Skeleton Lode (36 page)

“We do have plans,” Kelly said in disgust. “It’s that damn cowboy humor again. Can’t you tell he’s ragging you?”

“I’m not sure he is,” said Kelsey. “After I’d been shot, out of my head and stark naked, every time I’d kick off my blankets, the first person I’d see would be Dallas.”

“I’m not that sure you were out of your head every time you kicked off the blankets,” Kelly suggested. “You hogged all the attention.”

“Oh, I had a wonderful time,” said Kelsey, “and I had half a quart of whiskey all to myself. Don’t forget that.”

Their laughter rang out in the twilight, and the first twinkling stars looked down from a purpling sky, as they rode on toward Hoss Logan’s cabin.

Cass Bowdre and his companions watched the five riders take the trail toward town in pursuit of the horses, mules, and the men afoot.

“They been follerin’ two mules all the way from Tortilla Flat,” Sandoval said, “and now there’s tracks of five. They ain’t thinkin’ straight.”

“I’m countin’ on that,” said Bowdre. “Once they find them mules, whoever’s closest to ’em is in for one hell of a fight, and we win two pots with a single draw. We settle the score with Yavapai and Sanchez, and we get them mule drovers off our trail. By God, it ain’t often things work out like this.”

“Tomorrow before first light,” Ellerton said, “you aim to have two of us watchin’ for this Wells and Holt. Who you got in mind?”

“Myself, for one,” said Bowdre. “Are you volunteerin’ to side me?”

“Yeah,” Ellerton said. “I’ve had a bellyful of stumblin’ around under these mountains. I think this Wells and Holt knows somethin’ we don’t, and if we’re there when they ride in, there ain’t no reason we can’t foller ’em to whatever they’ve found.”

“Why you?” Zondo Carp demanded. “You reckon the rest of us can’t see good enough to trail ’em?”

“Think what you want,” said Ellerton. “It don’t make a damn to me what you think. I’ve had more’n enough of these mountains, and I’m ready to move on. By my lonesome, if that’s what it takes.”

“Nobody leaves till I say this is done,” Bowdre said.

An hour before first light, Arlo, Dallas, Kelly, and Kelsey walked out.

“I don’t feel comfortable, leaving our horses and
mules,” said Kelly. “Why can’t we leave them farther away, so they’ll be more difficult to find?”

“We can,” Arlo said, “but it’ll mean a longer walk.”

“I don’t care,” said Kelly. “Even if those men don’t bother our mounts, they can still hear us coming if we ride in too close.”

“We can’t be
that
quiet on foot,” Kelsey said, “in the dark, through all the cactus and underbrush.”

“No,” said Dallas, “but I think Kelly’s right. In the quiet just before first light sound carries far. A hoof against a stone can sound like a smithy’s hammer. Since we know they’re likely up there in our old camp, why don’t we ride a mile or two south of that trail that leads up to the rim?”

“You got no argument from me,” Arlo said. “Even if they suspect we’re coming, they won’t know where to watch for us. They’ll be depending on us to make some noise they can follow. It’ll be to our advantage to ride in somewhere south of the trail we took yesterday and to dismount as far from them as we can.”

“We’ll have lots farther to travel,” said Kelly, “but at least when we pass that trail that leads up to the rim, we’ll be on foot.”

“Yes,” Dallas said, “and the more I think about it, the more I believe it’ll be worth the walk. When we come out, it’ll be daylight. Even if they do find our mounts, we’ll be far enough to the north that they still won’t know where we’re going to come away from the mountain.”

They circled toward the south, leaving their animals beyond the trail that led up to the western rim of the mountain.

“Kelsey, you and Kelly bring the lanterns,” Arlo said, “and stay well behind us. Dallas and me may have to pull our guns in a hurry. If there’s a sound—or the slightest possibility that they’re waiting for us—go back the way we came and wait for us. We may have to circle wide, go farther north, and then work our way back to you.”

They made their way carefully along the base of the
mountain. Kelly and Kelsey, at Arlo’s insistence, kept back. The moon was down, and the stars seemed to draw away, cloaking the earth in blackness. A sudden sound, slight like the rolling of a stone under a man’s booted foot, broke the silence. More ominous was the sound that followed—the
snick
of a pistol being cocked! Shooting by sound was difficult, and a man who fired first in the dark risked targeting himself by his muzzle flash. The only advantage was that if he drew return fire, he then had the other man’s muzzle flash to work with. Dallas and Arlo fired so close together, it sounded like a single shot. Before the echo died, they had thrown themselves to the ground and rolled away from their original positions. The return fire came, two slugs whistling through the empty air where they had been standing. Arlo and Dallas fired again, this time at the muzzle flashes. There was a grunt of pain, and then only silence. Arlo and Dallas lay unmoving for at least a quarter of an hour. Dallas felt around until he found a stone at least the size of his fist, and flung it away, well off to one side. It drew no response.

“They’ve shucked out,” Arlo said.

“Kelly, Kelsey,” Dallas called softly, “are you all right?”

“Yes,” said Kelly. “It’s so dark, why did you shoot?”

“To get them off our tail,” Dallas said. “It ain’t easy for a man to resist shootin’ back when he’s got a muzzle flash to shoot at, so we gave him one. I think we nicked him. If he’s hit, they won’t be so quick to follow us again. Come on, let’s find our passage and disappear.”

Cass Bowdre and Os Ellerton made their way up the trail to their camp below the west rim. They were silent, Ellerton pressing a bandanna to the bloody wound in bis left arm, just above the elbow. Neither man spoke until they had reached their camp. Their comrades sat around a small fire, drinking coffee.

“We heard shootin’,” said Carp. “What’d you do, Ellerton, light a smoke?”

“He might as well have,” Bowdre said in disgust. “He cocked his pistol and them two pistoleros cut down on us, shootin’ at the sound. They come damn close, and Ellerton, he shoots back, givin’ ’em the target they was askin’ for.”

“Looks like you was right the first time, Bowdre,” said Sandoval. “Ain’t much use trailin’ that pair in the dark.”

“No,” Bowdre said. “They shoot quick and straight. One of you put on some water to boil, so’s we can patch up Ellerton’s arm. Three-Fingered Joe, you’ll keep watch today from the east rim. Carp, you’ll take the west rim. Sandoval and me will search that next passage. Ellerton, you’ll stay here in camp, and stay out of trouble with Davis. One more fool move out of you, and I’ll shoot you myself, and it won’t be in the arm.”

Ellerton’s face went white with anger, but he said nothing. He sat on his saddle, looking into the fire. He expected no sympathy and got none—his was a deserved reprimand. When the water was hot, Three-Fingered Joe cleansed Ellerton’s wound. It was clean, for the slug had missed the bone.

The men had their bacon and coffee in silence, and when they had finished, Bowdre spoke. “Joe, I want you and Zondo on watch as soon as it’s light enough to see.”

With Arlo and Dallas leading the way, Kelly and Kelsey following, they reached their concealed passage without further difficulty. The men lit the lanterns, and the four of them found a shallow stretch where they could cross the river. The far bank was wider, and they were able to get past the waterfall without being drenched with violent spray. But a hundred yards above the waterfall, they found a mass of volcanic rock blocking their way, extending into the water on the river side and almost to the wall of the cavern on the other. There was barely room for them to squeeze between the stone wall and the mossy volcanic upthrust that towered over their heads.

“These walls on this side of the river are awful
smooth,” Kelly said. “We haven’t seen a hole or a split wide enough to get a hand into.”

“No matter,” replied Arlo. “We’ll go back to the head of this cavern, to the start of the river, and work our way back.”

“Remember the spotted ponies,” Dallas said. “The sign on the wall or floor may not have anything to do with that particular spot, but it may tell us where we must go from there.”

Bowdre and Sandoval had taken the passage from their camp to the bottom of the mountain, to what seemed the most promising of the passages yet to be explored.

“Injuns have been here,” said Sandoval when they reached the place where the crude horse figures had been cut into the wall.

“Yeah,” Bowdre replied. “I reckon there’s some that ain’t all that scared of the Thunder God.”

“Listen,” said Sandoval, once they were deep into the passage. “It’s that damn river again. God, I hope this ain’t another of them tunnels with a long stretch of the floor gone.”

“May be worse than that,” Bowdre said. “I reckon we’d better take it slow and be almighty careful.”

The drop-off, when they reached it, all but took their breath away, and the updraft sucked out their pine torch, leaving them momentarily in the dark. Sandoval turned his back on the abyss arid lit another match. Then Bowdre spoke.

“Put it out and stand quiet. Somebody’s down there.”

In the darkness far below them were two bobbing orbs of light. Both the lights were moving away from them and growing dim with distance, soon lost to view.

“Wells and Holt,” said Sandoval, “and they got lanterns.”

“Now,” Bowdre said, “shield that match with your hat, light that torch, and let’s see what’s between us and the river.”

Sandoval lit the pine torch and when he neared the drop-off, the updraft again sucked out the light.

“Back off,” said Bowdre. “Wells and Holt have the right idea. We can’t tackle this damn cliff with lighted pine splinters. We need lanterns and plenty of rope. Let’s go get some and come back.”

“My God,” Sandoval said, “it must be a good five-hundred-foot drop to that river. You reckon Wells and Holt went down that wall?”

“I figure they done it once,” said Bowdre. “Then they follered the river and found some better way. If they done it, so can we. But we’ll wait for them to pull out before we make our try.”

“Smart thinkin’,” Sandoval said. “We’d make mighty good targets, workin’ our way down that wall with lighted lanterns.”

Yavapai and Sanchez stumbled on, and to their joy, they caught up to the pair of saddled horses Bowdre had stampeded with the mules. Tired from their run, the animals had stopped to graze.

“These horse belong to Señor Domingo Vasquez,” said Yavapai. “We take them, and he kill us dead.”

“Madre de Dios,”
Sanchez said, “you already be dead in the
cabeza.
We ride these horse back to town, and what do you t’ink happen to us? The Señor Vasquez, he say ‘Where my other horse? Where Juarez and these other hombres I send with you?’ We say other horse be gone. We say Juarez and all his
companeros
be dead. What you t’ink the Señor Vasquez do? He tell the sheriff, ‘These no-good Yavapai and Sanchez kill my men and steal my horse.’ Do we become the thieving
bastardos
the Señor Vasquez call us, take these horse and ride like hell for Tucson? Or do we tell the
señor
the truth, which he do not believe, and die like dogs for having kill Juarez and his
companeros
and steal their horse?”

“I t’ink,” said Yavapai, “I be ready to become
muy bueno amigos
with the
malo gringo
sheriff in Tucson.”

They looked to the sky above the distant ridge where
already buzzards were circling. Without another word they mounted, and kicking their horses into a fast gallop, headed south.

Kelly and Kelsey held the lanterns while Arlo and Dallas began the painstaking investigation of the walls along the other side of the river. For the rest of the day they searched, without finding any sign. Slowly they worked their way back down the river toward the exit from the underground cavern. It was Arlo who eventually broke the silence.

“All of you stay where you are while I go out and look around. After the gunplay this morning, I don’t look for them to try again, but we can’t risk it.”

“I thought the world of Uncle Henry,” Kelsey said, “but I’m so tired of this. Why don’t we just give it up?”

“We’ve been over this before,” said Dallas. “We can’t give it up. Hoss wouldn’t like that. We’re overlooking something that’s so obvious we can’t see it. I reckon Arlo and me will stay with it. You and Kelly can go back to the cabin if you like.”

“I’m going to be right here until the end,” Kelly said. “I say either we all go on together or we all quit together. Me, I’m for going on.”

“Then so will I,” said Kelsey, “and I won’t complain anymore.”

“Come on,” Arlo said. “I don’t see anybody outside.”

“Now,” said Dallas, “the big question is, have they taken our horses and mules, leavin’ us on foot?”

The animals were still there. But from his post on the west rim of the Superstitions, Zondo Carp watched the four ride out.

“We’re ready, then,” said Bowdre, when Carp took him the news. “Just as soon as Joe gets here with the lanterns and the rope.”