to figure out, each of us would have more than a thousand dollars of his own
when we’d settled up. Next day Orrin and Cap went to the stage office and
arranged to ship east the gold we’d found in the wagon.
The itch to see the town got the best of me so I walked outside. Those
black-eyed señoritas was enough to turn a man’s good sense. If Orrin would look
at some of these girls he’d forget all about Laura. It was no wonder he fell for
her. After a man has been surrounded for months by a lot of hard-handed,
hairy-chested men even the doggiest kind of female looks mighty good.
Most of all right now I wanted a bath and a shave. Cap, he followed me.
“Seems to me there’s things around town need seeing to,” I suggested.
“You look here, Tyrel, if you’re thinkin’ of what I think you’re thinkin’ you’d
better scout the country and study the sign before you make your move. If you
figure to court a Spanish gal you’d also better figure to fight her man.”
“Seems like it might be worth it.”
This was siesta time. A dog opened one eye and wagged a tail to show that if I
didn’t bother him he’d be pleased. Me, I wasn’t of a mind to bother anybody.
Taking it slow, I walked down the dusty street. The town was quiet. A wide door
opened into a long, barnlike building with a lot of tubs and water running
through in a ditch. There was homemade soap there and nobody around. There was a
pump there, too. It was the first time I ever saw a pump inside a house. Folks
are sure getting lazy … won’t even go outside the house to pump.
This here must be a public bathhouse, but there was nobody around to take my
money. I filled a tub with water, stripped off and got in and when I’d covered
with soap, head to foot, three women came in with bundles of clothes on their
heads.
First off I stared and they stared and then I yelled. All of a sudden I realized
this here was no bathhouse but a place to wash clothes.
Those Spanish girls had taken one look and then they began to shriek, and first
off I figured they were scared, but they weren’t running, they were just
standing there laughing at me.
Laughing!
Grabbing a bucket of water I doused myself with it and grabbed up a towel. Then
they ran outside and I could hear screams and I never crawled into my clothes so
fast in all my born days. Slinging gun belt around me at a dead run I beat it
for my horse.
It must have been a sight, me all soapy in that tub. Red around the gills. I
started Dapple out of town on a run and the last thing I could hear was
laughter. Women sure do beat all.
Anyway, I’d had a bath.
Morning was bright and beautiful like nine mornings out of ten in the high
desert country. We met the captain and turned the cattle over to him. We’d
finally settled on twenty dollars a head, which was a very good price at the
time and place.
First off, as we rode into town, a girl spotted me. She pointed her finger at
me, gasped, and spoke excitedly to the girl with her, and then they both began
to look at me and laugh.
Orrin was puzzled because the girls always noticed him first and paid me no
mind. “Do you know those girls?”
“Me? I never saw them before in my life.” But it gave me a tip-off as to what it
was going to be like. That story must be all over Santa Fe by now.
Before we reached the La Fonda we’d passed a dozen girls and they all laughed or
smiled at me. Tom Sunday and Orrin, they hadn’t an idea of what was going on.
The La Fonda was cool and pleasant again, so we ordered wine and a meal. The
girl who took our order realized all of a sudden who I was and she began to
giggle. When she went out with our order, two or three girls came from the
kitchen to look at me.
Picking up a glass of wine, I tried to appear worldly and mighty smug about it
all. Fact was, I felt pretty foolish.
Orrin was getting sore. He couldn’t understand this sudden interest the girls
were taking in me. He was curious, interested and kind of jealous all to once.
Only thing I could do was stand my ground and wear it out or high-tail it for
the brush.
Santa Fe was a small town, but it was a friendly town. Folks here all wanted the
good time that strangers brought. Those years, it was a town at the end of
things, although it was old enough to have been a center of everything. And the
girls loved a fandango and enjoyed the presence of the Americans.
There was a cute little button of a Mexican girl and every time I’d see her
she’d give me a flashing glance out of those big dark eyes, and believe me, I’d
get flustered.
This one had a shape to take a man’s eye. Every time she’d pass me on the
streets she’d give a little more swish to her skirts and I figured we could get
acquainted if I just knew how to go about it. Her name was Tina Fernandez.
Night of the second day, there was a knock at the door and when I opened it
Fetterson was standing there.
“Mr. Pritts wants to see you, all of you. He wants to talk business.”
We looked at each other, then Orrin got up to go. The rest of us followed him
and a Mexican standing at the bar turned his back on us. Anybody who was
friendly to Jonathan Pritts would find few friends in Santa Fe.
It wasn’t just that which worried me. It was Orrin.
Jonathan Pritts had four men outside the adobe where he lived and a few others
loafing near the corral. Through the bunkhouse door I could see several men, all
armed.
One thing you’ve got to watch, Tyrel, I told myself, is a man with so many
fighters around. He wouldn’t have all those men unless he figured he’d need
them.
Rountree glanced at me. He was badger tough and coon smart. Sunday paused on the
porch and took out a cigar; when he reached back and struck the match on his
pants three chairs creaked as men put their hands to their guns. Tom didn’t let
on he noticed but there was a sly smile around his mouth.
Laura came to meet us in a blue dress that brought out the blue in her eyes, so
she looked like an angel. The way she offered both hands to Orrin and the way
she looked at him … it was enough to make a man gag. Only Orrin wasn’t
gagging. He was looking like somebody had hit him with a fence post.
Cap was uncommon sour but Sunday—always a hand with the ladies—gave her a wide
smile. Sometimes I thought it irritated him that Laura had chosen to fall for
Orrin and not him. Her eyes looked past Orrin at me and our minds were hitched
to the same idea. We simply did not like each other.
Jonathan Pritts entered wearing a preacher’s coat and a collar that made you
wonder whether he was going to offer prayer or sell you a gold brick.
He passed around a box of cigars and I was glad I didn’t smoke. Orrin accepted a
cigar, and after the slightest hesitation, Tom did too.
“I don’t smoke,” I said.
“Will you have a drink?”
“I don’t drink,” I said.
Orrin looked at me, because while I don’t care for the stuff I sometimes drink
with friends.
“You boys have done well with your cattle,” Pritts said, “and I like men with
business minds. However, I am wondering what you plan to do with the proceeds of
your success. I can use men who want to invest business brains and capital, men
who can start something and carry it through.”
Nobody said anything and he brushed the ash from his cigar and studied the
glowing end for a minute.
“There may be a little trouble at first. The people on the land are not
Americans and may resent our moving in.”
Orrin spoke slowly. “Tyrel and me came west hunting land. We’re looking for a
home.”
“Good! New Mexico is now a part of the United States, and it’s time that we
American citizens had the benfits.”
He drew deep on his cigar. “The first comers will be first served.”
“The way it sounds,” I said, “you plan to shove out the first comers and move in