Cougar Tracks, page 9
‘Fox Ring?’ Dallas said, taking a swallow of beer. His eyes narrowed with puzzlement. ‘I never heard of him, I don’t think.’
‘You will,’ Skeeter promised him. ‘The farther west you ride, you’ll damn sure hear plenty about Fox Ring. He’s some cousin of Geronimo’s, or anyway some kind of relative. They say he’s cutting up pretty bad.’ Skeeter frowned. He lowered his voice and looked directly at Cougar before saying, ‘I hear that Quiet Star is riding with him.’
‘What has that got to do with anything?’ Cougar asked. He had felt his heart tighten just a bit but he wouldn’t let it show in his eyes.
Skeeter met Cougar’s eyes with his own, then broke off his gaze. ‘I recall when she really had a case on you, Carroll.’
‘That was a long time ago,’ Cougar said. ‘She was just a kid.’
‘Sure she was.’ Skeeter stretched and leaned back in his chair, shifting his stiff leg carefully. He continued to study the three men across the table in amazement. Long ago Skeeter Hicks had been a blacksmith for Crook and part-time handyman for the ladies at the fort, hanging curtains, papering their walls and such. He had fallen from a roof and broken his leg in two places. The army did nothing to help him but set his leg and inform him that he would have to be replaced, an event Skeeter was never bitter about. At the time he had said, ‘They never promised me no pension. All they promised me was a day’s pay for a day’s work. I kept my part of the bargain; they kept theirs.’
‘Have you seen many Mexicans around, Skeeter?’ D’Arcy asked, and Skeeter’s eyes narrowed as he glanced now at D’Arcy’s dangling arm. Obviously it was injured, but Skeeter didn’t feel it was his place to pry. He answered:
‘Now that’s a mighty funny question, Calvin, this close to the border.’
‘It might be,’ D’Arcy agreed, ‘but it might be important to us.’
Skeeter said, ‘No more than usual, I don’t suppose.’ His eyes became cunning. ‘But you’re not talking about the local folks or the casual drifters, are you? You’d be asking about a body of armed men.’
‘That’s right.’
‘I haven’t seen a bunch like that. Just the locals, a couple of vaqueros trailing through from time to time. The usual crowd. Why, was you looking for them?’
‘Just wondering,’ D’Arcy answered, staring into his beer mug.
‘Why, you three have become damned secretive, do you know that? All right,’ he inquired, looking from one man to the next, ‘what is going on that I don’t know about?’
‘Maybe nothing,’ Cougar answered for the group. ‘Anyway, it’s nothing for you to worry on.’
‘Meaning,’ Skeeter said with a hint of bitterness, ‘that it ain’t none of my business.’
‘Meaning,’ Cougar responded, ‘have another beer,’ and he proceeded to pour him one.
‘I have seen some strangers around here, though,’ Skeeter volunteered after a sip. Foam flecked his upper lip and he licked it off. ‘If it’s of any interest to you.’
‘It could be,’ Cougar said cautiously. ‘What sort of men? What did they look like, Skeeter?’
‘Like nothin’ in particular,’ the old man said, ‘except they was riding good horses, real good horses, and carrying a lot of guns. I don’t think any one of them was wearing but a single belt gun. Every saddle had two rifle scabbards swinging from it. There was maybe six of them, Cougar. Looked like they’d ridden a long way. They just came into town, stocked up on supplies, and rode out again.’
‘When was this?’ Dallas asked with curiosity.
‘Them? That was just this morning,’ Skeeter told them. ‘Do you mind if I take a little more beer out of that pitcher?’
‘Finish it off,’ Cougar said. He was glancing at D’Arcy and Dallas McGee; they were all thinking the same thing. The men Skeeter had described could have been those who were tracking them. It could have been anyone, of course; cowhands returning from a long drive, for instance. But the timing of their arrival and the number of men – six, as they had estimated – made it seem to be more than coincidence.
Apparently they had not given up on hunting them down, but simply pulled back temporarily for reasons of their own.
Leaving, Cougar paid the bartender and sent another pitcher of beer over to Skeeter. The three of them went out onto the buckled plankwalk in front of the saloon and stood in silence for a time beneath the sparkling desert sky. They looked the street over carefully, their eyes going to the end of the street and to the heads of the alleys they would be passing. Then, one at a time, they crossed to the hotel.
Ellen was in the lobby, seated on a faded red velvet settee. She had bathed and put on a clean white dress with lace at the cuffs and the neck. She wore a scent like lilacs. She seemed a lot better now, eyes bright, her hair pinned up, her lips smiling in greeting.
‘What have you boys been up to?’ she scolded playfully. ‘Getting into trouble, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn.’
‘Naw,’ Dallas drawled. ‘Those dance-hall girls weren’t no trouble at all, were they, boys?’
‘None,’ D’Arcy agreed with a smile.
‘I’m really hungry after all that waiting,’ Ellen said. ‘You three must be starved as well. Shall we get Father and go out to dinner?’
‘I’ll get him,’ Dallas volunteered. ‘Whyn’t you help me, D’Arcy?’
D’Arcy caught the one-eyed scout’s wink and he nodded, glancing at Ellen and Cougar. ‘Why, sure,’ he agreed.
‘You two might as well start on over,’ Dallas suggested.
‘But—’ Ellen started to object, but then she caught their intention, the amusement in their eyes. Smiling gratefully, she replied, ‘That’s a good idea. We’ll find a table for all of us. Thank you Calvin, Dallas.’
She took Cougar’s proffered arm then and they went out of the hotel on to the street. The night had grown soft and pretty, the stars blinking in the velvety desert sky. Ellen breathed in the cooling air deeply as Cougar guided her toward the restaurant across the street.
‘That was nice of them,’ she said, looking up at Cougar so that some of the starlight danced in her eyes.
‘They’ll do, those two,’ Cougar said. If Ellen noticed the way Cougar’s eyes continued to move, searching the shadows and doorways, she said nothing.
The restaurant offered steaks and potatoes with biscuits and gravy. They ordered and were served coffee while they waited. The others were delayed: perhaps White was taking his own sweet time dressing; perhaps Dallas and Calvin were deliberately delaying the doctor so that Ellen and Cougar could have just a little time alone.
Ellen looked around the room, which was roughly constructed but clean. Steam warmed the interior of the restaurant and she could smell biscuits baking. She began to make some trivial remark when she noticed the intense way the scout’s gray-green eyes were fixed on her. Surprised at the intensity of his look, she placed her coffee cup down on its saucer, cocked her head and asked him, ‘Something’s bothering you. What is it, Cougar?’
‘I want you to tell me now, Ellen.’
‘Tell you…?’ She shook her head with incomprehension. ‘Tell you what?’
‘About this,’ Cougar said, holding up his arm to show her the woven silver and gold bracelet on his wrist. ‘I want to know who the man was that was wearing it and why he came looking to kill.’
TEN
Ellen’s mouth twitched nervously and she turned her eyes downward. When she lifted them again Cougar could see thoughts scrambling around behind them as she thought how to answer the unexpected question.
‘All right,’ Ellen said hesitantly, licking her lips. ‘I was hoping we wouldn’t have to talk about it at all – that you wouldn’t find out. It’s simple. The oldest of motives: they want the money.’
Cougar’s heavy eyebrows drew together. ‘Who wants the money? And what money do you mean? You said it was simple to understand. Make it simple for me.’
‘The Brotherhood,’ she said at length and Cougar’s incomprehension only deepened. What in hell was the little woman in the white dress telling him? ‘That’s who it was.’ She touched the bracelet on Cougar’s wrist. ‘They all wear one of those.’
‘The Brotherhood,’ he repeated. ‘And just who might they be, Ellen?’
She turned her empty coffee cup nervously in her hands and glanced toward the restaurant door where none of their party had yet appeared. ‘Father really wouldn’t want me discussing this with you,’ she said.
‘I need to know, Ellen. If there’s trouble following us, we have the right to know what’s happening, how great the risk might be.’
‘I know that,’ she said very quietly. Then, determinedly, she told him. She began hesitantly and then spoke with a torrent of words now that the floodgates had been opened. There must have been a lot of pressure building up in Ellen, a vow to be silent offset by a need to share her knowledge. She told Carroll Cougar:
‘Back in St Louis where we had the church, Father had a body of “saints” around him. That was what he called them, “the Brotherhood of Saints.” They were like church elders, his apostles you might say. He promised them a lot … but they didn’t get quite as much as they expected.’
‘Such as?’ Cougar asked, not unkindly. The girl was flushed and very nervous. He tried to soothe her with a gentle smile.
She paused again and shrugged, banishing obligations, then continued. ‘I suppose it all started when something went wrong as Father was raising Luke Anderson from the dead!’
‘When he was what?’ Cougar shook his head as if his hearing had suddenly gone bad on him.
‘When … when he was raising Luke Anderson from the dead,’ Ellen repeated in a small voice.
Cougar asked patiently, ‘What went wrong?’
‘It …’ the girl was miserable. ‘It didn’t work,’ she said.
‘That I can believe.’ What kind of charlatan – or madman – was Dr White? ‘So what happened next? No. Let me guess. The Brotherhood got mad about it.’
‘Don’t laugh at me, Carroll. I hurt too much to be laughed at. ‘You’re right, of course. They felt betrayed … and of course they were angry about the money they had donated for Father’s new temple.’
‘What went wrong with that?’ Cougar asked, sighing inwardly, feeling deep sympathy for this woman who had been forced to endure such absurdity, and undoubtedly made to believe – or at least pretend to believe – in her father through all of this.
‘There wasn’t time to build it!’ Ellen said, looking at him earnestly, leaning forward, small hands clasped together. Impatiently, she waved away an approaching waitress with a fresh pot of coffee. ‘Everyone in the Brotherhood was suddenly so angry.’
‘So they wanted their money back after the … mistake with Luke Anderson. That’s understandable to me, Ellen.’
‘No!’ she objected. ‘Don’t you see, it wasn’t fair. Father couldn’t give them back their money, because then how would the temple ever be built? And it must be, you can see that,’ she said to a dazed Carroll Cougar. He could only nod, indicating he was still paying attention.
‘What did your father do with the money?’ he had to ask.
‘It’s under the wagonbed floorboards. It’s Father’s, isn’t it! After all, those people gave it to him freely to build the temple. What right do they have to get it back?’ Her question was weakly indignant.
‘I think you know the answer to that, Ellen.’ Impulsively, he took her small hand in his large, callused one and she burst into tears. She shook her head mournfully.
‘Oh, Carroll, it was so awful. They threatened us and saw to it that Father couldn’t practice medicine anymore. No one ever came to his office and the Brotherhood destroyed our property at night, taunting us as we tried to sleep. I was frightened out of my mind. We had to slip out of town in the dead of night.’
‘All right,’ Cougar said softly. ‘That part is all over and done with now. You’re with us; it’ll be all right.’ Would it? Cougar was angry and it showed, no matter how he tried to conceal it from a hopeful Ellen. Damn all! Hadn’t it ever occurred to White what his machinations had done to his daughter? She had tried her best to be loyal and found herself the victim of deceit. Hadn’t White paused to realize that his actions could even have gotten Ellen killed?
The only sensible solution, of course, was to give the money back, but apparently White would have none of that. He must have it to build his temple where he could commune with spirits and raise the dead. Cougar had asked himself earlier if White was a charlatan or a madman – now he thought he had his answer.
Cougar meant to have a very serious talk with the man, and if need be, he would tear that wagon apart and find the money himself if it would keep Ellen safe and relieve her of her burden. The next time one of the Brotherhood men showed up, he was welcome to the money. He, D’Arcy, and Dallas had enough trouble without having this piled on top of it. It was nearly time for Cougar to part company with all of them anyway, as much as he would miss Ellen. Now wasn’t the time to tell her, but he meant to be going it alone soon.
They were getting very close to Alamo Banks, the last place Solon Reineke had been seen. It was nearly time to find Carlina’s killer.
Nearly time to go tracking.
Dinner was a slow affair. The food was plentiful and good, but there was little conversation. No one was in high spirits. White spent his time glowering at Cougar. Seeing Ellen’s blush, her averted eyes, the minister somehow knew that she had broken down and told Cougar something, if not everything. White ate in silence and scowled at the scout. Perhaps that was meant as a cautionary expression. He might have suspected that Cougar had pumped his unworldly daughter and gotten her to reveal the presence of the stolen money. Frankly, Cougar didn’t care except for the discomfort it obviously caused Ellen.
When Cougar had seen Ellen to her room he went to his own room and passed through to the balcony where he leaned against the wall, arms folded, thinking deeply. When he had made up his mind he turned and re-entered the room. Dallas had come in behind him and was seated on the edge of one of the beds, tugging his boots off.
‘Go fetch D’Arcy, will you?’ Cougar asked, and with a puzzled look, Dallas padded off in stockinged feet to do just that.
When the three men were together in the room with the door closed, Cougar told D’Arcy and Dallas McGee, ‘I’m pulling out come dawn.’
‘So soon?’ D’Arcy said in surprise.
‘It’s time,’ Cougar said with finality. Then he explained to them about the group of men called the Brotherhood while they listened first with amusement and then with real concern.
‘That dumb bastard, White,’ D’Arcy muttered savagely.
‘Is that who those six men are?’ Dallas asked.
‘Who knows? If they are then we’ve still got three other trackers to account for. I’m just telling you so that you’ll know. The last thing you need is another risk.’
‘Damn right we don’t,’ D’Arcy said heatedly. ‘I’ll tear up the wagon myself.’
‘And do what with the money?’ Dallas asked quietly.
‘You’re right,’ D’Arcy admitted grudgingly. ‘What then?’
‘What do you suggest, Cougar?’
‘We could leave a note here addressed to the Brotherhood. If any of them comes looking for us, the clerk could give them the note. Tell them that if they send a single unarmed man up to you you’ll break out the money and turn it over.’
‘No good,’ Dallas thought. ‘How would we know that it’s the rightful owners? If we just hand the loot over to anyone who might come across the note, the real Brotherhood could show up later – and then we wouldn’t have the money to turn over to them. It could make them just a little peeved.’
‘Well, as for the note,’ Cougar told them, ‘we won’t mention money, of course. We’ll say that we have some goods belonging to the church. No outsider is likely to consider following after you on the chance of grabbing a box of Bibles.’
‘No, I guess not.’
‘As for being positive that they’re the right people, Ellen will recognize any man from the Brotherhood,’ Cougar pointed out. ‘Besides,’ he said, holding out his wrist to remove the bracelet that he now gave to D’Arcy, ‘whoever comes, he’ll be wearing one of these.’
‘All right,’ D’Arcy said with resignation, slipping the bracelet on his own wrist. ‘I guess it’s the best plan we can come up with. I haven’t got any other ideas.’
‘We could just ride out and leave White on his own,’ D’Arcy said. ‘It’d serve him right.’
Each of them looked at D’Arcy’s withering arm and knew that he wasn’t going to be riding anywhere. Neither Cougar nor Dallas mentioned that, however.
‘Well, he wouldn’t be exactly alone. He’ll have Ellen with him a lot of miles from any law. We can’t leave her.’
‘No, we can’t.’ Dallas rubbed at his bad eye and then raised his hands, palms up in a gesture of resignation. ‘We’ll have to do it your way, it seems, Cougar. Good luck. We’ll see you in General Crook’s camp.’
‘Sure,’ Cougar said, but his voice wasn’t all that confident. They all knew what still lay ahead. The trouble hadn’t even started yet.
In the morning Cougar dressed, picked up his worn saddle, and went out, closing the door silently. He paused in front of Ellen’s door for just a moment and then clamped his jaw and went out into the gray of pre-dawn. When the first streamers of color began to touch the eastern sky, he rode out on the buckskin horse, leading the sorrel, which carried his small pack. From the window two men watched him until he had disappeared, then, turning from it, Dallas spoke to D’Arcy.
‘You’re never going to tell him the truth about Solon Reineke, are you?’
‘No.’ D’Arcy lifted an eyebrow. ‘Are you?’
‘It’s not my place to do so,’ Dallas answered. Then he turned back toward the window for a silent moment before he belted on his Colt and went down to breakfast.
Despite missing Ellen White, the feeling of freedom rose up through Cougar like a fresh inner breeze. He was where he belonged – alone on the broad, sunrise-colored land with a good horse between his knees and a good rifle in his hand. Doves rose from their nesting places and cut quick silhouettes against the painted sky as they flew toward water. A coyote, startled as it sat in the shade of a scrubby mesquite, a dead cottontail at its feet, picked up the rabbit and loped away before the horse’s hoofs could bring the man-thing nearer. In the distance the mountains picked up the first rays of sunrise and their tips glowed golden while their flanks still hid shyly in purple shadow. The ocotillo had begun to bloom and their crimson flowers, perched atop their long, whip-like stems, flanked Cougar’s trail.
