“Then one night I heard them talking. They thought I’d taken the stock off to water, and so I had, but I snuck back to listen. First thing I heard her say was ‘Of course. Why waste our money on him? When we get to the Rabbit Ears we’ll know our way back, so we’ll kill him.’ Thing that got me was she was so matter of fact about it, like she’d ask the time of day.
“Next morning I began to pull off south. I figured to get them lost so they’d never find their way back by themselves, and would need me. Then I got to thinkin’.”
“I know,” I said, “you got to thinking about that outfit. You got to figuring what it would bring you at Cherry Creek, or even Santa Fe. Six head of fine horses, a brand new wagon, and whatever they had inside.”
“Well, what of it? They were fixin’ to kill me.”
“How’d you manage? Weren’t they suspicious?”
“You’re darn tootin’ they were! They watched me all the time. On’y I told them we would make camp half a mile from water … too many mosquitoes.”
“Then you came on to this place?”
“Sure. Them tenderfeet would never find it. I on’y had to wait. Just set still an’ wait.”
“What about Rabbit Ears?”
“Who knows anything? She worried around that subject, but nobody had anything to offer except me, and I kept my mouth shut, on’y just saying enough to make ’em ready to talk to me when the time came.”
“What did you say?”
“That Rabbit Ears was named for an old Injun chief. That was every bit I said.”
There was no logical reason for anybody to come out from the East just to visit Rabbit Ears Mountain. As mountains went, it was nothing very much. Not too far west there were real mountains covered with timber, and much of the year with snow. Rabbit Ears Mountain lay just off the Santa Fe Trail, and was no more striking than many another hill or mountain. Of course, her questions might have masked some other interest in the country nearby.
After a bit Hooker interrupted my thoughts. “What do you figure to do?”
“I’m taking their horses back. After that, it’s up to them.”
“What about me?”
“You get out of here the best way you can. You’re no pilgrim. You got yourself into this.”
“You’d set me afoot out here?”
“No.” I grinned at him. “You can go back to work for them, if you’re of a mind to. When a man starts out on something like you started he takes his own chances.”
The firelight danced weirdly against the dark, fragile arms of the willows. Walking over to my saddle, I got my blanket and poncho and brought it back to a place near the fire, but in the shadows. I added fuel to the fire, pulled off my boots, and prepared to settle down for the night. From my pack I took a pair of moccasins and pulled them on … in the night I might have to make a quick move, with no chance to get my boots on.
Then I went over and released Hooker and let him move around a little before I tied him for the night. He was a wily one, and I stood back away from him and kept my rifle in hand.
After he was tied up again and covered with his blanket, I went back and rolled up to sleep. When I fell asleep I was still giving thought to the Rabbit Ears, and what those folks might want out there. Oddly enough, I’d never even heard the name those folks used … and it might make a difference.
Although in the West we set no store on names.
At daybreak I walked Hooker out on the cap rock with a canteen, a pack of grub, and his guns. His gun belts I took with me and rode off maybe three hundred yards, where I dropped them for him to pick up. Then I gathered the horses and started back.
Now, I was in no way anxious to be riding back to that outfit. In a way I had no blame for Hooker, although I’d leave no woman out there a prey to Indians, nor did I aim to give them a chance at me.
In my time I’d known a few killers, but I’d never known anybody quite as anxious to kill as these folks. Even when it was of no particular use to them. Whatever it was they were after, they didn’t want anybody interfering with them, or even knowing what they were about.
Well, I wasn’t going to play nurse to them. I liked my sleep too well. They would have the team, and if they got out of there they would do it under their own power and by their own skill.
The girl came out to meet me. She was bait, I had no doubt, and believe me, that Sylvie was tasty bait for any man’s trap, and she knew it. She walked out when she saw me coming, skirting the clumps of prickly pear or the prairie-dog holes. And then she stopped until I rode up to her.
Only my rifle was laid across my saddle bows, just sort of casual-like, but the muzzle kind of followed her when she moved. But she brought her hands into the open where I could see them, and kept them there.
“Here’s your horses,” I told her, “and the rest is up to you. You take my advice and you’ll turn back to Fort Griffin. You don’t fit into this country.”
She smiled at me. “Why, Mr. Sackett! I thought you liked me?”
“You’re a mighty pretty girl, Sylvie, and just about a safe as a nest of rattlers. But you take it from me and cut out of this country. Go east, where you belong.”
She came closer, looking up at me with those big, dark eyes. “Come with us. Please do. We need you, Mr. Sackett, we’re all alone out here, and neither of the boys has ever driven a team.” She reached up and touched my hand with her fingers. “Mr. Sackett, come with us. Believe me, you’d never be sorry … and I’d be very grateful.”
Well, now. She wasn’t promising me anything, but in a way she was promising me everything, and she was quite a woman, that one. Only I wasn’t having any.
“Sorry,” I said. “Maybe if you were alone; but I’d trust none of you. You’ve got the horses. Hitch up and pull out right away, and follow my tracks. You’ll come to water, and you’d better fill your barrels. They should help you over the dry stretch, and after that there’s water most of the way north. Only you’re going to run into the Palo Duro Canyon … maybe a thousand feet deep in places.”
“Are there no ranchers? No towns?
“Lady, this here is Indian country. You won’t even find any buffalo hunters until you get farther north. There’s said to be some folks at Borregos Plaza on the south bank of the Canadian. They’re good folks, Mexicans from Mora or Taos, and they run sheep. If you act right, they’ll sell you a little food and tell you how to get on to the north.
“I say they’re good people, and they are, but there’s one hombre from Santa Fe named Sostenes l’Archeveque … he’d kill you as soon as look at you. He idles around there from time to time … leave him alone.”
All the time I’d been talking to her I’d been holding her right hand. A time or two she gave it a tug to get free, but I decided it was safer that way and, holding her right hand, I kept my eyes watching the other two. Finally I dropped her hand.
“Adios!” I said suddenly, and wheeled and rode off.
I gave my horse about three jumps north before I turned him sharply east, then west. Glancing back, I caught the gleam of light on a rifle barrel, but by that time I was another hundred yards off and a poor risk for a shot at the distance, and moving the way I was. So I rode away, and was glad to be gone.
3
About that time I began to give thought to myself. Here I was, riding away from trouble, no more than eight or nine dollars in my pocket, and nothing more in sight. For a man with the name of outlaw, I was doing mighty poor at it. When it came to that, I never did see any rich outlaws. All I ever saw were living on the dodge, out on the plains, in the mountains, or in outlaw hide-outs, ragged, dirty, and miserable.
Buffalo hunting was about over. In no time at all the hunters would have wiped out the buffalo in this country, and would pull out. What I should do was to get myself a few head of cattle and start myself a ranch right here in the Panhandle of Texas. It would be no time at all until cattle were streaming into this country. The buffalo hunters would be telling of the good grass and the water holes, and no cattleman would ask for more.