8
Morning came in a hurry.
The bandits now settled down to cook their breakfast. The hurt were doctoring their wounds in a way that would have thrown a hospital interne into a coma. They spat into their wounds, rubbed dirt and chewed leaves plucked from the bushes into them to stop bleeding, and bandaged them with strips of their filthy shirts.
In the trench the partners also had their breakfast. It is a strict rule of Mexican bandits and of Mexican soldiers fighting bandits or revolutionaries that no attack be made by either side while they have their meals. To do so would be considered as tactless as shooting at trucks bearing the Red Cross sign or at men waving a white flag among civilized nations at war.
“Now, don’t you boys make any mistake,” Howard warned them when Curtin mentioned that they might be left alone from now on. “You don’t know them if you think that. They will come again, likely late in the afternoon. They need our guns and our ammunition more than they need bread. The more we shoot, the better they know that here is a sort of armory worth fighting for. If I judge these killers right, they are not going to repeat the attack the same way. They will look for a new way to get us. Every shot we fire is a shot lost to them. They don’t want us to waste the ammunition which they feel is theirs already. I mean to say, they are going to prevent us from shooting, some way or other.”
“I’d like to know how they think they can get us without making us fire at them,” Lacaud said.
“Let’s wait and see. Don’t forget all these men have been soldiers during the last revolutions, or if not soldiers, then fighters against the regulars. They are trained and have all sorts of experience. I’ll get a rest now.”
The old man made himself comfortable on the ground. So did Lacaud. Curtin and Dobbs were watching the camp leisurely.
The bandits had gone down the trail, except two who were left to keep watch. They got drowsy after half an hour and fell asleep.
9
About the middle of the forenoon Curtin called Dobbs: “Do you see what I see?”
“Those goddamned devils! If we could only send them all to hell!” Dobbs answered as he roused Howard and Lacaud.
“What is it?” Howard asked. “Coming again?”
“Just have a look at a fine performance; you don’t have to go to the movies this afternoon to learn new tricks.” Dobbs whistled through his teeth out of excitement.
Howard watched the bandits for half a minute. “I reckon they are going to trap us now. We have to think awfully fast to meet their old Indian trick. Doggone it to hell, I’ve got to get an idea what to do now and, hell knows, I haven’t any. If none of you mugs knows anything new, and pretty quick too, then we may as well say our last prayers, if you still know some.”
The bandits were busy cutting saplings, branches, and twigs. They were constructing movable barricades, Indian-fashion. Once ready, they would push these barricades before them, using them as shields while steadily moving on. All the attacked could do would be to fire against the thickly interwoven branches and foliage. The bullets might not even penetrate, and the man crawling behind could not be aimed at. The possibility of being hit was reduced tenfold. It could be reduced still more by forming two attacking lines, one closing in behind the first.
“If they use that trick at night or early before sunrise,” Howard said, watching them eagerly, “then we haven’t even a Bolshevik’s chance. We’ll be killed like rats. My gold mine for two dozen grenades or one Jack Johnson! Oh hell, I’d exchange it for an old minnie, or even for half a dozen smoke candles, my swell mine. Well, partners, to tell you the Bible’s truth, this is what we may call H-hour for us. If my mother were still alive I’d ask her forgiveness for having stolen her jam and then lying about it, cross my heart.”
“It looks to me,” said Dobbs, “as if all we can do now is to sell our hides for the highest price possible, and at the last minute, when they jump in here, send as many of those sons of bitches to hell as we can.”
“And don’t you forget one last bullet to blow your head off yourself,” Curtin suggested. “I pray to all the gods in heaven that I don’t fall into their hands alive. If you can’t shoot yourself, try to stab yourself to death. It will still be sweeter than being peeled by them. Hell forbid they hand you over to those we wounded.”
Lacaud had become very pale. He tried to grin at the jokes cracked by the other fellows, but he failed in his effort.
Howard looked at him and felt pity. He slapped him on his back and said: “Well, buddy, if you had asked me before, I’d have told you in my most straightforward manner that gold is always very expensive, no matter how you get it or where you get it.”
Hearing this, Curtin had an idea: “Perhaps if we offer them our goods and the guns, they will let us off.”
“No, honey dear, you still misjudge them,” Howard said. “This race has lived for four hundred years under conditions in which it never paid to trust anyone, it never paid to build a good house, it never paid to take your little money to a savings bank or invest it in some decent enterprise. You can’t expect them to treat you in any other way, considering how they have been treated by the church, by the Spanish authorities, and by their own authorities for four hundred years. If you offer them your gold and your guns, they will take them and promise to let you go. But they won’t let you go. They’ll torture you just the same, to find out if there isn’t more than you offered them. Then they kill you just the same, because you might give them away. They have never known what justice is, so you can’t expect them to know it now. Nobody has ever shown them loyalty, so how could they show it to you? None has ever kept any promise to them, so they can’t keep any promise they may have made you. They all say an Ave Maria before killing you, and they will cross you and themselves before and after slaying you in the most cruel way. We wouldn’t be any different from them if we had had to live for four hundred years under all sorts of tyrannies, superstitions, despotisms, corruptions, and perverted religions.”
“I’d like to know,” Curtin broke in, “why they didn’t come out with that old redskin trick earlier?”
“Huh, they are lazier than an ol’ mule.” Dobbs really smiled. “Too lazy for that. They tried to catch us without so much work. Only when they saw they couldn’t get us any other way did they come to that smart tank attack. I bet they’re cursing now that they have to work so hard to catch us.”
Curtin was looking up the steep rock. Howard saw him. “Yes, kiddy, I’ve thought of that several times. Kept me from sleeping well last night. I had my eyes on this rock most of the time, thinking and thinking about a solution—a way out over this rock. But there is no escape over this rock, and none on either side of this furrow here. Not even under the cover of night, with the thickest thunderstorm coming to your aid above you, can you get away from this trench without running straight into their arms.”
The bandits were again cooking their meals.
The partners looked at them at times as if by merely watching them they might come upon an idea to help them out of the grave they already felt buried in.
Into this silence came suddenly an excited cry: “Compadre, compadre, pronto, muy pronto, quick, come here!”
“What the hell is up?”
One of the guards by the horses, who from his post could overlook and watch the trail leading to the camp, had come up and called the chief.
All the men banded together, and the partners could hear the men all talking to each other at the same time. But it was difficult to make out what it was about. Then the men hurriedly picked up all their things that lay about and went off down the trail.
Curtin started to jump out of the trench to watch them more closely. Lacaud pulled him down, saying: “Wait, pal, this may be only a trick to lure us out of here and get us without even using their barricades.”
“I don’t think so,” Howard said. “They would have to be awfully good movie actors to play a trick like that so perfectly. Didn’t you notice that g
uy running up here like wild with his message? There’s something else behind this. I wonder what.”
Curtin, not heeding Lacaud’s warning, had left the trench and gone far to the left, where he climbed up to their look-out, whence the whole valley could be seen. There he sat for quite a while looking around, seeming to see something of importance.
Then he called: “Hey, partners, up here, all of you. Here is a sight, if there ever was.”
The partners, forgetting all about the bandits, climbed up to where Curtin was sitting.
“Trust my eyes,” Howard exclaimed. “Do I see right or do I? Hell, that’s a pleasure. I should say a real relief.”
It was surely a good sight for the partners: a marching squadron of federal cavalry.
There was not the slightest doubt as to what they were after. The villagers must have tipped them off that the bandits had gone up to this plateau to rob the gringo of his shotguns and provisions, for these soldiers were coming up the trail to the camp.
“I can’t quite get it why these bandits left rather than wait for the soldiers up here,” Dobbs wondered.
Howard laughed. His laughter was heartier than it was meant to be, for it carried all the anxiety he had felt during the last two days, all the anxiety that he now wanted to blow off. “You mustn’t think them dumber than they are. They may not have as much brain as you have, Dobby sweet, but they still have something in their cones. Didn’t I tell you they are old fighters, fairly well trained in all tricks of warfare? If they should wait here, they would be lost for good. In the first place, they would have us at their backs and the soldiers blocking their only way of escape. Even if they could overcome us, and I’m sure that was what they discussed so hotly, they couldn’t hold out very long in this trench. The soldiers would attack them the minute they arrived, perhaps even using the same shields these rascals had fixed to catch us with. Their only way to safety, or a least to a few days more of life, is to get out of this trail before the soldiers enter. That’s the reason why they are in such a devilish hurry. Their pants are wetter now than ours were an hour ago. Tell you that.”
It was not a great joke, but all were laughing as they had not laughed for weeks.
Dobbs said: “For once in my life I’m actually grateful that there are still soldiers in the world. Geecries, they sure have come at a good time, that’s what I say. I could kiss them soldiers wherever they would like it, those sons of sunshine. Gee, fellers, tell you the naked goddamned truth, I was already chewing earth between my teeth, and that’s the damned truth, it sure is. Do I feel happy, do I?”
“You bet.” Lacaud had got his color back and also his speech.
Howard laughed again. “Yeah, and these bandits, I think, have done us still another favor by leaving in such a hurry. Had they stopped here and waited for the soldiers—well, boys, I wouldn’t have liked it too much to have soldiers sneaking about here. Soldiers are all to the good sometimes, but sometimes they can be a real nuisance to a decent feller. They might, if only for fun, start to grill us about what we’re doing up here and they might nose around. I wouldn’t have liked it so very much, would you, partners?”
“It’s better this way, I figure,” Dobbs said.
“Let’s take in the second act of the picture.” Curtin was again watching the valley eagerly.
The soldiers had taken up the trail. There could no longer be the slightest doubt. When still half a mile away from where the trail entered the base of the mountains they divided up in three sections and formed a very wide circle. They did not know precisely where the trail left the valley. This was to the advantage of the bandits, for when the bandits finally reached the valley, the soldiers were not close. So the bandits, riding in the brush along the base of the mountains, won a good headway against the soldiers.
For two hours the partners could only occasionally see a soldier, because the squadron had come close to the base. But then shots were heard roaring over the valley. The soldiers had caught sight of the bandits, and those who had come upon the fresh tracks had fired signal shots to get the whole troop on the right trail.
Now a lively race started in the valley. The soldiers were chasing the bandits, who disbanded, each trying to escape in his own way. Such were their usual tactics, a procedure which made it very difficult for the soldiers to round up all the bandits within a short time. A few always escaped. These men joined others, also escaped, and formed a new band no less ferocious than the original one. The task for the soldiers and the police was seldom an easy one. Many of them lost their lives in these battles, and still more returned to their barracks wounded, or crippled for the rest of their days.
For the partners, watching the fight of civilization against barbarism, it became more and more difficult to follow the events in the valley. The bandits were seen riding in all directions with the soldiers after them. They went farther and farther out of sight down the valley. Shots became fainter and fainter.
“I would suggest,” Dobbs said, “that we now, for the first time in two days, sit down to a quiet and decent dinner and have a friendly talk about the news of the day.”
“Not so bad, that idea. Let’s do it right away.” Howard laughed.
“If I should be asked,” Curtin shouted mirthfully, “I’d say it’s okay by me. What say, Laky-Shaky?”
Lacaud made a hardly visible effort to smile, which he hoped Curtin would understand and take for a perfect answer.
Chapter 14
Camp was pitched once more. Having had their eats, the partners were loafing about. Sunset was still far off. Yet no one felt like working. The burros were taken from their hiding-place and led down to be watered and then left to return to pasture.
After nightfall, when they sat around the fire smoking and discussing the events of the last forty hours, they found the happenings of the last two days had so exhausted them that they had lost interest in the work which had enabled them to endure all sorts of hardships and privations for so many months. They felt almost as though they had aged overnight.
Curtin gave these feelings words. “I suppose Howard is right in what he said day before yesterday. That is, that the best thing we can do is to close the mine, pack up, and leave. Devil knows how long it will be now before we have soldiers coming up here. We might well make another grand by staying here another two weeks or three. Anyway, I am of the opinion we should be thankful for what we have and go home.”
For a few minutes there was no answer. Then Dobbs said: “I had preferred to stay here a few weeks longer, you know. I said so before. Still, come to think of it, it’s all right with me, brethren. Let’s strike the mine and make ready to toddle off. Fact is, I no longer have the slightest ambition to hold on. It’s all gone.”
Howard nodded without saying a word.
Lacaud was smoking. He did not even remind them that they had closed a deal with him to stay for another week at least so as to assist him in trying out his ideas. He seemed to be more concerned about keeping up a good fire than anything else.
Finally Howard looked at him. “Nervous? What for? It seems to be all over now.”
“Oh, I’m not nervous, partner. Not exactly. I don’t know why I should be.” After this he again fell silent.
Perhaps he had been thinking how to arouse their interest once more, so they would stay and help him for a few days. He didn’t wish to come out directly with what he wanted, so he tried another way.
“Did you ever hear the story about the old Ciniega Mine?” He asked this rather suddenly, perhaps too suddenly, for the partners seemed to feel that he was not being straightforward.
Slightly bored, Howard said slowly: “We know so many stories about old mines that we don’t know what to do about.” He had been interrupted in his thoughts of how he would use the money he had earned to live a quiet life in a small town, sitting on the porch smoking and reading the papers, the comic strips, and bunk adventure stories, concerned about his health and about his meals, and going to bed early, w
ith funds to get well soaked at least once a month.
As if he were awakening, he looked up at Lacaud. “The truth is I had forgotten all about you, Laky,” he said.
Curtin laughed. “You see, Laky, we have our own thoughts, and you are not in them. We three have become so accustomed to speaking to each other that we sometimes forget you are here. No harm.”
Dobbs butted in. “It’s only to let you see how unimportant you are, brother. We’ve eaten together, we’ve fought together, we’ve even been very close to going to hell together, but you are still outside of the community, if you get what we mean. We might have come to like each other. But now, I reckon, it’s too late.”
“I get what you mean, Dobbs.”
“That reminds me,” Howard addressed him; “didn’t you say something about a plan?”
“Yes, your plan.” Dobbs spoke up. “Yes, that plan of yours. Well, you may keep it as your well-earned property. I’m not interested a bit. I’ve got the same idea old man Curtin has; to be more exact, I’d like to see a girl and see how she looks underneath, you know, and I have the funny desire to sit once more at a real table in a restaurant with wellcooked food set before me.”
“But can’t you see? Here are tens of thousands of dollars lying about ready to be picked up!”
Curtin yawned. “All right, sweety, pick them up and be happy. Don’t let them lie around here, somebody might come and carry them away. Well, partners, should somebody ask me how I feel right now, I’d say: I’m going to hit the hay in the old barn. Good night.”
Howard and Dobbs rose also, stretched their limbs, yawned with mouths wide open, and walked to the tent.