“Where’d you have to go that was so important?” Josiah asked, changing the subject.
Again, a wise smile returned to Juan Carlos’s weathered face. “You should not be so angry about Pearl’s presence. She is quite taken with you.
“You know I don’t speak Mexican.”
“Perhaps it is time you learned.”
Josiah shrugged his shoulders. “I know enough to understand the floors that Pearl and I walk on are completely different. She is accustomed to a palace, not a simple house like this. I cannot give her the life she is accustomed to.”
Juan Carlos laughed. “Then
Josiah’s face turned red as he sat down at the table. After a long pause, he said, “I know you had no other choice but to leave Lyle with her. But please, don’t involve Pearl in my life again.”
“If that is your wish,
“It is my wish.”
Silence settled between the two men, and they both allowed it to continue. The night outside was quiet now that it was fully dark. There was still a liveliness to Austin, but the activity of rowdy cowboys looking for a good time with drink and women was blocks away. Another world away, really, and that was just the way Josiah liked it. He only wished that he was farther away, out in the hills somewhere, or even better, home in East Texas, where the only rowdy occurrence that presented any hint of concern was the hunters that came out at night—foxes and coyotes mostly. But that was not to be—still, the street outside of the house was reasonably quiet, void of travelers at that time of night.
All Josiah could hear was the steady breath of his son sleeping comfortably in the other room, and that was enough for him. He took a sip of the Arbuckle’s and set the mug of coffee on the table.
“What of your travels, Juan Carlos? The last I saw of you was in that motte south of Dallas.”
Juan Carlos eyed Josiah carefully, then nodded. “I met up with an old friend, and headed south to the Nueces Strip.”
“A testy place, even for you, my friend,” Josiah said.
“I like it there.”
“The place is full of bandits and cattle thieves.”
Juan Carlos laughed. “Why do you think I was there?”
“I never know with you. Tell me of the mission, of your friend then.” Josiah wanted nothing more than to hear something else other than his own troubles, his own past.
“Ah, my amigo, senor, is a friend to us both, though you do not know it yet.”
“And who would that be?”
“McNelly. Leander McNelly,” Juan Carlos said.
Josiah was not surprised to hear the name. Once Richard Coke was elected to governor in 1873, he created the now financially troubled Frontier Battalion, but he also designated a special force of Rangers, financed mostly by ranchers, to quell the thievery and troubles along the Nueces Strip.
Captain John B. Jones, the commander of the Frontier Battalion, and potential suitor of Pearl Fikes, had recommended Josiah speak to McNelly after the Lost Valley incident that occurred the previous summer, about Josiah potentially taking up with the Special Forces, but Josiah declined, sure that the work along the strip would be even more dangerous than what the Battalion faced. He chose to stay within riding distance of Lyle at the time, and it looked like that had been a good decision.
“McNelly, uh?” Josiah said. “Why am I not surprised? I have always thought you would make a competent spy, Juan Carlos. Is that your mission?”
“You ask more questions than I can give answers to, senor, but I have done plenty of work for the captain that requires my tongue and appearance. Cortina is a fierce adversary and is committed to keeping his business pure and alive.”
“So Cortina is riled up in the south and the Comanche are fighting their last fight in the north?”
Juan Cortina had a long history of riling up Texas landowners near the border, most notably near Brownsville, where Cortina had maintained control over the town for a while, until he was ousted in 1859 by a group of men calling themselves the Brownsville Tigers and the early Texas Rangers, headed up by Rip Ford. Once the War Between the States started, Cortina gave up the attacks and went into politics, shoring up Mexico’s side with the Confederacy. Once the war was over, Cortina fell out of favor and went back to stealing cattle, which obviously, was still going well for him.
“I have been in Dewitt County, senor, along with forty men including Captain McNelly.”
“The Sutton-Taylor feud?”
Juan Carlos nodded. “The trial is over.”
“Where is McNelly off to now?”
“You must not speak of this . . . McNelly is ill, senor. I fear his time on this earth is short.
Josiah had never seen Juan Carlos make any reference to a religion and was surprised by the show of it. “I was surprised when I met McNelly the first time.”
Juan Carlos nodded. “He is a short, wiry, tubercular man.”
“Consumption has most certainly taken its toll on him.”
“
“He is ill again?”
“Still,” Juan Carlos said. “I think he is all worn out from watching over the feud.”
“So he’s back to Burton?”
“To the cotton farm,
“That leaves you free, then?” Josiah asked.
“I was never captured. Just serving a role, honoring my brother’s legacy.”
“I miss Captain Fikes, but I cannot imagine your loss.”
“We have all lost something.
“. . . To live long enough,” Josiah finished the sentence. “Captain Fikes used to say that.”
“
“And so it is,” Josiah said.
“But I have to ask you to leave again.”
Josiah stood up. His coffee cup was empty. “I can’t leave. Not until I hear from Captain Feders. If then. They are cutting the size of the companies, and I fear I may be released from the Rangers.”
“For some reason, I do not believe that you see that as a bad thing.”
“You are right, my friend. Lyle needs me.”
“Captain McNelly needs you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I asked that you accompany me. I am sorry, senor.”
“Where?” Josiah’s jaw clenched, but he would not release his anger on his friend.
“To Mexico.”
“Why in the blue devil would I want to go to Mexico?”
“To stop Liam O’Reilly.
“The Badger.”
“
“Why is he in Mexico?”
“To negotiate an alliance with Juan Cortina. If that happens, you are surely a dead man, Josiah Wolfe, and there is nothing I can do to save you.”
