"Search "em both. See if they"ve a flask betune "em, Latham. Answer me, Mullan, did you see the burned camp? Did you see the dead man?
Did--Oh, murther! he"s gone! There"s never a word to be got out of aither of them this night. But don"t you believe that letther, major.
Don"t you trust a word of it; it"s false as h.e.l.l. It"s only a plant to rob ye of your escort first and your life and money later. That"s it, men, douse them, kick them, murther them both if you like,--the curs!--and they"d drink when they knowed every man was needed." And adding force to his words, Feeny drove a furious kick at the luckless Mullan.
"Do you mean there is no truth in this? Do you mean you think it all a fraud, a trick?" at last queried the major. "Why, it seems incredible!"
"I say just what I mean, major. It"s a plot to rob you. I mean the gang has gathered for that very purpose. I mean that every story told us about the Apaches west or south of here or between us and the Gila is a b.l.o.o.d.y lie. The guard at the signal-station hadn"t seen or heard of them. They laughed at me when I told them what they tried to make us believe at Ceralvo"s. "Twas there they wanted to have you stop, for there you"d have no chance at all. Shure, do you suppose if the Apaches _were_ out--if this story _was_ true--they wouldn"t have heard it and investigated it by this time, and the beacon-fire would have been blazing at the Picacho?"
Then Murphy turned and ran around the corner of the corral to a point where he could see the dim outline of the range against the western sky. The next moment his voice rose upon the night air, vibrant, thrilling,--
"Look! G.o.d be good to us, major! It"s no lie. The signal-fire"s blazing at the peak."
II.
Late that night, with jaded steeds, a little troop of cavalry was pushing westward across the desert. The young May moon was sinking to rest, its pure pallid light shining faintly in contrast with the ruddy glow of some distant beacon in the mountains beneath. Ever since nightfall the rock b.u.t.tress at the pa.s.s had been reflecting the lurid glare of the leaping flames as, time and again, unseen but busy hands heaped on fresh fuel and sent the sparks whirling in fiery eddies to the sky. Languid and depressed after a long day"s battling with the fierce white sunshine, horses and men would gladly have spent the early hours of night dozing at their rude bivouac in the Christobal.
Ever since nine in the morning, after a long night march, they had sought such shade as the burning rocks might afford, scooping up the tepid water from the natural tanks at the bottom of the canon and thanking Providence it was not alkali. The lieutenant commanding, a tall, wiry, keen-faced young fellow, had made the rounds of his camp at sunset, carefully picking up and scrutinizing the feet of his horses and sending the farrier to tack on here and there a starting shoe. Gaunt and sunburned were his short-coupled California chargers, as were their tough-looking riders; fetlocks and beards were uniformly ragged; shoes of leather and shoes of iron showed equal wear. A bronze-faced sergeant, silently following his young chief, watched him with inquiring eyes and waited for the decision that was to condemn the command to another night march across the desert, or remand them to rest until an hour or so before the dawn.
"How far did you say it was to Ceralvo"s, sergeant?"
"About twenty-two miles, west."
"And to Moreno"s?"
"About fifteen, sir; off here." And the sergeant pointed out across the plain, lying like a dun-colored blanket far towards the southern horizon.
"We can get barley and water at both?"
"Plenty, sir."
"The men would rather wait here, I suppose, until two or three o"clock?"
"Very much, sir; they haven"t been able to rest at all to-day. I"ve fed out the last of the barley, though."
The lieutenant reflected a moment, pensively studying the legs of the trumpeter"s horse.
"Is there any chance of Moreno"s people not having heard about the Apaches in the Christobal?"
"Hardly, sir; they are nearer the Tucson road than we are. The stage must have gone through this morning early. It"s nothing new anyhow.
I"ve never known the time when the Indians were not in the neighborhood of that range. Moreno, too, is an old hand, sir."
The lieutenant looked long and intently out over the dreary flats beyond the foot-hills. Like the bottom of some prehistoric lake long since sucked dry by the action of the sun, the parched earth stretched away in mile after mile of monotonous, life-ridden desert, a Sahara without sign of an oasis, a sandy barren shunned even by scorpion and centipede. Already the glow was dying from the western sky. The red rim of the distant range was purpling. The golden gleam that flashed from rock to rock as the sun went down had vanished from all but the loftiest summits, and deep, dark shadows were creeping slowly out across the plain. Over the great expanse not so much as the faintest spark could be seen. Aloft, the greater stars were beginning to peep through the veil of pallid blue, while over the distant pa.s.s the sun"s fair hand-maiden and train-bearer, with slow, stately mien, was sinking in the wake of her lord, as though following him to his rest.
Not a breath of air was astir. The night came on still as the realms of solitude. Only the low chatter of the men, the occasional stamp of iron-shod hoof or the munching jaws of the tired steeds broke in upon the perfect silence. From their covert in the westward slope of the Christobal the two sentries of the little command looked out upon a lifeless world. Beneath them, whiffing their pipes after their frugal supper, the troopers were chatting in low tone, some of them already spreading their blankets among the shelving rocks. The embers from the cook fire glowed a deeper red as the darkness gathered in the pa.s.s, and every man seemed to start as though stung with sudden spur when sharp, quick, and imperative there came the cry from the lips of the farther sentry,--
"Fire, sir,--out to the west!"
In an instant Lieutenant Drummond had leaped down the rocky canon and, field-gla.s.s in hand, was standing by the sentry"s side. No need to question "Where away?" Far out across the intervening plain a column of flame was darting upward, gaining force and volume with every moment. The lieutenant never even paused to raise the gla.s.s to his eyes. No magnifying power was needed to see the distant pyre; no prolonged search to tell him what was meant. The troopers who had sprung to their feet and were already eagerly following turned short in their tracks at his first word.
"Saddle up, men. It"s the beacon at Signal Peak."
Then came a scene of bustle. No words were spoken; no further orders given. With the skill of long practice the men gathered their few belongings, shook out the dingy horse-blankets and then, carefully folding, laid them creaseless back of the gaunt withers of their faithful mounts. The worn old saddles were deftly set, the crude buckles of the old days, long since replaced by cincha loop, snapped into place; lariats coiled and swung from the cantle-rings; dusty old bits and bridles adjusted; then came the slipping into carbine-slings and thimble-belts, the quick lacing of Indian moccasin or canvas legging, the filling of canteens in the tepid tanks below, while all the time the cooks and packers were flying about gathering up the pots and pans and storing rations, bags, and blankets on the roomy _apparejos_. Drummond was in the act of swinging into saddle when his sergeant hastened up.
"Beg pardon, lieutenant, but shall I leave a small guard with the pack-train or can they come right along?"
"They"ll go with us, of course. We can"t leave them here. We must head for Ceralvo"s at once. How could those Indians have got over that way?"
"It is beyond me to say, sir. I didn"t know they ever went west of the Santa Maria."
"I can hardly believe it now, but there"s no doubting that signal; it is to call us thither at all speed wherever we may be, and means only one thing,--"Apaches here." Sergeant Wing is not the man to get stampeded. Can they have jumped the stage, do you think, or attacked some of Ceralvo"s people?"
"Lord knows, sir. I don"t see how they could have swung around there; there"s nothing to tempt them along that range until they get to the pa.s.s itself. They must have come around south of Moreno"s."
"I think not, sergeant."
The words were spoken in a very quiet voice. Drummond turned in surprise, his foot in the stirrup, and looked at the speaker, a keen-eyed trooper of middle age, whose hair was already sprinkled with gray.
"Why not, Bland?"
"Because we have been along the range for nearly fifty miles below here, sir, and haven"t crossed a sign, and because I understand now what I couldn"t account for at two o"clock,--what I thought must be imagination."
"What was that?"
"Smoke, sir, off towards the Gila, north of Ceralvo"s, I should say, just about north of west of where we are."
"Why didn"t you report it?"
"You were asleep, sir, and by the time I got the gla.s.ses and looked it had faded out entirely; but it"s my belief the Indians are between us and the river, or were over there north of Ceralvo"s to-day. If not Indians, who?"
"You ride with me, Bland. I"ll talk with you further about this. Come on with the men as soon as you have the packs ready, sergeant." And so saying, Lieutenant Drummond mounted and rode slowly down the winding trail among the boulders. At the foot of the slope, where the water lay gleaming in its rocky bed, he reined his horse to the left to give him his fill of the pool, and here the trooper addressed as Bland presently joined him.
"Where was it you enlisted, Bland?" was the younger soldier"s first question. "I understand you are familiar with all this country."
"At Tucson, sir, six months ago, after the stage company discharged me."
"I remember," was the answer, as the lieutenant gently drew rein to lift his horse"s head. "I think you were so frank as to give the reason of your quitting their employment."
"Well, there was no sense trying to conceal it, or anything else a man may do out here, lieutenant. They fired me for drinking too much at the wrong time. The section boss said he couldn"t help himself, and I don"t suppose he could."
"As I remember," said Drummond, presently, and with hesitation, for he hated to pry into the past of a man who spoke so frankly and who made no effort to conceal his weakness, "you were driver of the buck-board the Morales gang held up last November over near the Catarinas."
"Yes; that"s the time I got drunk, sir. It"s all that saved me from being killed, and between keeping sober and losing my life or getting drunk and losing a job, I preferred the latter."
"Yet you were in a measure responsible for the safety of your pa.s.sengers and mail, were you not?"
"Well, no, sir, not after the warning I gave the company. I told them Ramon Morales was in Tucson the night before we had to pull out, and wherever he was that infernal cut-throat of a brother of his wasn"t far away. I told them it was taking chances to let Judge Gillette and that infantry quartermaster try to go through without escort. I begged to throw up the job that very night, but they held me to my contract, and I had to go. We were jumped not ten miles out of town, and before any one could draw a Derringer every man of us was covered. The judge might have known they"d shoot him on sight ever since that Greaser from Hermosillo was lynched. But they never harmed the quartermaster."
"Huh! The devil they didn"t!" laughed the lieutenant. "They took his watch and his money and everything he had on except his underclothing. How long had you been driving when that happened?"