Captain's Rangers by Elmer Kelton

Author:Elmer Kelton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2012-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

IT HAD BEEN A LONG, SAD RIDE HOME. Zoe sat weeping in her jacal. Lanham paced the yard in the dusk, the shoulder hurting him every step. The Reyna brothers hunched beside their fire, sipping black coffee in silence. None of the Bailey vaqueros had returned with them.

In his mind Lanham kept hearing the faraway sound of the Tompkins riders, singing as they drove the horses. It was a Mexican song he had known for years, one he would never forget if he lived to be a hundred. He walked to the fire and tried some of the coffee out of the Reynas’ pot. Usually they made fair coffee, but tonight it wasn’t fit to drink. Or maybe Lanham just wasn’t fit to drink it. He sipped a little and turned the cup upside down. Reynaldo glanced at him, then looked away, nursing his own sorrow. The Reynas had been in on the chase all the way. Lanham didn’t dare ask them if they had shot anybody.

He looked toward Zoe’s shack. She hadn’t been out since they had reached home. “I’ll go try and talk to her again.” He spoke more to himself than to the Reynas. “Not that it’ll do any good.”

He found her sitting in the rawhide chair, staring at the dirt floor. He lighted the lamp, and he could see the redness of her eyes. “Come on out, Zoe, and get you some air. You ought to eat you some supper, too.”

She shook her head, not answering.

“Wasn’t your mistake; it was Bailey’s.”

“It was everybody’s mistake. We were all in on it.”

“Well, it’s done.” He couldn’t dismiss it the way Bailey had tried to, telling everybody within earshot that it didn’t matter much anyway, that they were just Mexicans. It was a wonder to Lanham that Bailey managed to keep any Mexican vaqueros, much less his wife. “Zoe, nothin’ you or anybody can do will change what’s already happened. Main thing is to be sure nothin’ like it ever happens again.”

“How can we be sure of that?”

“For one thing, if any more shootin’s to be done, we’ll leave it to McNelly and his Rangers. That’s what they come for.”

Zoe’s tears still trailed down her cheeks. “Why didn’t those bandits come, Lanham? If they’d come like they was supposed to, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“We can’t blame this on the bandits. We done it ourselves.”

“At least you have one consolation, Lanham. You didn’t kill anybody.”

“I might have, though, if one of Bailey’s vaqueros hadn’t shot the horse out from under me.”

“One of Bailey’s … What do you mean?”

He hadn’t meant to say it. The words had slipped out. Now he’d have to go on with it. “Wasn’t the Tompkins cowboys who killed my horse. That bullet came from behind me.”

“You sure?”

“Sure’s I’m standin’ here.”

She puzzled. “Must’ve been an accident.”

“You bet it was. He figured on killin’ me.”

Zoe stared, not believing. “Not Bailey. Why would he?”

“Next time you’re around him, Zoe, watch the way he looks at you. He wants you bad enough to kill whoever stands in his way.

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