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Don Luis got up also, holding out his hand. "Each of us must find wisdom in
his
own way. Mine is one way, yours another. Perhaps we each need more of what
the
other knows.... Good night, señor."
When I went outside I walked through the gate to smell the wind, to test the
night. By the wall near me a cigarette glowed, cupped in a hand. "How goes
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the
watch?" I asked in Spanish.
"Well, señor." He held the cigarette behind the wall in the darkness. He
bowed
his head and drew deep, the small red fire glowed and faded again. "We are
not
alone, señor. Your friends and ours, they are out there ... waiting."
So they had caught up with us. Now there would be hell to pay in Sonora.
Turning on my heel, I went back into the house. The old Don was just leaving
his
study.
"You have many horses?" I asked.
"All you need," he assured me.
"Can you give us three apiece? I can't pay you now, but "
"Do not speak of pay," he interrupted. "Your brother is the husband of my old
friend's granddaughter. You may have the horses." He looked closely at me.
"What
will you do?"
"Your vaquero says they are waiting out there now. I think he is right. And
so I
think we will take our chances and run for it. We'll switch horses without
stopping ... maybe we can outdistance them."
Don Luis Gsneros shrugged. "You might," he said. "I will have the horses
ready
at daybreak."
"An hour before," I said. "And gracias."
Chapter 12
The horses were ready and we were mounted, the children with us. The Don's
men
were posted on the walls to cover our going. My horse was restive, eager to
be
away, but I glanced around at Dorset. In the vague light her face seemed
pale,
her eyes unusually large. I suspected mine were the same.
"The tall pine yonder," I said, and pointed in the direction. "Ride for it,
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ride
hard. They will be close around, with their horses well back from where.they
wait. With luck, we can ride through them and be away before they can get off
more than a shot or two."
Sixteen men were on the walls, rifles ready for firing. Other men stood by
the
gates, prepared to swing them open.
Don Luis walked over to me and held up his hand, and I took it. "Vaya con
dios,
amigo," he said gravely, and then he lifted a hand to the men at the gates
and
they swung them wide.
We went through the gates with a rush at the same instant as all sixteen men
fired. Some had targets chosen, having spotted lurking Apaches, others fired
at
bits of likely cover.
We hit the trail running, with Spanish Murphy and myself in the lead. I saw
the
dark form of an Apache rise up almost directly before me and chopped down to
fire with my pistol, but the horse struck him and knocked him rolling. A hoof
spurned his body, and then we were past and running, with the vaqueros on the
wall picking targets from those we drove from hiding.
The tall pine was a mile off, and we rode directly for it through the
half-light
of the early dawn. We covered that mile at a dead run, slowing to a trot as
we
neared the tree. I glanced around swiftly.
"How is it? Are we all here?" I asked.
"I was the last one," Battles said. "We all made it."
"Anybody hurt?"
"They burned my shoulder," Rocca said. "It is nothing."
So I led them away at a fast trot for a little way, then I ran the horses
again
for a good half-mile, slowed to a trot and then a walk, then ran them again.
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At noon we drew up at a small seep that came from the base of a grass-covered
dune. We watered our horses, exchanged saddles to fresh horses, and pushed
on.
We kept a good pace, riding wide of any places of ambush, and watching for
dust
clouds. There were bandits as well as Indians to be feared, and there were
soldiers, too, who might resent our being here. All this while the children
did
not cry, they did not once call out. The Apaches had taught them that, if
nothing more.
At midafternoon we rode into a deserted village. The ruins of a large adobe
still stood, and a half-completed church. There was water running in an
irrigation ditch.
In a corner of one of the houses was a skeleton, still half-clothed, of a
Mexican who had died fighting. The left arm of the skeleton showed a break
that
had mended badly, leaving the arm shorter and crooked.
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