The B. M. Bower Megapack

by B. M. Bower

  They picked up the trail of the hoofprints and followed it. When they returned to the others they found the boys all mounted and waiting impatiently like hounds on the leash eager to get away on the chase. Six horses there were, and even old Applehead, who was in a bad humor that morning and seemed to hate agreeing with anyone, admitted that probably the four who had committed the robbery and left town in the machine had been met out here by a man who brought horses for them and one extra pack horse. This explained the number in the most plausible manner, and satisfied everyone that they were on the right trail.

  Riding together—since they were on a plain trail and there was nothing to be gained by separating—they climbed to the higher mesa, crossed the ridge of the three barren hills that none of them but Applehead had ever passed, and went on and on and on as the hoofprints led them, straight toward the reservation.

  They discussed the robbery from every angle—they could think of, and once or twice someone hazarded a guess at Annie-Many-Ponies’ reason for leaving and her probable destination. They wondered how old Dave Wiswell, the dried little cattleman of The Phantom Herd, was making out in Denver, where he had gone to consult a specialist about some kidney trouble that had interfered with his riding all spring. Weary suggested that maybe Annie-Many-Ponies had taken a notion to go and visit old Dave, since the two were old friends.

  It was here that Applehead unwittingly put into words the vague suspicion which Luck had been trying to stifle and had not yet faced as a definite idea.

  “I calc’late we’ll likely find that thar squaw putty tol’ble close to whar we find Bill Holmes,” Applehead remarked sourly. “Her goin’ off same, day they stuck up that bank don’t look to me like no happenstance—now I’m tellin’ yuh! ’N’ if I was shurf, and was ast to locate that squaw, I’d keep right on the trail uh Bill Holmes, jest as we’re doin’ now.”

  “That isn’t like Annie,” Luck said sharply to, still the conviction in his own mind. “Whatever faults she may have, she’s been loyal to me, and honest. Look how she stuck last winter, when she didn’t have anything at stake, wasn’t getting any salary, and yet worked like a dog to help make the picture a success. Look how she got up in the night when the blizzard struck, and fed our horses and cooked breakfast of her own accord, just so I could get out early and get my scenes. I’ve known her since she was a dirty-faced papoose, and I never knew her to lie or steal. She wasn’t in on that robbery—I’ll bank on that, and she wouldn’t go off with a thief. It isn’t like Annie.”

  “Well,” said Big Medicine, thinking of his own past, “the best uh women goes wrong when some knot-headed man gits to lovemakin’. They’ll do things fer the wrong kinda man, by cripes, that they wouldn’t do fer no other human on earth. I’ve knowed a good woman to lie and steal—fer a man that wasn’t fit, by cripes, to tip his hat to ’er in the street! Women,” he added pessimistically, “is something yuh can’t bank on, as safe as yuh can on a locoed horse!” He kicked his mount unnecessarily by way of easing the resentment which one woman had managed to instil against the sex in general.

  “That’s where you’re darned right, Bud,” Pink attested with a sudden bitterness which memory brought. “I wouldn’t trust the best woman that ever lived outa my sight, when you come right down to cases.”

  “Aw, here!” Andy Green, thinking loyally of his Rosemary, swung his horse indignantly toward the two. “Cut that out, both of you! Just because you two got stung, is no reason why you’ve got to run down all the rest of the women. I happen to know one—”

  “Aw, nobody was talking about Rosemary,” Big Medicine apologized gruffly. “She’s different; any fool knows that.”

  “Well, I’ve got a six-gun here that’ll talk for another one,” silent Lite Avery spoke up suddenly. “One that would tip the scales on the woman’s side for goodness if the rest of the whole sex was bad.”

  “Oh, thunder!” Pink cried, somewhat redder than the climbing sun alone would warrant. “I’ll take it back. I didn’t mean them—you know darned well I didn’t mean them—nor lots of other women I know. What I meant was—”

  “What you meant was Annie,” Luck broke in uncompromisingly. “And I’m not condemning her just because things look black. You don’t know Indians the way I know them. There’s some things an Indian will do, and then again there’s some things they won’t do. You boys don’t know it—but yesterday morning when we left the ranch, Annie-Many-Ponies made me the peace-sign. And after that she went into her tent and began to sing the Omaha. It didn’t mean anything to you—Old Dave is the only one that would have sabed, and he wasn’t there. But it meant enough to me that I came pretty near riding back to have a pow-wow with Annie, even if we were late. I wish I had. I’d have less on my conscience right now.”

  “Fur’s I kin see,” Applehead dissented impatiently, “you ain’t got no call to have nothin’ on your conscience where that thar squaw is concerned. You treated her a hull lot whiter’n what she deserved—now I’m tellin’ ye! ’N’ her traipsin’ around at nights ’n’—”

  “I tell you, you don’t know Indians!” Luck swung round in the saddle so that he could face Applehead. “You don’t know the Sioux, anyway. She wouldn’t have made me that peace-sign if she’d been double-crossing me, I tell you. And she wouldn’t have sung the Omaha if she was going to throw in with a thief that was trying to lay me wide open to suspicion. I’ve been studying things over in my mind, and there’s something in this affair I can’t sabe. And until you’ve got some proof, the less you say about Annie-Many-Ponies the better I’ll be pleased.”

  That, coming from Luck in just that tone and with just that look in his eyes, was tantamount to an ultimatum, and it was received as one. Old Applehead grunted and chewed upon a wisp of his sunburned mustache that looked like dried cornsilk after a frost. The Happy Family exchanged careful glances and rode meekly along in silence. There was not a man of them but believed that Applehead was nearer right than Luck, but they were not so foolish as to express that belief.

  After a while Big Medicine began bellowing tunelessly that old ditty, once popular but now half forgotten:

  “Nava, Nava, My Navaho-o

  I have a love for you that will grow-ow!”

  Which stirred old Applehead to an irritated monologue upon the theme of certain persons whose ignorance is not blissful, but trouble-inviting. Applehead, it would seem from his speech upon the subject, would be a much surprised ex-sheriff—now a deputy—if they were not all captured and scalped, if not worse, the minute their feet touched the forbidden soil of these demons in human form, the Navajo Indians.

  “If they were not too busy weaving blankets for Fred Harvey,” Luck qualified with his soft Texan drawl and the smile that went with it. “You talk as if these boys were tourists.”

  “Yes,” added Andy Green maliciously, “here comes a war-party now, boys. Duck behind a rock, Applehead, they’re liable to charge yuh fer them blankets!”

  The Happy Family laughed uproariously, to the evident bewilderment of the two Indians who, swathed in blankets and with their hair knotted and tied with a green ribbon and a yellow, drove leisurely toward the group in an old wagon that had a bright new seat and was drawn by a weazened span of mangy-looking bay ponies. In the back of the wagon sat a young squaw and two papooses, and beside them were stacked three or four of the gay, handwoven rugs for which the white people will pay many dollars.

  “Buenas dias,” said the driver of the wagon, who was an oldish Indian with a true picture-postal face. And: “Hello,” said the other, who was young and wore a bright blue coat, such as young Mexicans affect.

  “Hello, folks,” cried the Happy Family genially, and lifted their hats to the good-looking young squaw in the wagon-bed, who tittered in bashful appreciation of the attention.

  “Mama! They sure are wild and warlike,” Weary commented drily as he turned to stare after the wagon.

  “Us little deputies had better run home,” Pink added with mock alarm.
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  “By cripes, I know now what went with Applehead’s hair!” bawled Big Medicine. “Chances is, it’s weaved into that red blanket the old buck is wearin’—Haw-haw-haw!”

  “Laff, dang ye, laff!” Applehead cried furiously. “But do your laffing where I can’t hear ye, fer I’m tellin’ ye right now I’ve had enough of yore dang foolishness. And the next feller that makes a crack is goin’ to wisht he hadn’t now I’m tellin’ ye!”

  This was not so much an ultimatum as a declaration of war—and the Happy Family suddenly found themselves all out of the notion of laughing at anything at all.

  CHAPTER XII

  THE WILD-GOOSE CHASE

  Because they had no human means of knowing anything about the black automobile that bad whirled across the mesa to the southeast and left its mysterious passengers in one of the arroyos that leads into the Sandias Mountains near Coyote Springs, nine cowpuncher deputy-sheriffs bored their way steadily through sun and wind and thirst, traveling due northwest, keeping always on the trail of the six horses that traveled steadily before them Always a day’s march behind, always watching hopefully for some sign of delay—for an encouraging freshness in the tracks that would show a lessening distance between the two parties, Luck and his Happy Family rode—from dawn till dusk, from another dawn to another dusk. Their horses, full of little exuberant outbursts of horse-foolishness when they had left town, settled clown to a dogged, plodding half walk, half trot which is variously described upon the range; Luck, for instance, calling it poco-poco; while the Happy Family termed it running-walk, trail-trot, fox-trot—whatever came easiest to their tongues at the time. Call it what they pleased, the horses came to a point where they took the gait mechanically whenever the country was decently level. They forgot to shy at strange objects, and they never danced away from a foot lifted to the stirrup when the sky was flaunting gorgeous bantiers to herald the coming of the sun. More than once they were thankful to have the dust washed from their nostrils and to let that pass for a drink. For water holes were few and far between when they struck that wide, barren land ridged here and there with hills of rock.

  Twice the trail of the six horses was lost, because herds of cattle had passed between those who rode in baste before, and those who followed in haste a day’s ride behind. They saw riders in the distance nearly every day, but only occasionally did any Indians come within speaking distance. These were mostly headed townward in wagons and rickety old buggies, with the men riding dignifiedly on the spring seat and the squaws and papooses sitting flat in the bottom behind. These family parties became more and more inclined to turn and stare after the Happy Family, as if they were puzzling over the errand that would take nine men riding close-grouped across the desert, with four pack-horses to proclaim the journey a long one.

  When the trail swung sharply away from the dim wagon road and into the northwest where the land lay parched and pitiless under the hot sun, the Happy Family hitched their gun-belts into place, saw to it that their canteens were brimming with the water that was so precious, and turned doggedly that way, following the lead of Applehead, who knew the country fairly well, and of Luck, who did not know the country, but who knew that he meant to overhaul Ramon Chavez and Bill Holmes, go where they would, and take them back to jail. If they could ride across this barren stretch, said Luck to Applehead, he and his bunch could certainly follow them.

  “Well, this is kinda takin’ chances,” Applehead observed soberly, “unless Ramon, he knows whar’s the water-holes. If he does hit water regular, I calc’late we kin purty nigh foller his lead. They’s things I don’t like about the way this here trail is leading out this way, now I’m tellin’ yuh! Way we’re goin’, we’ll be in the Seven Lakes country ’fore we know it. Looks to me like them greasers must stand in purty well with the Navvies—’n’ if they do, it’ll be dang hard pullin’ to git ’em away ’n! outa here. ’N’ if they don’t stand in, they’d oughta bore more west than what they’re doin’. Looks dang queer to me, now I’m tellin’ ye!”

  “Well, all I want is to overtake them. We’ll do it, too. The little grain these horses get is showing its worth right now,” Luck cheered him. “They’re keeping up better than I was afraid they would. We’ve got that advantage—a Mexican don’t as a rule grain his horses, and the chances are that Ramon thought more about the gold than he did about carrying horse-feed. We can hold on longer than he can, Applehead.”

  “We can’t either,” Applehead disputed, “because if Ramon takes a notion he’ll steal fresh horses from the Injuns.”

  “I thought you said he stood in with the Injuns,” Weary spoke up from the ambling group, behind. “You’re kinda talkin’ in circles, ain’t you, Applehead?”

  “Well, I calc’late yuh jest about got to talk in circles to git anywheres near Ramon,” Applehead retorted, looking back at the others. “They’s so, dang many things he might be aimin’ to do, that I ain’t been right easy in my mind the last day or two, and I’m tellin’ ye so. ’S like a storm—I kin smell trouble two days off; that’s mebby why I’m still alive an’ able to fork a boss. An’ I’m tellin’ you right now, I kin smell trouble stronger’n a polecat under the chicken-house!”

  “Well, by cripes, let ’er come!” Big Medicine roared cheerfully, inspecting a battered plug of “chewin’” to see where was the most inviting corner in which to set his teeth. “Me’n’ trouble has locked horns more’n once, ’n’ I’d feel right lonesome if I thought our trails’d never cross agin. Why, down in Coconino County—” He went off into a long recital of certain extremely bloody chapters in the history of that famed county as chronicled by one Bud Welch, otherwise known as Big Medicine—and not because of his modesty, you may be sure.

  Noon of that day found them plodding across a high, barren mesa under a burning sun. Since red dawn they had been riding, and the horses showed their need of water. They lagged often into a heavy-footed walk and their ears drooped dispiritedly. Even Big Medicine found nothing cheerful to say. Luck went out of his way to gain the top of every little rise, and to scan the surrounding country through his field glasses. The last time he came sliding down to the others his face was not so heavy with anxiety and his voice when he spoke had a new briskness.

  “There’s a ranch of some kind straight ahead about two miles,” he announced. “I could see a green patch, so there must be water around there somewhere. We’ll make noon camp there, and maybe we can dig up a little information. Ramon must have stopped there for water, and we’ll find out just how far we are behind.”

  The ranch, when they finally neared it, proved to be a huddle of low, octagon-shaped huts (called hogans) made of short cedar logs and plastered over with adobe, with a hole in the center of the lid-like roof to let the smoke out and a little light in; and dogs, that ran out and barked and yelped and trailed into mourning rumbles and then barked again; and half-naked papooses that scurried like rabbits for shelter when they rode up; and two dingy, shapeless squaws that disappeared within a hogan and peered out at one side of the blanket door.

  Luck started to dismount and make some attempt at a polite request for water, and for information as well, but Applehead objected and finally had his way.

  If the squaws could speak English, he argued, they would lie unless they refused to talk at all. As to the water, if there was any around the place the bunch could find it and help themselves. “These yer Navvies ain’t yore Buffalo-Bill Sioux,” he pointed out to Luck. “Yuh can’t treat ’em the same. The best we kin look fer is to be left alone—an’ I’m tellin’ ye straight.”

  Luck gave the squalid huts a long stare and turned away toward the corral and a low shed that served as a stable. A rusty old mower and a toothless rake and a rickety buckboard stood baking in the sun, and a few stunted hens fluttered away from their approach. In the corral a mangy pony blinked in dejected slumber; and all the while, the three dogs followed them and barked and yapped and growled, until Pink turned in the saddle with the plain intention of stop
ping the clamor with a bullet or two.

  “Ye better let ’em alone!” Applehead warned sharply, and Pink put up his gun unfired and took down his rope.

  “The darned things are getting on my nerves!” he complained, and wheeled suddenly in pursuit of the meanest-looking dog of the three. “I can stand a decent dog barking at me, but so help me Josephine, I draw the line at Injun curs!”

  The dog ran yelping toward the hogans with Pink hard at its heels swinging his loop menacingly. When the dog, with a last hysterical yelp, suddenly flattened its body and wriggled under a corner of the shed, Pink turned and rode after the others, who had passed the corral and were heading for the upper and of a small patch of green stuff that looked like a half-hearted attempt at a vegetable garden. As he passed the shed an Indian in dirty overalls and gingham shirt craned his neck around the doorway and watched him malevolently; but Pink, sighting the green patch and remembering their dire need of water, was kicking his horse into a trot and never once thought to cast an eye over his shoulder.

  In that arid land, where was green vegetation you may be sure there was water also. And presently the nine were distributed along a rod or two of irrigating ditch, thankfully watching the swallows of water go sliding hurriedly down the outstretched gullets of their horses that leaned forward with half-bent, trembling knees, fetlock deep in the wet sand of the ditch-banks.

  “Drink, you sons-uh-guns, drink!” Weary exclaimed jubilantly, “you’ve sure got it coming—and mama, how I do hate to see a good horse suffering for a feed or water, or shelter from a storm!”

  They pulled them away before they were satisfied, and led them back to where green grass was growing. There they pulled the saddles off and let the poor brutes feed while they unpacked food for themselves.

  “It’ll pay in the long run,” said Luck, “to give them an hour here. I’ll pay the Injuns for what grass they eat. Ramon must have stopped here yesterday. I’m going up and see if I can’t pry a little information loose from those squaws and papooses. Come on, Applehead—you can talk a little Navvy; you come and tell ’em what I want.”