Return to Massacre Mesa - Edge Series 5 (33 page)

‘The detail’s pulling out just as soon as they’re ready to leave.’ Then he looked 228

directly at Lucy to added: ‘So best we get our eating done fast.’

‘There’s sure no objection to that, far as yours truly is concerned,’ Dingle said, an eager expression on his sweat-run, heavily bristled features as he fixed his attention on the two cooks emerging from the tent.

‘What the rest of you people do is your own concern,’ Tree countered, his coldeyed attention fixed on the uneasy Lucy. ‘But me, Brod and Miss Russell are heading out with the army. Which is the quickest and safest way to get her back to Lakewood and her pa.’

Lucy was tight-lipped and her eyes were narrowed as she rasped tensely: ‘Mr Tree, I think you had better - ’

The cookhouse sergeant banged two ladles together and yelled: ‘All right, you folks: you better come and get it now!’

The corporal beside him who was holding a pile of tin plates with spoons balanced on the top challenged sardonically: ‘And if any of you got any complaints about the chow, they won’t be nothing we ain’t heard before.’

They dropped the eating utensils on the ground and moved back into the tent where they began clattering preparations to pack up and leave. Sam Tree asked: ‘What’s your problem, Lucy - as if I didn’t already know?’

‘Of what crime am I accused now?’

He sighed wearily: ‘No crime, as you well know.’

Her expression hardened further. ‘Good! Then I have no intention of returning to Lakewood with you, the army or anyone else until I have done everything within my power to finish what I came out here for.’

Dingle, with Slade close behind him, headed for the scattered plates and spoons. Then Edge followed and signalled to the reluctant Rose and Cooked Eye that he was inviting them to come eat the army’s food, too. Goodrich held back for a moment until 229

hunger overcame his loyalty to Tree and his duty as deputy. Then he started to sidle, next hurried away from where the tall and broadly built man and the slender woman stood glowering at each other with just a foot or so between them. The two were engaged in a rasping discussion that developed into an angry argument while the rest ladled portions of the hurriedly prepared stew of bacon and beans on to plates. And began to eat with noisy haste, a total absence of good grace and unconcealed pleasure at tasting food for the first time in two days.

‘I guess it sure as hell ain’t the best chow I’ve ever eaten, but it certainly tastes like it!’ Dingle’s mouth was full as he spoke and gravy trickled from the corners of his slack lips.

‘You ain’t wrong there, mister!’ Slade agreed fervently and ladled out a second helping before he had finished the first.

Then he and everyone else around the fire suddenly interrupted what they were doing when Lucy Russell stamped a foot in bad tempered frustration and looked to be on the verge of tears when she yelled bitterly: ‘All right, Mr-Deputy-Sheriff-Tree! Have it your own stupid, pigheaded way! But you had better know this! If you insist on taking me back against my will - which is what you will be doing - then I’ll surely attempt to kill you!’ She stabbed a stiff forefinger into the centre of his broad chest and her tone became harsher as she hurried on: ‘With any weapon I can lay a hand to!

And I feel so strongly about this, I may well succeed! After which I’ll surrender myself into the custody of Mr Goodrich and he’ll have to take me back the rest of the way to Lakewood! Where my father will have to watch me stand trial and then be hanged for murdering you!’

‘Sonofabitch!’ Dingle spluttered and fragments of part chewed food sprayed forcefully out of his mouth. ‘From the look of that woman, if I was the deputy I’d sure take what she says seriously!’

The response of the saloonkeeper become deputy sheriff to the woman’s threat was less demonstrative when he looked around in silent embarrassment. This while he spoke quickly and quietly to her and failed to hold any gaze that met his: whether from 230

the group of civilians satisfying their hunger or a pair of nearby troopers who were sufficiently interested in the quarrel to halt their preparations to break camp. A lieutenant noticed the shirkers and barked at them to get moving or be left behind: maybe to face a vengeance seeking stray Comanche or two who had escaped death from the Gatlings. Then Tree spun on his heels and strode purposefully back to the commanding officer’s tent. And the still angry Lucy moved to the side of the cooking fire where the grave faced Rose Bigheart handed her a plate of stew.

‘I was just saying, young lady – ‘ Dingle began.

Lucy took the plate, nodded curtly in thanks to the squaw and cut in frostily:

‘Where I come from, sir, talking with one’s mouth full is considered to be grossly impolite. And although I am ravenously hungry I do not intend to forget the good manners I have been taught. So I’ll be grateful if you will not engage me in any form of conversation until I am through eating.’

This said her actions were as determined as her tone had been as she spun around and moved off several yards Where sat down hard with her slender back to the group and began to eat with an obvious lack of the decorum she would usually show during mealtimes with her father in Lakewood.

‘Sonofabitch, I was just trying to tell the woman I’m on her side,’ Dingle complained.

He looked expectantly around for support but saw no expression on any face that invited him to expand on his opinion and then he dropped down on to his haunches and began to eat more sedately now his initial hunger had been assuaged. Likewise the rest of them ate normally and some were even inclined to express their dislike for the ingredients of the meal after the quality of the food had become of more interest than its quantity.

Dingle was the first to finish and announced without getting any response that he was going to check on how Conners was doing.

Edge finished rolling a cigarette, lit it and asked of Goodrich: ‘Tell me something, 231

feller?’

The overweight liveryman fingered his goatee, clearly uneasy to be at the centre of attention while Tree was absent. ‘You talking to me, Mr Edge?’

‘You mind telling me the major’s view of us being out there in the Cedars when the Comanche were stirred up?’

Goodrich was relieved to hear a straightforward question he could easily answer and he even managed an insecure grin. ‘The guy laughed. And said he thought it was crazy for Billy Russell to treat his grown up daughter like a runaway underage little girl who – ‘

‘Major Ebsen sounds like an extremely sensible officer and gentleman,’ Lucy announced emphatically, her back still firmly toward the group as she remained seated and continued to peer fixedly toward the tent into which Tree had gone. Edge said to Goodrich: ‘I was meaning those of us looking for the stolen money, feller.’

‘Oh, sure: Sam told the major about that and he laughed again. Because like I already know: and like him and Sam and anyone else from Lakewood knows, you people ain’t the first bunch of no-hopers to come hunting through these hills looking for riches at the end of some rainbow that don’t exist.’ He gave a rueful shake of his head.

‘And like the rest of them you’re just bound to find out sooner or later that there’s only one kind of rainbow that shows over the Cedars. The real kind when the sun shines in a shower. And there ain’t no pot of riches at the end of it when it shows. And anyway the pot you people are looking for is a long way from here. Spent all over the country by the deserters who stole it off the army and the Comanche all those years ago.’

‘Well, Mr Goodrich!’ Lucy hissed vehemently as she rose to her full height. Then turned around and switched her attention rapidly between the self-satisfied looking liveryman and an angry Sam Tree as the second part-time deputy emerged from the big tent behind the flagpole on the far side of the camp, ‘I am certainly not searching for stolen money. And even if I am forced to go back with you and Mr Tree to 232

Lakewood, I’ll only come right back out here again just as soon as I can! To find the proof that my fiancé was not one of the thieves who took it. And to see that he has a decent Christian burial.’

Goodrich shrugged his massive shoulders.

Zane Slade helped himself to more food while Rose Bigheart watched him with deep scorn.

The raggedly dressed, unkempt bearded, scar faced man saw the woman’s expression and snarled: ‘Hell squaw, ain’t you never felt what it’s like to be gut-aching hungry and not know where your next dish of chow is coming from?’

Rose spoke a single Comanche word that was obviously not of apology.

‘Now what?’ Tree asked as he rejoined the group and saw the signs of dissatisfaction on Lucy’s face while she glared at Goodrich, plus the antipathy that was evident between Slade and Rose.

Goodrich reported grimly: ‘Miss Lucy says if we get her back to town like Billy wants us to, she’ll come right on out here again just as soon as she’s able. But at least she’s not threatening to kill you now, so – ‘

Lucy protested resolutely: ‘Thank you, but I am quite capable of speaking for myself, Mr Goodrich.’

‘Look, Miss Russell.’ Tree sighed and shared a frown between the scowling woman and the impassively smoking Edge. ‘Major Ebsen says he’s not going to intervene in what is entirely a civilian affair. Especially since no law has been broken as far as he can see.’

‘A very sensible officer and gentleman – ‘ Lucy began to repeat. Tree did not look at the woman as he interrupted her: ‘If we want to, each and every one of us is welcome to travel under the protection of the army in the event other Comanche hostiles try to take revenge for what’s happened this morning. And those who plan to stay out here will be given whatever supplies can be spared.’

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Dingle rejoined the group gathered close to the dying fire just as Tree finished speaking and said hurriedly: ‘Well, I’m for throwing in with what the majority want to do. But Chester ain’t in any state of health to do anything but head back to town with the army. The poor guy’s lost too much blood and he just keeps passing out.’

There was not a word or even a frown of sympathy expressed for the wounded man.

‘Miss Russell?’ Tree asked expectantly.

‘What is it?’ she answered with a glower.

He sighed deeply and told her: ‘I’m prepared to allow you a little slack. So if you truly want to go on with this foolishness of yours, I’ll abide by your decision.’

Goodrich groaned and muttered an oath under his breath.

‘Thank you, Mr Tree, I appreciate that,’ Lucy said flatly. ‘You know what I intend to do and I am convinced it is a sound plan – not at all foolish in my opinion!’

Edge dropped his cigarette butt and stepped on it as he announced: ‘I figure we should help ourselves some: like round up the horses we need.’

‘Yeah, that’s the right thing to do it seems like!’ Slade agreed excitedly then glared at Edge. ‘And maybe I’ll get to keep a mount this time?’

Tree offered without enthusiasm: ‘I’ll lend a hand: you, too, Mr Dingle. Brod and Miss Russell, want you to see to it we get whatever the army can spare in the way of food, water, blankets, ammunition and such like?’

‘Sure,’ Dingle agreed. ‘And after the talk I heard in the aid tent the army ought to be pretty generous to us.’

‘What talk?’ Tree demanded.

With arrogant self-importance the man gestured with both arms to encompass the corpse and carcass littered, heat shimmered battlefield. ‘It seems that all of us heading out to look for where the money’s hid is what got this whole shindig started.’

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‘What the hell are you talking about, mister?’ Slade demanded suspiciously.

‘Well, not you, mister: because you never rode out from town like the rest of us. It’s what gave the idea to the top brass at Fort Chance. They figured that this many whites wandering around in the hills was likely to get Mountain Lion interested in seeing we never got back to town alive.’ Dingle began to speak faster, increasingly relishing being at the centre of concentrated attention. ‘So this Major Ebsen was detailed to head a patrol of men and ride out here across the desert so any of Mountain Lion’s renegades that were watching were sure to spot them. And maybe the chief would set a trap and spring it. But the plan was that the ambush would work better the other way around. Especially with the Gatling guns backing them up.’

‘Shit, we was all bait for the stupid Injuns!’ Slade yelled with a broad grin. ‘It sure did fool them stupid redskin bastards, didn’t it!’

Dingle shrugged and grinned. ‘Some of the troopers weren’t too happy to get assigned the duty – the way they knew they were setting themselves up to be such easy targets for the Comanche. How it turned out though, with Mountain Lion and his bunch done for, they’re all on top of the world about it now. So there could be some high old times back at the Wild Dog pretty soon, Mr Tree?’

Tree grimaced at Lucy Russell and growled: ‘And the sooner I’m back behind the bar at my place the happier I’ll be.’

The woman ignored him and he was the first to move off to begin capturing a mixture of Indian ponies and stolen horses that had not been spooked into bolting off too far. It took a half hour during the rising heat of late morning to round up three of the group’s own mounts and enough ponies to provide for their needs. By which time the troopers had struck camp and were ready to pull out, the wounded Conners riding in one of the enclosed wagons and the dismantled Gatling guns and folded tents stowed in the second identical rig.

With what the army could spare in the way of field rations, water and ammunition plus what the civilians had foraged from the dead Comanche, it was estimated the group had sufficient supplies to remain in the almost barren mountains for a week at 235