Dead Man's Walk (36 page)

When the Rangers started south, they followed, though at a respectful distance.
"I expect they're afraid of that bear," Bigfoot said. "I don't blame 'em much.
The bear's in that direction." Call didn't think the bear was following them-- after all, it had a horse to eat, and an old man as well--but he admitted that it was hard to get the bear off his mind. He had supposed there could be nothing more fearsome in the West than the Comanches, but the great grizzly was a force even more formidable than Buffalo Hump. Even Buffalo Hump couldn't kill a horse just by hitting it.
He remembered how many times they had shot and stabbed the stubborn buffalo, before they got it to die. Yet, the grizzly was far stronger than the buffalo. What kind of gun would it take to kill a grizzly? He knew that men had killed bears, even grizzly bears, but having seen the bear scatter the militia, and reduce even Salazar to terror, he wondered what it would take to bring the beast down.
In any case, it was another reason to stay alert. If a bear could sneak up on a man, as it had on Bigfoot's friend Willy, it behooved them to be watchful.
Walking near dusk, they surprised six prairie chickens and managed to run them down.
The heavy birds could only fly a little distance.
The Rangers, with the help of the starving Mexican boys, managed to catch all of them. They crossed a little creek, just at dark, with a few trees around it, enough to enable them to have a good fire. They let Juan and Jos`e eat with them, and sleep near the fire--the boys just had thin clothes.
"That was luck," Bigfoot said, as they finished the last of the birds. "Caleb can't be too far, unless they've all been massacred. If we walk hard enough we ought to locate them tomorrow." Call thought that was probably only hopeful thinking. So far, nothing Bigfoot or any of the others had predicted had happened the way it was supposed to. The plain was a vast ocean of grass--Caleb could be anywhere on it. Even a troop of men could be easily lost in such a space.
This time, though, the scout's prediction was accurate. All day they walked steadily south on the sunlit plain. Toward evening, they saw smoke in the distance, rising into the deepening blue of the sky. Like the smoke from the chimneys of the village where they had been captured, the smoke was farther away than it looked. It grew full dark as they walked toward it--now and then, from a roll of the prairie, they could see the flicker of the campfires.
"But they might not be our campfires," Call pointed out. "They could be Mexican campfires." They stumbled on, the Mexican boys following apprehensively. Another hour passed before the fires were really close. No horses neighed, as they approached the fires. Gus began to feel fearful. He decided Call was right--it was probably Mexicans sitting around the fires, not Texans.
"We could just squat and wait for morning," he whispered. "Then we can see who it is--if it's Indians, we'd still have a chance to get away." "Shut up, they can hear you," Call said.
"I was whispering," Gus told him.
"Well, you whisper loud enough to wake the dead," Call said.
"Hold on--who's there?" a voice said, and at once relief swept over the Rangers, for the voice that challenged them was none other than Long Bill Coleman's.
"Billy, it's us--don't shoot!" Bigfoot called.
There was silence for a moment, as Long Bill absorbed what he had heard.
"Boys, is that you?" he asked.
"It's us, Bill," Gus said, so relieved he couldn't wait to speak.
"Why, that sounds like Gus McCrae," Bill Coleman said.
"It's us, Bill--it's us," Gus said, again.
Long Bill Coleman peered into the darkness as hard as he could, but he couldn't see a thing.
Despite the fact that the voices had sounded as if they were the voices of Bigfoot Wallace and Gus McCrae, he remained apprehensive.
It was an odd time of night for folks to be showing up. He had heard somewhere that Indians could do perfect imitations of white men's voices, much as they could imitate birdcalls and coyote howls.
He wanted to believe that the voices he was hearing were the voices of his friends--it was just that all the stories of Comanches imitating white men's voices weighted in his mind.
"If it's you, who's with you, then?" he called out, wondering if he was inviting a scalping. He cocked his gun, just to be on the safe side.
"Gus and Call and two prisoners," Bigfoot said. "Don't you know us?" Just at that moment Long Bill caught a glimpse of Bigfoot, and realized he had been too suspicious.
"Nerves, I'm jumpy," Long Bill said.
"Come on in, boys." "It's just us, Bill," Gus said, to reassure the man that no ambush was imminent.
"It's just us. We're back."
The arrival of the three Rangers, in leg irons, trailed by two shivering Mexican boys, aroused the whole camp. The blacksmith soon had the chains knocked off. There were some who favored chaining Jos`e and Juan, but Bigfoot wouldn't hear of it. The sight of so many Texans, all armed to the teeth, set both boys to quaking as if their last hour had come, and it would have come had some of the harsher spirits had their way. None were quite thirsty enough for Mexican blood to buck Bigfoot, though.
"Those boys don't want to fight," Bigfoot said. "They're too starved to fight, and so are we. What's to eat?" Caleb Cobb looked rueful.
"I'd like to lay out a banquet for you and the corporals, Mr. Wallace," Caleb said.
"I'm sure you deserve one, for making your way back to us under hazardous conditions." "Hazardous is right, a damn bear nearly killed us all," Gus piped up.
"If one of you had had the foresight to shoot the bear, then we could lay out a banquet," Caleb said. "As it is, we can't. We ran out of food yesterday. We don't have a goddamn thing to eat." "Nothing?" Gus asked, surprised.
"Not unless you can eat firewood," Long Bill said. "We're all hungry." Quartermaster Brognoli sat by one of the fires. His condition had not improved. He still looked glassy eyed and his head still shook.
"Hell, we would have done better to stay prisoners," Bigfoot said. "At least the Mexicans fed us corn. We even had soup when we were still in that little town." "We're close to the mountains--there'll be deer, I expect," Caleb said. "With a little luck we'll all have meat tomorrow." Call noticed at once that the company didn't seem as large as it had been when they left it, less than a week earlier. He missed a number of faces, though, in many cases, the faces were not those to which he could put a name. There just didn't seem to be as many men as there had been when they left. Jimmy Tweed was still there, tall and gangly, and Johnny Carthage, and Shadrach and Matilda, huddled around a fire to themselves. But the troop seemed diminished, and Bigfoot said as much to Caleb Cobb.
"Yes, several fools headed off on their own," Caleb admitted. "I expect they're all dead by now, from one cause or another. I didn't have enough ammunition to shoot them all, so I let them go. We're down to forty men." "Forty-three, now that you men are back," he added, a moment later.
"Forty-three, that's all?" Bigfoot asked.
"You had nearly two hundred when we left Austin." "The damn Missouri boys left first--I expect they'll all starve," Long Bill Coleman said. "Then a bunch went back to try and strike a river. I wouldn't be surprised if they starve, too." "I don't care who starves and who don't," Bigfoot said. "The Mexicans are bringing a thousand men against us. Salazar told me that. Even if they're mostly boys, like Juan and Jos`e, we'll have to shoot mighty good to whip a thousand men." Caleb Cobb looked undisturbed.
"I expect the figure's high," he said.
"I'll worry about a thousand Mexicans when I see them." "The man who took us prisoner said a general was coming," Call said--Salazar had dropped the remark while they were on the march.
"Well, there's generals and generals," Caleb said. "Maybe their general will be a drunk, like old Phil Lloyd." "Caleb, there's too many of them," Bigfoot said. "They're raising the whole country against us.
If you don't have enough bullets to shoot a few deserters, how are we going to whip a thousand men?" "You damn scouts are too pessimistic," Caleb said. "Let's go to sleep. Maybe we can wipe out a battalion and steal their ammunition." He walked off and settled himself by his own campfire, leaving the men apprehensive. Seeing the leg irons on the three Rangers had put the camp in a dour mood.
"We ought to turn back," Johnny Carthage said. "I can barely walk as it is. If they catch me and put me in leg irons I'll be lucky to keep up." "This is like it was the first time we went out," Call said. "Nobody knows what to do. We're worse off than we were with Major Chevallie.
We've got no food and no bullets, either.
We can't whip the Mexicans and we can't get home, either. We'll starve if we turn back, and they'll catch us all, if we don't." Gus had no rejoinder. The fact that there was no food in camp had left him in soggy spirits.
All during the long, cold walk, through the snow and drizzle, he consoled himself with the prospect of hardy eating once they got back to their companions. Maybe someone would have killed a buffalo--he had visions of fat buffalo ribs, dripping over a fire.
But there were no buffalo ribs--there was not even corn mush. He had eaten nothing since the prairie chickens--he felt he might become too weak to move, if he didn't get food soon.
"At least the Mexicans fed us," he said, echoing Bigfoot's remark. "I'd rather be taken prisoner than starve to death." Caleb Cobb's indifference to their plight annoyed Call. The man had led them so far out on the plain that they couldn't get back--and yet the company was so weakened and so badly supplied that they couldn't expect to defeat a Mexican army, either. He wondered if he would live long enough to serve under a military leader who really knew what he was doing. So far, he had not found one who could survive the country itself, much less one who could beat the country and the enemy. Buffalo Hump, with only nine men, had nearly destroyed Major Chevallie's command, and now Caleb Cobb's force of two hundred men had dwindled to forty before it even got to its destination.
There was nothing to do but keep the campfires going and wait for morning. They made a fire not far from where Shadrach lay with Matilda. The old man was coughing constantly. Matilda came over briefly, to welcome them back. She looked dispirited, though.
"This bad weather's bad for Shad," she said.
"I'm afraid if it don't dry up he'll die. I do my best to keep him warm, but he's getting worse, despite me." Indeed, the old mountain man coughed all night --long, heaving coughs. Gus finally got warm enough to stretch out and sleep, but Call was awake all night. He didn't leave the fire and walk, as he often did, but he didn't sleep, either.
Both the Mexican boys came and sat with him.
They were fearful of all Texans, except the three they knew.
Finally, just as grey light was edging across the long plain, Call slept a little, but the sleep produced a nightmare in which the great bear and Buffalo Hump both attacked the troop. Men were falling and running, and he had become separated from his weapons and could not defend himself. He saw arrows going into Long Bill Coleman; the great bear had knocked Gus down and was snarling over him. Call wanted to attack the bear, but he had nothing but his hands. Then he saw Buffalo Hump catch Bigfoot and slash at his head with a knife. Bigfoot's head came off, and the huge Comanche held it up and cried a terrible war cry.
"Wake up ... Woodrow ... you've skeert the camp!" Matilda said, shaking him out of his dream. Juan and Jos`e were staring at him as if he had gone mad. Gus still slept, but men from the other campfires were rousing themselves and looking at Call, who felt deeply embarrassed by the scrutiny.
"I didn't mean to scare folks," he said, his hands shaking. "I was just dreaming about that bear."
The troop, hungry, cold, and discouraged, had marched only five miles when they topped a rise and saw the Mexican army camped on the plain before them. The encampment seemed to cover the whole plain; it stretched far back toward the mountains.
Bigfoot saw the camp first and motioned for the troop to hold up, but the signal came too late. Two Indian scouts on fast horses were already speeding back toward the Mexican camp.
Caleb Cobb was the only man on horseback. He rode to the crest of the ridge and surveyed the encampment, silently.
"I told you they'd raise the whole country," Bigfoot said.
"Shut up, I'm counting," Caleb said. He had his spyglass out and was looking the Mexicans over--if he was alarmed he didn't show it.
Bigfoot, though, immediately saw something he didn't like.
"Colonel, they have cavalry," he said.
"I'd make it at least a hundred horses." "More than a hundred," Caleb said, without removing his spyglass from his eye. "That's what I'm counting. I make it a hundred and fifty horses." Then he took the spyglass out of his eye and looked around at the men. He was astride the only horse.
"That beats us by one hundred and forty-nine horses, I guess," he said.
"Hell, they've even got a cannon," Bigfoot said. "They drug a cannon all this way, thinking we was an army." "We are an army, Mr. Wallace," Caleb said. "We're just a small army. It looks like we're up against superior numbers." "Not all armies can fight," Shadrach said.
"Maybe they're an army of boys, like these two here. We're an army of men." Call and Gus stood looking at the assembled Mexicans, wondering what would happen.
"I guess we need a herd of bears," Call said. "Ten or twelve big bears could probably scatter them like that one bear scattered that first bunch." Long Bill Coleman began to look around for cover--only there was no cover, only rolling prairie. Shadrach was still coughing, but he had his long rifle in his hand and seemed invigorated by the prospect of battle. Matilda had even acquired a rifle from someone--she planted herself by Shadrach.
The troop stood together, and watched the two scouts race toward the Mexican camp.
"Them scouts were Mescalero Apache," Bigfoot said. "Those hills are their country.
The Mexicans must have paid them big, because Apaches don't usually work for Mexicans." The arrival of the Texans, in plain view on the ridge, put the whole Mexican encampment into a ferment of activity. The cavalrymen raced to saddle their mounts, many of which were skittish and resistant. Everywhere men were loading guns and making ready for war. In the center of the encampment was a huge white tent.
"I expect that's where the general sleeps," Caleb said. "I regret losing my canoe." "Why?" Bigfoot asked. "We're on dry land." "I know, but if I had my canoe I'd hurry back with it to the nearest river, and I'd paddle down whatever stream it was until I came to the Arkansas, and then I'd paddle down the Arkansas until I came to the Mississippi, and then I'd paddle right on down Old Miss until I struck New Orleans." He stopped and smiled at Brognoli, who stared back, glassy eyed.