fact that he would soon be setting ten ghosts loose, ghosts that might pursue him and work spells against him. None of the ten condemned men had made any effort to plead for their lives. They stood silently among the sheriffso and rangers, looking like whipped dogs.
'Here's one good stout limb,' Augustus said.
'It ought to hold four of them, at least.' 'I'd make that three,' Sheriff Kettler said, looking at the limb in question with a practiced eye. 'If you hang men too close together they're apt to bump into one another while they're swinging.' 'What would it matter, if they're swinging?' Augustus said.
Call found the proceedings an irritant.
Time was being wasted. If only the outlaws had put up a fight they could have shot several of them and not had to proceed with such a lengthy hanging. Finally three limbs were selected. The men were put on borrowed horses; Deets carefully tied the hang knots just as he had seen Jake do. Two limbs held three men each and another limb held four. The sheriffso grouped the men carelessly, so that the tallest man ended up hanging from the lowest and weakest limb. His toes, when he bounced on the rope, were less than an inch from the ground.
Deets, despite his conviction that a passel of spells would soon be unleashed against him, did a careful job. None of the knots failed. The heavier men died instantly, while the lighter fellows kicked and swayed for several minutes.
Only the tall man occasioned much of a wait.
At the end of ten minutes he was still alive.
Call, impatient, wanted to shoot him, but knew that would be improper procedure. Finally the man ceased to kick, but, by the time they were ready to ride off, the limb had sagged so much that the tall man's toes rested on the ground.
'I thank you for obliging me,' Sheriff Kettler said to Call and Augustus. 'This has saved the county a passel of expense.' 'Don't forget the women,' Call said, as they rode away.
Famous Shoes, too, was impatient--he did not understand the Texans' preference for hanging.
If they didn't want to torture the men, why not just shoot them? It would have been much quicker.
As they rode away Call observed that Augustus seemed unusually melancholy.
'What's wrong with you?' he asked.
'It's gloomy work, hanging men in the morning,' Augustus said. 'Here the sun's up and it's a nice day, but they won't get to live it.
'Besides,' he added a little later, 'I get to thinking that, but for luck, it could have been me hanging there.' Call was startled by the remark.
'You--why would it have been you?' he asked.
'Ornery as you are, I don't think you deserve a hanging.' 'No, but for luck I might have,' Augustus said, turning in his saddle to take one last look at the grove where the ten bodies hung.
At night Famous Shoes ranged far ahead of the rangers, who could not push their mounts any harder without putting them at risk. It was the night of the full moon--the prairies were almost as light as day. The tracks of the men they were chasing had not changed direction all day. Blue Duck and the two men with him were heading northwest, into the deepest part of the llano, a course that puzzled Famous Shoes. They would soon be on the long plain of New Mexico, where there was no water. Even the Antelope Comanche had to be careful when they travelled there; he had heard that sometimes the Antelopes had to cut open a horse in order to drink the liquids in the horse's stomach. That they could do such things was the reason they had not yet been conquered by the whites. So far the bluecoat soldiers lacked the skills that would enable them to attack the Antelopes.
But Blue Duck was not of the Antelope band.
He raided in country where there was plenty of water. He would be foolish to think he could continue across the llano and not get in trouble. Besides, there was no one in that country at all--no one, at least, to rob or kill. Of course, there was Quanah and his band, but they were poor, and, anyway, if Blue Duck came near them, they would promptly kill him and his companions.
And yet, the tracks didn't turn. They pointed straight into the longest distance of the llano.
Famous Shoes thought that perhaps Blue Duck meant to go to Colorado, to the settlements, where no doubt there were plenty of people to rob. But if he meant to go to Colorado he could have gone along the Arkansas River, where there was plenty of water.
Late in the night Famous Shoes went back to the rangers. Although the tracks of Blue Duck and his men were plain, he had learned that it was not wise to assume that the Texans would see what to him was plain. The Texans--even experienced men such as Captain Call and Captain McCrae--had curious eyes. He could never be confident that he knew what they would see, when following a trail. Often they took incorrect routes which had to be corrected with much loss of time.
In such dry country Famous Shoes did not want to risk having the rangers go astray. When he came, the rangers were just finishing their brief breakfast. Famous Shoes saw to his surprise that Pea Eye Parker had his trousers off--one of his legs was an angry red. Deets was studying the leg carefully, a big needle in his hand.
'Bad luck,' Call said, when Famous Shoes approached. 'He knelt on a cactus when he went to hobble his horse. Now his leg's as bad as if he had been snakebit.' When Famous Shoes was shown the cactus in question, he agreed with the captain's assessment. The thorns of the little green cactus were as poisonous as the bite of a rattlesnake.
'The thorn's under the kneecap,' Augustus said.
'Get it out,' Famous Shoes said. 'If you get it out he will soon be well, but if you leave it in his leg he will never walk far again.' 'Go to it, Deets--otherwise Pea will have to retire,' Gus said.
When Deets finally succeeded in coaxing the tiny tip of the cactus thorn out of Pea Eye's leg, he and all the other men were surprised that such a tiny thorn could produce such a bad inflammation. But Famous Shoes was right. In ten minutes Pea Eye declared himself fit for travel.
Famous Shoes took a little coffee and made a thorough inspection of the rangers' horses.
