Jamie said. He spun'ed his horse forward, calling to Jon to follow him.
He would deal with Nalte. One way or another, he would get Tess back.
One way or another.
Comancberos.
They lined the dry, dusty hilltop that overlooked the desert, seeming to
go on forever, covering the horizon. A hundred of them, at least.
Her hands tied before her, Tess sat in her buckskins in front of
Jeremiah on his big horse. She didn't know how long or how far they had
ridden that day, but they had finally come to this desert that stretched
to the mountains-- a beautiful area, with myriad colors, a barren,
forbidding area where the vultures sat upon the branches of the few
scrawny trees, where cactus eked out an existence, where most life was
lived in the cool that settled over the golden landscape by night. Soon,
the terrain would change again, as they entered the mountains.
They were already in the land of the Apache. And Tess was realizing how
little she knew of this feared tribe. She knew they were fierce, and
that they did not go to reservations. She had read that President Grant
had initiated a 'peace policy' toward the Apache this year, but that
meant one thing in Washington, quite another here. Apache. it took an
Apache to track an Apache, so they said. Once Cochise had been a captive
of the American Army, but the trap had infuriated him. He had drawn his
knife, slit apart the tent--and disappeared. An entire cavalry company
had 199 been unable to find him.
She shivered. Perhaps more so than any other Indian on the Western
frontier, the Apache could strike terror into the hearts of the people.
But nothing could be more fearsome than the Comancheros who faced her
now, staring down at their small group of three from the hillside and
the horizon.
Tremors tore at her heart. She had ridden with Jeremiah and David for a
day and a night and through much of this day as well, and she had done
her very best with Jeremiah.
She had looked for eve~ possible opportunity to escape, but David had
taken great care never to give her a chance. She was never alone. Even
when she relieved herself, he was not more than a few steps away, and
his promises of what he would do if she even tried to move made her
weigh her circumstances very carefully. As long as she was with them,
she was safe. Jeremiah wasn't going to let David touch her, and David
was frightened enough of von Heusen to listen to Jeremiah.
Hour by hour she had dreamed. Jamie had to come for her. If he was
alive, he would have to come for her. HIS sense of honor would let him
do no less.
But he had to come while she was still with David and Jeremiah. The odds
would have been pretty even then, he could have ridden in with the sun
and carried her away into the sunset. But he had not come, and although
she could not allow herself to believe that he had been killed, she knew
the odds were no longer even. Not even Jamie Slater could come riding
into a throng of a hundred Comancheros, guns blazing, and carry her
away. She was indeed here, and. The Comanchcros were all staring down at
her. Suddenly, wild screams and shrieks filled the air, and the army of
Comancheros came galloping toward them. The cries made her heart
