III
A FLIGHT INTO THE DESERT
UNEASY and startled, Gale listened and, hearing nothing, wondered ifMercedes's fears had not worked upon her imagination. He felt atrembling seize her, and he held her hands tightly.
"You were mistaken, I guess," he whispered.
"No, no, senor."
Dick turned his ear to the soft wind. Presently he heard, or imaginedhe heard, low beats. Like the first faint, far-off beats of a drumminggrouse, they recalled to him the Illinois forests of his boyhood. In amoment he was certain the sounds were the padlike steps of hoofs inyielding sand. The regular tramp was not that of grazing horses.
On the instant, made cautious and stealthy by alarm, Gale drew Mercedesdeeper into the gloom of the shrubbery. Sharp pricks from thornswarned him that he was pressing into a cactus growth, and he protectedMercedes as best he could. She was shaking as one with a severe chill.She breathed with little hurried pants and leaned upon him almost incollapse. Gale ground his teeth in helpless rage at the girl's fate.If she had not been beautiful she might still have been free and happyin her home. What a strange world to live in--how unfair was fate!
The sounds of hoofbeats grew louder. Gale made out a dark moving massagainst a background of dull gray. There was a line of horses. Hecould not discern whether or not all the horses carried riders. Themurmur of a voice struck his ear--then a low laugh. It made himtingle, for it sounded American. Eagerly he listened. There was aninterval when only the hoofbeats could be heard.
"It shore was, Laddy, it shore was," came a voice out of the darkness."Rough house! Laddy, since wire fences drove us out of Texas we ain'tseen the like of that. An' we never had such a call."
"Call? It was a burnin' roast," replied another voice. "I felt lowdown. He vamoosed some sudden, an' I hope he an' his friends shook thedust of Casita. That's a rotten town Jim."
Gale jumped up in joy. What luck! The speakers were none other thanthe two cowboys whom he had accosted in the Mexican hotel.
"Hold on, fellows," he called out, and strode into the road.
The horses snorted and stamped. Then followed swift rustling sounds--aclinking of spurs, then silence. The figures loomed clearer in thegloom.. Gale saw five or six horses, two with riders, and one other, atleast, carrying a pack. When Gale got within fifteen feet of the groupthe foremost horseman said:
"I reckon that's close enough, stranger."
Something in the cowboy's hand glinted darkly bright in the starlight.
"You'd recognize me, if it wasn't so dark," replied Gale, halting. "Ispoke to you a little while ago--in the saloon back there."
"Come over an' let's see you," said the cowboy curtly.
Gale advanced till he was close to the horse. The cowboy leaned overthe saddle and peered into Gale's face. Then, without a word, hesheathed the gun and held out his hand. Gale met a grip of steel thatwarmed his blood. The other cowboy got off his nervous, spirited horseand threw the bridle. He, too, peered closely into Gale's face.
"My name's Ladd," he said. "Reckon I'm some glad to meet you again."
Gale felt another grip as hard and strong as the other had been. Herealized he had found friends who belonged to a class of men whom hehad despaired of ever knowing.
"Gale--Dick Gale is my name," he began, swiftly. "I dropped intoCasita to-night hardly knowing where I was. A boy took me to thathotel. There I met an old friend whom I had not seen for years. Hebelongs to the cavalry stationed here. He had befriended a Spanishgirl--fallen in love with her. Rojas had killed this girl'sfather--tried to abduct her.... You know what took place at the hotel.Gentlemen, if it's ever possible, I'll show you how I appreciate whatyou did for me there. I got away, found my friend with the girl. Wehurried out here beyond the edge of town. Then Thorne had to make abreak for camp. We heard bugle calls, shots, and he was away withoutleave. That left the girl with me. I don't know what to do. Thorneswears Casita is no place for Mercedes at night."
"The girl ain't no peon, no common Greaser?" interrupted Ladd.
"No. Her name is Castaneda. She belongs to an old Spanish family,once rich and influential."
"Reckoned as much," replied the cowboy. "There's more than Rojas'swantin' to kidnap a pretty girl. Shore he does that every day or so.Must be somethin' political or feelin' against class. Well, Casitaain't no place for your friend's girl at night or day, or any time.Shore, there's Americans who'd take her in an' fight for her, ifnecessary. But it ain't wise to risk that. Lash, what do you say?"
"It's been gettin' hotter round this Greaser corral for some weeks,"replied the other cowboy. "If that two-bit of a garrison surrenders,there's no tellin' what'll happen. Orozco is headin' west from AguaPrieta with his guerrillas. Campo is burnin' bridges an' tearin' upthe railroad south of Nogales. Then there's all these bandits callin'themselves revolutionists just for an excuse to steal, burn, kill, an'ride off with women. It's plain facts, Laddy, an' bein' across theU.S. line a few inches or so don't make no hell of a difference. Myadvice is, don't let Miss Castaneda ever set foot in Casita again."
"Looks like you've shore spoke sense," said Ladd. "I reckon, Gale, youan' the girl ought to come with us. Casita shore would be a littlewarm for us to-morrow. We didn't kill anybody, but I shot a Greaser'sarm off, an' Lash strained friendly relations by destroyin' property.We know people who'll take care of the senorita till your friend cancome for her."
Dick warmly spoke his gratefulness, and, inexpressibly relieved andhappy for Mercedes, he went toward the clump of cactus where he hadleft her. She stood erect, waiting, and, dark as it was, he could tellshe had lost the terror that had so shaken her.
"Senor Gale, you are my good angel," she said, tremulously.
"I've been lucky to fall in with these men, and I'm glad with all myheart," he replied. "Come."
He led her into the road up to the cowboys, who now stood bareheaded inthe starlight. They seemed shy, and Lash was silent while Ladd madeembarrassed, unintelligible reply to Mercedes's thanks.
There were five horses--two saddled, two packed, and the remaining onecarried only a blanket. Ladd shortened the stirrups on his mount, andhelped Mercedes up into the saddle. From the way she settled herselfand took the few restive prances of the mettlesome horse Gale judgedthat she could ride. Lash urged Gale to take his horse. But this Galerefused to do.
"I'll walk," he said. "I'm used to walking. I know cowboys are not."
They tried again to persuade him, without avail. Then Ladd startedoff, riding bareback. Mercedes fell in behind, with Gale walkingbeside her. The two pack animals came next, and Lash brought up therear.
Once started with protection assured for the girl and a real objectivepoint in view, Gale relaxed from the tense strain he had been laboringunder. How glad he would have been to acquaint Thorne with their goodfortune! Later, of course, there would be some way to get word to thecavalryman. But till then what torments his friend would suffer!
It seemed to Dick that a very long time had elapsed since he steppedoff the train; and one by one he went over every detail of incidentwhich had occurred between that arrival and the present moment.Strange as the facts were, he had no doubts. He realized that beforethat night he had never known the deeps of wrath undisturbed in him; hehad never conceived even a passing idea that it was possible for him totry to kill a man. His right hand was swollen stiff, so sore that hecould scarcely close it. His knuckles were bruised and bleeding, andached with a sharp pain. Considering the thickness of his heavy glove,Gale was of the opinion that so to bruise his hand he must have struckRojas a powerful blow. He remembered that for him to give or take ablow had been nothing. This blow to Rojas, however, had been adifferent matter. The hot wrath which had been his motive was notpuzzling; but the effect on him after he had cooled off, a subtledifference, something puzzled and eluded him. The more it baffled himthe more he pondered. All those wandering months of his had beenfilled with dissatisfaction, y
et he had been too apathetic tounderstand himself. So he had not been much of a person to try.Perhaps it had not been the blow to Rojas any more than other thingsthat had wrought some change in him.
His meeting with Thorne; the wonderful black eyes of a Spanish girl;her appeal to him; the hate inspired by Rojas, and the rush, the blow,the action; sight of Thorne and Mercedes hurrying safely away; thegirl's hand pressing his to her heaving breast; the sweet fire of herkiss; the fact of her being alone with him, dependent upon him--allthese things Gale turned over and over in his mind, only to fail of anydefinite conclusion as to which had affected him so remarkably, or totell what had really happened to him.
Had he fallen in love with Thorne's sweetheart? The idea came in aflash. Was he, all in an instant, and by one of those incomprehensiblereversals of character, jealous of his friend? Dick was almost afraidto look up at Mercedes. Still he forced himself to do so, and as itchanced Mercedes was looking down at him. Somehow the light wasbetter, and he clearly saw her white face, her black and starry eyes,her perfect mouth. With a quick, graceful impulsiveness she put herhand upon his shoulder. Like her appearance, the action was new,strange, striking to Gale; but it brought home suddenly to him thenature of gratitude and affection in a girl of her blood. It was sweetand sisterly. He knew then that he had not fallen in love with her.The feeling that was akin to jealousy seemed to be of the beautifulsomething for which Mercedes stood in Thorne's life. Gale then graspedthe bewildering possibilities, the infinite wonder of what a girl couldmean to a man.
The other haunting intimations of change seemed to be elusively blendedwith sensations--the heat and thrill of action, the sense of somethingdone and more to do, the utter vanishing of an old weary hunt for heknew not what. Maybe it had been a hunt for work, for energy, forspirit, for love, for his real self. Whatever it might be, thereappeared to be now some hope of finding it.
The desert began to lighten. Gray openings in the border of shrubbygrowths changed to paler hue. The road could be seen some rods ahead,and it had become a stony descent down, steadily down. Dark, ridgedbacks of mountains bounded the horizon, and all seemed near at hand,hemming in the plain. In the east a white glow grew brighter andbrighter, reaching up to a line of cloud, defined sharply below by arugged notched range. Presently a silver circle rose behind the blackmountain, and the gloom of the desert underwent a transformation. Froma gray mantle it changed to a transparent haze. The moon was rising.
"Senor I am cold," said Mercedes.
Dick had been carrying his coat upon his arm. He had felt warm, evenhot, and had imagined that the steady walk had occasioned it. But hisskin was cool. The heat came from an inward burning. He stopped thehorse and raised the coat up, and helped Mercedes put it on.
"I should have thought of you," he said. "But I seemed to feel warm...The coat's a little large; we might wrap it round you twice."
Mercedes smiled and lightly thanked him in Spanish. The flash of moodwas in direct contrast to the appealing, passionate, and tragic statesin which he had successively viewed her; and it gave him a vividimpression of what vivacity and charm she might possess under happyconditions. He was about to start when he observed that Ladd hadhalted and was peering ahead in evident caution. Mercedes' horse beganto stamp impatiently, raised his ears and head, and acted as if he wasabout to neigh.
A warning "hist!" from Ladd bade Dick to put a quieting hand on thehorse. Lash came noiselessly forward to join his companion. The twothen listened and watched.
An uneasy yet thrilling stir ran through Gale's veins. This scene wasnot fancy. These men of the ranges had heard or seen or scenteddanger. It was all real, as tangible and sure as the touch ofMercedes's hand upon his arm. Probably for her the night had terrorsbeyond Gale's power to comprehend. He looked down into the desert, andwould have felt no surprise at anything hidden away among the bristlingcactus, the dark, winding arroyos, the shadowed rocks with theirmoonlit tips, the ragged plain leading to the black bold mountains.The wind appeared to blow softly, with an almost imperceptible moan,over the desert. That was a new sound to Gale. But he heard nothingmore.
Presently Lash went to the rear and Ladd started ahead. The progressnow, however, was considerably slower, not owing to a road--for thatbecame better--but probably owing to caution exercised by the cowboyguide. At the end of a half hour this marked deliberation changed, andthe horses followed Ladd's at a gait that put Gale to his bestwalking-paces.
Meanwhile the moon soared high above the black corrugated peaks. Thegray, the gloom, the shadow whitened. The clearing of the darkforeground appeared to lift a distant veil and show endless aisles ofdesert reaching down between dim horizon-bounding ranges.
Gale gazed abroad, knowing that as this night was the first time forhim to awake to consciousness of a vague, wonderful other self, so itwas one wherein he began to be aware of an encroaching presence ofphysical things--the immensity of the star-studded sky, the soaringmoon, the bleak, mysterious mountains, and limitless slope, and plain,and ridge, and valley. These things in all their magnificence had notbeen unnoticed by him before; only now they spoke a different meaning.A voice that he had never heard called him to see, to feel the vasthard externals of heaven and earth, all that represented the open, thefree, silence and solitude and space.
Once more his thoughts, like his steps, were halted by Ladd's actions.The cowboy reined in his horse, listened a moment, then swung down outof the saddle. He raised a cautioning hand to the others, then slippedinto the gloom and disappeared. Gale marked that the halt had beenmade in a ridged and cut-up pass between low mesas. He could see thecolumns of cactus standing out black against the moon-white sky. Thehorses were evidently tiring, for they showed no impatience. Galeheard their panting breaths, and also the bark of some animal--a dog ora coyote. It sounded like a dog, and this led Gale to wonder if therewas any house near at hand. To the right, up under the ledges somedistance away, stood two square black objects, too uniform, he thought,to be rocks. While he was peering at them, uncertain what to think,the shrill whistle of a horse pealed out, to be followed by therattling of hoofs on hard stone. Then a dog barked. At the samemoment that Ladd hurriedly appeared in the road a light shone out anddanced before one of the square black objects.
"Keep close an' don't make no noise," he whispered, and led his horseat right angles off the road.
Gale followed, leading Mercedes's horse. As he turned he observed thatLash also had dismounted.
To keep closely at Ladd's heels without brushing the cactus orstumbling over rocks and depressions was a task Gale found impossible.After he had been stabbed several times by the bayonetlike spikes,which seemed invisible, the matter of caution became equally one ofself-preservation. Both the cowboys, Dick had observed, wore leatherchaps. It was no easy matter to lead a spirited horse through thedark, winding lanes walled by thorns. Mercedes horse often balked andhad to be coaxed and carefully guided. Dick concluded that Ladd wasmaking a wide detour. The position of certain stars grown familiarduring the march veered round from one side to another. Dick saw thatthe travel was fast, but by no means noiseless. The pack animals attimes crashed and ripped through the narrow places. It seemed to Galethat any one within a mile could have heard these sounds. From thetops of knolls or ridges he looked back, trying to locate the mesaswhere the light had danced and the dog had barked alarm. He could notdistinguish these two rocky eminences from among many rising in thebackground.
Presently Ladd let out into a wider lane that appeared to run straight.The cowboy mounted his horse, and this fact convinced Gale that theyhad circled back to the road. The march proceeded then once more at agood, steady, silent walk. When Dick consulted his watch he was amazedto see that the hour was still early. How much had happened in littletime! He now began to be aware that the night was growing colder; and,strange to him, he felt something damp that in a country he knew hewould have recognized as dew. He had not been aware there was dew onthe desert.
The wind blew stronger, the stars shone whiter, the skygrew darker, and the moon climbed toward the zenith. The roadstretched level for miles, then crossed arroyos and ridges, woundbetween mounds of broken ruined rock, found a level again, and thenbegan a long ascent. Dick asked Mercedes if she was cold, and sheanswered that she was, speaking especially of her feet, which weregrowing numb. Then she asked to be helped down to walk awhile. Atfirst she was cold and lame, and accepted the helping hand Dickproffered. After a little, however, she recovered and went on withoutassistance. Dick could scarcely believe his eyes, as from time to timehe stole a sidelong glance at this silent girl, who walked with litheand rapid stride. She was wrapped in his long coat, yet it did nothide her slender grace. He could not see her face, which was concealedby the black mantle.
A low-spoken word from Ladd recalled Gale to the question ofsurroundings and of possible dangers. Ladd had halted a few yardsahead. They had reached the summit of what was evidently a high ridgewhich sloped with much greater steepness on the far side. It was onlyafter a few more forward steps, however, that Dick could see down theslope. Then full in view flashed a bright campfire around whichclustered a group of dark figures. They were encamped in a widearroyo, where horses could be seen grazing in black patches of grassbetween clusters of trees. A second look at the campers told Gale theywere Mexicans. At this moment Lash came forward to join Ladd, and thetwo spent a long, uninterrupted moment studying the arroyo. A hoarselaugh, faint yet distinct, floated up on the cool wind.
"Well, Laddy, what're you makin' of that outfit?" inquired Lash,speaking softly.
"Same as any of them raider outfits," replied Ladd. "They're acrossthe line for beef. But they'll run off any good stock. As hossthieves these rebels have got 'em all beat. That outfit is waitin'till it's late. There's a ranch up the arroyo."
Gale heard the first speaker curse under his breath.
"Sure, I feel the same," said Ladd. "But we've got a girl an' theyoung man to look after, not to mention our pack outfit. An' we'rehuntin' for a job, not a fight, old hoss. Keep on your chaps!"
"Nothin' to it but head south for the Rio Forlorn."
"You're talkin' sense now, Jim. I wish we'd headed that way long ago.But it ain't strange I'd want to travel away from the border, thinkin'of the girl. Jim, we can't go round this Greaser outfit an' strike theroad again. Too rough. So we'll have to give up gettin' to SanFelipe."
"Perhaps it's just as well, Laddy. Rio Forlorn is on the border line,but it's country where these rebels ain't been yet."
"Wait till they learn of the oasis an' Beldin's hosses!" exclaimedLaddy. "I'm not anticipatin' peace anywhere along the border, Jim.But we can't go ahead; we can't go back."
"What'll we do, Laddy? It's a hike to Beldin's ranch. An' if we getthere in daylight some Greaser will see the girl before Beldin' canhide her. It'll get talked about. The news'll travel to Casita likesage balls before the wind."
"Shore we won't ride into Rio Forlorn in the daytime. Let's slip thepacks, Jim. We can hid them off in the cactus an' come back afterthem. With the young man ridin' we--"
The whispering was interrupted by a loud ringing neigh that whistled upfrom the arroyo. One of the horses had scented the travelers on theridge top. The indifference of the Mexicans changed to attention.
Ladd and Lash turned back and led the horses into the first opening onthe south side of the road. There was nothing more said at the moment,and manifestly the cowboys were in a hurry. Gale had to run in theopen places to keep up. When they did stop it was welcome to Gale, forhe had begun to fall behind.
The packs were slipped, securely tied and hidden in a mesquite clump.Ladd strapped a blanket around one of the horses. His next move was totake off his chaps.
"Gale, you're wearin' boots, an' by liftin' your feet you can beat thecactus," he whispered. "But the--the--Miss Castaneda, she'll be tornall to pieces unless she puts these on. Please tell her--an' hurry."
Dick took the caps, and, going up to Mercedes, he explained thesituation. She laughed, evidently at his embarrassed earnestness, andslipped out of the saddle.
"Senor, chapparejos and I are not strangers," she said.
Deftly and promptly she equipped herself, and then Gale helped her intothe saddle, called to her horse, and started off. Lash directed Galeto mount the other saddled horse and go next.
Dick had not ridden a hundred yards behind the trotting leaders beforehe had sundry painful encounters with reaching cactus arms. The horsemissed these by a narrow margin. Dick's knees appeared to be in line,and it became necessary for him to lift them high and let his bootstake the onslaught of the spikes. He was at home in the saddle, andthe accomplishment was about the only one he possessed that had been ofany advantage during his sojourn in the West.
Ladd pursued a zigzag course southward across the desert, trotting downthe aisles, cantering in wide, bare patches, walking through the clumpsof cacti. The desert seemed all of a sameness to Dick--a wilderness ofrocks and jagged growths hemmed in by lowering ranges, always lookingclose, yet never growing any nearer. The moon slanted back toward thewest, losing its white radiance, and the gloom of the earlier eveningbegan to creep into the washes and to darken under the mesas. By andby Ladd entered an arroyo, and here the travelers turned and twistedwith the meanderings of a dry stream bed. At the head of a canyon theyhad to take once more to the rougher ground. Always it led down,always it grew rougher, more rolling, with wider bare spaces, alwaysthe black ranges loomed close.
Gale became chilled to the bone, and his clothes were damp and cold.His knees smarted from the wounds of the poisoned thorns, and his righthand was either swollen stiff or too numb to move. Moreover, he wastiring. The excitement, the long walk, the miles on miles of joltingtrot--these had wearied him. Mercedes must be made of steel, hethought, to stand all that she had been subjected to and yet, when thestars were paling and dawn perhaps not far away, stay in the saddle.
So Dick Gale rode on, drowsier for each mile, and more and more givingthe horse a choice of ground. Sometimes a prod from a murderous spineroused Dick. A grayness had blotted out the waning moon in the westand the clear, dark, starry sky overhead. Once when Gale, thinking tofight his weariness, raised his head, he saw that one of the horses inthe lead was riderless. Ladd was carrying Mercedes. Dick marveledthat her collapse had not come sooner. Another time, rousing himselfagain, he imagined they were now on a good hard road.
It seemed that hours passed, though he knew only little time hadelapsed, when once more he threw off the spell of weariness. He hearda dog bark. Tall trees lined the open lane down which he was riding.Presently in the gray gloom he saw low, square houses with flat roofs.Ladd turned off to the left down another lane, gloomy between trees.Every few rods there was one of the squat houses. This lane openedinto wider, lighter space. The cold air bore a sweet perfume--whetherof flowers or fruit Dick could not tell. Ladd rode on for perhaps aquarter of a mile, though it seemed interminably long to Dick. A groveof trees loomed dark in the gray morning. Ladd entered it and was lostin the shade. Dick rode on among trees. Presently he heard voices,and soon another house, low and flat like the others, but so long hecould not see the farther end, stood up blacker than the trees. As hedismounted, cramped and sore, he could scarcely stand. Lash camealongside. He spoke, and some one with a big, hearty voice replied tohim. Then it seemed to Dick that he was led into blackness like pitch,where, presently, he felt blankets thrown on him and then his drowsyfaculties faded.