“Tell ’em you’re takin’ care of a sick aunt, tell ’em anything. Just don’t bring nobody here.”
“All right.”
Ponci lay back on the bed and closed his eyes.
“Don’t wake me till breakfast time,” he said.
CHAPTER 17
Two days later, Gibson, Carter, and Wilson found themselves on the west side of the Quigotoa Range, a good eighty miles from the post. The horses were now hobbled, while the men were poking around in one of the many washes that came down from the side of the mountain.
“They say these washes are the best place to look,” Gibson said as he picked through the rocks. “The gold is flushed down after a rain, and collects in the washes.”
“You lied to me, Gibson,” Wilson said.
“How’d I lie to you?”
“You told me if I’d let you and Carter out, you’d take me to your money. You didn’t tell me we’d have to look for gold to find it.”
“Well, hell, boy, gold is money, ain’t it?” Gibson replied.
“Are you sure there is gold out here?” Wilson asked.
“Hell, yes, there is gold,” Gibson said. “Or, if not gold, there’s silver. Why do you think the government is keeping the U.S. Army out here? It’s to keep the Indians off the backs of the prospectors while they look for gold.”
“That’s the truth of it, Wilson,” Carter added. “We’re here to make it safe for the prospectors and the miners.”
“And I’ll be damned if I’m going to risk my neck for someone else to get rich,” Gibson said. “If I’m going to risk my neck, I’m going to risk it for me.”
“Damn right,” Carter said.
“I don’t think I would’a let you two out of jail if I’d’a know’d you was just talkin’ about maybe findin’ some gold or silver.”
“It’s more’n just maybe. It’s out here for real,” Gibson insisted.
“So, what do you think, Corporal, do you have any idea where to look?” Wilson asked.
“You don’t have to call me Corporal anymore,” said Gibson. “We ain’t in the Army right now.”
“Yeah, well, far as the Army is concerned, we are still in the Army,” Carter said. “I mean, it ain’t like they give us papers cuttin’ us loose or anything.” Carter was the smallest of the three, with red, blotchy skin and a nose that was too big for his face.
“I sort of wish we was still in the Army,” Wilson said. Wilson was tall and gangly, and by many years the youngest of the three. “One thing we did while we was in the Army was we got to eat. Which we ain’t been doin’ that much of since we deserted.”
“We didn’t desert,” Gibson said. “We are absent without leave. There’s a difference.”
“What’s the difference?” Wilson asked.
“Well, for one thing, deserters can be shot or hung,” Gibson said. “But if we are just absent without leave, the most they can do is send us to Ft. Leavenworth for a couple of years.”
“Yeah, but how do we convince the Army we are just absent without leave and not deserters?” Wilson asked.
“’Cause we are still carryin’ a Army-issue pistol, that’s why,” Gibson said. “And as long as we got any part of the Army still with us, well, we ain’t exactly deserted.”
Carter laughed. “Don’t listen to Gibson,” he said. “He’s spoutin’ off that barracks-law bullshit. Don’t fool yourself, kid. If they find us, they’re goin’ to hang us.”
“Even if we’re carrying these pistols like Corporal Gibson said?” Wilson asked.
“Hell, yes, even if we’re carryin’ these pistols. Fact is, that’ll make it worse. They’ll hang us for desertin’ the Army and for stealing Army property,” Carter said, laughing.
“Shit,” Wilson said. “I wish I was back in Missouri.”
“Doin’ what? Walkin’ behind a plow horse?” Gibson asked. “Is that what you want to do for the rest of your life? Plow?”
“So if you don’t want to plow, what do you want? To spend the rest of your life in the Army?”
“No, I don’t really want to do that either. I wasn’t exactly what you would call a good soldier,” Wilson said.
Carter laughed. “I can’t argue there. As a soldier, Wilson, you wasn’t worth shit.”
“Maybe not, but you was both good soldiers. Both of you have been sergeants.”
“That’s true,” Carter said. “Fact is, we both been sergeants more’n a couple of times.”
“I still can’t believe that you both deserted.”
