Slocum and the Comanche Captive Page 9

  “Of course.”

  Slocum danced slowly with her in the dirt, circling around the red light. They went around smoothly as if on a polished dance floor.

  “Where’s my partner Heck?” he asked her under his breath. “You seen him?”

  She looked up at him and grinned as if slightly embarrassed. “Oh, he and Rosa are having their own fandango.”

  “So I ain’t lost him.” Slocum laughed softly and took a better hitch on his hand around her waist. They danced away in easy circles.

  “No problem,” Matilda said, and looked up at him. “The señora? Paco said the Comanches kidnapped her.”

  “Mary’s a fine lady. She lost her husband and son too.”

  Matilda nodded as he swung her around to the music. “It is not a good time. Both of my husbands were killed.”

  “Comanche?”

  “Banditos the first, and maybe Indians killed the second one.”

  He looked off into the starlit night. The killing never stopped. The war was over and another begun—maybe more than one. The thought made his guts roil as the soft music filled the night and he spun the firm-bodied Matilda around in a circle.

  Maybe, maybe they would soon be moving cattle.

  11

  The help worked wonders. In three days they had removed most of the yokes and a herd was established. Slocum had never seen such work before from Mexicans, and they enjoyed it. Riding straight-backed in their saddles and recoiling their lariats, they rode for the next cows wearing yokes, laughing and teasing all day about a hock that someone missed catching or a fighting steer that tried to hook a man on foot with his horn tip. The two boys gathered a growing pile of the wooden yokes.

  Horses bucked and threw a few, but most riders were learning fast. The tougher broncs were assigned to the better riders like Montag and Felipe. Most of the jump was gone from them after a few tough days roping and hauling around big steers. The week drew to a close, and the outfit was ready to make a new camp north of the present one. This left some of the less experienced men as herders to hold the cattle in a bunch and eventually move them up the line.

  Slocum, Mary, and the boy Tomas took the four team horses they picked out of the remuda to Rio Frio. All had shoulder scars from being under collars and harnesses— they also acted like teams. Two horses that had been worked a lot soon became paired. Obviously stolen or strayed from some operation, they’d be the best ones, Slocum felt.

  Goeserman had found a second cart, and they improvised to hitch it behind the first. The storekeeper even discovered some solid sun-bleached bows so the rigs could be covered with a tarp. Mary and the women sewed openings in each end that could be shut with a cord. Then, with a flap to go over the cooking area, Goeserman produced some peeled cedar posts with iron pegs driven in the ends to use for corners. Mary smiled all day working on her tasks.

  “Won’t we be the outfit with all this!”

  Slocum stopped and nodded. “I ain’t sure what it’s costing us.” He glanced toward the store. “But it’ll sure be better than some things I’ve been on.”

  The work was completed by dark, and Gresalda invited the three of them to dinner. She fussed over Tomas.

  “Where is your family?”

  “In Sonora, Señora.”

  “Do you miss them?”

  “Oh, sometimes my madre, but Señor Slocum he feeds us good.”

  “He does?”

  “Sí, I have never been hungry since I got to his camp.”

  “That’s wonderful.”

  “No, Señora, I thank God every day for him.”

  “And you can use that too,” Mary said in a whisper to Slocum.

  He nodded and smiled. Eating every day was a luxury to many people including, many times, himself, going back to the war even. He could recall a small white hen he’d caught in a burned-out farm. A treasure overlooked somehow by past invaders. How he and his corporal had picked and dressed it, then slowly cooked it over a hot fire on a makeshift spit. Best chicken he ever ate, including his own mother’s fried chicken, which drew saliva to his mouth when he thought about the flavor. That particular meal came after two days of grazing on watercress they’d found in various clear spring runoffs as they scouted the countryside in search of Yankee outfits. The waterborne plants were not the most nutritious or filling, so the fowl they shared that night in the smoldering ruins tasted like pure manna from heaven.

  With daylight breaking, the two hitched teams hit the collars to move the tandem carts loaded with supplies. Slocum rode with a lead on the left horse, Mary on the right one. That way, if the teams spooked, they couldn’t run off. Slocum and Mary could hold them back and protect the supplies and food in the wagons.

  An anxious Tomas held the reins and looked very pale. Nonetheless, he had no intention of disappointing his boss, and with white knuckles held the reins for the four horses like a true stage driver.

  “Ready, Tomas?” Slocum asked

  “Sí, patrón.”

  “Cluck to them softly at first.”

  The boy made a soft sound and the lead team began to dance. Slocum nodded to Mary, and then he waved to the storekeeper and others on the porch. The outfit was off for Missouri, or at least in that direction. He didn’t know about the rest—time would tell.

  Tomas soon was driving the team, but Slocum kept Diamond alongside the leader in case anything spooked them. He nodded for Mary to toss the lead rope over the other team’s leader.

  “They should be fine,” he said. “I don’t want them to run off with all our food on board.”

  She agreed and smiled. “Going great.”

  “Yes.” For the moment anyway.

  Past noon, they were in camp and the women ran over to examine the supplies he’d brought back. He dismounted and began to unhitch the first team, loosening the tugs from the singletree. Mary held the reins while Tomas undid his tugs and neck yoke. When the horses were unhitched, they began to strip off the harnesses and collars, careful to pile the gear in place so it was ready to be reused on the same horses.

  “Will all that food get us to Missouri?” Matilda asked him under her breath as he put down the second set of gear.

  He straightened and reset his felt hat and looked hard at her. “We’ll probably need more.”

  “No problem, Señor. I meant it must be a long way up there.”

  “Far enough.”

  “I will use it with care.”

  “Good, it costs many dollars. I must pay the storekeeper back when we sell the cattle.”

  “Señor?”

  “Yes?” Mary brought him his horse.

  “God be with you.” Then the woman crossed herself.

  “And you too, Matilda.” He swung into the saddle. “We’ll all need his help before we can get there.”

  “What was wrong?” Mary asked when they were out of earshot.

  “She merely wondered how far away Sedalia was and how to ration out the food.”

  “Oh, I see. She is such a caring person.”

  “Yes, let’s find Paco and Heck. We need this carnival on the road.”

  Mary laughed. “I thought we were gypsies.”

  “Them too.”

  “All those flags and bells. Sounded like them coming in that day.”

  Slocum chuckled, but he was watching a large thunder-head that had been building all day in the southwest. It had reached serious downpour heights and looked headed for them later. Great bilious clouds were stacking higher and higher in the sky, mushrooming in rapid enough fashion to make him uneasy.

  “You head back for camp and tell them to tie everything down. We’re going to have lightning, thunder, high winds, and hail, plus flooding rain in a few hours.”

  She blinked at him, reining up her horse. “What will you do?”

  “Try to keep the cattle herd together.”

  “Oh, Slocum be careful. They—they’ll stampede.”

  “It may test all of us this evening.”

  She r
eined her horse back around. “I’ll do the best I can at camp. You be careful.”

  He nodded in approval, watched her race off, and then he turned Diamond westward. He needed to find the herd and get them on the move before the storm struck. The ominous growing clouds made him hurry.

  He discovered Paco and Heck unyoking another pair of cattle.

  “You get the supplies all right?” Heck asked, coiling up his lariat and heading for his horse.

  “Got everything I asked for and more. But those clouds out there are brewing up a goose drowneder.” Slocum gave a head toss toward the clouds.

  “What should we do, amigo?” Paco asked, sitting his dun horse and looking out of the corner of his eye at the clouds as he recoiled his lariat.

  “Line them up and move them in a line until we’re out from under it.”

  “Why do that?” Heck asked.

  “You can never hold a herd in a bad storm. They’d break and run every way. In a column, they’ll be closer to us when we go look for the stragglers.”

  “Never thought of that.” Heck shook his head. “I’ve got lots to learn about cattle driving.”

  “We all do. Paco, get the two best riders for swing men. Maybe we can find a lead steer in this mess to bell.”

  “Bell?” Heck asked.

  “Yes, I made some cattle drives during the war and picked up some pointers. Most drives have a bell lead steer so the cattle will follow him. I helped some drovers in Mississippi drive some Texas cattle to the troops during the war.”

  “Where do we get one?” Heck asked.

  “I think, we survive this, we’ll have us one that shows up as the leader.”

  “Good, I’ll be looking.”

  “How many head have we got?”

  “Paco and I think close to three hundred,” Heck said.

  “A good-size bunch to start on. Get those two and we’ll talk swing riders with them,” Slocum said to Paco, who tore off to find them.

  “I’ll get all the riders north of here,” Heck said.

  “Good idea,” Slocum said. “I’ll ride south, get them, and meet back here.”

  Slocum parted with Heck and short-loped Diamond, standing up looking for any sign of more riders. The growl of the distant storm floating across the land made his stomach roil. They needed to hurry or else they might lose a large portion of the herd.

  At the top of a rise, he spotted two riders working a yoked team. The Santiago sisters had one steer heeled and down. The girls looked like twins—slender bodies dressed in buckskin pants. One girl shook the head holder loose on the steer on his knees until he came free, then began to work on the downed one. It came harder, and the critter began to flop and bellow like she was killing him. Holding the yoke upright, she wrestled to free him, but it looked hopeless until Slocum drew up short and it came loose.

  The freed steer jumped to his feet and took off for far west Texas with the other one on his heels. Both girls were laughing as they coiled up their ropes. Slenderly built as young boys and ready to remount, the Santiago sisters looked a little shocked at his approach.

  “Any other riders around?” he asked, looking over the country.

  The one with the beauty mark on her check, Vonda, shook her head. “No, Señor. Paco sent us to find these.”

  He pointed to the towering storm. “That’s going to blow in some hail and bad weather. We need to get the cattle on the move so they don’t stampede.”

  “Where will we take them?” Estelle asked, getting on her paint horse in one leap off the ground. Both girls rode buffalo ponies and were busy tying their lariats on their saddles.

  “North—that’s where we want to end up. Find Paco and he can tell you more.”

  “What about those two steers that ran away?” Vonda asked with a head toss toward the fleeing pair.

  “Get them later. We better ride.” The air was still, hot, and it was hard to even take a breath.

  He led the way and they raced for the herd. When he topped the ridge, he could see that Heck, Paco, and the two swing riders had the herd heading out. His plan might work.

  “Drive the ones that break out of the herd back in,” he shouted at the girls as the first cold blast struck his face. The girls were gone in a flash and he joined the drag riders.

  Spooked by the growing thunder and flashes of lightning, the herd was becoming hard to hold. He could see that the riders were doing a good job in the face of such a disturbance crashing into them. The motion of heading out soon occupied the animals, and they fell in line, rapidly moving in a great string stretched over a quarter mile long toward the North Star.

  A huge shadow like a giant hovering hawk swept over them. Slocum undid his slicker and managed to get it on as large icy drops struck him. The incisive downpour soon shortened his vision. Ice pellets bounced off his hat brim and shoulders. Some hit hard enough to sting, but the raucous sound of the wind and hail deafened even the confused cattle’s bawling and horn-knocking. A stream ran off the brim of his hat like a waterfall and he knew if the rain continued for long at that rate, the draws would soon be rivers. Still, he could see cattle on his right in a long line following the leader and not scattering to hell and back.

  Then, through the sheets of rain, he spotted a figure on foot, looking to dodge any cattle and find a ride. Slocum pushed Diamond in close and put out his arm for the half-drowned puncher. He was surprised when one of the sisters leaped on behind him.

  “You all right?”

  “Sí, my horse went down. May have broke his leg. You seen Vonda?” she shouted over the roar, hugging tight to him.

  “No. But she’ll be fine.”

  “I know, but she’ll be looking for me.”

  “We’ll find her—” His words were cut off by the boom of thunder over their heads.

  Lightning flashed and blinded him for a moment, then more rumbling. It wasn’t going to slack off for a while. But the bawling cattle were at least, for the most part, getting in line. His rider clinging to him, he pushed on parallel to what he could see of the herd in the deluge.

  Slocum charged over a rise, and several steers on his right went end over end. Circling back, he watched the confusion and jamming. The pileup threatened to break up the column. He booted Diamond toward them and he and Estelle screamed and waved the cattle back into the line. It worked, and he reined up Diamond to watch the column flying past and even jumping over the downed ones.

  Satisfied, he pushed Diamond on in a hard trot.

  “I thought they would break up there,” she said, leaning forward to be heard over the racket.

  “It could have happened. They want to be in the safety of the herd if you encourage them.”

  “I’m learning today. We’ve worked lots of cattle, but never in a storm like this.”

  Then as fast as it came, the clouds moved to the northeast and the shiny stream of sleek cattle slowed to a walk. Wet riders began to reappear in their places along the snaking line of longhorns. Time to circle them back, Slocum decided, and set Diamond in a lope for the front.

  He slid Diamond to a stop at Paco. “Turn them back in a big circle. We need to let them graze some here and count our crew.”

  “You have one, I see.”

  “She’s fine. But she’s worried she lost her buffalo horse. We’ll go back and find out.”

  “I’ll have them circle and spread them out, mi amigo. You seen Heck?”

  Slocum frowned. “No, but he’s somewhere out here.”

  “I’ll go look too.”

  “I hope they made it all right in camp.”

  “Mary there?”

  “Yes, I sent her back to help them buckle down.”

  “Man, that was a bad one.” Paco looked off at the tall cloud formation in the sky moving away from them.

  “We may see worse.”

  Paco laughed. “I guess there is no way to make easy money, is there?”

  “Rob banks, I guess.”

  Paco shook his head. “Oh, t
hey catch you, that would be worse.”

  Slocum agreed and rode off to find his passenger’s horse.

  Near the site of the wreck, he spotted a broken-legged steer hobbling around on three legs and bawling. The women could make jerky out of him. “I’ll send the boys back to butcher him.”

  “Sí. I thought there would be more,” Estelle said, scooting around to make her seat behind him.

  “We haven’t seen all of them yet.”

  “I sure liked that horse—Diablo. I’ll hate it if he broke his leg.”

  “He may have only sprained it.”

  “I hope so. I see now how those Comanche can ride in and shoot a buffalo from off a horse. He has no fear.”

  “People say they are the greatest horsemen on the plains.”

  “If they have horses like him, it wouldn’t be hard.”

  “There.” He pointed to the saddled paint horse standing head down, slick with the rainwater dripping off him.

  She bounded off and with her hand out, spoke softly, headed toward the horse when he threw up his head. Acting undecided, he stood his ground until she swept up the reins and he snorted at her. She lifted the reins and he stepped forward, and a wave of relief swept her smooth coffee-colored face as he circled her with his head high.

  “Go easy on him a few days. He may have sprained it in the fall. Looks great to me. Lead him in.”

  She ran over and gave Slocum the reins. “Oh, thank the Virgin Mary.” Jumping on behind him in a bound, she crossed herself. “Mother of God . . .”

  Her sister soon came short-loping over the rise from the east on her black piebald with a bald face. She slid him up short of Diamond.

  “You are all right?” Vonda asked her sister with a frown.

  “I’m fine. So is Diablo. He fell and I lost him in the rain.”

  “Any of the other riders get hurt that you know about?” Slocum asked Vonda, looking over the greasewood shining with water.

  “Grande Juan’s horse broke a leg, but he is all right.”

  Slocum nodded to Estelle. “You can ride double with her. I better get a cart and butcher that steer back there.”