Slocum and the Sierra Madras Gold by Jake Logan

Author:Jake Logan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

16

Predawn, they saddled the stock, loaded the heavy panniers on the cross bucks and with a chorus of mules braying, headed northwest. Against the coolness that settles in the desert before sunup, they wrapped themselves in blankets and rode out through the spiked silhouettes of the tall cacti.

Cold beans wrapped in tortillas were handed out to eat on the way. Everyone felt an urgency, led by him. He wanted the sanctity that Magdellania offered, ruralists’ protection and the safety of a town. Men like Vargas avoided such places. Mexican law dealt tough with offenders and few prisoners were ever brought back for incarceration. So remaining in the Madras was much safer for them than to venture out to the populated areas.

Midday, he saw the small village and the church temple. He turned in the saddle to Linda. “We can water our animals at the well in the square. But everyone keep their eyes open.” With his arm, he waved Tuey up with them.

“You go ahead. Get on the roof of a building with your rifle and watch close. We’ll water the stock in the city trough and then ride on. You see any sign of trouble, you can warn us with a shot.”

Tuey nodded and used the stock of her rifle to spank her pony. In a flash she was gone through the spiny forest that surrounded them. A trail of dust spun up by her pony’s hooves. When he turned back Linda nodded in approval.

“We making good enough time?”

“Yes, giving them a drink here at midday means we can trot them all this afternoon and get there by sundown.”

No sign of Tuey, he held up the train on the last rise and used his telescope. Nothing looked out of place. Her horse stood hipshot behind a cantina. She must be on the roof. They had coverage—good.

“Let’s go in,” he said and booted the dun for the cluster of adobe buildings on the grassless hillside. The unfinished second tower of the church beside the belfry one stuck above the rest. They never finished churches, so the king could not assess taxes on them when Mexico belonged to Spain.

A few goats and loose burros looked up with curiosity at the train’s approach. Some noisy rooster crowed his head off about successfully topping a hen; otherwise the sleepy town looked and sounded like a thousand more sites below the border. Slocum felt tense. He always felt tense going into the unknown—any site where an ambush could occur.

The drum of hooves of his train sounded loud entering between the walls of buildings that surrounded the well in the square. Slocum kept his hand on his gun butt. Then he rode the dun into the square.

Something was wrong. He searched for Tuey on the roof. There was nobody at the well.

“Get out of here!” he shouted and the shocked-faced women wheeled their horses.

The front doors of the church flew open and gunslinging riders burst out on horseback. Across the street, another handful of hombres firing pistols came charging out of the stables.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.