Me? It was the first time in a long while anybody had said that about Nolan Sackett. Oh, they say 'He's a good man with a gun,' or 'He's a fair hand with a rope,' or 'He can ride anything wears hair,' but nobody just out and said I was a good man.
A man had to avoid that sort of thing. First thing a man knows he's tryin' to live up to it. And then what kind of an outlaw is he?
So I glanced over there again and the girl smiled at me. Well, that was all right. And as for the breed, I always got along with breeds all right. Only that old man had too stiff a neck to suit me. He would be bull-headed as an old mossy-horn range cow.
Anyway, I was in for it. Least I could do was have another cup of coffee.
Chapter 5
Sitting at the table, I could look out the open door and into the street. The sun was bright on the street, but the doorway of the cantina was shadowed by huge old trees that stood nearby. Across the street were the cottonwoods and willows beyond which I had slept the night before.
It was pleasant, sitting there and looking out on that sunlit street, and I wished I had such a place of my own, a little cantina somewhere along a trail where folks would stop off from time to time. You never saw anything more peaceful.
On the other side of the street and down a bit, just where I could see just one window and a corner of a building, stood an adobe that was partly fallen to ruin. It was small, and was likely among the first houses built here.
Pio came back to my table with those three people, and they all sat down around the table, leaving me only a partial view out of the door.
'Senor Nolan Sackett.' Pio said, 'I wish you to meet Senor Jacob Loomis and Senorita Penelope Hume, and this here is Flinch.'
Now, when I heard that name Hume I kept a straight face. My muscles never even twitched, me being a poker player of some experience. It seemed to me, all of a sudden, that the Llano Estacado was being invaded by folks all with the same idea.
'Howdy,' I said, and just let it lay there. From now on until I got the lay of the land they could do the talking.
The man called Loomis spoke. 'We understand you are riding toward Romero, and that you might guide us there. We would pay, of course.'
Nobody had said anything about paying me until now, but for a man with no more money in his jeans than I was packing that was welcome news.
'It's risky,' I said, knowing that committed me to nothing at all. 'It's almighty risky. The Comanches and Kiowas are riding, and they're upset by the buffalo hunters coming south. You'd be better off to stay right where you are.'
'In the middle of nowhere?' Loomis responded in a tone of disgust. 'Young man, we'll give you fifty dollars to guide us, and to fight for us if there's trouble.'
'For fifty dollars,' I said, honestly enough, 'I'd fight the whole Comanche tribe.'
A flicker of shadow caught my eye, something in the background. Looking past Loomis, I could see nothing but the sunlight on the road and a lone hen pecking at something in the dust.
'Were you figuring on stopping in Romero?'
Now, I needn't have asked that question, because nobody stopped in Romero except the Mexicans who lived there. Romero was a nice, pleasant little place at the end of several trials, none of them traveled very much.
'We will decide about that when the time comes,' he replied, and his voice was testy, as if he didn't care much for questions.
'All right,' I said, 'you be ready to pull out come daybreak ... and I mean first light, not a mite later.'
'I will decide about that.' Loomis was brusque. 'You will get your orders from me.'
'No,' I said, 'not if I am to take you through. If you want me for a guide, you'll go when I say, stop when I say, and make as little noise as ever you can.' I got up. That shadow movement I'd seen was itching at me. 'You make up your mind, Mr. Loomis. I am leaving out of here when there's a streak of gray in the sky. You want to go along, you all be ready, because that's when I'm going.'
Oh, he didn't like it. He wasn't even one bit happy with me, and I didn't care.
Fifty dollars was a lot of money, but a whole hide counted pretty high with me.
Besides, I had a few dollars when I rode in, and I'd have most of it riding out.
Now, I hadn't missed the girl's name ... Hume. And the man who supposedly hid that treasure in the Rabbit Ears was Nathan Hume. Some folks might consider that was just a coincidence, but not me.
Loomis pushed back from the table and was about to get up, so I put my coffee cup down and said, 'Seen some folks headed that way. City folks ... young fellow and a girl.'
You'd of thought I'd slapped him. 'Didn't get their name,' I said, 'but the girl was called Sylvie. Matter of fact, there were three of them. I didn't cotton to 'em very much.'
Penelope's eyes just got bigger and darker, it seemed like, but that old man went white as death. He sat down again, sat down hard, and for a minute or two he didn't say anything.
'You saw them?'
'Uh-huh ... unpleasant folks, I'd say.' I looked up at Loomis from under my eyebrows. 'You know them?'
He said nothing for a moment, then shrugged. 'Not with favor, sir, not with favor. A most untrustworthy lot.'
He got up again. 'Come, Penelope. Daybreak will come all too soon.'
After they had gone I saw Pio watching me. 'What is it, senor? Who are those people you spoke of? He was afraid of them, I think.'
So I told him a little about Sylvie and her brother, enough to put him on his guard against them. 'I'd say they were touched ... off the trail somewhere in their heads, but what makes them dangerous is that they don't look it.'
Whether he believed me I could not guess, but I left him to think about it and wandered outside. It was cool and pleasant under the old cottonwoods. The dun was living it up on that fresh green grass, with plenty of water close at hand.
But I wasn't looking forward to playing shepherd to that buckboard.
With my back to a tree where I could look down the street, I considered what lay ahead ... and kept an eye on that empty building across the street from the cantina. Had the flicker of movement come from there?
Time dragged slowly by, and I watched, half-dozing, yet my eyes were ready to catch any movement. Shadows fell around me, and I didn't think anybody could see me clearly--not to be sure, anyway. The dun was feeding right behind me, so nobody was going to come up on my blind side.
While I waited there I thought of tomorrow. Leaving town, we would go northwest along Punta de Aguas Creek, which emptied into the Canadian only a few miles off. Holding south of the creek, we could make Romero in three to four days, depending on how game they were to travel and how much trouble we had. With luck we could make ten, twelve miles in a day.
After a while I shifted the dun's picket pin to fresh grass, then, spurs jingling, strolled hack to the cantina and sat down inside. Pio was gone, but the senora came out and brought me a meal of buffalo steak, eggs, and beans. I sat where I could keep an eye on the adobe on the other side of the street. When I'd been there only a few minutes, Penelope Hume came in.
Now, I'm no hand with womenfolks. I'm a rough, hardhanded man, doing most any kind of work or getting into any kind of a fighting shindig. Womenfolks, especially the young, pretty kind, put a loop on my tongue to where it can scarce wiggle. And this Penelope, she was fresh and lovely, and land of sparkly when she laughed. Like I've said, she was a tall girl and well made. She was put together so that when she moved it had a way of making a man mighty restless.
'Mr. Sackett, may I sit down?'
Now there's things we don't know back in the Clinch Mountains, but a man knows enough to stand when a lady comes up to him, so I got up quick, almost spilling my coffee, and sat down only after she had been helped into her chair.
She looked across the table at me. 'Mr. Sackett, I am glad you are going to show us the way to Romero, but I
