Angsman dismounted. Hyde stirred restlessly in his saddle before putting his hands on the horn to swing down, but stopped when Billy Guay"s hand tightened on his arm.
"d.a.m.n, Ed, look at that young one!" His voice was loud and excited, but as impersonal as if he were making a comment at a girlie show. "She"d even look good in town," he added, and threw off to stand in front of her pony.
Angsman looked at Billy Guay and back to the girl, who was sliding easily from the bare back of her pony. He greeted her in English, pleasantly, and tipped his hat to the older woman, still mounted, who giggled in a high, thin voice. The girl said nothing, but looked at Angsman.
He said, Como se llama? Como se llama? and spoke a few more words in Spanish. and spoke a few more words in Spanish.
The girl"s face relaxed slightly and she said, "Sonkadeya," p.r.o.nouncing each syllable distinctly. "What the h.e.l.l"s that mean?" Billy Guay said, walking up to her. "That"s her name," Angsman told him, then spoke to the girl again in Spanish.
She replied with a few Spanish phrases, but most of her words were in a dialect of the Apache tongue. She was having trouble combining the two languages so that the white men could understand her. Her face would frown and she would wipe her hands nervously over the hips of her greasy deerskin dress as she groped for the right words. She was plump and her hair and dress had long gone unwashed, but her face was softly attractive, contrasting oddly with her primitive dress and speech. Her features might have belonged to a white woman-the coloring, too, for that matter-but the greased hair and smoke smell that clung to her were decidedly Apache.
When she finished speaking, Angsman looked back at Hyde. "She"s a Warm Springs Apache. A Mimbreno," he said. "She says they"re on their way home."
Hyde said, "Ask her if she knows about any gold hereabouts."
Angsman looked at him and his eyes opened a little wider. "Maybe you didn"t hear, Ed. I said she"s a Mimbre. She"s going home from a hunting trip led by her father. And her father"s Delgadito," he added.
"h.e.l.l, the "Paches are at peace, ain"t they?" Hyde asked indifferently. "What you worried about?"
"Cochise made peace," Angsman answered. "These are Mimbres, not Chiricahuas, and their chief is Victorio. He"s never never made peace. I don"t want to scare you, Ed," he said looking back to the girl, "but his war lieutenant"s Delgadito."
Billy Guay was standing in front of the girl, his thumbs in his gun belts, looking at her closely. "I know how to stop a war," he said, smiling.
"Who"s talkin" about war?" Hyde asked. "We"re not startin" anything."
"You don"t have to stop it, Ed," Angsman said. "You think about finishing it. And you think about your life."
"Don"t worry about me thinkin" about my life. I think about it bein" almost gone and not worth a Dixie single. h.e.l.l, yes, we"re takin" a chance!" Hyde argued. "If gold was easy to come by, it wouldn"t be worth nothin"."
"I still know how to stop a war," Billy Guay said idly.
Hyde looked at him impatiently. "What"s that talk supposed to mean?" Then he saw how Billy Guay was looking at the girl, and the frown eased off the grizzled face as it dawned on him what Billy Guay was thinking about, and he rubbed his beard. "You see what I mean, Ed," Billy Guay said, smiling. "We take Miss Indin along and ain"t no Delgadito or even U.S. Grant goin" to stop us." He looked up at the old woman on the pony. "Though I don"t see any reason for carryin" excess baggage."
Angsman caught him by both arms and spun him around. "You gun-crazy kid, you out of your mind? You don"t wave threats at Apaches!" He pushed the boy away roughly. "Just stop a minute, Ed. You got better sense than what this boy"s proposing."
"It"s worth a chance, Angsman. Any chance. We"re not stoppin" after comin" this far on account of some Indin or his little girl," Hyde said.
"I"d say Billy"s got the right idea. I told you he had nerve. Let him use a little of it."
Billy Guay looked toward Angsman"s mount and saw his handgun in a saddle holster, then both pistols came out and he pointed them at the scout.
"Don"t talk again, Angsman, "cause if I hear any more abuse I"ll shoot you as quick as this." He raised a pistol and swung it to the side as if without aiming and pulled the trigger. The old Indian woman dropped from the pony without a cry.
There was silence. Hyde looked at him, stunned. "G.o.d, Billy! You didn"t have to do that!"
Billy Guay laughed, but the laugh trailed off too quickly, as if he just then realized what he had done. He forced the laugh now, and said, "h.e.l.l, Ed. She was only an Indin. What you fussin" about?"
Hyde said, "Well, it"s done now and can"t be undone." But he looked about nervously as if expecting a simple solution to be standing near at hand. A solution or some kind of justification. He saw the mining equipment packed on one of the mules and the look of distress left his eyes. "Let"s quit talkin" about it," he said. "We got things to do."
Billy Guay blew down the barrel of the pistol he had fired and watched Sonkadeya as she bent over the woman momentarily, then rose without the trace of an emotion on her face. It puzzled Billy Guay and made him more nervous. He waved a pistol toward Ygenio Baca. "Hey, Mazo! Get a shovel and turn this old woman under. No sense in havin" the birds tellin" on us."
THE SCOUT RODE in silence, knowing what would come, but not knowing when. His gaze crawled over the wildness of the slanting canyon walls, brush trees, and scattered boulders, where nothing moved. The left wall was dark, the shadowy rock outlines obscure and blending into each other; the opposite slope was hazy and cold in the dim light of the late sun. He felt the tenseness all over his body. The feeling of knowing that something is close, though you can"t see it or hear it. Only the quietness, the metallic clop of hooves, then Billy Guay"s loud, forced laughter that would cut the stillness and hang there in the narrowness until it faded out up-canyon. Angsman knew the feeling. It went with campaigning. But this time there was a difference. It was the first time he had ever led into a canyon with such a strong premonition that Apaches were present. Yet, with the feeling, he recognized an eager expectancy. Perhaps fatalism, he thought.
He watched two chicken hawks dodging, gliding in and out, drop toward a brush tree halfway up the slanting right wall, then, just as they were about to land in the bush, they rose quickly and soared out of sight. Now he was more than sure. They were riding into an ambush. And there was so little time to do anything about it.
He glanced at Hyde riding next to him. Hyde couldn"t be kept back now. The final circle on his map was just a little figuring from the end of the canyon.
"Slow her down, Ed," Billy Guay yelled. "I can"t propose to Miss In-din and canter at the same time." He laughed and reached over to put his hand on Sonkadeya"s hip, then let the hand fall to her knee.
He called out, "Yes, sir, Ed, I think we made us a good move."
Sonkadeya did not resist. Her head nodded faintly with the sway of her pony, looking straight ahead. But her eyes moved from one canyon wall to the other and there was the slightest gleam of a smile.
Angsman wondered if he really cared what was going to happen. He didn"t care about Hyde or Billy Guay; and he didn"t know Ygenio Baca well enough to have a feeling one way or the other. From the beginning Ygenio had been taking a chance like everyone else. He thought of his own life and the odd fact occurred to him that he didn"t even particularly care about himself. He tried to picture death in relation to himself, but he would see himself lying on the ground and himself looking at the body and knew that couldn"t be so. He thought of how hard it was to take yourself out of the picture to see yourself dead, and ended up with: If you"re not going to be there to worry about yourself being dead, why worry at all? But you don"t stay alive not caring, and his eyes went back to the canyon sides.
He watched Hyde engrossed in his map and looked back at Billy Guay riding close to Sonkadeya with his hand on her leg. They could be shot from their saddles and not even see where it came from. Or, they could be taken by surprise. His head swung front again and he saw the canyon up ahead narrow to less than fifty feet across. Or they could be taken by surprise!
He flicked the rein against the mare"s mane, gently, to ease her toward the right canyon wall. He made the move slowly, leading the others at a very slight angle, so that Hyde and Billy Guay, in their preoccupation, did not even notice the edging. Either to be shot in the head or not at all, Angsman thought.
Now they were riding much closer to the slanting canyon wall. He turned in the saddle to watch Billy Guay, still laughing and moving his hand over Sonkadeya. And when he turned back he saw the half-dozen Apaches standing in the trail not a dozen yards ahead. It was funny, because he was looking at half-naked, armed Apaches and he could still hear Billy Guay"s laughter coming from behind.
Then the laughter stopped. Hyde groaned, "Oh, my G.o.d!" and in the instant spurred his mount and yanked rein to wheel off to the left. There was the report of a heavy rifle and horse and rider went down.
Angsman"s arms were jerked suddenly behind his back and he saw three Apaches race for the fallen Hyde as he felt himself dragged over the rump of the mare. He landed on his feet and staggered and watched one warrior dragging Hyde back toward them by one leg. Hyde was screaming, holding on to the other leg that was bouncing over the rough ground.
Billy Guay had jerked his arms free and stood a little apart from the dozen Apaches aiming bows and carbines at him. His hands were on the pistol b.u.t.ts, with fear and indecision plain on his face.
Angsman twisted his neck toward him, "Don"t even think about it, boy. You don"t have a chance." It was all over in something like fifteen seconds.
Hyde was writhing on the ground, groaning and holding on to the hole in his thigh, where the heavy slug had gone through to take the horse in the belly. Angsman stooped to look at the wound and saw that Hyde was holding the map, pressed tight to his leg and now smeared with blood. He looked up and Delgadito was standing on the other side of the wounded man. Next to him stood Sonkadeya.
DELGADITO WAS NOT dressed for war. He wore a faded red cotton shirt, b.u.t.tonless and held down by the cartridge belt around his waist; and his thin face looked almost ridiculous under the shabby wide-brimmed hat that sat straight on the top of his head, at least two sizes too small. But Angsman did not laugh. He knew Delgadito, Victorio"s war lieutenant, and probably the most capable hit-and-run guerrilla leader in Apacheria. No, Angsman did not laugh.
Delgadito stared at them, taking his time to look around, then said, "h.e.l.lo. Angs-mon. You have a cigarillo?"
Angsman fished in his shirt pocket and drew out tobacco and paper and handed it to the Indian. Delgadito rolled a cigarette awkwardly and handed the sack to Angsman, who rolled himself one then flicked a match with his thumbnail and lighted the cigarettes. Both men drew deeply and smoked in silence. Finally, Angsman said, "It is good to smoke with you again, Sheekasay."
Delgadito nodded his head and Angsman went on, "It has been five years since we smoked together at San Carlos."
The Apache shook his head slightly. "Together we have smoked other things since then, Angs-mon," and added a few words in the Mimbre dialect.
Angsman looked at him quickly. "You were at Big Dry Wash?"
Delgadito smiled for the first time and nodded his head. "How is your sickness, Angs-mon?" he asked, and the smile broadened.
Angsman"s hand came up quickly to his side, where the bullet had torn through that day two years before at Dry Wash, and now he smiled.
Delgadito watched him with the nearest an Apache comes to giving an admiring look. He said, "You are a big man, Angs-mon. I like to fight you. But now you do something very foolish and I must stop you. I mean you no harm, Angs-mon, for I like to fight you, but now you must go home and stop this being foolish and take this old man before the smell enters his leg. And, Angs-mon, tell this old man what befalls him if he returns. Tell him the medicine he carries in his hand is false. Show him how he cannot read the medicine ever again because of his own blood." For a moment his eyes lifted to the heights of the canyon wall. "Maybeso that is the only way, Angs-mon. With blood."
Angsman offered no thanks for their freedom, grat.i.tude was not an Apache custom, but he said, "On the way home I will impress your words on them."
"Tell my words to the old man," Delgadito replied, then his voice became cold. "I will tell the young one." And he looked toward Billy Guay.
Angsman swallowed hard to remain impa.s.sive. "There is nothing I can say."
"The mother of Sonkadeya speaks in my ear, Angs-mon. What could you say?" Delgadito turned deliberately and walked away.
Angsman rode without speaking, listening to Hyde"s groans as the saddle rubbed the open rawness of his wound. The groans were beginning to erase the scream that hung in his mind and repeated over and over, Billy Guay"s scream as they carried him up-canyon.
Angsman knew what he was going to do. He"d still have his worn saddle and old-model carbine, but he knew what he was going to do. Hyde"s leg would heal and he"d be back the next year, or the year after; or if not him, someone else. The Southwest was full of Hydes. And as long as there were Hydes, there were Billy Guays. Big talkers with big guns who ended up lying dead, after a while, in a Mimbre rancheria. Angsman would go back to Fort Bowie. Even if it got slow sometimes, there"d always be plenty to do.
4 Red h.e.l.l Hits Canyon Diablo
Original t.i.tle: Tizwin 10 Story Western Magazine, 10 Story Western Magazine, October 1952 October 1952 THEY CALLED IT Canyon Diablo, but for no apparent reason. Like everything else it had advantages and disadvantages, good points and bad ones, depending on the time of the day, the season of the year, or who happened to be occupying the canyon at a given time. At this particular time, two hundred feet up the south wall, a solitary disadvantage stood motionless on the narrow ledge, watching the small group of riders on the open plain approach the dark defile that led into the canyon. A dozen feet above his head the rock sloped back abruptly straightening into the flat tableland. Directly below, the wall extended in a sheer drop to the canyon mouth; but a few yards to his right the canyon wall buckled with loose rock and thorn brush, sloping gradually out into the open plain.
A fifty caliber buffalo rifle rested on a waist-high boulder in front of him, pointed in the general direction of the riders. His gaze followed the same line, his face motionless, though the sand-specked hot wind nudged shoulder-length, jet-black hair and forced his eyelids to lower slightly, so that he watched with eyes that were slits against the glare. Eyes that were small, black, bullet-like . . . staring at the riders with a cold-steel hate. It is easy for a Chiricahua Apache to hate. It is doubly so when his vision is filled with the sight of blanco blanco horse soldiers. horse soldiers.
Lieutenant Gordon Towner reined in his patrol at the signal from the rider fifty yards ahead. Matt Cline, the civilian scout, wheeled his pony and rode back to the officer and six men.
"Did you see him, Lieutenant?"
"Did I see whom?"
Matt Cline"s jaw bulged, a wad of tobacco accentuating his creased, ruddy face, and the short brim of his hat was low on his forehead casting a shadow to the tips of his straggly, black mustache. His lips were parted slightly by the tobacco bulge of his jaw and barely moved when he spoke. He pointed ahead to the mouth of the canyon three hundred yards away, and then his arm swept up to the top of the south wall. Pointing up, his lean, heavily veined arm stretched from the sleeve of red flannel underwear. He wore no shirt. His suspenders crossed the sweat-stained, colorless undershirt and attached to dark serge trousers that tucked into high, dust-caked boots. Across his lap he held a Remington-Hepburn.
"See that ledge runnin" along near the top of the wall? Well, not a minute ago one of our little friends was up there." The scout ended with a stream of tobacco juice spurting into the white dust.
The lieutenant pulled the brim of his floppy, gray field hat closer to his eyes and squinted ahead to the canyon entrance. A hundred things raced through his mind, and every one of them was a question. It was his patrol and he was supposed to have the answers. That"s why he had a commission. But the face bore a puzzled expression. It was young, and lobster-red, and told openly that he was new to frontier station, though he had learned all the answers at the Point. You hesitate when it"s your command, your responsibility. When a dirty old man in an undershirt is studying you to see what you"ve got, waiting to pick you apart. And if he finds the wrong thing, the buzzards do the rest of the picking.
"Mr. Cline, the primary objective of this patrol is to locate and bring in Trooper Byerlein. If in the process we come across hostiles, it is also the duty of this patrol to scout them and deal with them using the best means at hand. I would judge that there is a rancheria somewhere in that canyon. I don"t think their band could be very large, for I know of no Indians at San Carlos that are unaccounted for. Now that we"ve found one, or possibly a band, we"ll have to act quickly before they get away."
"You got it wrong there, Lieutenant," the scout said. "We didn"t find him. That Indian found us."
"Perhaps I"m wrong, but I"d observe him to be a lookout. Now he"s obviously fled after being seen."
"Only thing wrong with that, Lieutenant, is that you don"t observe an Apache when he"s on lookout. I don"t know what your experience is, but I hear this is your first patrol out of Fort Thomas. You might as well learn right now that when you spot an Apache like that, it"s because he wants you to see him. Right now there could be a dozen of "em hidin" on that rocky grade goin" up to the ledge. If we was to ride to the mouth we"d see him again just a little way further on. Then you"d go further and you"d see him again. Until he led you to the right spot. There"d be a lot of shots and you"d go back to Thomas draped over your horse facedown. If there"s anybody left to lead the horse."
And so they learned. The lieutenant faced the scout, but was silent. It wasn"t the best thing to have been said in front of his men. Above all, they had to have confidence in him. He waited until he felt the heat of embarra.s.sment drain from his face.
"What do you suggest, then?"
Matt Cline shifted his chew to the other cheek. "Well, it looks like Byerlein"s tracks go into the canyon, which means they pro"bly got him. It"s one thing trackin" a deserter, but it"s another goin" into an Apache rancheria to get him. If he"s there he"s either dead or half dead, so there"s no worry there anymore." He pointed to a splash of green that crept between low hills to the north of where they were standing.
"I think we"d better wait and move over to those pines until Sinsonte shows up. He"ll cut our sign over to there without any trouble. Maybe he"ll know just what we"re up against."
FROM THE EDGE of the pines they watched the canyon entrance across the empty stretch of desert, and the shadowy defile that slashed into the mountainside had eight different meanings. But it flicked through everyone"s mind that it was a place where you could die while never seeing what did it. Six enlisted troopers prayed to six interpretations of G.o.d that the young lieutenant wasn"t a glory seeker . . . at least not on this patrol. So the men sprawled in sand and gra.s.s, their bodies relaxed-though it"s a singular type of relaxation only a little more than a mile from the Apache. Eyes are ever watchful. The lieutenant and Cline sat a little apart from the men. Towner pulled at the spa.r.s.e tufts of gra.s.s nervously, looking around in every direction, but mostly toward the canyon.
"How do you know you can trust Sinsonte?" It was more than just making conversation. "He"s an Apache just like the rest of them. How do you know he isn"t eating with that band of hostiles right now?"
"Well, for one thing, army chow"s spoiled him," the scout answered. "He probably wouldn"t even touch mescal anymore if somebody baked it for him. I been scoutin" with him goin" on five years now and I don"t have any reason not to trust him. The day he turn around and lets go with his Sharps at me, why, then I"ll quit trustin" him."
Cline smiled at his joke. " "Course he ain"t always been a scout. He was with Cochise ten years ago, shootin" all the whites he could, long as he needed a pony or a few extra rounds, but that was just somethin" in his past. To an Apache, what you did a long time ago hasn"t got much bearin" on what you happen to be doin" at the present. And I don"t think he got along too well with Cochise, though he was with him since Apache Pa.s.s. "Course, he won"t come right out and tell you. See, Sinsonte is a White Mountain Apache, and for some reason-buried somewhere in his past-he"s got a full-fledged hate for Chiricahuas. That, along with army rations, is why he"s the best tracker at Fort Thomas."
"Uh-huh," Towner grunted. "So you think the hostiles in the canyon are Chiricahuas." It was half question, half statement of fact. The words of a brand-new lieutenant, willing to learn, but wishing he could have picked his own instructor.
Cline said, "I don"t see how they could be anythin" else. If they"re all accounted for on the reservation, then they must be ones that come up from across the border. When we was roundin" up the bands to bring them to San Carlos and Fort Apache, a bunch of "em slipped through the net and streaked south for the Sierra Madres, and n.o.body could dig "em out of those hills. Now, every once in a while, bands of "em come raidin" back into Arizona for horses and sh.e.l.ls. They"re carryin" on a little war with the Mexicans and have to keep their supplies up. Everybody"d just as soon they never come back. They got some good leaders . . . Chatto, Nachez, old Nana and Loco. And now I hear about an upstart medicine man who"s gainin" influence. Name"s Geronimo. I"d bet the bucks over in that canyon are part of that band."
An hour after sundown, Lieutenant Towner was still sitting at the edge of the pines, repeatedly shifting from one position to another on the sandy ground. Pine-tree shadows striped his soft face and made his eyes seem to shine. They were open wide. It was a long way from Springfield, Ma.s.s. A few yards out in the desert there was a m.u.f.fled sc.r.a.ping sound, and he jumped to his feet, tugging at his holstered revolving pistol. By the time he had gotten it out, Sinsonte was standing next to him. Matt Cline came up from somewhere behind him.
"Did you find "em?"
Sinsonte stood in front of his pony holding the hackamore close under the animal"s head, while the other hand still covered the nostrils. A man can be shot even when approaching a friendly camp.
"I find, nantan." Sinsonte, a little man even for an Apache, stood with narrow, hunched shoulders. He was perhaps fifty years and his eyes were beginning to be rivered with tiny red lines, but in them still was a fire, a fire that belonged to a younger man. Besides the calico red band holding his hair in place, he wore only high Apache moccasins with turned-up toes and a white cotton breechclout. A uniform jacket was lashed in his bedroll for more peaceful days.
The two scouts crouched together at the edge of the desert for a long time, drawing obscure lines in the sand and conversing in a mixture of Apache and Spanish with only an occasional English word. For a few minutes the lieutenant leaned over their map of sand, trying to recognize a mark or hear even a part of their conversation that was understandable. Finally he turned away in disgust.
"Sergeant Lonnigan!" The old sergeant rose from the circle of enlisted men. "Issue half rations all around. No fire. Therefore no coffee." It felt good to bark an order.
Dammit, he was still in command!
"Yes, sir!" Lonnigan snapped his reply. Thirty years in the army. Seven years longer than the shavetail had even existed. But Lonnigan was used to young second lieutenants. He had served under many. He remembered one who was now a general. He remembered two during the march to the sea, and at Shiloh-they were both colonels. And he remembered dozens of others who were dead. For some reason he liked this new Lieutenant Towner, even if he was too straight out of the manual and didn"t know much about Apaches. He remembered a time not too long ago when he himself had never heard the name Apache. You learned. And there are little humps of ground out behind the commissary building at Thomas to testify for those who didn"t.
IN A LITTLE WHILE Cline went over to the lieutenant.
"Sinsonte found them. Chiricahuas. He was only a few dozen yards from that lookout who tried to lure us in, and he followed him. When the lookout saw the lure wouldn"t work, he headed straight for the camp to talk it over with the rest of "em. About fourteen, fifteen. Sinsonte says from Nachez"s band, but they"re here with a subchief by the name of Lacayuelo . . . and mister, he"s really a bad one. He"s even hard in the eyes of most of the Apaches, and that"s sayin" somethin". I"d guess the rest of "em are bad actors just like he is."
"Did he see Byerlein?" "Yeah, but he was layin" on the ground in the middle of "em, so Sinsonte don"t know if"n he"s alive or dead. I"d say he"s half of either one."
The lieutenant looked out through the dingy grayness of the moon-bathed desert to the black slash that was Canyon Diablo, reflecting on what he had been told. It made it no easier for him, but he turned to the scout abruptly.
"Mr. Cline, if Sinsonte can sneak up on a band of hostiles without being detected, then he can lead this patrol in. Perhaps not to their camp, but at least to a favorable position from which we can make contact without being at a disadvantage. An ever present obligation to prevent the hostiles from committing further depredations in the Territory cannot be turned aside or put off. My duty is before me, Mr. Cline, and will be carried out whether you object or not." He paused to give emphasis to his words. "So we"re going to get them."
"I don"t object, mister. You"re the boss. I knew ever since this afternoon that you"d be wantin" to go in, so Sinsonte and I just did a little figurin" and I think we got an answer."
"How to get in?" "Yeah," the scout replied. "Sinsonte"s leavin" now to snake acrost that open stretch. In about four hours the moon"ll be down low enough for the rest of us to get acrost. We leave the horses here. And I say take all the men along, no horse guard left behind, "cause we"ll need all the carbines we got. "Course that"s up to you. The idee is to angle from here so as to land us on the north side of the mountain, three miles up from the entrance we saw this afternoon. On the north it slopes up pretty gradual, and there"s a trail that winds about halfway up and then cuts down into rocky country and on into the center of the canyon. The trail in"s a fair hard one to find, but Sinsonte"s goin" to meet us where it starts. He"s out layin" the carpet now."
Chapter Two.