Kid Rodelo (Louis L'Amour's Lost Treasures) by Louis L'Amour

Author:Louis L'Amour
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2018-07-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

THERE WAS NO shield from the sun. Nowhere a cloud, nor even a shadow. They plodded along wearily, slumping in their saddles, drained of energy by the fierce heat. When they lifted their heads to look about, even their eyeballs moved sluggishly, the movements of their hands felt awkward.

Dan Rodelo pulled up and slid from the saddle. By all means, he must save the grulla. The mouse-colored mustang might be all that he had between himself and death, and they would need each other.

The Yaquis did not worry them just now. Perhaps in the maze of rocks behind them their trail had been temporarily lost. None of them expected anything more than that.

Nobody talked of water. Nobody wanted to think of it, and yet they thought of nothing else.

Nora spoke suddenly. “There! I think it is there!”

She pointed toward three identical sahuaros that lifted their tall columns from a point of rock, standing close together like three upraised fingers.

There was no rush to seek the water, for their fear of disappointment was too great. Rodelo left his horse and climbed among the rocks. He heard the buzzing of bees, and turned left to follow the sound. He slipped on the lava, caught himself on his hand as he fell, and got clumsily to his feet, then looked stupidly at his bloody, lacerated palm.

Clinging to a rock to steady himself, he edged around a corner and looked upon a wide, shallow pool of water. At one side, where a trail came in, there was a flat surface and a small edge of sand. At the far side of the pool the water became deeper.

He walked back to his horse. “It’s there,” he said, “enough to fill our canteen and water the horses, and drink what we want.”

He motioned them around to the trail so they could bring the horses up. Then he took the olla and went back to the pool. He went to the deepest part, filled the olla, and placed it back in a shadowed corner where a shelf of rock would protect it from the sun. When the others came up, he was drinking deeply at the basin’s edge.

“Hold the horses back,” Harbin said. “Let’s get our water before they stir it up.”

Badger filled the canteen before he drank. While Nora was drinking, Rodelo looked around. This was a sheltered spot, a place that could be guarded, and defended. And there was some shade against the late afternoon sun. “Let’s camp right here,” he said.

Tom Badger glanced over at Joe Harbin before replying. “Might as well,” he agreed. “We ain’t likely to find a better place.”

They brought the horses in and watered them, then led them to the shadows under the basaltic rim that partly enclosed the basin. The horses needed the rest…they all did.

“There’s enough dry wood for a fire. That stuff won’t send up any smoke,” Badger said.

“All right,” Rodelo agreed.

Westward, and within plain view from where they stood, were the dunes, the

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