Any sudden move of mine to get away would bring on the fight I wanted to avoid.
I didn't cater to these folks' way of figuring things, and I didn't aim to let them take my scalp.
There was little cover out on those grasslands, and even the grass was skimpy, so if I tried to ride for it I would have two or maybe three of them shooting at me. Unless I waited until dark ... though every minute I waited increased my own risk, for darkness gave them freedom of movement.
So I just shifted my Winchester forward in my hands and looked at that young man standing over there beside his sister, and I said, 'If you two figure to get where you're going all in one piece, you better tell your friend out there to stand up and come in with his hands up.'
That set them back a notch. They just looked at me, and I eased back the hammer on the Winchester.
He turned a shade paler and said, 'I don't know what you mean.'
'You just speak up and tell him. You got a full thirty seconds to do it in, or I'll spread you wide open for the buzzards and the ants.'
He didn't want to believe it, and when he decided he'd better he still didn't want to.
'It'll be you first,' I said, 'and then the girl and the other one. You got ten seconds now, and I'm takin' up slack.'
My finger tightened on the trigger.
Chapter 2
'Andrew,' the girl spoke out loud and clear, 'come in with your hands up.'
'Sylvie,' her brother protested, 'he wouldn't shoot. He wouldn't dare.'
'He'll shoot, all right! ' Sylvie said. 'He would kill you very quickly, Ralph, and I believe he would kill me too.'
There was a stir out in the darkness, and then a fat, stupid-looking boy came in toward us. He might have been only seventeen, but the rifle he carried was grown up.
'Put it down,' I said to him, but I was prepared for him to try a shot. He looked at me, then shifted his eyes toward Sylvie ... toward her, not toward her brother.
'Do what he says, Andrew.'
Reluctantly, he put down the rifle, then sat down abruptly and crossed his legs.
'Like I said, I don't want any trouble, but I've grown up with it. My advice to you folks is to go slow. You'll find things are different out here, and there's a lot of folks who will shoot first and ask questions later, if they have any to ask. Now, if you'll lay off trying to shoot me, I'll see if I can get you out of here.'
'Why should you?' Ralph asked.
On that one I hedged. After all, why not ride out and leave them to get what they deserved? 'You've got guns,' I said. 'I wouldn't want them in the hands of the Indians.'
They didn't believe me. I doubt if they could believe any reason that was not entirely selfish.
'No matter which way you go, you ain't likely to find anybody inside of a hundred miles. I hear Jim Cator has a buffalo camp on the North Palo Duro, and the settlements west are nearer to two hundred miles than one.'
They sat watching me, taking in every word.
'Whoever brought you in here trapped you for fair ... but there's a chance I might catch up to him and bring the horses back.'
'If you could bring those horses back,' Ralph said, 'and kill the thief who stole them, I would give you fifty dollars.'
'There's some who would do it for that,' I commented, 'but I am not one.
However, it would be easier to get your horses back than to ride out and send somebody in for you.' I stood up suddenly. 'I'll ride after him.'
They all stood up at that, their eyes on me, ready to take any advantage. 'Why not stay and try in the morning?' Sylvie suggested. 'You can't track horses at night.'
Stepping up, I took the bridle and turned my horse to watch them across the saddle, and then I mounted quickly, my rifle ready, covering them casually. 'I don't need to track them,' I replied. 'He'll take them to water. I'll follow.'
Swinging the horse, I rode a widening half-circle around the camp, keeping them under my gun until I was well into the darkness, then quickly I switched direction and walked my horse until I had put a good distance behind me. When I was a mile off I drew up and took off my hat and wiped the sweatband. For a while there they had me treed.
Then I set off through the night, taking my course from the stars. I had a fair idea where those horses would be, and if they were there, I'd look the situation over before making a move. I had no use for that lot back there, but I couldn't leave a woman to die out on the plains, nor did I want those guns in the hands of Indians, who had enough guns as it was.
The night was cool, and despite the fact my horse was tired, I kept him moving, and he was game enough. I don't think he'd liked that bunch any more than I had.
At times I got down and walked to save the horse. The dun had come far that day, for I had pushed him hard since early morning, but I had a hunch. There as a place in the cap rock that I knew of ... I'd been told of it by a Comanchero who had watered there at times when driving from Santa Fe over to a rendezvous with the Comanches.
It was a mere gap in the rock forty or fifty yards wide, and scarcely longer, but there was water in the bottom, a little grass, and a cottonwood tree or two.
There was a chance that the man I followed knew of it too, although few did. If he could water there, he could drive the stock north, and after another fifteen miles or so would come upon a series of small hollows fringed with cottonwoods and willows where there were fresh water lakes, or sloughs. From that time on he could move toward Tule Creek, with water to be found at intervals all along the way.
The last bright stars were hanging low in the sky when I came up to the water hole. There was the low, questioning nicker from a horse, and a sudden movement, then silence.
My move was just as quick. Leaving the dun standing, reins trailing, I ducked off to the left where a cottonwood made a shadow on the land, and I crouched there, waiting.
Slowly, the moments passed. The dun, weary of waiting when water was so close, walked a few steps toward the hollow, holding his head off to one side to keep from stepping on the reins. This was what I had expected would happen, and what I wanted to happen. Whoever was waiting would be likely to think it was a stray horse. Or so I hoped.
The dun was all mustang, however, and not one to go right down into the hollow.
He pricked his ears and whinnied a bit, and from the hollow there was an answering whinny. After a moment the dun walked on, then stopped again. Only this time he stopped because he was close to somebody.
Not moving a muscle, I waited. And then I heard a low, coaxing voice. He was trying to call my horse close enough to lay hand to the reins. The dun, knowing I was out and about, was not likely to let a strange hand reach him. Had he been a stray, lost and wandering, he might have let himself be caught ... at least as long as he had that saddle on him.
Suddenly the dun shied away ... evidently the man had tried to reach for him, which meant he was growing impatient. The dun backed off a step and stood there, and I just waited. Five, maybe ten minutes went by, and then the man stepped from the darkness and reached for the reins. The horse backed off a couple of steps, and I could have kissed him, for the man went after him.
'Hold it!' I spoke loud enough for him to hear, but not too loud, and as I spoke I cocked my rifle.
He made a move as if to dive for shelter, but I spoke again, quickly. 'Don't try! You ain't got a chance.'
'Who are you?'
'A driftin' man. That there's my horse.'
'Thought he was strayed.' I had gotten to my feet and started toward him as he spoke. 'Didn't see anybody around.'
'Hadn't planned on it. Don't get nervous now ... I'm holding a light trigger.'
He had turned and was facing me, a stocky, barrel-chested man with his face in shadow. Suddenly he spoke. 'Hell, you're Nolan Sackett!'
'Unbuckle your belt.'
'Now, see here--'
