He shook his head chidingly. “Nina, what could I say? I want to go along. I did not want Mike and the others to think I was not good enough because I might not like the idea of shooting people. Besides, if it is gringos we shoot, what does it matter? You know a man cannot stay in this trade forever without shooting someone. If a man shoots at me, I must shoot back.”
“Shooting people only makes the gringos hunt even harder for you. It brings trouble, Emilio, and you will have enough trouble being so deep in that strange country and riding with horse thieves.”
He threw up his arms. “What can happen, Nina? Mike and his men know their way around. Look at them! They are doing fine. No one is after them. They are all healthy and happy. The important thing is they are many, enough to keep others away, enough to protect each other. And Mike says there is a code of honor among the outlaws not to turn on each other or harm each other.” He smiled. “The best part is there are not so many outlaws in that country. It is a big land, with a few big settlements for taking many horses at once, like that place the Mormons have in the northern mountains. Men like us, who take over the territory while there is still no law there, will be the rich ones, the kings over those who come after us. We will make men like Jess Humes and Hernandez look like clumsy fools.”
Nina shook her head. “You do not go to get rich, Emilio. You go because you love the life.”
Their eyes held, and Emilio sobered. “I do love it, Nina. I am happier than I have been for a long time.” He came closer, grasping her arms. “And I want you to be happy, too. I promise on the crucifix, Nina, that as soon as we have enough money saved up, we will go to California.”
Her eyes teared. She did not want to do it, but she did not want to leave Emilio. “This is for certain? God will punish you if you lie to me, Emilio.”
“I promise,” he repeated.
Nina had her doubts. To swear on a crucifix meant little to her brother, who had not been inside a church in years. “I will hold you to it, Emilio. I will go with you…this time. We will see if these men are as good as they say they are.”
Emilio smiled, giving her a hug. “First I have to convince Mike to let you come along. He will not be happy about it.”
She drew back and held her chin proudly. “You can tell Mike Billings that I am as good as any one of his men. If he wants me to prove it, I will.”
Emilio nodded, grinning broadly. “Gracias, Nina.” He turned and left. Nina’s smile faded as she picked up the dishrag and began wiping off another table, her heart strangely heavy. She detected a movement above her to her left then, and she looked up to see Carmell standing on the balcony.
“I thought you were with a customer,” Nina told her.
Carmell looked at her like a scolding mother, even though she was only six years older than Nina. “He left,” she answered, turning and coming down the stairs. She tied her robe tighter around herself.
Nina returned to wiping off the table. “You heard?” she asked.
“I heard.” Carmell came closer. “You have made a foolish decision, Nina.”
“I do what must be done. He is my brother, and he is all I have.”
“He is not thinking of you with as much honor for what you want as you think of him.”
Nina faced her. “He is, in his own way. We both want a home of our own in California, and this is the easiest way to be able to do that. He has wanted to do this for a long time, but because of me he waited until he found a way that would be safe. He promised we would not go out alone again, and he has kept that promise. With so many men, what can happen? They will protect me, Emilio has said. Mike and the others may be horse thieves, but they are not bad men who abuse women like some of the others.”
“And what if they kill someone? Whatever they do, you will be judged just as guilty as they are if you get caught.”
“They have done this for many years and have never been caught. Mike told Emilio that he used to steal horses in the southern states and in east Texas, and he was never caught there.” Nina picked up an empty whiskey bottle.
Carmell sighed. “I could try to discourage you more by telling you you’re headed into dangerous Indian country; or that even though Mike and his men are respectful to you here, it might be very different after a few weeks on the trail without a woman; or that just because they have never been caught yet it doesn’t mean they won’t be; but I can see you’re going to come up with an argument for anything I say.” She stepped closer, touching Nina’s arm. “The other girls and I, we’d look after you if you want to stay, Nina.”
Nina held her eyes, her own tearing. “I know. It is just that I cannot let him ride off without me, Carmell. What if he never came back? What if he got hurt? I should be with him. All these years I have looked to Emilio. I just cannot imagine letting him ride out of my life. It has always been the two of us.”
“It’s in his blood, Nina. He won’t settle down.”
“He will! As soon as we have the money, I know that he will. I have already managed to save some little bit on my own. If Emilio can have his own ranch, it will keep him busy, and it will make him proud. It will help him forget his bitterness and give him something to work at that is all his own instead of working for someone else. That is all he wants.”
Carmell smiled sadly. “I hope you are right, Nina. And I hope to God I see you back here in two or three months, safe and sound. I will worry about you.”
Nina smiled in return, reaching out and embracing the woman. “I know. You have been a good friend, Carmell. I will be all right. You should not worry.”
Carmell drew back, patting her cheek. “First you have to convince Mike Billings to let you go with them. That won’t be easy.”
Nina tossed her head proudly, carrying the empty bottle to the bar. “When he sees how good I am at riding and shooting, and when Emilio explains to him how much help I can be, he will let me go.” She turned and faced Carmell. “I can be as quick and quiet as a mouse.” She put her hands on her hips and walked toward Carmell with a slight, seductive sway. “Or sometimes I can be used as a decoy, to distract a man from his guard duty.”
Carmell laughed. “For someone so innocent of men, you put on a good act, little girl.”
Nina smiled, masking her own worry over what she was about to do. Carmell was right, and she knew it, but she could not let anything stop her from being with Emilio, taking care of him as he had taken care of her for so many years. Perhaps he was wrong in some of his actions, but his heart and intentions were good. And with so many men along, what could go wrong? This would be the safest and most profitable venture they had ever undertaken.
“Are we ready, Youngblood?” Lieutenant Beale rode up to Clay, excitement in his eyes. Clay turned to look back at the caravan, comprised of over a hundred horses and mules, a dozen wagons and the selected twenty-five camels, in addition to several strangely dressed foreign handlers.
“Ready as we’ll ever be, Lieutenant Beale,” Clay replied.
“This is a moment in history, I hope you realize,” Beale told him. “We have a thousand-mile journey ahead of us.” He shook his head. “Look at those camels. It takes only three of them to haul on their backs as much as it takes six mules to pull in a wagon, and they’re much faster than the mules. The damn things will even eat bitter bush, something mules and horses won’t touch. I tell you, those beasts are going to be used all over the West eventually. You’ll see. I wish Major Wayne was here to see this.”
Clay was still skeptical, but kept his doubts to himself. Beale was as excited as a little boy. “Well, we’ll find out about their usefulness and adaptability on this journey, won’t we, Lieutenant?” He turned his horse. “Call them forward, Lieutenant!” he shouted. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
Beale raised his arm and ordered the huge pack train forward. They headed out of Fort Defiance and into the lawless, wild land that lay between Texas and California.
Chapter Eleven
“You sure she
can do it?” Mike asked Emilio quietly.
“If anyone can, it is Nina,” Emilio whispered. “She is as quiet as a sneaking Indian.”
Both men lay on their bellies in a grove of cottonwood trees near the barn where Nina had gone. The barn was on the property of Clyde Boone, a horse trader who had settled on a vast spread in New Mexico. His horses were some of the finest in the Southwest. Santos Rodriguez had managed to get work for Boone so that he could determine the layout of the ranch, where the best horses were housed at night and where guards were posted.
Tonight Santos had managed to put himself on guard duty at the barn where Boone’s prize Appaloosa stallion was kept, along with several prime Appaloosa mares and three sturdy roan mares. Three men besides Santos guarded the barn. Nina would help Santos do away with them, then she and Santos would quickly open the barn and quietly urge the horses toward the trees where Mike and Emilio and the rest of Mike’s gang waited, ready to whisk them away.
At the barn, Nina moved quietly near one of the guards, startling him when she spoke softly in the darkness. “Buenos noches, señor,” she cooed.
The man, who had been leaning against the barn half asleep, quickly turned at the voice, leveling his rifle. “Who’s there?”
Nina came closer, hating what she was doing, wanting to be good at it only to be sure the theft went cleanly and nothing happened to Emilio. She wore a ruffled blouse with dropped sleeves that revealed the velvety skin of her bare shoulders and an enticing bit of her breasts. The moonlight made her look even more beautiful, her long hair showing a soft glow, her eyes sparkling when she looked up at the man.
“I am lost, señor,” she told the guard, a hint of seductiveness in her voice. “I have run away from my husband. Could I perhaps stay here for the night?”
The man lowered his rifle, stepping closer, catching the scent of her perfume. He looked around. “You’re here all alone?”
“Sí, señor. My husband, he threatened to kill me because…because he says I like the gringo men too much.” She touched his chest. “Could I please hide here tonight, perhaps in the barn?”
The man watched her warily. “This some kind of trick? You don’t look like you’ve been running through desert country.”
Nina feigned tears. “Please, señor, it is not a trick. Please let me stay here.”
He looked down at her, thinking how easy it would be to pull the low-cut blouse away from her tempting breasts. It had been a long time since he’d been around such a pretty woman. Was she some hot-blooded señora who would be easy to smooth-talk into a haystack? “It might cost you, little lady,” he told her, touching a bare shoulder, his thumb moving down near one of her breasts. Nina hid her revulsion, giving him a smile.
“I will pay whatever it costs. It will be worth it not to have to go back to my husband. He is…not a gentle man…if you know what I mean.”
The man touched her hair. “I can be gentle. I—” Before he finished there came a blow to his head. The man slumped to the ground in front of Nina, Santos standing behind him holding a club.
“Get his rifle,” he whispered to Nina.
Nina obeyed, and both of them darted into the shadows. Nina handed the rifle to Santos, and they both headed around the corner to where another guard stood, doing the same to him. As much as she hated what she was doing, Nina could not help feeling a flutter of victory at how easy it was to dupe the weak gringos. When they reacted to her seductiveness, she saw in all of them the look she had seen in the eyes of the Texans who had raped her mother, and she felt no remorse when Santos bashed in their skulls. Her only remorse was that she had to do this at all. She prayed that this venture would bring enough money to convince Emilio to go to California when they were through.
A third guard was some distance away, and when Nina approached him she noticed he was fast asleep. She came closer and cautiously grasped the rifle that was perched beside him. She stole it away and moved back into the shadows, grabbing Santos’s arm. “He sleeps hard,” she told the man. “Let him be.”
“I had better—”
“No!” She urged him farther away. “We had better hope that neither one of the other two dies. Perhaps you have killed men before, Santos, but I will not be a part of such things! I will steal from them, but I will not kill them, much as I would sometimes deeply enjoy doing so. Let us get the horses!”
She hurried back to the barn, thinking on the way about Jess Humes. Yes, she had killed, but in self-defense. She had never told any of these men what she had done.
Santos hurried with her to the barn. They opened the doors on both ends of the building so that there would be just enough moonlight to see the gates of the stalls. They approached the stalls one at a time, Santos opening the gate, Nina going inside to talk softly to the horse and keep it calm and quiet. Santos had ropes ready, knew exactly where he had left them. Nina used them to tie around the necks of two horses, then led them quietly outside and into the trees where Emilio and Mike waited with more rope.
“Someone’s coming!” Mike whispered excitedly.
Moments later Nina called out quietly to them and Emilio and Mike hurried to where she stood, taking the horses and handing her more rope. “Everything going as planned?” Mike asked Nina.
“Sí. One guard is sleeping like a baby. Santos put the other two asleep with his club. Here are their rifles.” She handed two rifles to her brother. “Santos has the third rifle. I stole it right from under the sleeping one’s nose,” she said proudly. “I will be back with more horses. We must hurry!”
She took the new rope and left them. Emilio led the two horses to the men who waited even deeper in the trees, who in turn relayed them to two more men, who took them to a clearing where all the horses would be gathered. Once the animals had all been taken to the clearing, each man would take three to four horses by the ropes and they would all ride hard and fast, heading north along the Gila River, hoping to avoid both the law and Indians as they headed for Santa Fe, where Mike knew a man he was sure would buy the horses.
Nina returned to the barn. She and Santos worked as quietly as the most stealthy Indian. The sleeping guard never knew what was happening, or that his rifle was gone. Nina led three more horses out and into the trees, handing them over to Emilio, who gave her more rope. The quiet relay continued until the barn was emptied of fifteen Appaloosas and the three roan mares. Once all the horses were out in the clearing, Billings and the six other men, including Emilio, each took hold of two or three horses and rode off with them. Nina rode alongside her brother, leading two of the roan mares, and all of them vanished into the night.
Dust rolled, and it seemed to Clay that the hot sun was penetrating right through his hat and cooking his brain. He looked out at an endless horizon, dotted with magnificent rock formations that looked as though they had been tossed at random over the New Mexican desert, landing wherever they might. Someone had told him once that the eerie formations as well as the red-rock canyons and mesas of this no-man’s land were formed by water, sometime before man ever walked this land. He could not imagine that there could ever have been water here, and the thought made him thirsty. He reached down to his canteen, and his horse continued to plod along obediently while Clay uncorked the canteen and took a drink.
It was then he spotted several men riding hard toward them. He replaced the canteen and picked up the reins, all senses alert. “Someone riding hard toward us, Lieutenant,” he told Lieutenant Beale.
“I see them. Looks like our Apache scouts are with them.”
As the riders drew closer, Clay raised his arm and commanded the camel train to halt. Orders were shouted down the line, and dusty, thirsty men and animals took a brief rest. Clay’s two Apache scouts rode closer, accompanied by a gang of approximately ten angry-looking men. One of them rode up next to Clay. “Which one of you is in charge?” he demanded.
Clay looked over at Beale.
“I guess we pretty much share that duty, sir,” Beale told the ma
n. “I am Lieutenant Beale. This is Lieutenant Youngblood. What can we do for you?”
The leader removed his hat, wiping at his damp brow with his shirtsleeve. The rest of his men were gawking at the strange beasts, wondering what was going on. “You can help me find some horse thieves,” he snarled, putting his hat back on. “I’m Clyde Boone. I own a big spread south of here. Last night somebody stole eighteen of my best horses, prize Appaloosas and three damn good roan mares! You seen anything that looks out of line?”
“We’ve seen nothing, Mr. Boone,” Beale told the man. He looked at his Apache scouts. “Either of you see anyone herding several horses?”
The two Indians shook their heads. “We can search,” one of them told the man.
Beale looked at the irate rancher. “I’m sorry, Mr. Boone, but we are on a special expedition for the Army. We really can’t afford to take men and scouts away to help look for stolen horses.”
Boone looked past both men at the camels. “I don’t know what kind of project you’re on, Lieutenant, but hauling a pack train of circus animals across the desert doesn’t sound too important to me,” he growled. “Finding several thousand dollars worth of horses is a lot more important! It’s the Army’s job to help us citizens out here! Who else can we turn to?”
“You think Indians did it?” Clay asked.
The man grunted. “Wasn’t any damn Indians this time! Mexicans! That’s who it was! At least two that I know of were greasers, and one of them was a woman! Some whoring little señorita sauntered up to my guards during the night and took away their attention while somebody snuck up behind them and clobbered them good. I’ve got two men back at the ranch screaming with some right strong headaches, and I’ve fired a third man who slept through the whole thing! Quiet, they were, quiet as mice. Nobody in the house or the bunkhouses heard a thing. It was just about dawn when one of the guards came around and realized that they had cleaned out the barn where I kept my best horses.”
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