“Means taking our leave of Judas. This time for good, Doc,” said Ryan.
“I greet that news with the oddest mix of emotions that ever plagued a man.”
“Could always put a bullet through its skull. That way you know it won’t suffer in any way.”
Doc shook his head. “I think not, but I appreciate the generosity of spirit that lies behind the offer, my friend. It is the rest of the wildlife of New Mexico that should walk from here on in fear and trembling.”
“We’ll let the horses go, as well. And Jak reckons that there are a number of wild mules in the hills. Figure Judas could find himself cock of the heap. Get a harem of pretty little ladies at his beck and call.” Ryan grinned. “Come back here in ten years or so, and you won’t be able to move without stepping on one of Judas’s brood.”
Doc smiled. “I believe that you speak with a straight tongue, Ryan. Allow me a few moments to bid the creature farewell.”
The horses were gone, running free as soon as their bridles were removed. Everyone had walked to the wag, except Doc, who was standing near the mule, keeping himself carefully out of reach of hooves and teeth. He was talking to the animal, and once they saw him pluck out his swallow’s-eye kerchief and dab at his face with it.
“Old fool’s sun-stupe,” Trader said. “Piping his eyes over a mule.”
“Why don’t you keep your opinion to yourself, Trader?” Sukie snapped.
“Well, forgive me for living, slut.”
Krysty and Mildred both opened their mouths, catching each other’s eye, but kept quiet, suspecting that anything said would make the tension worse.
“He’s letting him go, Dad,” Dean said, perched on the back of the land wag.
“Teach the old fool a lesson if that mule bites his skinny ass on the way out,” Mildred commented.
The rope was loose, and for a moment the big mule just stood there, its head half turned to peer at Doc as if it suspected some sort of a trick. Even when the man patted it on the flank, encouraging it to go, the animal still didn’t try to move away from him.
“Five gets you one it bites him,” Trader offered.
“Wrong,” Krysty said. “Look.”
“I’ll be damned.” Mildred laughed. “Move over Saint Francis of Assisi, here comes Saint Theophilus Tanner.”
The mule belied its normally vicious and malevolent nature, rubbing its head against Doc’s legs, allowing him to throw his arms around its neck and hug it. Once again the swallow’s-eye kerchief came into use.
Finally, reluctantly, the animal took a few hesitant steps away from Doc. Judas stopped, then kicked up its legs and gave out a great exultant bray that sent birds soaring into the air.
Doc waved a clenched fist as the mule trotted off into the hills, waiting until it had vanished, then turning and walking slowly back to the waiting land wag and his friends. His cheeks were still wet with tears.
“I had not thought that I would regret that parting,” he said. “Still, it was well done. Now, let us move on and speed ourselves elsewhere.”
Chapter Five
“There’s that big comm dish,” Krysty said, standing up in the back of the lurching wag, “the one that saved our lives when the mountain blew out.”
The afternoon was nearly done, the sun hanging low on the western horizon, the shadows of the Volvo truck stretching far ahead of it down the dusty trail.
Ryan was taking a turn at the wheel, and he had already sported the battered, rusting orange hulk of the communications receiver that lay on its side at the bottom of the steep, rugged hillside.
“Be inside by dark,” he said.
“Jump straightaway?” J.B. asked, sitting at his side in the cab.
“Why not?”
“No reason.”
“The redoubt got wrecked, didn’t it?”
The Armorer took off his spectacles and began to polish the lenses. “Yeah. No cooking or sleeping facilities up there. Not now. Yeah, let’s just do the climb, then do the jump. The sooner the better.”
DEAN LED THE WAY up the sandstone slope, talking animatedly with Jak. Abe and Trader were next, the older man sometimes using the trusty Armalite as a stick to help him over the rougher places. J.B. and Mildred were the third pair, climbing mainly in silence, as were Ryan and Krysty, following immediately behind them.
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