ah yes, the knife. Well, how was I to know it was you? I had to be sure, didn’t I?”
“I…I suppose so.”
“But of course,” he said and smiled. This was going to be too easy. “Now that I know it is you, you are safe. No one will harm you. You have my word as a gentleman.”
“Thank God.” Prudence let herself fall limp against him. “Then this is over? This whole horrible nightmare has ended?”
“Yes, put it out of your mind.” He brushed a grimy hand down her tangled hair. “I have a horse waiting, right up there.”
“You do…?” Prudence turned her eyes up into the night along the outline of the black foothills.
“Yes, and I know a way out of here that leads back along the trail toward Diablo Canyon.” He paused for a second, then added, “That is where she hid the gold, isn’t it? You would recognize the spot?”
“Well, yes.” Prudence touched a finger to her lips, thinking about it. “I’m certain I will once I see it.” She lowered her finger. “What about the reward my father will pay you for bringing me home? It will make you rich.”
“Yes,” Paschal said and grinned, “but still, we cannot leave all that gold out there to go to waste, now can we? One can never have too much gold, now can one?” With a grimy thumb under her chin, Paschal raised her face to his and winked.
“Whatever you think is best.” Prudence smiled and lowered her eyes. “I’m placing myself completely in your hands.”
A few yards from San Carlos, Maria stepped down and tied the burro’s reins around a low scrub pinyon in the shadow of an abandon shack. She moved forward in the darkness, crouched on foot, her rifle in her hand. At the window of the adobe where the lantern had burned earlier, she looked in but saw no one—only an overturned table and a pile of debris near the fireplace. Maria heard the soft sobbing of Hernando’s grandmother, and after a moment when she’d heard no other voices, she pecked on the glass and stood back in the shadows, ready, her thumb across the rifle hammer.
When the window opened and the old woman put her head forward, Maria whispered to her, “It is me. Are you alone?”
“Sí, I am alone. Thank God you have returned…they have taken Ramon and Hernando,” the woman cried, whispering in a trembling voice.
“What happened?” Maria asked, moving forward until she stood at the window and held the woman’s hand in hers.
“I did a stupid thing,” the old woman said. “I cleaned this old window, and the gringo saw it! They are killers, these madmen! They say they will kill everyone in San Carlos if you do not come down and surrender to them! They made me tell them where you were. I have been such a fool!”
“Don’t blame yourself.” Maria squeezed her hand, then turned it loose. “Where have they taken Hernando and your husband?”
To the cantina, with everyone else. They only leave me here because I am so old and cannot get away. But they will come back for me…I know they will. It will be daylight soon, and they will kill all of us!”
“Not if I can help it,” Maria said. “Here, come with me.” She reached in to help the old woman out through the window. “We will get you away from here.”
“No,” the old woman resisted. “How can I live if they kill my family?”
“You must have faith. Come quickly now.” Maria pulled her forward. This time the woman spilled out into her arms. “There is a burro tied behind the old shack.” Maria stood her on the ground. “Take it and go up into the foothills. Find Prudence and stay with her until this is over.”
The old woman looked at her hesitantly and said, “But what about you? What are you going to do here?”
Maria’s eyes turned away from her. “Do not worry about me. They want the gold. I will trade the gold for the lives of the people.
“But these men are animals,” the old woman said. “They will kill you once they have this gold they are looking for. Do you give up your life for those you do not even know?”
“Only a fool gives up their life,” Maria said. “To get my life, these men will have to take it from me. A lot can happen between here and where the gold is hidden.” She tightened her grip on the rifle in her hand.
Chapter 23
Inside the cantina, the few townsfolk of San Carlos sat huddled together on the floor in a corner. They looked frightened and lost, yet they had said nothing about the two women who’d ridden into their town earlier, pursued like deer by a pack of wolves. They’d been awakened in the night and dragged from their homes by these angry, drunken men with guns. Most of the people were elderly, the young men of working age having left San Carlos when the mines in the foothills had played out three years earlier.
Leo Parker grinned, pointing his pistol into the midst of the huddled townsfolk at old Ramon, who lay on the floor like a bundle of rags. “Want me to drag him out here too, Payton? He ain’t doing nothing there but taking up space.”
From the darkened corner, the people watched as Payton Parker dragged Hernando by the short length of rope around his neck. The tip of a single-barrel shotgun lay against the base of Hernando’s skull. Payton’s hand lay around the shotgun stock, his thumb across the cocked hammer.
“Naw, Leo,” Payton Parker said. “That ole peckerwood probably won’t live till morning anyway.” At the bar, Payton Parker slung the boy around beside him. “This boy is our best investment. Women get all blubbery over kids. They’ll give up. You’ll see, about the time we drop a couple of these old geezers’ bodies out in the street…then tell ’em the next one is going to be little Hernando here.” Payton laughed and looked at Hernando wide-eyed. “Bang,” he said, jiggling the shotgun and rope in his hand.
Leo had just lifted a mouthful of rye whiskey, but he lost it in a spray, seeing the frightened look on Hernando’s face. “Damn it, Payton.” Leo laughed, slapping a hand down on the bar, whiskey dribbling down his chin. “Now look what you made me do!”
McCord just watched, noticing that the more Leo Parker drank, the crazier he became, looking wild now, his eyes darting toward the people in the corner, his expression turning cold and malevolent. So here was the new Leo, McCord thought. All this time he’d been Payton’s slow-witted brother. Now, seeing the depravity the whiskey conjured up from inside Leo, McCord began to realize why Payton kept him around. Jesus.…He wanted away from these men.
“What’s the matter with you, McCord?” Leo still chuckled, casting an evil glare his way. “You losing your sense of humor?”
Sense of humor, in this…? McCord fidgeted, looking over at the townsfolk in the corner. Nobody with even a low speck of decency left in them would do something like this. Was Payton serious about what he’d just said? Would he kill this kid for no reason? McCord raised a drink and placed the empty shot glass down. Yes, he believed so. “To tell the truth,” McCord said, trying to get around Leo’s question, “I’m wondering about Paschal. We shoulda heard something from him by now, don’t you think?”
“Paschal? Lord have mercy, McCord,” Payton said. “We’ve got what ya might call a stacked deck going for us here, and you’re worried about hearing from a pig-licking Frenchman?”
McCord shrugged, pouring another drink into his shot glass. “I’m just asking, is all. It’s coming on to morning…he’s been up there an awful long time.”
“Shiiit,” Leo said, grumbling the word out beneath an ugly expression. His otherwise dull face had turned menacing now, his features sharp and evil, his eyes caged and cold. “You ain’t got an idea what’s going on here, do ya?” He swept his forearm around and knocked McCord’s glass off the bar. “Drinking whiskey from a damn glass!” He snatched a bottle by its neck and slammed it down in front of him. “There! Turn it up like a man.”
McCord bristled, but held hims
elf in check. He wanted that gold badly enough that he could overlook some things for now. Leo was getting drunk, and wild as an bull elk. “Take it easy, Leo. We’re all three friends here.”
“Shiiit…” Leo Parker said again, staring at him long and hard. McCord held his ground, but felt the skin crawl on his neck, looking into those wild drunken eyes. “Friends? You ain’t no friend. You’re one more low, rotten, no good—”
Payton cut him off, laughing, reaching over with his free hand, and slapping Leo on his back. “All right, Leo! It’s about damn time you woke up and got something moving through your veins. Now you’re acting like your old self. Nothing like a little wild-eyed rye to get the blood pumping. Right, brother?”
“Yeah,” Leo said, his eyes red-rimmed and boiling. “Want to tell him what we done to our last friend? That big Negro, Durant?” He swung around to Payton, then back to McCord. “Killed his woman, then his boy…would’ve killed his damn dog if he’d had one.” He turned to the people huddled in their corner, drawing his pistol and cocking it, beading down on them one after another, one eye squinted shut. “Pow, pow, pow!” he intoned with a savage grin, a string of saliva swinging from his lower lip. Chuckling low and ugly, he said, “I’m ready to do some killing, brother. Where you want me to start?”
Outside the rear window, above the heads of the people in the corner, Maria stood watching, her eyes only a sliver above the windowsill. When Leo had swung his pistol toward the townspeople, she’d dropped down, waited, then rose and looked back in, seeing the Parkers laugh, watching as Payton Parker tugged on the rope around Hernando’s neck, the shotgun stiff and menacing against the back of his head.
Maria looked off to the purple-black horizon, where a thin silver promise of morning glowed on the rim of the earth. There was no time to go back into the hills and tell Prudence what was going on down here. Prudence was safe up there, and that meant something. Prudence was sharp and capable. She would see enough of the town from up high come daylight—enough to warn her to stay away. Maria crept away from the window, stood up in the darkness, and moved quietly back to the stable. She would wait until first light, then face these men alone…in the dirt street of San Carlos.