“You and Chavasse go for the child now. When you are almost there, I will get Ortiz.”
Dillinger, recovering his breath, now moved into position where he would be able to see Ortiz. There he was! If he only had a rifle. He had to get closer so that the Thompson would be sure to get Ortiz with the first burst.
He climbed down as quietly as he could. Suddenly, there was a noise off to the right. It was Ortiz’s horse whinnying. Rose was clearly visible, running ahead of Chavasse. In a moment she had put down her rifle and scooped up Juanita into her arms.
Ortiz saw this also, and cried out like a madman whose property was being stolen. Dillinger pulled himself up on the rock in front of him, ready to fire his Thompson, but Ortiz, screaming indecipherable words in Apache, was running toward Rose and Juanita. Dillinger saw Chavasse fall to one knee to take better aim at the zigzagging Apache. The Frenchman fired once, the bullet skimming off a rock, and then a second and third time in quick succession. If he’d hit Ortiz it hadn’t slowed the Apache down a second. Dillinger was scampering breathlessly down the rocks, hating the Thompson for the first time in his life because it was too inaccurate to use with Rose and Juanita now just beyond Ortiz in the line of fire.
Why didn’t the kneeling Frenchman fire again, Dillinger thought as he moved quickly over the sharp rocks, trying not to trip. Chavasse was looking at his rifle as if it had jammed, when Ortiz came close enough to kick the rifle clear out of Chavasse’s hands. Out of the corner of his vision, Dillinger saw that Rose had put Juanita down to pick up her rifle. She should never have let go of the kid. She should have run with Juanita in the opposite direction.
Ortiz saw his chance. Instead of stomping on Chavasse as he had planned to do, he ran toward the child. Dillinger knew the danger. Once the Apache had the kid in his arms, the Thompson’d be useless. Dillinger ran as he’d done the hundred-yard dash in high school, at the last moment flinging the Thompson away as he risked everything in one flying tackle, hitting Ortiz just at the back of the knees, crumpling him to the ground.
Ortiz in his rage summoned up the energy of a giant, and with a mighty heave rolled over and pinned Dillinger to the ground.
“Get the kid!” Dillinger yelled at Rose, then felt the Apache’s fingers tighten on his throat.
Rose, standing ten feet away, rifle in hand, didn’t know how to shoot Ortiz without hitting Dillinger.
“Get the kid and run like-” Ortiz’s hands, the strongest Dillinger had ever felt, tightened on his windpipe, cutting off his yell to Rose and his air. At least the kid was safe, he thought, but what a way to go.
And then, staring up at Ortiz’s face whirling against the sun, Dillinger suddenly felt the handgrip on his throat loosen.
“Scum!” he heard Nachita saying as he twisted Ortiz’s head in an arm lock. “Geronimo wouldn’t even have let you hold the horses.”
Dillinger saw Nachita’s knife as if in slow motion go in and out of Ortiz twice, and then Ortiz’s eyes rolled upwards. As Nachita stepped back, Ortiz rolled off Dillinger and sank to the ground.
Somewhere Dillinger could hear Juanita crying. Then Chavasse was standing over him, and then a moment later Rose was kneeling beside him. His breath was coming back, and he knew, like a man redeemed, that everything would be all right.
Rose accepted custody of Juanita as if she were her own. As Rivera’s closest adult relative, she used her authority to see that Dillinger got the $20,000 of gold that Rivera had promised him. And when Dillinger suggested that Fallon’s $5,000 go to Chevasse so that he could stop being a hotel manager and barkeeper in a strange land, Rose accepted that also. What she could not accept as easily was that with the passing of weeks, Dillinger had decided to return home. Nachita accompanied them to the border because he knew a place that was absolutely safe from detection. Rose rode along with Nachita, but for the last few miles she let Nachita lead her horse and she sat with Dillinger in the convertible, both of them aching with their feelings for each other.