Lone Star 03 (9 page)

“I didn't make the regulations, Jessie, and I'm not in sympathy with them myself. I don't have any choice but to obey them, though.”

“Oh, I understand that. But as far as the ranchers along the border are concerned, there's really no difference between rustlers and the Mexican army crossing the Rio Grande. We think one is as much of an invasion as the other.”

“Unfortunately, Washington doesn't take that attitude.”

“Washington's attitudes can be changed, Joe,” Jessie told him somewhat brusquely. “The Starbuck name has a good deal of influence there.”

Farnam did not reply at once. Finally he said, “How would you go about changing those regulations, Jessie?”

“Joe,” Jessie said quietly, “Starbuck enterprises cover a great deal of territory. We contribute quite generously to the campaign funds of senators and congressmen from more than twenty of the thirty-eight states. Need I say more than that?”

Farnam shook his head. “No. I didn't realize that your family interests were so widespread. I'm sure you can do what you say. But you must have had something in mind that's brought you here, Jessie. This isn't just a casual visit. What is it that you want me to do to help you?”

Jessie and Ki had discussed several specific items on their trip from the Circle Star. Now Jessie said, “I'm sure there aren't too many places along this stretch of the Rio Grande where cattle can be herded across easily. You must know where they are. I hope you'll give me the details I need to use when we begin putting pressure on the army through Congress.”

After a moment's thought, Farnam told Jessie, “I only know of two places in the Fort Chaplin area where it would be easy to get a cattle herd across the river. At least those are the only two spots my scouts have pointed out to me. If I show them to you on a map—”

“No,” Jessie interrupted. “I need to know more about those places than I can learn from looking at a map, Joe. Do you have enough men to spare so that you could assign one of them to ride with Ki and me, so that we can actually see these places you're talking about?”

“I'll do better than that,” Farnam said promptly. “I need to get out of this place for a few days, and Lieutenant Mitchell, my second-in-command, is due back from patrol tomorrow. How would it be if I guided you myself?”

Jessie's acceptance was as prompt as Farnam's offer. “I'd like it very much, Joe.” She frowned and went on, “You said a few days. How far is it?”

“Both of the fords lie south of the fort. The nearest is a bit more than a half-day's ride. The other's a good twenty miles beyond the first. Your Texas distances are incredible, Jessie.”

“They are until you get used to them,” she smiled. “But this is important enough to me to spend that much time on. You said your second lieutenants are due back soon. Must you wait until they get here, or can we start early in the morning?”

“I don't see why I should wait for Mitchell to show up,” Farnam said. “My first sergeant, Henderson, is perfectly capable of keeping the routine going for the short time that the fort would be without a commissioned officer in command. It'd only be for a few hours at most, until Mitchell gets back.” Farnam hesitated and added, “There's one thing I should tell you, though. Regulations again, as you might suppose. Standing orders say that military personnel must not go into Mexico, even if we're in pursuit of hostiles.”

“I wouldn't expect you to disobey army orders, Joe. If you'll just take Ki and me to the fords, we'll do any investigating that's necessary on the Mexican side of the river.”

 

 

“This is something I simply can't believe,” Farnam said, his puzzlement plain in his tone. “For some reason, this ford isn't marked on my map. It isn't on the master map at the fort, either, or I'd remember it.”

“Your mapmaker is careless,” Ki suggested. “This ford has been used many times, Lieutenant, and not long ago. There are fresh cattle tracks and the tracks of the riders driving them on the opposite bank as well as on this one.”

“I don't question that, Ki,” Farnam said. “Little as I know about tracking, I can tell the difference between the tracks of steers and those of shod horses.”

Farnam, Ki, and Jessie were sitting their horses beside the Rio Grande; the legs of Ki's horse were still dripping from his exploration of the unmapped crossing they'd discovered. All three of them sat in silence for a moment as they gazed at the surface of the river, darkening now as the steep cliffs on the opposite bank began to shade the water, from the afternoon sun.

When the long day had started at Fort Chaplin, the trio had ridden in the silence common to either good companions or to strangers traveling together for the first time. As the morning wore on, they'd lost the stiffness that had marked the beginning of their journey. During their noon stop to eat the sandwiches prepared by the fort's mess sergeant, Jessie and Farnam had chatted almost as friends, while Ki maintained his role as Jessie's servant and kept discreetly silent.

As the afternoon progressed, Jessie had become aware that the lieutenant was glancing at her more and more often, but she'd managed to avert her eyes in time to keep him from noticing that she'd been covertly looking at him, as well.

It had been Ki's sharp eyes that had noticed the faint tracks in the baked earth, leading them to the crossing at which they were now looking. At first, Farnam had insisted that the tracks led to the first ford across the Rio Grande, the crossing some twenty miles from the fort, which they'd already passed after finding no evidence that it had been used by cattle lately.

But Ki had persisted in urging that the tracks be followed, in spite of the military map Farnam carried, which showed impassable, broken country stretching two miles or more from the riverbank, and showed also that through that stretch of rough terrain the Rio Grande flowed through a gorge where high banks made fording the stream out of the question. Jessie, knowing Ki's skill at reading trail signs, joined Ki in wanting to discover where the cattle tracks led.

Farnam at last agreed, and the trail Ki followed had brought them to the mouth of one of a score or more of narrow arroyos, all looking alike. For almost two miles the narrow slit in the sunbaked earth through which they rode led them on a tortuous, zigzag course. There were cattle droppings in the sandy soil on the floor of the steep-walled arroyo, but even Ki's practiced eyes could not reveal the age of the cow dung.

Then, suddenly, the metal-hard caliche soil on which the hooves of their horses had grated gave way to earth that was still the light yellow of the baked caliche, but softer underfoot. Here the cattle tracks showed plainly, and after another half-mile the steep sides of the arroyo widened into a respectably broad valley that stretched at its widest perhaps a quarter-mile from one steep wall to the equally steep wall on its opposite side. They reined in at the point where the arroyo widened.

Ki pointed. “There,” he said. “And there. Campfires have burned in both places, Lieutenant.”

“Can you tell how long ago?” Farnam had asked.

“Not from here,” Ki replied. “But I will be able to when we get closer, when I can feel the coals and the earth beneath.”

“They'll be fresh, I'll bet,” Jessie had put in. “Some of these tracks are only a few weeks old.”

“How can you tell?” Farnam asked. “They all look alike, as far as I can see.”

“Jessie is right,” Ki affirmed. “Most of the prints have sharp edges, and their bottoms are not baked hard, as the old prints are. And close to the cliffs, where the sun touches the ground for only a short time each day, the dung of many of the droppings is still green; it is not yet bleached and faded. Yes, Lieutenant Farnam, cattle have been here a short while ago.”

“Rustlers, you think?” Farnam asked.

“Of course!” Jessie replied emphatically.

“It could only be,” Ki affirmed. “They would need to stop here and rest.”

“Why?” Farnam asked. “Why rest here, with Mexico just on the other side of the river, where they'd be safe?”

Before Ki could reply, Jessie answered Farnam's question. “They'd have had to push the cattle hard to get here, Joe. The steers would be restless, and they'd stop to let them settle down before they herded them across the river.”

“It may be that the ford is a hard one, too,” Ki said. “Look at the tracks left on the bottom there, where the current is slow. They do not go straight, but slant upstream against the flow. The ford may be narrow, on a ridge under the water.” He toed his horse into the shallows, saying over his shoulder, “I will find this out very quickly.”

Jessie and Farnam sat their horses while they watched Ki explore the ford. It was, as he'd suggested, on a narrow ridge that curved upstream, then downriver in midstream, and finally led in a straight line to the Mexican side of the stream.

It was while Ki was recrossing the Rio Grande that the lieutenant had taken out his map to study again, and had found that the arroyo through which they'd ridden was not shown on it. He was still examining the flawed map when Ki returned, and now Farnam rolled the map and replaced it in the cylindrical leather mapcase that hung from his saddlestrings.

“When we get back to the fort, the first thing I'll do is find out who's responsible for leaving this ford off our maps,” he said angrily. “There's no excuse for such an error!”

“Perhaps it was made ...” Jessie began, then hesitated and instead of saying what she'd intended to suggest, finished somewhat lamely, “... by a new man.”

Farnam shook his head. “No. Ki's right. Someone was careless. And that carelessness could have cost lives.”

“As it is, it's cost the Box B a valuable herd of cattle,” Jessie pointed out. “If you'd known this ford was here, you might have had your patrols look at it, or even watch it.”

“What good would that have done?” the lieutenant protested.

“If the rustlers knew your men came here now and then, they might be afraid to use this ford that only they seem to know about,” Jessie explained.

“Rustlers who take cattle south across the river must cross to this side to steal them, too,” Ki added. “They would not be able to move so freely if they had to cross at a ford that others use too.”

“That hadn't occurred to me,” Farnam said. “There's a lot I still have to learn about this section of the country that I'm supposed to be responsible for protecting.”

“You will, in time,” Jessie assured him. “If you decide to stay in the army in spite of your father's invitaion to join him back East.”

“I told you last night that I haven't any intention of doing that, Jessie,” Farnam said firmly. “But that's another matter. If we're going to look at the other ford downstream, the one that does show on my map, we'd better ride out of here.”

Jessie looked at the surface of the river. It shone a dull copper hue now; the high walls of the gorge through which it flowed kept the declining sun from its surface in all but a few scattered patches.

“It is getting late,” she agreed. “And I'm a bit tired, after spending all day in the saddle yesterday.”

“If we don't get to the downstream ford tonight, we won't be able to make the ride back to Fort Chaplin in a day,” Farnam said, frowning. “But I suppose we can go part of the way before we stop, and finish the trip tomorrow. It'd mean pushing the horses rather hard, though.”

“Maybe I have a better idea,” Jessie said thoughtfully. “It really isn't necessary for both Ki and me to see the lay of the land around that downstream ford. If one of us gets a look at it, that's all that will be necessary.” She turned to Ki and asked, “Don't you agree?”

“I only serve you,” Ki said. No one except Jessie would have noticed that the bow accompanying Ki's words was half-mocking, half-serious.

“Are you too tired to ride on to the other ford now?” she asked. “You could stay there overnight, get an early start back tomorrow, and Lieutenant Farnam and I could wait for you here.”

“If that is what you wish, I will be glad to do it,” Ki replied.

“Would you mind very much camping here tonight, Joe?” Jessie asked Farnam.

“Why, I... no, of course not. We have plenty of food; we can give Ki enough for supper and breakfast. It'll only be cold roast beef and cheese and boiled potatoes and some pickles, but that's about Fort Chaplin's limit in trail provisions.”

“Oh, Ki has plenty of food in his saddlebags,” Jessie said quickly. Turning to Ki, she asked, “Don't you?”

Ki nodded, and Lieutenant Farnum said, “You know, it hadn't occurred to me to split up. I wonder, though. Do you really think it's wise?”

“I don't see any reason why we shouldn‘t,” Jessie said. “If Ki doesn't mind going to the downstream ford alone.”

“I have said I will do so,” Ki told her. “And perhaps it would be the best thing to do, if you feel you need to rest.”

“It's settled, then,” Jessie said. “You ride on downstream and scout around the other ford, Ki. You'll know what to look for. We'll look for you back here tomorrow, about midmorning, and we'll all ride back to Fort Chaplin together.”

His voice mild and innocent, but his eyes holding Jessie's and showing an amused gleam, Ki asked, “You're sure you'll feel like riding back after a good night's rest?”