the Light Of Western Stars (1992) (52 page)

The guerrilla leader had ceased his restless steps and glances, and turned to Stewart with something of bold resolution in his aspect
.

"Gracias, senor," he said
.
"Adios
.
"He swept his sombrero in the direction of the trail leading down the mountain to the ranch; and as he completed the gesture a smile, crafty and jeering, crossed his swarthy face
.

Ambrose whispered so low that Madeline scarcely heard him
.
"If the Greaser goes that way he'll find our horses and get wise to the trick
.
Oh, he's wise now!But I'll gamble he never even starts on that trail
.
"

Neither hurriedly nor guardedly Stewart rose out of his leaning posture and took a couple of long strides toward Don Carlos
.

"Go back the way you came," he fairly yelled; and his voice had the ring of a bugle
.

Ambrose nudged Madeline; his whisper was tense and rapid: "Don't miss nothin'
.
Gene's called him
.
Whatever's comin' off will be here quick as lightnin'
.
See!I guess maybe that Greaser don't savvy good U
.
S
.
lingo
.
Look at that dirty yaller face turn green
.
Put one eye on Nels and Monty! That's great-just to see 'em
.
Just as quiet and easy
.
But oh, the difference!Bent and stiff-that means every muscle is like a rawhide riata
.
They're watchin' with eyes that can see the workin's of them Greasers' minds
.
Now there ain't a hoss-hair between them Greasers and hell!"

Don Carlos gave Stewart one long malignant stare; then he threw back his head, swept up the sombrero, and his evil smile showed gleaming teeth
.

"Senor-" he began
.

With magnificent bound Stewart was upon him
.
The guerrilla's cry was throttled in his throat
.
A fierce wrestling ensued, too swift to see clearly; then heavy, sodden blows, and Don Carlos was beaten to the ground
.
Stewart leaped back
.
Then, crouching with his hands on the butts of guns at his hips, he yelled, he thundered at the guerrillas
.
He had been quicker than a panther, and now his voice was so terrible that it curdled Madeline's blood, and the menace of deadly violence in his crouching position made her shut her eyes
.
But she had to open them
.
In that single instant Nels and Monty had leaped to Stewart's side
.
Both were bent down, with hands on the butts of guns at their hips
.
Nels's piercing yell seemed to divide Monty's roar of rage
.
Then they ceased, and echoes clapped from the crags
.
The silence of those three men crouching like tigers about to leap was more menacing than the nerve-racking yells
.

Then the guerrillas wavered and broke and ran for their horses
.
Don Carlos rolled over, rose, and staggered away, to be helped upon his mount
.
He looked back, his pale and bloody face that of a thwarted demon
.
The whole band got into action and were gone in a moment
.

"I knew it," declared Ambrose
.
"Never seen a Greaser who could face gun-play
.
That was some warm
.
And Monty Price never flashed a gun!He'll never get over that
.
I reckon, Miss Harnmond, we're some lucky to avoid trouble
.
Gene had his way, as you seen
.
We'll be makin' tracks for the ranch in about two shakes
.
"

"Why?" whispered Madeline, breathlessly
.
She became conscious that she was weak and shaken
.

"Because the guerrillas sure will get their nerve back, and come sneakin' on our trail or try to head us off by ambushin'," replied Ambrose
.
"That's their way
.
Otherwise three cowboys couldn't bluff a whole gang like that
.
Gene knows the nature of Greasers
.
They're white-livered
.
But I reckon we're in more danger now than before, unless we get a good start down the mountain
.
There!Gene's callin'
.
Come! Hurry!"

Helen had slipped down from her vantage-point, and therefore had not seen the last act in that little camp-fire drama
.
It seemed, however, that her desire for excitement was satisfied, for her face was pale and she trembled when she asked if the guerrillas were gone
.

"I didn't see the finish, but those horrible yells were enough for me
.
"

Ambrose hurried the three women over the rough rocks, down the cliff
.
The cowboys below were saddling horses in haste
.
Evidently all the horses had been brought out of hiding
.
Swiftly, with regard only for life and limb, Madeline, Helen, and Christine were lowered by lassoes and half carried down to the level
.
By the time they were safely down the other members of the party appeared on the cliff above
.
They were in excellent spirits, appearing to treat the matter as a huge joke
.

Ambrose put Christine on a horse and rode away through the pines; Frankie Slade did likewise with Helen
.
Stewart led Madeline's horse up to her, helped her to mount, and spoke one stern word, "Wait!"Then as fast as one of the women reached the level she was put upon a horse and taken away by a cowboy escort
.
Few words were spoken
.
Haste seemed to be the great essential
.
The horses were urged, and, once in the trail, spurred and led into a swift trot
.
One cowboy drove up four pack-horses, and these were hurriedly loaded with the party's baggage
.
Castleton and his companions mounted, and galloped off to catch the others in the lead
.
This left Madeline behind with Stewart and Nels and Monty
.

"They're goin' to switch off at the holler thet heads near the trail a few miles down," Nels was saying, as he tightened his saddle-girth
.
"Thet holler heads into a big canon
.
Once in thet, it'll be every man fer hisself
.
I reckon there won't be anythin' wuss than a rough ride
.
"

Nels smiled reassuringly at Madeline, but he did not speak to her
.
Monty took her canteen and filled it at the spring and hung it over the pommel of her saddle
.
He put a couple of biscuits in the saddle-bag
.

"Don't fergit to take a drink an' a bite as you're ridin' along," he said
.
"An' don't worry, Miss Majesty
.
Stewart'll be with you, an' me an' Nels hangin' on the back-trail
.
"

His somber and sullen face did not change in its strange intensity, but the look in his eyes Madeline felt she would never forget
.
Left alone with these three men, now stripped of all pretense, she realized how fortune had favored her and what peril still hung in the balance
.
Stewart swung astride his big black, spurred him, and whistled
.
At the whistle Majesty jumped, and with swift canter followed Stewart
.
Madeline looked back to see Nels already up and Monty handing him a rifle
.
Then the pines hid her view
.

Once in the trail, Stewart's horse broke into a gallop
.
Majesty changed his gait and kept at the black's heels
.
Stewart called back a warning
.
The low, wide-spreading branches of trees might brush Madeline out of the saddle
.
Fast riding through the forest along a crooked, obstructed trail called forth all her alertness
.
Likewise the stirring of her blood, always susceptible to the spirit and motion of a ride, let alone one of peril, now began to throb and burn away the worry, the dread, the coldness that had weighted her down
.

Before long Stewart wheeled at right angles off the trail and entered a hollow between two low bluffs
.
Madeline saw tracks in the open patches of ground
.
Here Stewart's horse took to a brisk walk
.
The hollow deepened, narrowed, became rocky, full of logs and brush
.
Madeline exerted all her keenness, and needed it, to keep close to Stewart
.
She did not think of him, nor her own safety, but of keeping Majesty close in the tracks of the black, of eluding the sharp spikes in the dead brush, of avoiding the treacherous loose stones
.

At last Madeline was brought to a dead halt by Stewart and his horse blocking the trail
.
Looking up, she saw they were at the head of a canon that yawned beneath and widened its gray-walled, green-patched slopes down to a black forest of fir
.
The drab monotony of the foothills made contrast below the forest, and away in the distance, rosy and smoky, lay the desert
.
Retracting her gaze, Madeline saw pack-horses cross an open space a mile below, and she thought she saw the stag-hounds
.
Stewart's dark eyes searched the slopes high up along the craggy escarpments
.
Then he put the black to the descent
.

If there had been a trail left by the leading cowboys, Stewart did not follow it
.
He led off to the right, zigzagging an intricate course through the roughest ground Madeline had ever ridden over
.
He crashed through cedars, threaded a tortuous way among boulders, made his horse slide down slanting banks of soft earth, picked a slow and cautious progress across weathered slopes of loose rock
.
Madeline followed, finding in this ride a tax on strength and judgment
.
On an ordinary horse she never could have kept in Stewart's trail
.
It was dust and heat, a parching throat, that caused Madeline to think of time; and she was amazed to see the sun sloping to the west
.
Stewart never stopped; he never looked back; he never spoke
.
He must have heard the horse close behind him
.
Madeline remembered Monty's advice about drinking and eating as she rode along
.
The worst of that rough travel came at the bottom of the canon
.
Dead cedars and brush and logs were easy to pass compared with the miles, it seemed, of loose boulders
.
The horses slipped and stumbled
.
Stewart proceeded here with exceeding care
.
At last, when the canon opened into a level forest of firs, the sun was setting red in the west
.

Stewart quickened the gait of his horse
.
After a mile or so of easy travel the ground again began to fall decidedly, sloping in numerous ridges, with draws between
.
Soon night shadowed the deeper gullies
.
Madeline was refreshed by the cooling of the air
.

Stewart traveled slowly now
.
The barks of coyotes seemed to startle him
.
Often he stopped to listen
.
And during one of those intervals the silence was broken by sharp rifle-shots
.
Madeline could not tell whether they were near or far, to right or left, behind or before
.
Evidently Stewart was both alarmed and baffled
.
He dismounted
.
He went cautiously forward to listen
.
Madeline fancied she heard a cry, low and far away
.
It was only that of a coyote, she convinced herself, yet it was so wailing, so human, that she shuddered
.
Stewart came back
.
He slipped the bridles of both horses, and he led them
.
Every few paces he stopped to listen
.
He changed his direction several times, and the last time he got among rough, rocky ridges
.
The iron shoes of the horses cracked on the rocks
.
That sound must have penetrated far into the forest
.
It perturbed Stewart, for he searched for softer ground
.
Meanwhile the shadows merged into darkness
.
The stars shone
.
The wind rose
.
Madeline believed hours passed
.