Ole Devil at San Jacinto (Old Devil Hardin Western Book 4) (15 page)

Having ensured that the majority
of their captors would
be kept out of the way, Ole Devil had also been
successful in preventing a reduction in the size of his
party.
When
Abamillo demanded that Tommy act as guide, Ole Devil had
refused. He had pointed out that Santa Anna might want to make use
of the little ‘Northern Creek Indian’s’ services and would want to
know why they were not available. Knowing that many senior officers
were looking out for desirable properties, Hernandez had not wanted
that to happen and advised his superior accordingly.

Once the journey had been
resumed, Ole Devil had turned his thoughts to ridding himself of
the unwanted escort. He had dismissed the idea of merely trying to
escape. Even if they had succeeded, it would have the same
undesirable effect as if they had escaped at the first meeting.
Furthermore, having lost their charges, the
vaqueros
would rejoin their companions.
Hernandez was no fool and would realize they had been tricked. So
he would waste no time in delivering a warning to
el
Presidente.

With escape ruled out, the Texian decided to
employ trickery. He considered two items were in his favor.

Firstly, none of the escort knew
the supposed reason for the trio being sent to Santa Anna. While
Hernandez had returned the reward poster to Ole Devil, he had
neither shown nor mentioned it to any of his men. So, as far as
they were aware, they were doing no more than delivering a trio of
renegades to report to
el Presidente.

Secondly, the Texian had noticed
the sullen reluctance of the men selected by the sergeant. So he
had deduced that none of them were pleased to have been given such
an assignment. That had become increasingly apparent the further
they had gone from their superiors. While the five enlisted men had
not resorted to actual abuse as they were riding along, it had been
made very clear that they were turning their resentment towards Ole
Devil and his companions. However, while the burly Corporal Moreno
obviously shared the other
vaqueros’
sentiments, he was a loud mouthed braggart who
enjoyed the sound of his own voice. So Ole Devil had had no
difficulty in persuading him to talk and had learned much that was
of interest. The more he had heard, the greater had grown his
confidence that they would be able to achieve a separation in a way
which would prevent repercussions.

One important item had been
that, for some unexplained
reason, Santa Anna’s force was travelling some
five miles south of the withdrawing Texians line of march, and had
started to cross the Colorado River that morning. There was another
piece of news which Ole Devil felt would be helpful to his plans
for losing the escort. In spite of the colonists’ refusal to carry
out Major General Samuel Houston’s ‘scorched earth’ policy, the
large army of Mexicans were having great difficulty finding
sufficient food to sustain them. With the exception of
el Presidente
and his staff, the
whole column was on short rations. It was that point, even more
than a natural truculence and an inborn antipathy towards any kind
of foreigner, which was causing the escort’s bitterness.

Listening to Moreno’s boasting,
Ole Devil had confirmed his suspicions about the status of the
Zacatecas Lancers. They were a volunteer regiment only recently
recruited from
vaqueros
employed on the
haciendas
of that State. Eager for action, they had arrived
too late to participate in the siege at the Alamo Mission. Like the
New Orleans’ Wildcats at San Felipe, they had soon become bored
with inactivity and disillusioned by the passive role they were
playing. Furthermore, they were not used to being as short of food
as they had found themselves during the march to the east. Needing
to quieten the growing disenchantment among his men and prevent
wholesale desertion, their colonel had taken to sending out
platoons on combined scouting, foraging and, if the opportunity
presented itself, looting missions.

Now that their turn had finally
come, with the prospect of at least two days away from the dreary
routine of the uneventful pursuit, none of the six
vaqueros
relished the
prospect of a premature return to the main body. A keen judge of
human nature, Ole Devil was confident that he could persuade them
there was no need to do so. Nothing he had seen of them led him to
assume that they were sufficiently disciplined to stick rigidly to
orders of which they disapproved. So he had decided to make his
attempt when they reached the woodland that fringed the Colorado
River and were resting their horses prior to crossing its cold and
uninviting waters.

Using the skill which in later
years would make him a capable diplomat, Ole Devil prepared his
ground carefully. After expressing his loyalty to Santa Anna and
disdain for
the fleeing Texians, he hinted at a means by which the
escort could rejoin the rest of their platoon instead of making the
chilly swim and long ride to the main body. While suggesting that
Moreno told Hernandez that they had turned over the
gringos
to a patrol they had
met, he noticed the other five Mexicans talking quietly and
furtively together. Then the surly looking
vaquero,
who had been the most vociferous in
complaining about the assignment, made his provocative remark.
There was no doubt that he had intended it should be heard by Ole
Devil, Tommy and Dimmock.

‘
You’re right about that,
Orlando,’ agreed a thickset, scar-faced man, also eyeing the trio
in a challenging fashion as he and his companions walked
forward.
‘I’ve never met a
gringo
, or an Indian, who could fight worth a
damn.’

Studying the approaching
vaqueros,
Ole Devil could tell
that they were up to no good. Only two of them were carrying
lances, but the remainder were fingering either the pistols thrust
into or the knives sheathed on their belts.

One thing was obvious to the young
captain.

If the quintet were bent on
mischief and their behavior suggested that was
very
likely, Moreno was not the man to
stop them. In fact, the way he stepped aside indicated that he had
guessed their intentions and was prepared to give them his full
support.

‘
Look at that bunch down
at Goliad,’ sneered one of the pair who had retained his lance
instead of leaving it stuck in the ground. Tall, lean and
dandified, he was the youngest of the
vaqueros
and was obviously determined to
convince the others of his toughness. Swaggering ahead of his
companions, with the weapon held in the ‘high port’ position in
front of him, he went on, ‘There were over four hundred of them and
they gave up without firing a shot. Then on Palm Sunday, from what
I heard, they went to their knees crying like women and begging
Urrea’s men not to kill them. All except the ones who ran away and
left the rest to—’

By sheer misfortune, from Ole Devil’s point
of view, the speaker was directing the mocking words at the one
member of his party who was most susceptible to such taunts.

‘
You damned liar!’ Dimmock roared,
springing forward.

Having spent the past eleven
years in Texas and with
Chicanos
for companions, the lieutenant spoke their
language even more fluently than his superior. Ole Devil had
learned it from a Spanish sailor during a two years’ voyage on his
father’s merchant ship. So Dimmock had been equally able to
understand all that was being said. What was more, he had realized
that his superior was trying to relieve them of the escort’s
undesirable attendance. With that in mind, galling as it might be,
he was prepared to allow the two older
vaqueros’
comments to pass unchallenged.
However, the dandy’s reference to the incidents at Goliad had
proved more than he could swallow.

The lieutenant knew that a
number of the men belonging to the ill-fated Fort Defiance
contingent, himself included, had been willing to make a fight of
it when the Tamaulipa Brigade had first come upon them. They were
overruled by Colonel James Walker Fannin who had claimed that
General
José
Urrea would be more inclined to show them mercy if no casualties
were inflicted upon his force.

What was more, when the column of prisoners
had been waylaid, they were being taken to what they were led to
believe was freedom. As Dimmock had seen, those who survived the
devastating volley of rifle fire from the woodland on either side
of the trail had defended themselves as best they could. They had
gone down fighting with bare hands against the bayonets of their
infantry ambushers and the sabers of the cavalrymen who were
supposed to be escorting and protecting them. The twenty-seven men
who had escaped the slaughter had done so by battling their way
clear at considerable risk to themselves.

The massacre had had a traumatic
effect upon Dimmock. Nor had it been lessened by the unfounded
hints from the young
Creoles
in San Felipe. Being selected to take part in such a
potentially important and very dangerous mission, by a man for whom
he had the greatest admiration, had done much to reassert his self
respect. He had known that neither Ole Devil nor Tommy Okasi
harbored the slightest doubts about his courage. Nor did they
condemn him for having saved his life instead of dying with his
comrades-in-arms.

Over the past two days, the
lieutenant had almost lost the nagging sense of guilt which had
been with him ever since his flight from the ambush. The dandy’s
words had brought it flooding back again. Nor, in spite of
realizing they had merely been uttered as a means merely of
taunting a
gringo,
rather than an actual participant of the massacre, could he
prevent himself from responding.

Moreno might not be the most
intelligent of men, but he had been sufficiently knowing to deduce
his subordinates’ intentions and realize that there could be
unpleasant consequences to be faced later. So he had moved clear,
meaning to let them deal with the unwanted trio. Then, if there
should be repercussions because of the killing, he would be able to
lay the blame on the five
vaqueros.

Listening to Dimmock’s comment, the corporal
began to understand what it implied. No renegade would have shown
such fury and called young Antonio a liar over the remark.

Which suggested the three men were not what
they claimed!

They must be spies for the foreign land
thieves!

By the time Moreno had reached his
conclusion, all hell was breaking loose.

For all his desire to impress his older and
mature companions, the young dandy, Antonio, was so startled by the
malevolent expression which had accompanied Dimmock’s furious
denial that he came to an immediate halt. Before his mind could
fully comprehend the implications of what had been said, the
enraged Texian was upon him. Two hands clamped hold of the lance,
wrenching it from his unresisting grasp. An instant later, its
wooden shaft was smashed with considerable force into his face.
Pain erupted through him, numbing his senses. Toppling backwards,
he sat down spitting blood and a couple of shattered teeth from his
mouth.

Sharing Moreno’s concern for what might
happen when the matter was reported, the rest of the enlisted men
had allowed Antonio to precede them. They hoped that he would
succeed in goading the trio into some hostile gesture and so supply
them with an excuse to take action. However, like him, none of them
had anticipated such a rapid and violent result. So they were taken
unawares and found that their troubles were only just
commencing.

Instead of being caught unprepared, the
would-be victims were reacting in a way which snowed they had
anticipated the need to do so.

Even without being able to speak
much Spanish, Tommy Okasi’s experience in dangerous situations had
allowed him to draw the correct conclusions from the five
vaqueros’
threatening
behavior. He had already realized that his party could not hope to
carry out their assignment as long as they had an escort of
Mexicans. So he had been waiting to discover how his employer meant
to deal with the problem. As a precaution, acting in a casual
manner, he had raised his left hand to apparently scratch at his
right shoulder hear the knot which connected the supporting straps
of his quiver.

When Dimmock launched the attack upon the
young dandy, the little Oriental had no further need to wait for
instructions. He knew exactly what must be done and how to do it.
Gripping the projecting tip of one strap, he tugged at it and the
knot disintegrated fluidly.

‘
Banzai!
’
Tommy roared and, as the now liberated quiver fell from his
shoulders, darted to meet the four advancing
vaqueros.

As they were walking forward in Antonio’s
wake, being much more knowledgeable on such matters, the quartet
had formed a line and moved until a short distance separated one
from another.

At the right of the rank, the
second man to retain his lance began to turn its head forward. Next
to him, Orlando
—the surly faced instigator of the treacherous plot—was
bringing a knife from its sheath with a speed which suggested
considerable proficiency in its use. Nor was the scar-faced
vaquero
who was third in the
line much slower and less adept in producing a similar weapon.
Either because he lacked his companions’ ability, or preferred to
do his fighting at more than arm’s length from his foes, the
Mexican on the left started to tug the heavy caliber flintlock
pistol from his belt.