[Texas Rangers 06] - Jericho's Road (29 page)

Andy followed him out the gate, the other men riding behind. They took a southeasterly course, in the general direction of the Ranger company’s camp. Andy doubted that Hatton intended to go all the way there. He simply wanted to be sure Andy got off to a good start.

They rode for about an hour. Hatton pointed to a thicket of mesquite and catclaw. “Over there.”

Andy saw no sense in riding into a thicket, but he looked into the muzzle of Hatton’s pistol and decided against asking questions.

Hatton reined up just at the edge of the thicket. A javelina sow and four pigs snorted and went clattering into the brush. Their backs bristled and their short legs moved in a blur. Hatton beckoned for Barstow and Devlin to come closer. “Jericho left it up to me to decide if you boys have got a job. You want it bad enough to earn it?”

Both men nodded. Barstow said, “Just tell us what to do.”

“
I want you to prove yourselves. I want you to shoot this Ranger.”

Barstow’s mouth dropped open. Devlin looked as if he had just swallowed a scorpion. Barstow said, “You mean kill him?”

“
Here and now.”

Andy felt helpless and cold. Hatton’s eyes were grim, leaving no doubt that he meant what he said. Barstow and Devlin appeared to be near panic. Barstow’s voice was strained. “I ain’t never shot a man. I can’t do it in cold blood.”

Hatton scowled. “I figured you two for counterfeit as soon as I saw you. You’ll shoot him or I’ll shoot all three of you. You’ll make a good meal for those javelinas.”

Hands trembling, Devlin drew his pistol.

Hatton said, “Steady down. You’re as liable to hit your horse as to hit that Ranger.”

Devlin held the pistol in both hands. It continued to waver.

Hatton cursed. “I told Jericho that neither one of you is worth the rope it’d take to hang you with.”

Barstow bent down and came up with a rifle. “I reckon we rate a little higher than that.” He swung the muzzle toward Andy.

Andy’s mouth felt as if it were full of cotton.

Barstow moved the rifle a little farther. It pointed at Hatton.

Hatton demanded, “What’re you doin’?”

Barstow was sweating as if it were the Fourth of July. “Never kill a Ranger. If you do, the rest of them will come after you. They never forget, and they won’t give up till you’re hangin’ off of a tree limb or shot full of holes.”

Hatton declared, “I’ll have your heads on a pike.”

Devlin trembled. “For God’s sake, Barstow.”

Andy took advantage of the moment to push his horse forward and grab Hatton’s pistol with both hands. They wrestled. Hatton squeezed off one shot toward the thicket. A javelina squealed. Andy managed to twist the weapon free.

Hatton wheeled his horse around and spurred away, bent low over the horn of the saddle to present a poor target. Barstow took one shot but was too nervous to hit him.

Devlin complained, “You spilt it now, Barstow. We’ll never get a job with Jericho.”

“
It’s a damned poor job that says you got to kill somebody in cold blood, and him lookin’ at you the whole time. There ain’t enough money between here and San Antonio …”

Andy slowly regained his composure. “Thanks, Barstow. For a minute I felt like an angel landed on my shoulder.”

Barstow was still sweating. He lowered the rifle. “If there’s any angels around here, they’re lost.” He looked puzzled. “I was afraid Jericho wouldn’t hire us, but I didn’t expect he’d send his foreman out here to kill us.”

Andy said, “I believe Hatton did that on his own.” Killing Andy would have eliminated one witness to the attack on him, Len, and Farley. “And even if you had shot me, he’d have killed both of you and left us all lyin’ here for the hogs. Dead men don’t testify.”

Barstow removed his hat and rubbed his sleeve over a face dripping with sweat. “Workin’ cattle gets to lookin’ better all the time. Maybe we can get our old jobs back.”

Devlin said nothing. He was too busy losing his breakfast.

Barstow asked Andy, “You goin’ to turn us in for stealin’ your horse?”

“
I would’ve, but you saved my life. I owe you a chance to get yours straightened out.”

Barstow said, “Me and Devlin was just lookin’ for a little more excitement than we been havin’. I think we’ve had enough of it to last us a long time.”

“
If I was you-all, I’d take a wide swing around Jericho’s country, then head north … way north.”

“
That’s what we’ll do. And if I ever get arrested again it’ll be for singin’ too loud in church.”

Andy watched them ride off in an easterly direction, then he turned southward. He wanted to recover his own saddle. This one, which had belonged to Devlin, could be traded to one of the poor Mexican farmers who had been selling him food down by the river. Devlin’s horse, if it got over its lameness and didn’t turn up on a list of stolen property, would give him an extra mount so he could alternate and always have one resting.

All in all, he had come out a little ahead on what had seemed to be a stroke of bad luck. He hoped that someday he might see Burt Hatton again under circumstances more in his own favor.

He had also seen another side of Jericho Jackson, a side that left him conflicted. Things had appeared much simpler when he’d seen Jericho simply as a cold and calculating land-grabbing outlaw. He did not know how to handle this unexpected complexity.

Burt Hatton entered the outside door to the room Jericho used as an office. He was seldom asked into the main part of the house. Jericho was strict about insulating his wife from the ranch help. Hatton’s shirt was torn. A long red scratch marred his cheek.

Jericho looked up from his ledger book. “What happened to you?”

Hatton delayed his answer. “Mind if I get me a drink?” Jericho nodded, and Hatton went to a cabinet where he knew the whiskey was kept. He poured a small glass half full and swallowed it with a sense of urgency. “Horse cold-jawed on me. Ran through the brush.”

Jericho often had a feeling that Hatton said only what he thought his boss wanted to hear, but the story was plausible enough. No man worth his salt worked in the brush country without taking scars and getting thorns imbedded in his hide. “Did you set the Ranger safely on his way?”

“
Last I seen of him he was headed south.”

“
Good. I’d like to have a friend or two in the Ranger camp when the bullets fly again.”

“
I don’t think you’d better count on him for a friend. We oughtn’t to have let him get off of this place alive. We’ll have trouble with him yet.”

“
Dead Rangers are bad for business. What about them two cowhands? Did you put them to work?”

Hatton frowned. “I sent them on their way. They didn’t have enough sand in their craw for our kind of business.”

“
Too bad. We’ll need all the help we can get when we make our big push on Lupe Chavez.”

Hatton poured another drink. “And when is that to be?”

“
I don’t know yet, but it’ll come. It’ll be like the battle of the Alamo all over again, only this time it’ll end different.”

Hatton had a worried look. “Maybe we ought to leave Chavez alone. You’ve got more land already than you can rightly see after. What do you want with land in Mexico?”

“
This is about more than land. It’s an old fight that never got settled. And there’s the business about my wife’s nephew. Lupe has got to pay for that.”

“
Maybe I was wrong about them Meskin outlaws that killed him. Maybe they wasn’t Lupe’s men after all.”

Jericho’s brow furrowed. “You scared, Burt?”

“
Not scared. Just thinkin’ about the men that might get killed.”

“
They’re bein’ well paid for it.”

“
There’s some things money ain’t enough for.”

“
Money can buy anything. You just have to be willin’ to pay the price.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

L
en Tanner was at Andy’s makeshift campsite when Andy rode in. “Where you been?” the lanky Ranger demanded. “I found your saddle where you left it. Been worried that some Mexican bandits might’ve drug you off and cut out your gizzard.”

“
I’ve been up to Jericho’s.”

“
What in the hell for?”

“
Gettin’ another saddle.” He waited for Len’s puzzled expression to come to full flower, then explained about the horse thieves and Jericho’s men taking the three of them to headquarters.

Len said, “It’s a wonder Jericho didn’t shoot you.”

“
The funny thing is that I got along right decent with him. He wasn’t what I expected. I never once saw him breathe fire.”

“
You never saw no halo around his head, neither. He’s a bad hombre.”

“
So everybody says. It’s odd, but he reminded me of Lupe Chavez. Neither one of them has any idea how much they think alike. They just look at things from opposite sides of the river.”

“
They’d both cut your throat in a minute. But right now you’d better report to Sergeant Donahue before
he
cuts your throat. He suspicions that you swum the river to join up with Lupe Chavez.”

“
What would make him think that?”

“
You took up for that boy Tony. You helped him get back to his uncle.”

“
I’d have done that for a lost pup. And I did it for the McCawleys, not for Lupe Chavez.”

“
Donahue ain’t goin’ to see the difference. As far as he’s concerned they’re all Mexicans, even Big Jim.”

Andy said, “I’ll go downriver and report to him. First, though, I’m hungry. Want to help me scare up some wood for a fire?”

While they ate, Len told Andy that the river had been quiet. “Ain’t been sign of any raiders crossin’ that we could see. Just the usual traffic. A few farmers, kinfolks passin’ back and forth. I picked up a lame horse wanderin’ around here. Don’t know who he belongs to.”

Andy said, “One of those horse thieves had him. I guess he’s mine if we don’t find out who he was stolen from.”

They rode down the river past Len’s camp. Halfway to the next Rangers’ post they came upon Sergeant Donahue riding the line. Len said, “Here’s your stray, Sergeant.”

Donahue gave Andy a look that for a culprit would mean five years in prison. “Absent without leave. What’s your excuse, Private Pickard?” He bore down on the word
private.

“
It wasn’t by my choice,” Andy said. He repeated what he had told Len about the horse thieves and being escorted to meet Jericho.

Curiosity erased Donahue’s scowl. “I’ve never seen Jericho’s headquarters. Not many Rangers have ever been there.”

Andy gave him a rough description. “It looks a lot like the McCawley ranch, and Lupe Chavez’s.”

“
I’ve never seen Chavez’s either, but I’d sure like an excuse to go there and give them Meskins a good whippin’, the way McNelly did.” His eyes brightened at the thought. “By the way, what about them two horse thieves?”

Andy shrugged. “The last I saw of them they were headed in the direction of Canada.” He thought it best not to divulge that he had made no effort to stop their going. He had probably broken some unbreakable Ranger rule.

Donahue said, “You should have pulled the trigger on them. Nothin’ cures a thief better than a forty-five slug.”

“
I figured on bringin’ them in as prisoners.”

“
Chances are fifty-fifty that some judge would turn them loose, and they’d go right back to what they were doin’. Death is pretty damned permanent.”

“
I’ll try to remember that.”

Donahue nodded, satisfied. “Since your goin’ was not voluntary, I’ll reconsider filin’ charges. But consider yourself on probation.”

Andy had considered himself on probation ever since Donahue took temporary command of the company. He asked hopefully, “Any word on when Lieutenant Buckalew will be back?”