She turned to the crowd and demanded. ‘Who amongst you either saw Lonergan’s body hung up here or saw the men who did this?’ Her call for information was met with silence and the crowd started to drift away. Obviously nobody wanted to get involved.
One of her ranch hands entered the livery stable and, climbing up to the hay loft, untied the rope that had run over the pulley of the hoist and acted as a ready-made gallows to receive Lonergan. The body was lowered and removed on a handcart to the one and only undertaker in town to be prepared for burial. Meanwhile, Abbie made her way to Padre Pedro’s cottage and, seeing there was a light in the window, she presumed that he was not yet retired and knocked on the door. A quiet voice in Spanish invited her to enter and she did so apologizing because of the lateness of the hour.
‘That is all right, señorita. I am an old man and need very little sleep. I seldom get to bed before midnight. What can I do for you?’
‘Father, did you hear what happened tonight to Ace Lonergan? In a way I feel partly responsible since I made him vulnerable by wounding him earlier in the evening!’
The priest looked at Abbie sympathetically. ‘Señorita, it is intent that counts. You did not intend to mortally wound him but merely prevent him from injuring others including yourself, and it may ease you to know that Ace was already dead when he was hung. If you examine the corpse carefully I am told that there is a line around his neck where he was garrotted. So I am informed by some of my flock.’
‘Thank you for telling me, Padre. That sets my mind at rest. But why on earth was Ace murdered?’
Padre Pedro shook his head. ‘Some of my parishioners tell me many things. They confide in me, I mean apart from the confessional. The manner of Lonergan’s death came to them as hearsay. Someday one may know enough to tell me why Ace died his horrible death despite the fact that he was no doubt a great sinner. For now there is a veil of silence over the affair.’
Abbie thanked the priest and turned to leave. ‘One last thing, Padre, what do you know about the Hacienda Alvarez? Did you ever go there in the days before the Indian attack? Did you know that it is occupied once more and apparently they don’t welcome visitors?’
‘Ah, the Hacienda Alvarez! Yes I went there in the days before the Comanche raid. Senor Alvarez was a true hidalgo of the old school, and the señora, she was a lady. They always wanted me to celebrate mass there on their wedding anniversary.’ He sighed. ‘They were a good family.’ He paused. ‘Except for Antonio, their son. He was going through a wild phase. But there now, I shouldn’t speak unkindly of the dead.’ And Padre Pedro smiled sadly.
‘Regarding the ruins of the hacienda and the rumours of bad people living there, I have heard these tales and advised my parishioners to keep away from the place. It has an evil reputation and there are many ruthless men living here in west Texas so the stories about the hacienda Alvarez may well be true. If I hear anything I’ll try to get word to you.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Abbie left the little priest and joining her ranch hands the four of them rode back to camp, where Abbie sat down with Captain McHugh and related the events from the time that the peon had brought word of another hanging.
‘While you were in town, Abbie, I did some thinking. My original orders were to investigate Comancheros activity in the La Trinidad area. At the time I thought this would mean in the town proper but since then I’ve modified my ideas somewhat and I now realize that anywhere in a radius of twenty miles of the town could be described as “in the La Trinidad area”. Do you agree?’
Abbie was silent for a moment and then nodded, ‘Yes, I’m sure that you are right and I suspect that the Hacienda Alvarez could stand a much closer scrutiny. I suggest that we maintain a twenty-four hour watch on that location!’
McHugh was in full agreement and added a notion that they send out scouting parties to sweep the countryside beyond the hacienda. It was decided to have two scouting parties: one to maintain and record all activity going on at the Alvarez location, the other to roam further afield. Each party was to consist of a Ute brave, one of Abbie’s ranch hands and a Ranger. The latter was to give each scouting group a stronger air of respectability. The hour being late, after designating the men for the scouting groups, Abbie and McHugh sought their individual blankets to seek a short night’s sleep.
Initially, Abbie had wanted to go with one of the scouting groups but Captain McHugh had cautioned against the notion. Therefore from the time that the groups rode out until five days later when they reported in, she stalked around the camp, constantly tempted to throw a saddle on her bay but mindful of the need to obey orders like anyone else under McHugh’s command.
Finally the time came when a lookout reported riders coming in from the west and a little later stated that he could see six men, which indicated that the two groups had linked up at some point in their return journey.
The men rode in and Captain McHugh and Abbie waited patiently while the scouts, with greetings over, tucked into a hearty camp-cooked meal washed down with copious mugs of hot coffee. Their meal finished, the men settled down on their haunches, drawing on their pipes and Mexican ‘seegars’, and prepared to render their reports.
Ranger Tom Budner described how they had hid their horses in a deep gully with a trickle of water at the bottom and in four-hour shifts had kept a steady watch on the activities of Hacienda Alvarez. Most of the time, the watch was very boring. Hot and boring, watching the guards on the walls and the one on the gate as the former sauntered along the wall and the latter leaned against the gatepost and leisurely scratched his crotch, ‘They all did that, Cap’n! Without fail! Each son of a gun scratched. . . .’
He broke off as McHugh indicated Abbie’s presence and suggested that he continue with his report.
Three times they noted the arrival of the two-wheeled Comancheros carts from the south and once a train of four of these set out going north into the region of the Staked Plain. The only other thing they noted was the visit of a man, who was identified as one of the idlers who had egged on Ace Lonergan back in La Trinidad. He came early on the second morning and left by midday, heading back on the same grey mule on which he had arrived.
Abbie commented, ‘So it seems that someone at Hacienda Alvarez is getting a regular report on what goes on in town!’
Captain McHugh turned to the second Ranger, Wilson. ‘OK Bill, let’s hear how your scouting party fared.’
Wilson puffed on his pipe and then commenced his report. ‘Well sir, we cast a series of searches from east of the Hacienda south and west so we were covering a huge semicircle. The first one was about a mile from the building and we gradually extended the distance so eventually we were due south of the camp here when we started our last sweep. The strange thing, Sir, is that there are no other occupied houses, ranches or even huts in the area we covered. The only living human beings that we saw were two men driving those empty Comancheros’ carts south on the first day. We were about to head back to camp when ole’ Buck here (he indicated the Ute brave who had been part of his scouting group) saw carts in the distant south coming north. He was certain they were driven by the same men but now the carts were apparently heavily laden so we trailed them.
‘Both drivers seemed to have had a skin-full from the way that they shouted and even sang to each other. I guess they didn’t want to arrive at the hacienda in that condition ’cos they pulled off the trail and, staggering more than a little, made camp about three miles south of their destination. When we were sure that they were dead to the world, Buck checked out the contents of their carts, an’ what do you think he found?’
Bill looked at Abbie and his captain with a grim smile on his face. Since neither ventured to hazard a guess as to the carts’ cargo he continued, ‘Clothing, ladies’ mostly, dresses and other more personal stuff, pots and pans and other household goods and guns, mostly flinters with the odd percussion weapon. Buck says that the whole cargo smelt of blood. Here! Take a look at this!’ Reaching
into a saddle-bag, Bill produced a piece of clothing, which he handed to McHugh, who took it and after a quick examination passed it silently to Abbie.
She opened it up and saw that it was a blouse, low in the neck laced with a drawstring. Originally, like so many she had seen before, it had been white but now the colour was marred with a huge, rust-like stain down the front. The rust was undoubtedly dried blood and Abbie’s thoughts went out to the young Mexican girl who had probably been wearing the garment when her life was ended.
She stared at McHugh, horror-stricken with the thoughts of the suffering that had created two carts of personal goods. ‘What does it mean, David?’
He looked at her grimly. ‘I suspect that below the border in Chihuahua province isolated haciendas are being raided and probably wiped out to provide such cart loads. But who, and why? Those are questions that need answering.’ A thought struck him. ‘Where’s that young lad Jed that you wounded when we first arrived?’
Someone called for Jed Oldberg to report to the two leaders and he came over from where a group of rangers were sitting yarning.
Captain McHugh invited him to sit or squat, whichever was more comfortable. ‘Jed, when you came to Trinidad and were preparing to ride with Ace Lonergan and his bunch, what were you told?’
Jed thought for a moment ‘Well sir. As you probably know I’d made out that I was a hard case and was on the dodge after some lethal gunplay further east. It wasn’t true!’ he hastened to add. ‘Well Ace told me that the men chosen had to be good riders and more than good with both pistols an’ long guns. Once hired there would be no turning back. Once accepted there would be no backing out. We would be expected to obey orders whatever they were without question and be ruthless if need be. The pay would be good and chances were we could make more on the side. Ace didn’t really explain more than that. The reason that he beat me up was because he said that I was showing off and drawing attention to myself, which was bad especially with you Rangers in town.’
‘Oh!’ Jed hastened to add. ‘Some knowledge of Spanish would help as we would be riding south. I guess that’s all.’
He was dismissed and Abbie remarked that it was a good thing that she’d shot the boy and therefore saved him from entering a life of crime.
McHugh agreed with her observation and went on to sum up what they had learned from Jed and the scouts. ‘So Abbie! The situation appears to be this. Isolated homes south of the border are being raided and the occupants murdered by a gang of scallywags operating probably from the north of the Rio Grande. The proceeds from these raids are being brought north to a rebuilt hacienda and then apparently used for trading with the native tribes such as the Kiowa and the Comanche.’
‘Trading for what, David? The tribes you’ve mentioned don’t engage in industry!’
‘No, but they do have access to both gold and silver deposits. Braves have often been seen to wear gold to enhance their finery. But they will never reveal the source of the metal.’
Thinking back over what Jed had told them, Abbie mused, ‘So that is probably why Lonergan was murdered. He knew too much but was of no further use to whoever is heading this gang, so therefore he was silenced.’ She shuddered. ‘What an awful inhumane philosophy!’
‘You’e right, Abbie! Somehow we have to break up this group but where to start. I can barely walk and you are. . . .’ Captain McHugh paused in confusion as despite Abbie’s well-recorded ability to lead and command in action his whole training to date suggested that as a woman her powers were far more limited than those of a man.
Abbie rose to her feet and stood looking down at him with arms akimbo ‘Now you look here, David McHugh! I can sense what you were about to say and before you utter a single word let me state that you’re wrong. I’ll lead a force against these villains and you won’t regret my commanding such a unit!’
‘Very well, Abbie! Let’s hear your plan of campaign!’
Abbie was silent for several minutes and Captain McHugh wondered if she was already regretting her outburst. In reality, Abbie was thinking hard and formulating her plans while discarding other notions.
Finally, she raised her head and said, ‘Right! This is what I propose. First we send Felipe to Padre Pedro to see if a message can be sent to the Mexican authorities in Chihuahua, possibly the local Rurales, explaining the situation and encouraging them to take action themselves against these raiders.
‘One of the major things we should do is to obtain reinforcements. If we have to attack that hacienda we are going to need more men. I’ll send a note to my ranch foreman, Jack Harding, instructing him to raise a flying column of say, twenty more well-armed riders and bring them down to Trinidad post-haste. It might be a good idea for him to also bring along Wilf Bateson and his gunners. The bark of a field piece is frequently a great inducement for people to surrender.
‘During the time that these forces are gathering, I’ll take a posse south following the trail of the carts and hopefully we can locate the hide-out of the raiders – if they are on the American side of the border. If so we’ll engage them and, if they don’t surrender, we’ll wipe them out! Or at least ensure that none get word back to the hacienda.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Early the following day, two riders headed north. One was one of Abbie’s ranch hands. He was accompanied by one of the Ute braves. Both were well armed and each had a spare horse. Their orders were to get up to the ranch as quickly as possible, hard riding by night and day, to deliver the message for an additional posse to come south to the ranger camp near Trinidad.
Meanwhile, Abbie chose the twelve men who were to accompany her south to seek out and destroy the nest of the raiders. After due deliberation and consultation with Captain McHugh, she selected eight of the veteran rangers; Fred and George Lawson from her own ranch and the two remaining Ute braves.
After an impassioned plea in a mixture of broken English, voluble Ute and sign language, she included Minny the Ute girl, who by this time had become quite adept with a pistol under Abbie’s tutelage.
The punitive column rode out in the mid-morning heading east. Abbie wanted to lull the suspicions of any watchers that their intent was not to be riding either towards the hacienda or to the south of Trinidad. The remainder of the mixed group left in the camp were instructed to mill around to give the impression that the numbers present had not decreased.
When they were several miles east of the town and were assured by a Ute scout that the column was not being trailed, they swung south, keeping to stony ground as much as possible to increase the difficulty of any would-be pursuers.
Finally, in mid-afternoon, the column swung west to eventually cut the trail of the Comancheros’ carts going to and from the hacienda towards the border. Since the cart tracks had been partly covered by the drifting sand it seemed apparent that they were ahead of the drivers making the journey to the hide-out.
Abbie therefore resolved to lay an ambush and try and take them alive and extract information regarding the location of the raiders’ den, and with this plan in mind she was constantly seeking to find a suitable place for staging a hold-up.
Finally, she found a location that she thought would serve their purpose. The southern trail entered a shallow valley that contained a number of deep depressions, one of which could well conceal the presence of the posse. Unfortunately this hollow lay at least 200 yards from the trail and she would need someone much closer to halt the drivers. After some little thought, Abbie decided that she herself would have to be the one to initially bring the Comancheros to a halt.
Over the protests of her companions, she spelt out the details of her plan. One of the Ute braves would hide to the north of the ambush location and would signal when the carts came into view. The posse would conceal themselves in the selected hollow ready to come storming up when Abbie fired a shot from her pistol. Meanwhile, she would stand by the track, apparently unarmed. The perfect figure of a young damsel in distress, with her horse lying on the ground o
bviously spent and looking as though he was in a dying condition.
Since she wanted a situation where the suspicions of the Comancheros would be completely lulled, Abbie stressed that there was to be no smoking, since the odour of tobacco smoke wafting on the slightest breeze could put her plan in jeopardy. The tracks of the posse where they had joined up with the southern trail were carefully brushed out. The posse took up their positions in the hollow and Abbie waited by the trail, ready to pull her bay down onto his side with the whispered command to ‘lie down’.
All was ready and the waiting was the most anxious time. Abbie slid her gun-belt around so that her pinfire revolver was hidden by her left hip and by her riding coat. She unlaced the thong securing the front of her buckskin shirt to reveal the tops of her breasts and rubbed some dirt on her face to create a dishevelled appearance. Then she sat down by her horse and waited.
The time passed slowly, and it was with extreme relief that Abbie heard the twitter of a sand bird, or rather a perfect imitation rendered by her Ute scout. Abbie rose and got her bay lying down. She looked around. Nothing could be seen of the party in the hollow but to the north she could observe first of all dust and then the outline of the expected carts. Now she had to play out her role.
Abbie removed her hat and began to wave it excitedly to attract the full attention of the oncoming Comancheros. Simultaneously she began to cry out, ‘Por favor, Señores!’ giving every appearance of a young girl relieved because no doubt these kind men would assist her in her obvious predicament. As they came much closer, she was a trifle concerned to note that each cart had two men, a driver and a companion who was probably a guard to assist in the event of a hold-up. Mentally, Abbie shrugged her shoulders. She couldn’t change her plan at this late date.
Pinfire Lady Strikes Back Page 8