XL: SLIVER "MAKES GOOD"
By the time Sliver and Jake returned the sun hung like a red-hot ball inthe smoke of the horizon. Even if the horses had not been tired, it wastoo late to start that night. Accordingly, after loading the raiders'provisions, they rode on down into the ravine and used the glowingembers of the _fonda_ for their camp-fire.
To them, sitting there, by ones and twos and threes the refugees camestraggling in to gather for the night around their own fires. Going fromone to another, Lee and Gordon dealt comfort and advice. They were toreap the standing corn and sow again for their own use in the secretplaces of the mountains. The _hacienda_ cattle they could herd in thecanons of the lower hills. Thus, with plenty of milk for butter andcheese, corn, and beans, their own chickens, goats, and pigs, they wouldbe able to live in rude comfort till the coming of peace permitted Lee'sreturn.
"The knowledge that they will not suffer makes it easier to bear."
Lee spoke, looking back at the brown faces enlivened by the ruddy glareof the fires. But when, next morning, they crowded around her, old men,women, young girls, and little children, mixing prayers, blessings, andlamentations with their good-bys, she was less philosophical. She wasstill weeping when she looked back at those that had followed her as faras the mouth of the ravine.
"Oh, if our government could only see them! Surely they would help."
Gordon looked for another outburst when, later, they sighted ruinedArboles from the very spot he and Mary Mills had overlooked it. How wellhe remembered it! The walls and courts, _patio_, rainbow adobes, a smallcity of gold magnificently blazoned by the red brush of the sinking sun;the cottonwoods flaming a deep apricot under a sky that spread a canopyof saffron and cinnabar, purple and umber and gold, down to the farhorizon; the soft smoke pennons trailing violet plumes off and away intothe smoldering dusk of the east; the cooing of woman voices broken bylaughter, low, sweet, infinitely wild. Now, roofless, windowless, itsblackened walls upreared in the midst of a wide, blurred smudge. Yetthough the contrast brought stinging tears to her eyes, Lee took itcalmly.
"What does it matter? It can be rebuilt. But there are otherthings"--her voice lowered and trailed away--"that can never bereplaced."
They were both sad and sick at heart. Yet youth may not permanently becast down. When, riding on, they left the smoke-blacked ruin behind themand passed from the dreary waste of burned pasture into golden plainsshe began restoration. A native carpenter could replace every lovedbeam; rebuild the massive old furniture just as it was. The _peones_would lime-wash the exterior in its usual rainbow color! Also,restoration would give opportunity for remodeling and improvement.
As she ran on Gordon sensed another motive; perceived that she wasstriving to draw Bull out of his sorrow. Not a plan that did not includehim! A great fireplace, for use during the rains, was to have acomfortable settle at one side, on which the Three could lounge andsmoke while basking in the blaze. Each was to have his own room. Thusand so! Nor was her prattle without effect. Always sensitive where shewas concerned, Bull divined her motive, and, albeit with an effort greatas a physical strain, he responded, listened, and nodded acquiescence,occasionally forced a smile.
Only Sliver was fooled. "Say," he remarked to Jake, who rode with him inthe rear, "did you allow she'd have taken it so light?"
But Jake, the keen, discerning critic, quickly opened his eyes. "Take itlight, you ----! ----! ----! ----!" The epithets, if printed, wouldscorch a hole in the page. "Kain't you see she's grieving her littleheart out? She's doing it all for Bull."
At any other time one of those epithets would probably have produced aretort that would have tumbled Jake out of his saddle. But,conscience-stricken, Sliver accepted all. With humility that was almostpathetic, he actually put into words feeling that was, for him, quitesubtle. "'Tain't that I'd set in jedgment on Lady-girl, on'y--I reckonit's so with all of us--I jes' kain't bear to see her say or do anythingthat don't jes' fit."
After a pause he went on: "About these plans o' her'n? If there warn'tno revolution, an' we ked stay along here without a break, an' they'ddestroy all the licker in the world an' forgit the art of making it, Idon't know but that we might live up to 'em. But I'm telling you,hombre, it's been awful wearing an' I jes' know what a spell in El Paso'ull do for me--I'll be that swinish I'll never dare to come near herag'in."
When Jake had admitted like feelings Sliver continued: "Sure, under themconditions, licker an' its makers being, so to say, put on the hog-trainan' run off the aidge of the earth, I'd hev' one chanst to make good.But as 'tis, an' seeing that she's now settled with a fine young husbandan' kin get along very nicely, I'm sorter allowing that El Paso 'ull letme out." While his eyes blinked guiltily and his lips quivered withanticipatory thirst, he concluded, "Sure I'm that dry 'twon't take muchtemptation for me to tell my troubles to a barkeep an' have him drown'em in drink."
"Nor me," Jake seconded. "Besides, my fingers is jes' itching to getinto a game."
"Drink, cards, flat broke--back to rustling." Sliver laid down the lawof their being. "With me it runs like, the A-B-C."
"I drink, you drink, he drinks, we drink," Jake chanted it _sotto voce_."If folks wasn't so onreasonable a feller might make an honest living.But the best tinhorn that ever turned a card from the bottom is bound tomake a slip, an' when he does--whoosh! if he's lucky enough to make hisgetaway, rustling's all that's left."
"Bull?" Sliver nodded at the broad back ahead. "D'you allow he's a-goingto stay put?"
Jake's shake of the head mixed doubt with concern. "If we meet up withany Mex--we'll never get him away. He'll run amuck among 'em."
Sliver's reckless eye lit with a fighting gleam. "An' the country's jes'lousy with _revueltosos_? Hombre, it's a cinch! Not that I'd want it,"he hypocritically added, "Lady-girl being along. But if we do chance ona few--hum! what's the exchange, jes' now, in Valles's money? Seven toone, heigh? Well, we've three rifles apiece, counting the extras on thepack-horses. One man with three rifles is as good as two men. Twice fourof us makes eight. At current exchange, one gringo for seven Mex, weorter account for fifty-six."
"There or thereabouts," Jake agreed. "But, as you say, Missy beingalong, it's up to us to dodge 'em."
"Five days?" Sliver hopefully repeated. "We'd jes' as well look out fortrouble."
Not till the morning of the third day did the "trouble" loom up over thehorizon.
To avoid raiders along the railroad, Bull laid a course that wouldstrike the American border a hundred miles or so east of El Paso.Confirming his judgment, they had seen during the first two days only afew _peon_ herders, who scampered like rabbits at their approach. Butwhile it made for safety, the course he had laid out also carried themaway from water, the first necessity of desert travel.
From the Los Arboles pastures they had passed, first, into a sparsegrass country dotted with _sahuaros_; thereafter into sage desertsprinkled with limestone boulders and bounded by arid hills of the same;a dry, inhospitable land, lifeless, without sign of human habitation,its heated silence unbroken by the cry of animal or bird, tenanted onlyby the dreary yucca that threw wild arms about like tortured dwarfs.Toward the middle of the second day they had been forced to head almostdue west in search of the water that was to be had only near therailroad.
Dusk was falling when they--more correctly, the horses--found a small_arroyo_. It was so late, and the animals tired, and in order that theymight drink their fill Bull took a chance and camped by the water. Theydid not light a fire. They ate cold food in darkness. Before dawn, too,they were in the saddle, by sunrise had placed nearly ten miles betweenthem and the water which, just there and then, was another name fordanger. As a matter of fact, Bull had not expected to get it withoutfighting. He had not yet ceased marveling at their luck when the"trouble" showed up in form of a line of _sombreros_ behind the peak ofa limestone ridge--unfortunately, to the eastward.
Jake saw them first. At his sharp hiss Bull looked, and, driving thepack-horses ahead, rode headlong for th
e next ridge. Looking back asthey rode, Gordon saw the line of _sombreros_ rise in correspondence asthe land fell off. Soon a head showed; then, almost simultaneously, theridge bristled with mounted men, a hundred at least, in bold reliefagainst the sky-line.
"They've seen us!"
As he called it a yell, strident, raucous, pierced the clatter of theirgalloping hoofs. "Gringos! Mueran los gringos! Kill them!"
A volley followed. But, fired from the saddle in movement, the bulletschipped only a few twigs off the scenery. Scattering shots, too, flewoverhead; but, intent on overtaking them, the Mexicans in the mainwasted no time in shooting. They were only a couple of hundred yardsaway when the four men dropped from their horses behind the crest of theridge.
Differing speed had strung the pursuers out in a scattering column, andSliver grinned his delight at the arrangement. "Like bowling at thecounty fair. Miss one, you've still a chance at the next behind. Set 'emup again!" he yelled as, following their volley, two men and a horseplunged forward on the ground.
"A bit lower, Son," Bull quietly admonished Gordon. "Aim at the jine ofman an' horse. That gives you a seven-foot target."
"One cigar, one baby down!"
Sliver's second yell marked the fall of two more horses and anotherman--shot by Bull out of his saddle. Aiming and firing with the deadlyaccuracy bred by years of just such fighting against more sagaciousfoes, they dropped the leaders as fast as they came on; in three minuteshad drawn a dead-line of men and horses across their front. And thatdeadly practice told. Brave enough, after their lights, the raiders werenot accustomed to such shooting. In the revolutionary wars their ownpractice, like that of their opponents, was to spring up out of atrench, yell "_Viva Mexico!_" fire in the enemy's direction, and dropback again, trusting to the god of war to find a billet for the bullet.Turning, they raced back for the opposite ridge, spurred on by thegalling shooting that emptied two more saddles.
Bull's black glance following them with longing that confirmed Jake'sdiagnosis--he would have "run amuck among 'em" if left to himself. Themore steadily, perhaps, for his deadly thirst to kill, he had aimed andfired with automatic precision. Withal, he had found time to noteGordon's steady shooting.
"You done fine, lad," he commented. "If there was only ourselves, I'd bein favor of carrying it to 'em. But"--his glance went to Lee, who washolding the horses--"we'll have to fall back. They've had their lessonan' ain't a-going to try any more fool charges. Now they'll try an'flank us. While Sliver an' Jake hold 'em, we'll run back to the nextridge."
But Gordon, flushed with his taste of battle, rebelled. "What's thematter with me staying? You fellows care for me like three hensscratching for an orphan chicken. I'm tired of this sheltered life."
"'Sheltered life'?" Communing with himself, Jake glanced at the grislydead-line. "'Sheltered life,' an' him with two stretched out downthere."
"Comes o' being married," Sliver added. "No married man has a right torun with batchelders."
"That's right," Jake approved. "It's up to you to look after your wife."
"Well?" Gordon protested. "How can I do it better than by staying here?"
"What?" Sliver looked scandalized. "Us take a chanst of her beingwidowed after all the trouble we had getting her married? No, sir-ree!Git out."
"Come on, Son, you're delaying the game." Bull had already joined Lee.His heavy command came floating up from below. Albeit with a shrug,Gordon obeyed.
The next commanding ridge lay nearly a mile away, and after the othershad started back toward it Jake nodded toward the enemy. "Bet youthey've split already an' are moving around us. Now if we do the same,keeping well out of sight, we'll mebbe get another crack at 'em."
And so it was. When, after a half-mile detour through limestone and sagechaparral, the halves of the raiders' party showed in the open tworifles opened in concert at points a mile apart; two more riderlesshorses went scampering away before the others gained back to cover. Fromthe wide base of their triangle Jake and Sliver then came galloping backand joined Bull at its apex; and thus they moved back and back, as thenature of the country permitted, with no more danger than that of anoccasional bullet, fired at long range, singing overhead.
While they retreated the sun blazed up in the east, rolled on around itssoutherly course, superheating the dreary prospect till it glowed likean oven. All that time Bull was looking anxiously for a cross-ridgebehind which they might swing their course to the north and east. Butwith the regularity of the waves of the sea the ridges rolled on back inunbroken succession toward the railroad. With the enemy spread widelyupon their flanks a turning movement was impossible. They could onlyroll back with the limestone waves, trusting that the railroad wouldbring forth no new enemy.
Unfortunately the desert was growing rougher. Dry watercourses crosscutthe sage that now rose tall as a mounted man. The going was renderedmore difficult by outcroppings of limestone that sometimes raised animpassable barrier, forcing a detour. Worst of all, the denser growthspermitted closer pursuit. At the last stand made by Jake and Sliver,midway of the afternoon, bullets came spitting out of the sage less thantwo hundred yards away.
"If 'twas on'y black powder they was using," Sliver bitterly complained,"we'd stan' some chance. A feller could bust into the middle of theirsmoke."
"You're onreasonable," Jake answered. He went on, sarcastically, quotingfrom an editorial in the last American paper that had come to LosArboles: "In order that these here bandits kin exercise the 'sacredright of revolution to reg'late their own internal affairs' your UncleSamuel has kindly supplied 'em with the latest smokeless cartridge.Thanks to his benevolence, some one's going to get hurt pretty soon."
He was right. A scattering volley, fired from that very ridge after theyevacuated it, overtook them in the hollow below and brought downSliver's horse. Hanging on to Jake's stirrup leather, he made the nextridge, but one of the pack-animals had to be given to him and its loadabandoned.
"An' this is on'y the beginning." Jake continued his remarks from thenext ridge. "The railroad's not far away, an' as I remember the countryhereabouts, she runs right out in the open, with nary a snitch of coverfor over twenty miles. There'll be nothing to stop 'em from shooting usdown by volleys at long range. So it all boils down to this--some one'sgot to hold 'em at the next good stand while the others make theirgetaway."
They had been carrying two rifles apiece. Now Sliver quietlyappropriated Jake's extra weapon. "With three rifles I orter be good fortwo hours."
"When I said 'some one'"--Jake quietly repossessed himself of theweapon--"I naterally allowed his name was Jake Evers. Git! before I bustyou over the head."
"If 'twasn't for them"--Sliver's hard glance went out to thechaparral--"there's nothing I'd like better 'n to take time to rub yourlong hoss face in the dust."
The threat, however, produced from Jake only his wolf grin. "You damnedfool! D'you know what's going to happen to the man that stays behind?He's a-going to be what the society columns call 'the piece deresistence' at a Mexican barbecure. There ain't a thing in the line oftorture that them bandits won't do to you."
"You ked never stan' it." Sliver displayed great solicitude. "You'regetting along, Jake, an' your nerve ain't what it used to be."
"You've said it." Jake's cold eye warmed. He placed a friendly hand onSliver's shoulder. "You're dead right, Son. I'm getting on. What's more,I'm that dyed-in-the-wool with deviltry 'twon't hurt anybody when Ipinch out. But you're young yet. You'll--"
"--hit El Paso an' go straight to the devil. You know it darned well.We'll gamble for it." He spat on a pebble and threw it up. "Wet or dry,which? Wet! I win!"
"Jest my luck!" Jake's complaint was sincere as though, instead of deathor torture, life and fortune had been the hazard. "I don't have nochance at all except with cards. What did I wanter go an' do that for,anyway, an' me with a deck right here in my pocket?"
"Too late!" Sliver pressed his triumph. "Now git!"
But with his usual sagacity Jake had already picked
the spot for thestand. The next ridge rose so precipitously that Bull, Lee, and Gordonwere having difficulty in getting up its face. North and south, too, itloomed even more inaccessible.
"'Twill take them hours to go around it with you planted square in themiddle."
Sliver's glance had gone to Lee, scrambling up the steep face of theridge, leading her horse. His hard face softened. "Don't tellLady-girl--that is, not jes' now. Let her think I'll make my getaway tothe northward. But some day, after she's safe in El Paso, you kin tellher--that Sliver was on'y too damn glad to give his life for her'n." Hewent on, dreamily: "'Course I knew it 'u'd be all off after I'd hit thecity. But I'd sorter thought, now an' then, that if the rangers didn'tget me too quick, some day I'd come back to Arboles, when her kids wasabout hip-high, an' teach 'em to ride an' shoot. But that was jes' adream."
Jake's glance had gone back to the cover that sheltered the_revueltosos_, and, judged by the casuality of his nod, Sliver's requestmight have concerned the purchase of a silk handkerchief or othertrifle. But he swallowed hard, spat viciously several times before hecould command speech; blushed, even then, at the softness of his tone.
"Funny, ain't it? But that's just what I'd often thought myself. SureI'll tell her--if them devils don't down me on the next run. They'redamn close now, and they'll be up here before we're half-way across.Against that limestone front we'll make some mark, an' with fifty of 'emcracking at us it 'ull be the luck of hell if they don't down one orboth."
Again he was right. While, ten minutes later, they struggled among theboulders and brush at the foot of the ridge, the rifles began sputteringbehind them. Right and left, above and below, bullets chipped the rocksor plumped in the dust; and just as their beasts rushed on a breathlessscramble up the last steep two found their mark--one through Sliver'sknee, the other dropped Jake's horse.
Almost fainting from shock and pain, Sliver still clung to the neck ofhis beast while, with Jake hanging on to a stirrup leather, it carriedhim to safety. Lee, with the pack-animals, had already moved on, was afull quarter-mile down the slope that fell easily to the great plaintraversed by the railroad. Miles away they could see--not the tracks; itwas too far away for that--a dark-velvet plume, smoke from an engine.Bull and Gordon still lay answering the _revueltosos'_ fire. But Sliverand Jake had ascended up a watercourse a hundred yards to the right, inwhich the dead horse lay out of sight.
"Hey!" Sliver hastily stopped Jake from calling Bull. "Let 'em go!You'll never be able to tear Lady-girl away if she knows I'm hurt. Youkin take my horse; on'y lift me down first an' prop me up among therocks where I kin lie comfortable an' pump a gun."
Having complied, Jake stood looking down upon him. For once in hisrough, hard life he was shaken out of his cold, gray self. Sliver, welland hearty, fighting his lone fight was one thing. To leave him,painfully wounded, was quite another. The memory of many a wild ridewith the dogs of the law hard on their heels; of desperate stands,shoulder to shoulder, the rifle of each protecting the other; of daringraids in the dark; of midnight diversions shared together; ay, even thememory of many a drunken quarrel in which they had beaten each otherbeyond identification and awakened next morning just as good friends;all that had gone into the making of the rough loyalty which had boundthe "Three Bad Men of Las Bocas" closer than brothers--all this combinedin an emotion that revolted at desertion.
"My _God_, hombre!" he broke out in protest. "I kain't leave you here,wounded, to fall in the han's of them wolves!"
"You kain't do nothing else!" Hard eyes flashing, Sliver went on:"Didn't we gamble, jest now, for who was to stay? An' didn't I win? Nowyou're trying to renig?" As he noted the sweat standing out on Jake'sbrow, he went on more quietly: "Look at it sensible. What ked you-all dowith a wounded man? You'd on'y sign Lady-girl's death warrant. And don'tworry about them wolves. They ain't a-going to light no fires on mybelly nor burn my feet. If I don't get done up in the scrap--the lastbullet will be for myself."
Also he turned an adamant face to a proposal that Jake should stay too."No, hombre, it's still over a hundred miles to the border, an' theyneed you. There's nothing left for you but to take my horse an' git."
It had all been said and done without strain, effort, orself-consciousness; was entirely the expression of his hardy, carelesssoul that had never known the vice of self-pity. But when Jake stillstood, his long, lean face working lugubriously in his attempts to hidehis grief, Sliver did that which, for him, was a miracle indivination--entered into and felt the pain of another soul.
"Oh, shore, hombre!" His face lit up with sympathy. "You orter be glad.Ain't it better to die clean, this-a-way, than to choke slowly at theend of some ranger's rope? Go on, now, an' catch up to 'em an' keep 'emmoving till night. With the least bit of luck, you'll pull through allright."
As before said, not one iota of self-pity entered into Sliver'sconsciousness. Apart from a heavy fever and dull ache, the broken kneewas behaving itself as well as could be expected and, after Jake'sdeparture, Sliver settled down to the business in hand; _i.e._, toinflate to the limit the current exchange of one _gringo_ for seven_revueltosos_. Reckless, hardened scamp that he was, his remark,addressed to himself, had no reference to water, a canteen of which Jakehad left at his elbow.
"Gosh, but I'd like a drink!"
His grin and following chuckle were natural and unaffected. "You'regoing to be a good boy from now on, Sliver. You've taken your last."
Pulling his Colt's .45 from his belt, he laid it with the water-bottle."Handy for the funeral." He uttered a second grim chuckle.
The two extra rifles he placed within easy reach on his left. Then helay quiet, hard blue eyes fixed on the opposite ridge--so quiet that alone vulture poised above swooped down, alighted, then hopped mournfullyaway and stood poised on one leg, hopeful if disappointed. In recenthistory so much firing had invariably brought food.
From the first severe lesson when, from points a mile apart, the deadlyrifles picked them off, the _revueltosos_ had learned caution, onlyadvancing when they were certain the two had retired. Riding away, Jakehad exposed himself along the ridge; but, suspecting a trap, the_revueltosos_ remained in hiding. Ten minutes elapsed before a couple of_sombreros_ rose cautiously out of a clump of sage.
"Stuck up on sticks." Sliver criticized their wabbly motion.
After a real head appeared under them he waited. When the ridge suddenlybroke out in a rush of mounted men he waited. While they rode down intothe valley he waited. Not until they were involved in the labyrinth ofsage, watercourses, pit-holes, brush, and boulders beneath him, did hedraw his first bead. Then, so swiftly that it seemed to the_revueltosos_ that they were facing the fire of several men, he emptiedthe three rifles into the kicking, struggling, plunging line of horsesand men. Four saddles he made vacant there and then. He picked off twomore as the _revueltosos_ raced back over the opposite ridge.
"Six added to three I got makes nine!" Sliver grunted. "A few more an' Ikin afford to cash in."
He could see from where he lay for miles along the ridge, and as henoted its front rising more steeply in both directions he chuckled hissatisfaction.
"You ain't a-going to try an' pass through me ag'in," he addressed theinvisible foe. "An' you ain't going to leave me here. It'll take you anhour to come around. Be that time Lady-girl will be ten miles away, withnight fast coming on. Jest to encourage you--"
The shot he threw into the brush opposite was the first of a seriesdesigned to keep the _revueltosos'_ attention upon himself, and when,half an hour later, he glimpsed men without horses scaling the steepface of the ridge nearly a mile away he knew that he had succeeded.
"They reckon we're all here, trying to stick it out till night," hecorrectly interpreted the movement. "It 'ull take 'em another half-hourto find out."
A glance in the other direction showed a second party emerging from thebrush beyond rifle-shot. While it crossed the valley and scaled the faceof the ridge he watched quietly. A little later he began throwing shotsin both dire
ctions along the ridge.
"Not that I'm expecting to bag any of youse," he addressed the unseenenemy. "But just to slow you up a bit an' let you know I'm here. Whenyou get there"--his glance took in scrub-clothed elevations thatcommanded his post on both sides--"good-by an' _good_ night."
Of all ordeals, there can be none more severe than to be called upon towait, wait, wait while an unseen enemy is closing in around. Yet Sliverstood the test. If he felt the passage of time, it was because hecounted each minute, each second in yards--the hundreds, scores of yardsLee and his friends were gaining on the pursuit. He had fought all dayin heat and dust and smoke; the grime of battle added to his grimness.While he waited the sun rolled down the west, transmuting the scorchedslopes into a wonderland of cinnabar, sienna, crimson, ocher; a hugeoven aglow with the hot slag of creation. But its rich lights showedneither fear nor softening in Sliver's face when, from the spot he hadlong noted, a rifle spoke.
It was the signal for a leaden rain that began to spatter the rocksabout him. It was now only a question of time. He knew it. But till thattime came he replied to the fire. He was aiming into the heart of a puffof smoke when the death he had gambled so recklessly with these manyyears claimed the stakes.
He turned slightly sideways as his head collapsed on his outstretchedarm, and through the grime and powder smoke, in the rich evening lights,his face showed with its hard lines all sponged out.
Sliver, the outlaw, gambler, drunkard, horse-thief, turned up to the lowsun the quiet, peaceful face his mother had looked down upon as a child.