Ole Devil at San Jacinto (Old Devil Hardin Western Book 4) (13 page)

‘
Whooee!’ the lieutenant ejaculated,
when he had heard what they intended to do. ‘That will be
something, if we can pull it off.’

Before Ole Devil could make any reply, they
heard bugles blowing the alarm from the other regiments’ camps.

‘
The Mexicans are coming!’ yelled a
voice and the cry was taken up elsewhere.

‘
Do you know something,
Mr. Dimmock,’ Ole Devil drawled, displaying no alarm.
‘I had a feeling
this was going to happen.’

‘
This is our third day out
and still no sign of the Mexicans
,’ remarked Lieutenant Paul Dimmock
as he rode with Ole Devil Hardin and Tommy Okasi in a westward
direction just before noon on April 6. Then a wry grin came to his
face and he went on, ‘There doesn’t even seem to be hide nor hair
of that bunch who caused all the fuss around San Felipe the night
before we left.’

‘
Very wise and ancient
Nipponese saying
—’ the little Oriental commenced.

‘
Which he’s just made up,’ chorused
the two Texians.

‘
It
is better to be
assailed by a thousand imaginary attackers than one who is real,’
Tommy finished, refusing to be put off by the
interruption.

‘
Is
that
a
wise
saying?’ Dimmock
inquired of Ole Devil, although they both knew to what the little
Oriental was referring.

Every section of the Republic of
Texas’s Army assembled around San Felipe had stood to arms all
through the night in question, but no attack was made. In fact,
apart from voices calling insulting messages and threatening the
wrath which would descend very shortly, there had been no evidence
of hostile presences in the vicinity. Only a few of the Texians had
been perceptive enough to notice that the callers’ broken English
accents were more like those of Anglos impersonating
Chicanos
than Mexicans
employing a foreign tongue. Some of the more discerning had put
this down to a deception on the part of white renegades, several of
whom were known to be serving
Presidente
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who had no desire to
let their countrymen know they were there.

A few others knew, or suspected, the
truth.

Being both shrewd and
determined, Corrinne Hallistead had not merely been content to hope
that there would be
no further incidents between the Texians and the New
Orleans’ Wildcats. Instead, working with a willing ‘Deaf’ Smith,
she had concocted a plot based upon her questions regarding how the
news that Mexicans were in the vicinity would be received. The two
scouts who had helped Ole Devil disperse the crowd after the duel
were told to ride out of the town and return to raise a false
alarm. Then, to make sure that everybody remained at their posts,
the aged Chief of Scouts and his men had been responsible for the
various challenges and threats from the darkness. Finally, they had
come back shortly after dawn claiming that they had been searching
for the enemy, who had now withdrawn and was too far away to make
pursuit worthwhile.

Such was Smith’s reputation that nobody
thought to question his report. Even those who had suspected what
really happened, Ole Devil being one of them, realized that he had
acted for the best and no harm was done. In fact, so successful was
the ruse that the contretemps of the previous day had been
forgotten, or at least ignored.

Having been taken into
Corrinne’s confidence, without divulging the truth, Colonel Jules
Dumoulin had convinced his regiment that there was no prospect of
battle ensuing and that they would probably have a greater chance
of seeing action when they arrived at Harrisburg. So they had been
too busy making the final preparations for departure to find
further opportunities to create friction with their Texian
compatriots.
^xxviii

In accordance with his orders,
Ole Devil had left early in the morning following the disturbed
night. Once clear of San Felipe and satisfied that they were not
being observed, he, Tommy and Dimmock had separated from
Company
‘C’.
They had not gone far in their usual attire.

Although Ole Devil had bowed to
Mangrove Hallistead’s superior wisdom on the matter and had, in
fact, never seriously contemplated that they should try to
penetrate to the
center of Santa Anna’s force disguised as Mexicans, he had
known there would be little hope of achieving their purpose dressed
in the uniform of the Texas Light Cavalry.

Having been involved in much fighting since
the previous year’s successes, his regiment was well known to their
foes. In his and Dimmock’s case, avoiding recognition had simply
entailed changing into other, readily available, garments.

Unfortunately, Tommy Okasi’s
features were certain to arouse curiosity no matter how he dressed.
In consultation with Hallistead, he had produced a most
satisfactory solution. With the aid of the entertainer and certain
items obtained from the local pharmacist, he had concocted a very
effective brown stain.
^xxix
Ole Devil had been amazed by the
change that was made by its application, by wearing a wig of long
and lank black hair and by donning the appropriate
clothing.

As Hallistead had observed,
although lacking a ‘hawk’ nose, Tommy’s facial characteristics were
closer to those of an Indian than a Mexican. The effect of the
curious trait known as the ‘shovel incisor’
—whereby the inner surfaces of the
upper teeth were concave, as though scooped out—combined with the
folds of the fleshy lids which gave his eyes their slanted aspect,
made him look, after his skin had been tinted to a dark coppery
bronze, passable as a member of the former ethnic group. The
impression was increased by the wig, held back by a red headband, a
multi-hued shirt, buckskin trousers and moccasins with knee high
leggings.

While it might have been argued
that the little Oriental’s
daisho
was unlike any known form of Indian armament, Ole
Devil hoped to avoid close enough contact for questions to be asked
about them. Tommy’s bow—which he was carrying unstrung through two
loops attached to the left side skirt of his big brown gelding’s
low horned, double girthed saddle—was almost double the length of
the type used by red archers, but there was nothing noticeably
different about the quiver of arrows hanging across his back so
that the flights would be accessible to his right hand. Only the
unique Japanese patterns of points on the shafts might have given a
warning, but they were out of sight.

For their part, Ole Devil and
Dimmock wore high crowned black Mexican
sombreros
with large and curly brims, buckskin
shirts and trousers, the legs of the latter hanging outside their
Hessian boots. Like Tommy, they had retained their own saddles and
weapons. In that day and age, neither the arms on their belts nor
the second pistol and saber suspended from the saddlehorns were so
unusual as to arouse comment. An innovation that was fitted to each
rig, although it had not yet come into general use in Texas, was a
leather ‘boot’ to carry a rifle—its butt pointing to the rear for
easy withdrawal on dismounting—strapped to the near side skirt.
This effectively concealed the more unusual aspects of Ole Devil’s
Browning Slide Repeating rifle.
^xxx
Only one thing might have been seen
that was out of the ordinary. On the rear of his waist belt was a
leather pouch containing three loaded magazines for the latter
weapon.

Traveling westward, the three
young men had followed a route parallel to and just out of sight of
that which had been taken during the withdrawal. They had kept a
careful watch on the surrounding terrain, but had seen no sign of
human life. The area they were traversing had been deserted by
Texians and
Chicanos.
Nor did even the advance guard of the Mexican Army appear
to have reached it. Guided by Dimmock, whose home was a few miles
to the northwest, the trio had crossed the Colorado River the
previous night and were continuing with their, as yet, abortive
quest. At that moment, they were out in the open and making for the
shelter offered by some woodland.

Glancing at the lieutenant, Ole
Devil felt relieved by the change in his spirits. Despite the fact
that he had accepted that the way in which the
Creoles
had been dealt with was to the
benefit of everybody concerned, he had grown moody and
uncommunicative. It was obvious that he still felt deeply disturbed
by the thought that he had left some good friends behind when
escaping from the massacre at Goliad, and was worried about how
other people might regard his actions. For the first two days, he
had been so preoccupied that Ole Devil had wondered if including
him in the party had been such a sound idea after all. However, his
comments suggested that he might be coming out of his
depression.

‘
I’ve
another saying, just
as ancient and wise,’ Tommy said, in an almost matter of fact tone,
but stiffening slightly and swinging his gaze to a large grove of
post oak trees something over a quarter of a mile to the south. ‘If
a man speaks of evil, it comes to him.’

‘
At least, it’s
no
worse
than most of
your
ancient and wise sayings,’ Ole Devil declared, with no
greater show of emotion, as he looked in the direction indicated by
his smaller companion.

‘
What do we do,
run?
’
asked Dimmock, duplicating the other two’s actions. ‘With a head
start like this, they’ll never catch us.’

Studying the grove which had drawn their
attention, Ole Devil silently conceded that the remark had merit
and justification.

Several riders were emerging
from the grove, going eastwards. All appeared to be well mounted
and sat their horses with easy capability. Armed with pistols,
knives and lances, they had on the
charro
clothing of
vaqueros.
However there was nothing to indicate
whether they were friendly
Chicanos
or members of the Mexican Army.
Vaqueros
had left
their
haciendas
to serve in the forces of both sides, and many who
supported the Texians carried lances. Furthermore, there was a
third alternative. They could be
bandidos
taking advantage of the present disturbed
state of affairs to gather loot and plunder.

Only one thing was obvious. The
score or so horsemen had not become aware of the trio’s presence
before riding from the grove. Catching sight of Ole Devil and his
companions, they seemed indecisive as to what line of action to
pursue. In the forefront of the party was a tall, slender man on a
magnificent
palomino
gelding. If the elegance of his clothing and the quantity
of silver inlaid on his saddlery was any guide, he was not only the
youngest but the most wealthy of them. Pointing at the three
Texians, he turned and spoke excitedly to the stocky, older rider
at his right side and received either a refusal or an objection to
his proposal.

‘
We’ll
talk,
’
Ole Devil decided, bringing his big black gelding to a halt.
Keeping hold of the split ended reins in his left hand, he elevated
it and its mate to shoulder level. ‘If they’ll let us, that
is.’

There was nothing rash, or
unconsidered, about the young captain’s decision. As always, he had
studied the situation and planned in the light of his deductions.
From what he
had seen and deduced, he felt justified in taking the
calculated risk.

Based on his observations of the
riders’ appearances and behavior, every instinct Ole Devil
possessed suggested that they were members of Santa Anna’s force.
Their attire was not that of the Mexican Army’s regular cavalry,
but many volunteer regiments had been recruited to help put down
the rebellion. The behavior of the two men in the lead implied that
they could belong to such a regiment. Frequently, when the owner
of
a,
hacienda
allowed his son to take
vaqueros
for enlistment, he included an older
employee to act as adviser and controller of the rest.

There were indications that the
party were neither
Chicanos
raiding west of the Colorado River without having reported
their intentions to Major General Samuel Houston, nor a gang of
marauding
bandidos.
In either case, they would have been carrying at least some
of their belongings with them. Apart from serapes, there was
nothing strapped to the cantles of their saddles and the three pack
horses which accompanied them were equally devoid of burdens. It
would be a poor bunch of
bandidos
who had come so far without acquiring any loot, or
a remarkably trusting group to have left their property in the care
of the other members of their band.