something dark up ahead. His heart leaped at the possibility that it was the rocks where the waterhole was located. He couldn’t be sure so he didn’t say anything to the others.
Then the horses suddenly lifted their heads and their ears pricked forward, and he knew they had scented the water. Relief flooded through him.
“Let’s go,” he said. “The waterhole is right in front of us.”
It was a crude tank formed by a rocky hollow in the ground. As he recalled from the previous journey, the water was stagnant and not pleasant to drink. But it was wet, and that was the most important thing. The horses were almost running by the time they got there.
The Kid dismounted hurriedly and grabbed the reins of the other mounts so they wouldn’t drink too much and founder. Jess and Elsie helped him haul the horses back.
Violet had to do the same with Leah, who tried to plunge her head into the little pool and drink and drink. Eventually, they all got their fill of the brackish water.
Leah sat back beside the pool and looked up at The Kid. “Thank you, Mr. Morgan.”
For the first time, he heard coherence in her voice. She knew who he was and what was going on around her. That was a big improvement.
They all rested. The Kid and Jess took turns standing guard again. Along toward morning, Jess woke him and said quietly, “Kid, I think you’d better look at this.”
He stood up and walked with her to the edge of the boulders around the waterhole. Across the desert behind them, several miles away, an orange light flickered.
“Is that a campfire?” Jess asked.
“Yeah,” The Kid said. “They’re going to have coffee and a hot breakfast. They don’t care if we know they’re back there.”
“Why not?”
“Because they think there’s no way we can beat them to the border. They think it doesn’t matter if we know they’re after us. Guzman and Kelly probably hope we see the fire, and that it makes us nervous.”
“Are you nervous, Kid?”
“No reason to be. We either make it or we don’t. Either way we gave it a good try.”
“Is that all that matters in life? Giving it a good try?”
“Sometimes that’s all that’s left.”
Jess didn’t say anything, but after a moment she moved closer, and her head rested against his shoulder.
Chapter 30
The Kid and Jess didn’t stand there for long. After a few moments, he roused the others from sleep and got them in their saddles. Weariness gripped everyone, but he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to gain a little ground on the pursuers.
It had crossed his mind that the appearance of the fire was a trick. Kelly, Guzman, or whoever was in charge could have built the fire, then left it burning in an attempt to lull their quarry into thinking they had stopped for a while.
Either way, The Kid knew it was time for them to get moving again.
Once the sun was up, the tracks left by the Apache war party as it traveled southward were visible again. Time and the elements were starting to blur the hoofprints and footprints, but The Kid could still see them. It was an easy trail to backtrack.
He had the women push their mounts into a ground-eating lope. Leah had recovered enough of her senses to handle her own horse. The Kid sensed a fragility about her, as if her tenuous grip on sanity might slip again, but she was doing better. The rest just needed to keep an eye on her.
After a while they walked the horses, then urged them to a faster pace again. Throughout the long day they kept that up.
They came to the deep canyon where the Apaches had laid the trap for anyone following them, where The Kid had thrown in with Kelly and the other scalp hunters. Now The Kid called a halt and had everyone dismount.
“You can see the trail that goes down this side of the canyon and then back up the other side.” He pointed out the zigzagging ledge. “We’ll take it on foot. Jess and I will lead all the horses.”
Before they started down the trail, The Kid paused long enough to take out his telescope and scan the desert behind them. His jaw tightened as he spotted the haze of dust hanging in the air several miles back.
Even though the reaction was a slight one, Jess spotted it. “What is it, Kid? Do you see them?”
“Not them, but the dust their horses are kicking up.”
“Then we don’t have any time to waste, do we?” Jess took Leah’s reins in addition to her own. “Let’s go.”
She went first, then the other three women. The Kid brought up the rear, leading the dun and the other two horses.
When they reached the bottom of the canyon, Leah said, “It’s so cool and shady down here. I wish we could just stay here.”
“So do I, honey,” Violet told her, “but we have to keep moving.”
Leah pouted a little, but didn’t give them any trouble. They followed the trail up to the north rim of the canyon, climbing back into the heat.
But while they were descending into the canyon, then climbing out of it, the pursuers had been covering more ground. The dust was closer, The Kid saw when he looked back. It was an actual cloud, not just a haze in the air.
Kelly and the others had to cross the canyon, too, and while they were doing that, The Kid and the women would make up some of the ground they had lost. But the horses were awfully tired, and their water was starting to run low even though he had rationed it carefully. There was another waterhole between there and the border. The Kid was counting on it to give them the boost of strength they would need to make the final run. They mounted the horses and headed in that direction.
The waterhole was even smaller and more brackish than the other one, but when they got there, the horses sucked up what water they could, drinking the hole practically dry.
“They need it more than we do,” The Kid said, his voice raspy because his throat, tongue, and lips were so dry. “There’s a good well in Sago, and we’ll be there before too much longer.”
While the other women were resting, Jess came over to him and said quietly, “That dust cloud’s closer than ever, Kid. Those bastards must be running their horses into the ground.”
“Or they brought along extra mounts and have been switching back and forth. I’ve been worried about that all along.”
Jess grimaced. “I didn’t even think about that. That’s how they’ve been able to catch up.”
“We should have done that, too. I just wasn’t sure we could handle extra horses in addition to the ones we’ve been riding.”
“You mean you weren’t sure
“Nothing’s perfect,” The Kid said with a shadow of a smile.
“That’s the truth.”
He let the others rest for another minute or two, then said, “All right, everybody mount up again. We have to move fast now.”
“It’s hot,” Leah said. “Can’t we find someplace shady and wait until it cools off?”
“I wish we could,” The Kid told her, “but we don’t have any choice.”
“Come on, Leah,” Elsie said. “We can do a little more.”
