Renegades (27 page)

“Carmen!” Frank exclaimed, recognizing those dark, long-lashed eyes. “What the hell—!”

“No time for explanations, Señor Morgan,” the disguised young woman said. “We must get you out of here.”

She turned and waved an arm, and a large figure hurried toward her and Frank, leading three horses. Frank recognized Lupe, who had been Antonio Almanzar's second in command in the band of revolutionaries led by the Black Scorpion. Lupe had the reins of Stormy, El Rey, and a big chestnut stallion that evidently was his mount.

“Can you ride?” Carmen asked Frank.

“Just you watch me,” was his reply.

He took the reins that Lupe pressed into his hands and swung up lithely onto Stormy's back. It hurt to move like that, but Frank didn't care. Lupe gave him a pistol, too, and Frank slid the Colt into the empty holster he still wore. The weight of the gun on his hip felt mighty good.

Carmen practically sprang onto El Rey, and Lupe mounted up as well. The three of them wheeled the horses and Carmen took the lead, galloping away from the ranch that had come so close to being Frank's final resting place.

Scattered gunfire still sounded around the ranch buildings, but Frank had seen enough to know that the Rurales had been routed. He wished he knew whether or not Estancia had been killed in the fighting. It certainly wasn't too much to hope for . . . but Frank wasn't going to be surprised if the captain had escaped somehow. Evil men tended to be slippery men, able to duck away from trouble even when the odds were against them.

Frank let Carmen stay out in front. She probably knew where she was going better than he did. Lupe brought up the rear. Frank was glad to see that the big
segundo
had survived the battle with the Rurales below the border. From the looks of things, enough of the revolutionaries had lived through that fracas to regroup into a sizable band. It was possible that the bunch had recruited some new members, too.

As that thought passed through his head, he suddenly understood why Carmen was wearing the Black Scorpion getup. Any cause had to have a leader, or else it was doomed to fail. Antonio was still laid up from his bullet wound, so the burden had fallen on Carmen. With Lupe to do the talking... It was possible that the new members in the band didn't even know Carmen was a woman. The blousy black shirt concealed the curves of her slender figure, and her long hair was tucked securely under the black hat.

Yes, it could have been that way, Frank thought. The Black Scorpion rode again.

Frank wondered whether Antonio had revealed his masquerade to his sister and asked for her help, or if she had been aware of his double life all along. She might have taken it on herself to assume the role of the Black Scorpion after her brother was wounded. Antonio might not even know what she was doing.

Carmen didn't slow El Rey to a stop until they were a couple of miles away from the ranch. Frank and Lupe halted, too, and when Frank looked behind them he saw a cloud of dust rising into the early morning air.

“That will be our men,” Lupe said. “The Rurales all fled the other direction, the ones who lived through our attack.”

Frank looked at Carmen and smiled. “Your timing was almost a mite too slow, but you showed up just when I needed you. I'm much obliged for my life.”

Carmen pulled down the bandanna and said, “How do you gringos say it? We are even now, Señor Morgan. We have each saved the other's life.” She paused and then added, “But I still owe you for my brother's life, and that is a debt I will perhaps never be able to repay.”

“Antonio's doing all right?”

She nodded and laughed despite the seriousness of their situation. “Yes, but he will be very angry when he discovers what I have done.”

“You didn't tell him you were taking over as the Black Scorpion,” Frank guessed.

“He would have forbidden me to do such a thing,” Carmen said. “But our people need the Black Scorpion. Men will follow him into battle, men who would pay no attention to ... a little girl.”

“Who knows your secret?”

“Just you and Lupe and a few of the men who were with Antonio. The few who lived through the terrible battle that almost cost my brother his life.”

Lupe said, “After Señorita Carmen approached me with her idea and I saw I could not talk her out of it, I went to all the villages up and down this part of the Rio Grande and appealed for men to join us. When they heard that they could ride with the famous Black Scorpion, many men took up their guns and left their homes and came with me to help us restore freedom to our land.”

“How many?” Frank asked bluntly.

“There are fifteen of us,” Carmen said.

Frank raised his eyebrows in surprise. The revolutionaries had been considerably outnumbered when they attacked the Rurales. But the element of surprise had been on their side, and the Rurales must have cut and run before they realized their superior numbers. Frank recalled a certain fracas at San Jacinto, nearly sixty years earlier, where a much larger Mexican army had been defeated by a small force of determined Texans who had taken them by surprise.

“We have been on Estancia's trail for several days,” Carmen went on. “Early this morning, before dawn, we came up to the ranch where you were being held prisoner. It took a while for us to slip in and get ready for the attack. I managed to get into the barn along with several of our men. We opened fire as soon as we could.”

“Soon enough to pull my bacon out of the fire,” Frank said.

Lupe waved a big hand toward the approaching riders. “Señorita, you should pull your mask up. The men will be here soon.”

Carmen did as he suggested, adjusting the black bandanna and pulling down the brim of her hat so that only her eyes were visible.

“What do we do now?” Lupe asked. “The Rurales will regroup and come after us.”

Since he had been given an unexpected lease on life, Frank had been asking himself the same question. Now he said, “Do you know what's going on over here in Texas?”

Her voice slightly muffled by the bandanna, Carmen said, “Estancia and his men seem to be looking for someone. It surprised us when his trail led us to the north of the Rio Grande, but we followed it anyway.”

“Estancia can die just as well north of the border as south of it,” Lupe said gruffly.

“Estancia is working with a renegade Texas Ranger captain named Nathan Wedge,” Frank explained. “Wedge and his men have turned lobo just like Estancia and the Rurales. They may have even hatched the scheme together. Now they're after nothing less than completely taking over the border country, on both sides of the river.”

“Madre de Dios,”
Lupe muttered. “They must be mad.”

“No, saying they're crazy lets them off too easy,” Frank replied. “They're ruthless and just downright evil. They'll do anything to get what they want, no matter who gets hurt.”

“We must stop them,” Carmen said.

Frank thought swiftly as the rest of the revolutionary band approached. “You have fifteen men,” he said. “All the ranchers in this area, along with some of the men from the town of San Rosa, have had to take to the hills to hide out from Wedge. There are around twenty of them left alive and able to fight. If Wedge and Estancia join forces, they can muster between fifty and sixty men, maybe even more depending on how many Estancia brought across the border with him.”

“The odds are long, but right is on our side,” Carmen said. “We will prevail.”

“We'll have a lot better chance if we can even the odds some. What day is it?”

Carmen and Lupe both frowned at Frank as he asked the question. Carmen said, “It is . . . I think . . . Friday. Yes, it is Friday.”

“Tomorrow your father planned to meet with Cecil Tolliver in San Rosa.”

Carmen's dark eyes widened.
“Dios mio!
You are right, Señor Morgan. I had forgotten about that.”

“Was he still planning to be there?”

She nodded. “Yes, as far as I know. He said that if he heard nothing from you to the contrary, he would trust you and go to San Rosa. In fact, he was going to ride across and make camp outside the settlement tonight, so that he could meet with Señor Tolliver tomorrow. Now he will ride right into danger!”

“Not if we intercept him on the way,” Frank pointed out. “Will he be bringing some of his vaqueros with him?”

“Sí,
perhaps a dozen men.”

Frank sighed. “Well, it's not enough to make the odds even, but every fighting man we can get on our side gives us a better chance.”

“I can ride to the border, circling around San Rosa, and meet him before he gets there,” Carmen said. She smiled. “No doubt he will be shocked to see me—”

“Especially in that getup,” Frank said.

“Sí.
But when I tell him what is going on, I am sure he will help you, Señor Morgan.” Suddenly she frowned as a thought occurred to her. “But that will mean fighting alongside Señor Tolliver as well.”

“Your father and Cecil Tolliver will have to put their feud aside, at least for now,” Frank said, “or else the Rio Grande is liable to run red with blood before Wedge and Estancia are through.”

Carmen nodded slowly. “Yes. I must make Papa see reason.” She gave a hollow laugh. “That is not always an easy task.”

“You know Don Felipe better than I do, but he struck me as an honorable man. Tolliver is an honorable man, too. They ought to be able to fight side by side to rid the world of a couple of polecats like Wedge and Estancia.”

“Yes. I will make him understand,” Carmen vowed.

The rest of the band was almost there. Frank said quickly, “Northwest of here there's a big hill called Sand Mountain. It's probably the highest point for quite a ways on this side of the border. That's where Tolliver and the other Texans are supposed to be holed up.”

“We can find it,” Lupe said. “We will meet Don Felipe and bring him there tonight. Is this not right, Señorita?”

“Yes,” Carmen said, her voice strong and determined. “Do you go now to this Sand Mountain, Señor Morgan?”

Frank nodded. “I reckon that would be the best thing to do.”

“Then look for us there, and together we will crush the wicked!”

Frank lifted a hand in farewell and heeled Stormy into a trot. His muscles and bones ached, he still hadn't had anything to eat or drink, and he wasn't exactly sure where he was going.

But he had been given a reprieve from almost certain death, and now he had a chance to strike once more at the men who were trying to establish their own little evil empire here along the Rio Grande.

Life was pretty good, he thought with a smile as he rode through the morning. It would be even better if he got another shot at Wedge and Estancia.

 

 

A search through the saddlebags turned up a single strip of jerky. Frank chewed it for a long while, making it last, and by the time he finished it, he and Stormy had come to a narrow creek. Frank dismounted, cupped some of the water in his hand, and tasted it. It didn't taste very good, but it was fit to drink. He and Stormy both slaked their thirst.

Feeling a little better, Frank pushed on, angling northwest. He didn't know how big Sand Mountain really was, but he hoped he would be able to pick it out from the plains surrounding it. As he rode, he kept a lookout for Rurale patrols. If there were any in the area, he wanted to spot them before they spotted him. To that end, he kept Stormy moving at a fairly slow pace so that the Appaloosa wouldn't kick up too much dust.

By early afternoon, Frank had spotted a low, humplike shape on the horizon ahead of him and steered toward it. It was the only sort of elevation he had seen all day, and he hoped it was Sand Mountain. As he drew closer, he was able to make out more of the details. A sandy ridge dotted with brush stretched for about a mile, rising a hundred feet from the surrounding terrain. Some of the slopes were gradual, but in other places the earth had been worn away so that the ridge jutted up sharply. This seemed to be the only thing even remotely resembling a mountain for miles around, so Frank hoped he was headed in the right direction.

Tolliver had mentioned some springs being located at the base of the mountain. Frank saw a few areas of thicker brush along the bottom of the ridge and figured the vegetation might be a sign of those springs. As he rode toward them, he saw what at first he took to be the shadow of a cloud on the slope. When he came closer, he saw it was actually the mouth of a canyon. That jibed with what Tolliver had said, too.

A couple of horsemen appeared at the foot of the ridge and rode toward him. Relief washed through Frank as he recognized the stocky figure of Cecil Tolliver and the taller, leaner shape of Doc Ervin. They had seen him coming and were riding out to meet him.

When they were close enough, Tolliver raised a hand in greeting and called, “Frank! Did you make it to Laredo?”

Frank reined in and shook his head as Tolliver and Doc brought their mounts to a halt as well. “One of the Rurale patrols grabbed me,” Frank explained. “I barely got away with my life.”

“Son of a bitch!” Tolliver exploded. “So we still don't know if help is on the way or not. What are we going to do now?”

“Well, we've got
some
help on the way,” Frank said. “I don't know if it'll be enough, but it's better than nothing. Thing is, it's going to require something out of you, Cecil.”

“Me?” Tolliver said in surprise. “What do I have to do?”

“You have to agree to get along with Don Felipe Almanzar.”