[Texas Rangers 06] - Jericho's Road (31 page)

Five armed horsemen suddenly appeared like apparitions out of the brush and confronted them face to face. A strong voice demanded, “
Quién es?”

Andy raised his hands. “Friends.
Amigos
.” He chilled at the sight of five guns pointed toward him and Farley. He hoped somebody spoke English, for under his current stress he could not muster a dozen words in Spanish. “We’ve got a message for Lupe Chavez.”

One of the men demanded, “What message?”

Andy tried to think of the Spanish word for
danger
. “
Pel
…
pel
…” The rest would not come to him. “We’ve come to bring warnin’. Jericho’s fixin’ to invade him.”

He feared the meaning was not getting across. The men talked quietly among themselves. Andy had a troubling sense that some advocated shooting him and Farley here and now. Their undisguised hostility told him it would take but little to tip the scales in that direction.

A tall, thin man began to dominate the conversation. Andy recognized him as Porfirio, who had held him and Farley at the Chavez place. So far as he remembered, Porfirio had not spoken English, but he seemed to be swaying the other four away from the notion of killing.

After several minutes of talk Porfirio motioned with the muzzle of his pistol. “
Vámanos
.”

Andy said, “I suppose that means we’re goin’.”

Farley replied, “But where? To Chavez’s, or to hell?”

They angled southwestward. In a while Andy saw the buildings he knew were the headquarters of the Chavez ranch. “I hope they’ll believe us.”

Farley said, “Even if they don’t, Jericho’s got to ride over me to get to the McCawleys. I ain’t lettin’ that girl and her mother be hurt because Lupe Chavez is too thickheaded to listen.”

Andy thought Farley should know a lot about thickheadedness. He had about the hardest head of anyone Andy knew.

They rode up to the wide front door of the sprawling stone house. Porfirio dismounted and raised his hand. “
Esperen.”

He banged a heavy door knocker twice before a heavyset maid appeared, cautiously peering out through a narrow opening. He spoke quietly, and she admitted him inside. Andy looked at the other men who had brought him and Farley here. Their grim faces told him not to move.

Shortly Porfirio returned. Lupe Chavez stood in the open doorway, picking his teeth. They gleamed a brilliant white against the heavy black mustache and the dark brown of his face. Andy hoped for a sign of welcome but saw none. Chavez said, “You know
rinches
are not welcome. What brings you to my door?”

Andy said, “We’ve come to warn you about Jericho.”

Farley put in, “He’s fixin’ to hit you like a hailstorm. If he can, he’ll kill everybody here.”

Chavez shrugged his thin shoulders. “He has come before. He has not found us easy to kill.”

Andy argued, “From what we hear, he’s raised enough fightin’ men to do the job this time.”

“
He drove us out of Texas. Does he think now he can also drive us out of Mexico?” Chavez dismissed the notion with an oath that did not need translation. “He will leave here with his guts dragging on the ground, if he leaves here at all.”

The mental image was graphic but not reassuring.

Farley asked, “Are the McCawleys still here?”

“
They are.”

“
Do what you want to about Jericho, but I’m takin’ those womenfolks away.” Farley looked at Andy and corrected himself. “
We’re
takin’ them out, me and Andy.”

Anger flared in Chavez’s eyes. “You will not come to my house and tell me what I must do. It is for me to decide.”

Farley flared back. “Then you’d better decide right.”

Big Jim McCawley came out and stood a few feet away from Chavez. He reacted with surprise upon seeing Andy and Farley. “What’s all this row? Aren’t you-all too far south for Rangers?”

Andy said, “We’re not Rangers now, we’re just citizens. We’re tryin’ to tell Lupe Chavez that Jericho is comin’ to settle old scores, and bringin’ plenty of men with him. Things are fixin’ to get woolly around here.”

Farley interjected, “We come to tell you to gather up your womenfolks and take them away.”

McCawley said, “I’ve never run from Jericho.”

Andy said, “This is one time you’d better.”

Chavez dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand. “We are not rabbits, to run from a pack of hounds.”

“
Even hounds run when somethin’ bigger is after them.”

Chavez asked McCawley, “Should I listen to these
rinches?
I do not want to look foolish.”

Andy said, “Better to look foolish and alive than be layin’ here dead.”

No friendship existed between McCawley and Chavez, but they quickly came to a mutual agreement in the face of a common threat. Chavez said, “It is not that I have fear of Jericho, but I am a cautious man. I will send the women and children away.” He gave an order to Porfirio. Porfirio relayed it to his companions, who quickly scattered.

Chavez turned back to Andy and Farley. His eyes narrowed in threat. “If you are playing me false and the Jericho does not come …”

Soon several wagons and a couple of buggies began picking up excited women and children at the clutter of stone and adobe houses that made up the Chavez headquarters. A vaquero drew McCawley’s buggy up to the door of the Chavez home. The maid and two younger women came out, followed by McCawley’s wife and daughter. Tony appeared, pale and thin, still hunched over from the effects of his wound.

Juana McCawley told her husband, “Tony says he will not go.”

Tony said, “I want you to take my mother and sister away.”

McCawley said, “We’ll all go. You too.”

“
No, I will stay and stand beside my uncle. You and these Rangers do not belong. This is not a gringo fight.”

Juana told her husband, “I will stay with my son, but I want you to take Teresa away from here.”

McCawley held firm. “Go off and leave you? You know me better than that. I’ll send Teresa with the other women, but I’m stayin’ with you and Tony.”

Teresa placed her hands on her hips. “My place is with family. If you stay, I stay.” She looked at Farley. “You will be here, won’t you? If you are here I will not be afraid.”

Farley said, “I think you’re all playin’ the fool. I was figurin’ on takin’ you out of here.”

“
You would have to drag me.”

Some of the wagons were already leaving, carrying refugees to a safer place. Andy made one more attempt to persuade the McCawley women. “We rode all this way to see that you get out of danger.”

Juana said, “You brought warning. That is enough. Jericho will not take this place by surprise. Now you should go, the three of you.” She touched her husband’s hand. “As Tony said, this is not a gringo fight.”

McCawley’s face colored. “I’ve always hated that word
gringo.
I’ve never answered to it, and I don’t now.”

She retreated. “I say it only to make you go.”

“
Not without you two. And Tony.” He bent forward and tapped a forefinger against Tony’s chest. “Your uncle didn’t raise you. I did. Like me or hate me, I’m the only father you’ve got.”

Tony did not budge. “I’m stayin’.”

McCawley shrugged. “Then I guess we all will.”

Farley looked at Teresa. “I still think you ought to go. But if you don’t, I don’t either.” He glanced back at Andy.

Andy said, “I’m not leavin’ by myself.”

After most of the women and children were gone, Chavez sent Porfirio to the river to watch for sign of Jericho. He sent other riders to rouse the neighbors. As the day wore on, men from nearby ranches drifted in to augment Chavez’s limited force. Whatever endangered Chavez endangered them all.

Chavez was too busy to pay attention to Andy and Farley until far into the afternoon. He seemed then to notice them for the first time. “You are still here? I thought you
rinches
were long ago gone. I do not need you.”

Andy said, “We’re not here for you. We stayed because of the McCawleys.”

“
Then stay close to them. Let no harm come to my sister and her daughter and I will try to forget that you are gringos like the Jericho.”

Late in the afternoon Big Jim McCawley came to sit beside Andy and Farley in front of the big house. He carried a rifle and wore a pistol on his hip. “I guess this outfit is as ready as it’ll ever be. Lupe has set up a heavy ring for defense. He would’ve made a good general in the big war.”

Andy said, “The trouble with defense is that you have to stand and take whatever comes at you. You don’t carry the fight to the enemy.”

“
You see somethin’ you’d change?”

“
I might try a little Comanche strategy. They used to set up decoys to draw the enemy in. Then they’d swoop down from both sides.”

“
A flankin’ maneuver?”

“
I guess that’s what you’d call it. Instead of lettin’ the enemy surprise you, you surprise him.”

McCawley thought it over. “I’ll talk to Lupe. He might not like it if he knew you thought of it, so I won’t tell him that.”

McCawley returned after a time. Andy knew by the satisfied look on his face that he had been successful. McCawley said, “I just led him along a little at a time till he came up with the rest of it himself. Now he thinks it was his own idea.”

Andy asked, “Did you ever think about goin’ into politics?”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

J
ericho heard a laugh from somewhere behind him in the blackness. He looked back angrily. “Burt, go tell them to keep quiet. This won’t work worth a damn if we don’t catch Chavez by surprise.”

Hatton rode only as far as the first half dozen men behind him. He told them to pass the word back for silence. They were within half a mile of the river. Though predawn darkness and the brush still shielded them from view, sounds could carry to the other side.

Jericho had counted thirty-seven men when they left headquarters. So far as he knew none had had a change of heart and turned back. He had taken the precaution of telling the newly hired hands that they would be paid after the mission was completed, not before. He was by necessity dealing with a class of men in whom he felt little faith. Honor was a stranger to most of them. Some would accept his money, then disappear. He did not even trust Burt Hatton, his next in command. He had purposely delayed paying Hatton all the money due him. He had a strong feeling the man’s loyalty was so shallow it had to be bought anew over and over in the form of wages.

Hatton returned, grumbling. “I got a bad feelin’ about this.”

Jericho was in no mood to listen to Hatton’s recitation of misgivings. “You’ve had bad feelin’s as long as I’ve known you. This’ll be over so quick that we won’t even break a sweat.”

“
You never know where the Meskin soldiers are at from one day to the next. Somebody’s liable to fetch them, like they done that time to McNelly.”

“
We have to see to it that nobody gets away. Then they won’t tell the soldiers anything.”

Jericho could see that he had not calmed Hatton’s fears, but it didn’t matter much: Hatton had little choice but to go along. “Once this is over, Burt, we won’t have to put up with Chavez anymore. Him and his bunch won’t keep nippin’ at us like a bunch of heel flies.”

“
You ever see a firin’ squad, Jericho? I did once, down at Matamoros.” He shivered. “Them soldiers stood two poor fellers up against a gate and shot them. The blood spilled like water.”

“
We’ll finish up and be back across the river before they can even blow a bugle.”

The sun dropped low, then set without sign of intruders. Porfirio sent back word from the river that he had seen no activity on the other side. Andy began to sense restlessness in the men stationed around the house. They had been primed for a fight, and no fight had come.