Over the Border: A Novel

“But, Missy – ” Bull began.

But already she had mounted. The clatter of her horse’s hoofs returned unmistakable answer.

XXXVIII: FIRE

Hitherto Bull had always ridden on Lee’s right, but when the trail permitted two to ride abreast he now, with instinctive delicacy, yielded his old place to Gordon. In this order they rode along the flank of the mountain, their hoofs beating a dark tattoo to the lower rhythm of creaking leather, flapping holsters; rode on past the San Carlos trail, the Bowl forks, had almost reached the head of the ravine above Antonio’s fonda when Lee, who was riding ahead, reined in with an exclamation.

Out of the gloom that wrapped the plains below had burst a sudden glow which gave birth, as they gazed, to a flower of flame that quivered and swung under the breath of the night wind. It was too far away for them to see the buildings; but, clearly as though they were looking down upon it from the first rise, their minds filled in the picture; supplied the flames roaring through the Arboles patio, bursting from doors and windows, scaling the guard-house, running a scarlet race along the rows of adobes.

“My poor people!” Lee sat her horse and gazed.

The shock of realization is often less than anticipation; its finality strips away exaggeration. Down there everything Lee valued was going up in flames – her wardrobe, jewelry, girlish treasures; household effects and hacienda stores; that which she valued most of all, the trove of old Spanish manuscripts and letters, doubly dear because so intimately connected with her father’s memory. Surely a great loss! but if it flashed up in her mind, regret was instantly wiped out by consuming indignation – not at her personal loss; not that her loved home was being destroyed under her eyes; but at that which it stood for; the malice, ignorance, wantonness, irresponsibility which has lighted a thousand such fires, would light a thousand more, laying waste all Mexico with its cruelties and lusts. When Sliver’s voice broke in the darkness behind her his attempt at rude comfort came almost as a shock.

“Never mind, Lady-girl. They kain’t burn them yard-thick walls.”

“An’ we left word for the ancianos to drive the stock into the mountains,” Jake added. “Must ha’ b’en cl’ar away long before they got there.”

“It isn’t that.” She spoke so low that only Gordon caught her whisper. “My poor girls! I would give all, place and stock, to make sure they escaped.” As that bitter indignation resurged within her she added: “There’s only one thing left. We must – ”

Bull’s heavy voice completed it for her, – “catch ’em before daylight.”

While the horses slid and slipped down the steep trail his voice rose above the scrape of hoofs, laying out his plan. After their long march the raiders would undoubtedly camp at Arboles! The fire proved one thing – they had broken open the store and drunk up the stock ofaguardiente! At dawn they would be found stretched in swinish sleep. And then —

His surmise was reasonable, founded on probabilities, but subject to the change of circumstance. As they rode on down a red glow in the black bowels of the ravine grew into a fire that dyed a deeper chrome the yellow walls of the fonda. It also restored a little color into the bronze faces of a score of refugees from Arboles, women and children, herded together like sheep around its blaze.

When Lee rode into the firelight they gave tongue in a chorus of joy, apprehension, every shade of feeling from fear to relief. From their babble she gathered, first, that they had been warned by a peon who had run in from Lovell’s rancho; second, that the ancianos had driven the horses into the mountain pasture and scattered the cattle among the ravines. Finally, from out of their midst a lad was thrust forward to tell his tale.

He had been sent to hunt stragglers from the herds. Feeling tired, with that peon indolence which is not to be disturbed by mere rumors of raiders, he had curled up in a bunch of chaparral and gone to sleep. Awakened by voices, he had seen the raiders coming. Men of gigantic stature and evil visage his excited fancy painted them, and among them he recognized a peon who had run away to the wars after being whipped for some grossness by the señor Benson. So close did they pass, he heard them quarreling among themselves. They appeared to be tired and downcast over their poor luck in obtaining horses; and he, the boy, heard the renegade’s expressions of reassurance.

“Si, señores. A few miles more and you will rest with the women at Los Arboles. There we shall find the finest horses, bred by blooded stallions, fit for a general to ride. Or if they have run them away for safe-keeping, ’twill not serve, for I, Pedro Gonzales, know the secret pasture in the great Bowl.”

Flaming up under fresh fuel while the lad talked, the firelight showed the Three deep in reflection. The same thought was in their minds: a vivid mental picture of the raiders from Las Bocas ascending the precarious zigzags of the Bowl staircase. If these others could be caught in the same way? Jake’s remark expressed their joint conclusion.

“It ’u’d be a cinch!”

“Horses all tired out now, too,” Sliver added. “If anythin’ went wrong, we’d have no getaway. Not that I’d care, but we kain’t take no chances with Lady-girl.”

Bull’s word decided. He made his dispositions, sent the youth to sleep out on the plains and bring early warning of the raiders’ movements; posted other sentries at intervals. Finally, he saw first to the horses, that they were watered and fed and groomed; then to the serving of a meal.

He ate, but even his steady, methodical munching bespoke purpose, the conserving of strength for his ends. As he sat, after the meal, gazing into the fire, even Lee failed to discern much difference from his usual self. But after the others, refugees and all, lay wrapped in their serapes, dim, muffled figures under the red light of half a dozen fires, he still sat, a somber figure in black outline against the glow.

After Lee had cried herself to sleep he sat on. At midnight her awakening eyes showed him still there. When she awoke again he was gone – on the round of sentries. He returned before she fell asleep again and sat on, staring into the fire, an ominous figure fraught with danger.

XXXIX: “VENGEANCE IS MINE”

From the “hog’s back” where Sliver had accidentally discovered Felicia and the fonda, Lee, Gordon, and the Three watched a yellow dust cloud rolling slowly across the plains. The occasional silver flash that stabbed it through as the sun struck a saber or bayonet told that it enveloped the raiders. Three hours ago Sliver had come galloping in from a reconnaissance with the news of their advance. Instantly the refugees had fled like frightened quail into the secret places of the hills. After burying various bottles that contained the liquid abominations wherewith he burned out the stomachs of his customers, Antonio had followed. So for two hours the ravine had been untenanted.

Even after the watchers sighted the dust, an hour passed before it disappeared in the mouth of the ravine; for, as their few horses were loaded down with loot, the raiders moved slowly. Another half-hour dragged by before they appeared, filing like ragged ants up the path along the silver stream. Sighting the fonda, they stopped, hastily took cover behind some bushes, and held a hurried consultation. When the file split and began to work its way through the chaparral on each side of the ravine Jake interpreted the manœuver.

“Nobody home, amigos. Fooled this time.”

A hoarse yell presently confirmed his diagnosis. Its note changed almost immediately to rage and disappointment, and presently a thin coil of smoke issued from the doorway, followed by a bright flash of flame as the fire licked up the dry thatch of the ramada. Like infuriated ants the raiders ran next to fire the stables. They were within easy rifle-shot and Sliver was drawing an experimental bead when Jake knocked up his rifle.

“One shot,” he replied, to Sliver’s grumble, “an’ they’ll go like a flock of quail into the chaparral.”

Happening to glance at Bull just then, he nudged Sliver to look.

On his knees, peering through a bush, the man looked for all the world like some great animal, bear or black tiger, crouching for its prey. Under dark brows, his coal eyes burned. Like some huge dog held in leash, slow shivers coursed through his frame. Always the two had recognized in him depths of feeling beyond them. The slow shake of the head that passed between them expressed consciousness of a hurt beyond their plumbing. They looked quickly away as Bull turned toward them.

“Time to be moving. They’ll be coming presently.”

An hour later saw them all placed – Gordon in the chaparral at the top of the trail; Bull, Sliver, and Jake at intervals of quarter of a mile down the zigzag trail.

“No shooting as they go down,” Bull cautioned them. “Coming back, they’ll be among the horses without a chance to turn.”

The arrangement, while wise, was not altogether to Sliver’s taste; he grumbled to Jake as they moved on down to their places: “Fat chance for us. He’ll pick half of ’em off going up between him and Gordon, then turn and plug the others. Any maverick that gets by to us will be that riddled a bullet ’ull slip through him without t’eching.”

“Ain’t it coming to him?” Jake scornfully questioned. “He’s welcome to my share – if it’s any comfort. But listen, hombre – let me tell you that the killing of every revueltoso in Mexico ain’t a-going to cure his hurt.”

Leaving Sliver at his post, Jake moved on down, and after he also disappeared in the chaparral silence spread a warm spell over valley and mountain; golden, sunlit silence that was emphasized rather than broken by the wild screech of a hawk.

From above Gordon looked right down into the amber heart of the Bowl. Almost beneath him, the jacal rose like a doll’s house out of the vermilion splash of Pedro’s ripe peppers. From it the green veining of the stream ran through the tawny pastures that were spotted with black dots, the feeding horses. Far down, just where the stream slipped out of the Bowl, he could see the giant oak that marked their camp; and though even his strong young eyes were unequal to the distance, imagination supplied the ashes of their fire, the bed of leaves under the spreading branches.

Instantly he began reliving, tenderly reliving that happy day so absorbed that he forgot for the moment the tragedy that had brought it to a close. He did not notice a slight rustle in the chaparral nor catch the gleam of peering eyes. Were it a raider, he had proved an easy prey. But the eyes were soft; the hand that presently stole out of a bush and shook his foot was small and white. Whirling, he came face to face with Lee.

“What are you doing here?”

She placed her finger to her lip. “Hush! they are coming! I just couldn’t stand it, up there in the chaparral all alone. So I tied the horses and – here I am.”

There was nothing that could be done – except to look stern. Reaching, he pulled her down beside him, shook her a little, then spoiled the effect by a kiss. Then, lying flat on their stomachs, they kept a joint watch till the scrape of a hoof, rumble of voices, broke on the trail.

Peeping cautiously, they saw a motley procession file on to the plateau. Like the soldiers of Las Bocas, their clothing ran the gamut of the service uniforms of Porfirio Diaz’s army; the silver and gray ofrurales, red and blue of the infantry, variations from these of cavalry and artillery, fatigue linen mixed in varying quantities withcharro and peon costumes. Accentuating this motley, their loose gross mouths, blunt animal noses, lewd eyes in the midst of faces swollen by last night’s debauch, fully justified Gordon’s judgment:

“Gosh! what a gallows crew!”

Weary and footsore after two days of heavy marching, neither their appearance nor their spirits were improved by the fact that half of them limped. Their voices had been raised in strident altercation. One fellow’s angry complaint carried across to Gordon and Lee.

“The two gringo señoritas at the Lovell rancho, where were they? – fled to El Paso. At the second we got what? – one woman, a child, and three horses – and lost three men. At Los Arboles there were to be women, a score at least, young and pretty; also a gringo girl with golden hair and a skin of milk? And horses by the hundred, blooded beasts of fine breeding? What got we? – an empty house! Thou art a pretty leader, Filomena.”

“Si!” came a second growl. “And the fonda? ‘Courage, señores,’ he says but two hours ago. ‘In the barranca we shall find a fonda with liquors and a girl, none prettier in all Chihuahua.’ And – ”

“Again an empty house!”

By one and another it was kept up. “We limp like lame cats,” the first man spoke again. “If this business go like the first and there be no horses – I know of one throat that will be cut.”

“And I of another!” The guide, an ugly, squat peon, turned on him with a snarl. “Was it I that sent up the warning smoke? No? Then fasten your tongue with your teeth. If you want women, they are to be had at San Carlos, a few hours away, a fine town untouched by war.”

“Si, more marching,” the first grumbler was beginning, when the other cut him off. He had advanced to the edge of the plateau and stood pointing down into the Bowl.