“Ain’t the first time … not for Clint.”
Nora was listening. Was Dan Rodelo outside? What was he planning?
“Get the gold,” Badger said. “Let’s get out of here!”
Harbin took a rusted poker from the fireplace and pulled a chair over to a place under the central beam that crossed the room from wall to wall. Standing on the chair, he inserted the end of the poker into what looked like a crack, then pried up. A crudely cut piece of beam lifted up, revealing a compartment within the heavy beam itself. As he lifted this a gold piece fell to the floor. Nora picked it up and handed it to Badger. “It’s gold, all right,” she said.
Harbin grinned his triumph. “You’re darned tootin’, it is! And there’s plenty of it, baby.”
Badger turned to Gopher. “Get the saddlebags. Quick, now!”
When he had gone out, Harbin said, “What about him?”
Badger shrugged. “We can use help on the trip. When we get to Mazatlan, give him fifty bucks and send him packin’.”
Gopher came back carrying two pairs of saddlebags, and swiftly they began loading the gold into them. “This is going to be heavy,” Tom commented thoughtfully. “I wish we had an extra horse or two.”
Dan Rodelo, moving quietly, had come in the front door. He held a gun in his right hand, and once inside he moved out of the doorway and stood a moment watching. Tom Badger saw him first, and slowly, carefully, he lifted his hands. He had never seen Dan Rodelo shoot, but he had an idea he would be good.
“That’s all of it,” Harbin said.
“Let me look,” Gopher pleaded.
“Go ahead.”
Gopher got up on the table and ran his hand back into the opening, feeling around. “Got it!” he yelled, and withdrew his hand, hitting it against the edge in his excitement. “Two of them.”
“Keep ’em,” Harbin said. “That will be your part of this.”
“You mean that’s all I get?”
“You’re out of prison, ain’t you?”
“Big-hearted Joe Harbin! You were always a generous man, Joe.” Dan Rodelo spoke softly, and Joe Harbin’s hand opened slightly as though for a draw.
“Don’t try it, Joe.”
Slowly, Harbin’s hands went up, as did Gopher’s. Joe turned carefully, grinning at Rodelo. “How are you, Danny? You don’t need that gun with me. We’re friends, remember?”
Rodelo smiled. Harbin had never liked him, and he knew it. “Then you will not object if I cut myself in for part of this?”
“You’re talkin’ crazy. I did this job all by myself, and you know it.”
“And I did time for it.”
“Let’s get out of here!” Badger interrupted. “We’ll have the law all around us if we don’t, and then there won’t be anything for anybody.”
Picking up one set of the saddlebags, he turned toward the door. “Come on. We’ll get their wagon and trail our horses behind.”
Dan Rodelo did not move. “How do you figure on going?”
“South … why?”
“It’ll be the wrong way. Go east from here first, then down the eastern side of the Gilas. By the time they’ve covered everything else you’ll be on board that boat down on the Gulf.”
They stared at him, their eyes hard with suspicion. “What are you talkin’ about? What boat?” Harbin said.
Dan Rodelo motioned with his gun barrel. “Get loaded up. You’re right, Badger, time’s running out. You made a mistake when you hit the warden. He’s a good man, but a hard man when you push him, and you pushed too hard.”
“What’s that mean?” Harbin demanded.
“He won’t quit, not even a little bit. You’ve got to run faster and farther than you ever did before. The warden, you know, used to be an army officer, and he has friends along the Mexican border that he helped during the Apache troubles. He’ll have them hunting you, too.”
Swiftly, they carried the loot out to the horse and, motioning Nora ahead of him, Dan Rodelo followed. Gopher carried the lantern.
Mounting up, they rode back to the store and went to the wagon Jake and Clint had driven to Gold City.
“What about him?” Harbin gestured toward the store.
“Forget about him,” Rodelo said. “He knows every man on the dodge from here to El Paso, and he’s never opened his mouth yet. Sam Burrows is a good man to have on your side, but if he got hurt you’d be ducking the outlaws as well as the law.”
“There’s water in the wagon,” Nora said. “We filled up some cans and water sacks before we started.”
“We’ll want more,” Rodelo said. He turned to Gopher, reaching into the sack for a gold piece as he did so. “Take this and buy every water sack or canteen in the store. Then we’ll fill ’em. That’s a long trek without water.”
The desert’s heat had not yet gone from the air, and there was no breeze now. Only the stars hanging low in the sky above them seemed cool. It was still, very still. Dan Rodelo stood at one side and watched them prepare. He watched the sacks and canteens filled; every one of them would be needed for the hell that lay to the south. There were water holes and tanks between them and the border, and perhaps beyond the border, too, but he knew only too well, and better than anyone here, how uncertain such desert tanks can be.
He tried to remember when it had rained last, but it does not rain often in Yuma, and many rains in these parts were local. That desert to the south was pure hell, but more than that, nobody had taken a wagon the way he intended to take them. Well, they would find that out in due time.
At the end he went inside. “Thanks, Sam,” he said. “It’s good to have my horse again.”
“That grulla is quite a horse,” Sam said. “I almost wished you didn’t come back.”
“He came from this country, Sam. South of here. He was a bronco two-year-old when I put a rope on him. When the going gets rough down south, I’m going to need that horse. He knows all the water holes in Sonora, I think.”
Sam put his palms flat on the bar and leaned toward him. “You’re runnin’ a long chance, boy. You sure you don’t want help? There’s some I could send—”
“It’s my job, and I’ll do it.”
“Joe Harbin,” Sam said, “has killed eleven men I know of … in stand-up gun battles.”
“Yeah.” Rodelo was serious for a moment. “But the one who really worries me is Badger. He’s cunning as a prairie wolf.”
“Comes by it natural. His pa was a half-breed, and he raised his youngsters mean.” Sam paused. “That girl, now. She doesn’t seem like their sort. I can’t make her out.”
“No.” Rodelo hesitated. “If I can, I’ll get them to leave her with you.”
“I could put her on the stage. Buy her a ticket either way she wants to go.”
Dan Rodelo started toward the door, then paused. “Put out the light, Sam.”
Only when the room was dark did he walk to the door and step out.
“You sure don’t trust a feller,” Harbin said.
Dan went toward them. “I trust you, Joe. I just don’t want you to have too much trouble with your conscience, that’s all.”
He stopped near them. “What about this girl? That’s a rough trip ahead. Why don’t we leave her here?”
“You’re crazy! She’s seen the gold, heard us talk. We can’t leave her now.”
“It’s up to you, Joe.”
Harbin turned his head. His eyes were black holes in the darkness under his hat brim. “Why me?”
“You’re the killer in this outfit.”
“Me? Shoot a woman?”
“We’re wasting time,” Nora said quietly. “Joe wouldn’t shoot me, and neither would the rest of you. Let’s go … and save your ammunition for those Yaquis or Yumas or whatever they are.”
Dan Rodelo took the reins and turned the wagon into the road, their horses following behind on lead ropes. He drove slowly at first, then at a swinging trot until they reached the road east. He slowed down then, letting the horses take their time, and after a bit he brought them to a trot once more. In the back of the wagon Badger stretched out beside Harbin to sleep. Gopher curled up against the tailgate.
“I don’t understand you,” Nora whispered. “What are you doing?”
Rodelo smiled at her. “Beautiful night, isn’t it?”
“You might have gotten me killed!”
“Joe Harbin wouldn’t kill a woman … not without a good reason—unless he needed your horse, or something.”
“And then?”
“He’d kill you, all right. He’d kill you and never give it another thought.”
Five
Now they moved steadily southward, with the fantastic peaks and ridges of the Gila Mountains on their right. The air was cool and pleasant, and they held to a good pace, stopping at intervals, or after climbing a grade, to rest the horses. Nobody was in any mood for talk. After a while Rodelo gave over the reins to Harbin and turned in, lying stretched out in the back of the wagon.