[Texas Rangers 06] - Jericho's Road (28 page)

Mapes said, “I’m takin’ you to Jericho. He’ll decide what to do with you.”

Barstow tried to speak with confidence. “He’s just the man we wanted to see.” A wavering in his voice betrayed doubt.

“
Maybe. Then again, there’s people who’ve seen him and wished they hadn’t.” Mapes jerked his head at Andy. “You-all seem to be short a horse. I don’t suppose you’d object to this man ridin’ double with you?”

His tone indicated that it was a command rather than a question. Andy saw no point in replying. He took his left foot out of the stirrup to allow Barstow to swing into position behind the saddle. The horse humped up a little, not liking the extra burden. Andy wished he would pitch Barstow off, but the horse settled down.

As they rode, Barstow continued pressing the case that he and Devlin could provide useful service on Jericho’s crew. Mapes looked straight ahead and seemed to pay little attention.

Their conversion had been shorter than some of Preacher Webb’s sermons, Andy thought.

At first he was surprised to see that Jericho’s headquarters looked much like those of Lupe Chavez and Big Jim McCawley. On reflection he recalled that all had been built at about the same time and by the same people, the forebears of Don Cipriano Chavez. Designed for defense against hostile Indians, Jericho’s place would still be a formidable fortress. Andy would not like to have to lead a charge against it.

Mapes pointed them toward an adobe barn backed by an extensive layout of corrals, much like Big Jim’s. “We’ll all wait out here till Jericho sees fit to come and look you over.”

One of the men with him asked, “Why not take them up to the main house instead of troublin’ Jericho to come to the barn?”

“
Nobody goes up to the main house unless it’s with Jericho’s say-so,” Mapes said. “He doesn’t like his missus seein’ the kind of men he associates with.”

“
You mean us?”

“
If you was married to a pretty little woman from Kansas City, you wouldn’t want her puttin’ up with this grimy bunch.”

Barstow asked anxiously, “What happens to us?”

“
Who knows? He may decide to hire you, or he may decide to shoot you. With him you never know.”

Devlin suggested, “Maybe we ought to’ve written him a letter before we came.”

Andy wondered if he could write.

Mapes herded Andy and the two thieves into a corner of the barn. He said, “You-all had just as well sit. I’ll go up and tell Jericho you’re here. He’ll get around to you in his own good time.”

Andy sat on the dirt floor. Mapes left his two helpers to watch. One leaned against a saddle rack and spun the cylinder of his pistol. The other propped himself against the doorjamb and aimed his rifle casually at supposed targets outside. Andy compared their faces with those of Barstow and Devlin. They had a hard-bitten, determined look. They might at one time have been working cowhands, but now they fitted Andy’s conception of hired pistoleros who would commit any crime if the pay was right.

He asked Barstow, “Think you-all have got it in you to qualify for a bunch like that?”

Barstow seemed too troubled to answer. Devlin stared apprehensively at the two Jericho men but tried to sound confident. “You’re the one that needs to worry, Ranger. I doubt as they’ve got any patience for lawmen here. They’re liable to cut off your ears and send them to Austin.”

Barstow growled, “Shut up, Devlin. You may give them ideas about what to do with me and you.”

Jericho seemed in no hurry to see his visitors. Andy waited in the barn for more than an hour before he saw a shadow fall across the threshold. Jericho’s broad shoulders almost blocked the door. He walked halfway across the room and waited while his eyes adjusted to the poor light. Andy and the two thieves stood up. Jericho looked first at Barstow and Devlin, then at Andy. His eyes brightened with recognition.

“
I’ve already made your acquaintance, Ranger. You had that boy Antonio. I wanted him, but you wouldn’t let me have him.”

He had seen Andy once before that, but Andy thought it prudent not to remind him of the day when one of his windmill towers had mysteriously burned down. Andy said, “It’s against Ranger policy to turn a prisoner over for lynchin’.”

“
I wasn’t goin’ to lynch him. He’d have gotten a fair trial. We have our own court to try thieves and killers and trespassers.”

“
A kangaroo court.”

“
Nobody has ever appealed a rulin’.”

“
Maybe they haven’t lived long enough.”

Jericho’s face darkened. “Don’t be tryin’ my patience. I don’t have enough of it to waste.”

As long as his blood was up, Andy decided to keep pushing. “They say you’re runnin’ a haven here for men in trouble with the law.”

“
Call it a sanctuary. The Mexicans hit somebody, then run to sanctuary on the other side of the river. You Rangers can’t touch them there. I say if it works for them, it ought to work for me. I’m runnin’ a sanctuary of my own here. I don’t want the Rangers messin’ with it.”

“
But you’re in Texas. Lupe Chavez ain’t.”

“
I’ll say this for you, Ranger, you’ve got guts to come on my ranch and try to lecture me like that.”

“
I’m just sayin’ what I think.”

Jericho rubbed a big hand across his chin, squeezing his red-bearded face into a grotesque shape. “And most men in your place would’ve let me have that kid. Was you really prepared to die protectin’ him?”

“
I don’t know. I never had to make that decision. Big Jim McCawley came along just in time.”

The name brought a wistful look from Jericho. “Big Jim. You know, me and him used to be friends a long time ago, before he fell in with the Mexicans.”

“
But you still wanted to kill his son.”

“
Stepson. The boy ain’t of his blood.”

Jericho turned belligerently on Barstow and Devlin. “What about you two? What’s your excuse for trespassin’ where you wasn’t asked?”

Devlin pleaded, “Me and Barstow came here hopin’ we could work for you. We ain’t got no truck with the Rangers.”

“
Work for me?” Jericho snorted. “What could you do?”

Devlin said eagerly, “We stole the Ranger’s horse.”

“
And got caught. Damned little recommendation.”

Barstow said, “We learn easy. Just tell us what to do and we’ll do it.”

Jericho beckoned to Mapes. “Take these two to Burt Hatton. If he can find a use for them, they can stay. If he can’t …” He did not finish. Andy knew by the apprehension in the two men’s faces that they were finishing the sentence for him in their minds.

Jericho turned his attention to Andy. “I’ve never been friends with the Rangers, but maybe it’s time I tried to be. I can see where they might be of use to me.”

“
It’s our job to enforce the law. We’re not supposed to play favorites.”

“
I’d just ask you to lean a little in my direction in case a dispute was to come up. Most of my trouble has been with Mexican border jumpers, so that oughtn’t to be hard for you to do. They’re illegal anyway, the minute they set foot on the Texas side of the river.”

“
I’m just a private. Even the camp cook doesn’t ask my opinion about anything.”

Jericho asked Andy’s name, and Andy told him. Jericho said, “I don’t suppose you’re a married man, Pickard?”

“
I haven’t had time for such as that.”

“
Any prospects?”

“
Maybe, if I was to ask her. But it wouldn’t be much of a life for her, bein’ married to a Ranger who’s always movin’ around from one camp to another.

“
You’ll get tired of that sooner or later. Every man ought to get married. Havin’ a wife gives you somethin’ to come home for instead of spendin’ all your time with the likes of the men you’ve seen around here.”

Andy was surprised to hear that kind of talk from a man everyone branded as an unredeemed outlaw. It did not fit the image he had built in his mind. Lupe Chavez had not fit his preconceived notion, either. Both men aroused doubts about the validity of public opinion.

Jericho said, “Havin’ a good woman can be the salvation of a man. I’d have you come down and meet mine, but she’s not in a mood for company right now. She never could have any children herself, so she took her nephew under her wing after her sister died. Some of the Chavez gang killed him a while back.”

“
Sorry.”

“
I’ve had to watch that good woman grieve herself half to death. That’s why I’ve wanted to get my hands on Chavez’s nephew. I want Lupe to know how it feels.”

“
Would it make your wife feel better to know Tony’s mother was grievin’ the same way she does?”

“
I’d
feel better. Blood for blood. An eye for an eye.”

Andy asked, “Is that why you’re so dead set against Mexicans?”

“
My feelin’ about Mexicans goes back a lot further than that. It goes all the way back to when Texas fought for independence from Mexico.”

“
You’re not old enough to’ve been in that fight.”

“
I’m old enough to remember it, though. I remember seein’ my daddy take his rifle down from over the mantel and ride off to join the rebellion. Mexican soldiers caught him and stood him against a wall. Shot him down like a dog.

“
My mother put me on a mule. We started runnin’ for the Louisiana border to get away from Santy Anna’s army. It was rainy and cold, and we bogged in mud plumb to our knees. She taken pneumonia and died. Left me all by myself, just a shirttail young’un. Damn near starved to death before I learned to take whatever I needed, however I had to. Lie, steal, whatever it took. I’ve been at war against Mexicans ever since.”

Andy could think of a few arguments, but he knew they would not make a dent against so deep a hatred.

Jericho said, “I suppose you’ve got an old mother somewhere, puttin’ a lamp in the window every night, waitin’ for you to come home.”

“
Indians killed my mother. I was so little I can’t hardly remember her.”

He thought he saw a flicker of sympathy in Jericho’s eyes, though it was gone as soon as the man blinked.

Jericho said, “Too bad. I still remember mine, twenty times a day. My wife looks a lot like her.” He quickly changed the subject. “I suppose you’re anxious to get back to your company.”

“
I was figurin’ to turn in those two horse thieves, but I guess you’re goin’ to keep them and put them to work.”

“
I’ll leave that up to my foreman, Burt Hatton. He’ll escort you off of my ranch.”

“
I can find my own way.”

“
He’ll see to it that nobody gives you any trouble. He’ll have your horse waitin’ for you at the corner corral.” Jericho pointed. “And you tell your fellow Rangers that if I ever want any of you on my place again, I’ll send for you.”

Irony edged into Andy’s voice. “Sergeant Donahue will appreciate hearin’ that.”

Jericho went out the door. Andy followed. After being in the dark barn so long, the bright sun hurt his eyes. When his vision cleared, he saw three men and four horses at the corner corral. Two of the men were Barstow and Devlin. Andy did not recognize the third until he reached the gate. Jericho had disappeared.

Andy said, “I know you.”

Burt Hatton said, “And I know you.”

This was the man who had led the nighttime attack on Andy, Len, and Farley as they rode south from San Antonio to join the Ranger company on the river.

Andy said, “The night you-all tried to hit us, we suspected you belonged to Jericho’s outfit.”

The man did not reply.

Andy said, “We heard somebody holler like he was shot. Was he?”

Hatton growled, “Get on your horse. We’re takin’ you away from here.”

“
I can go by myself.”

“
Jericho wants to be sure you’re gone. You can go peaceful or we can tie you in the saddle.” He poked the muzzle of a pistol in Andy’s direction for emphasis.

Andy said, “I believe that six-shooter’s mine.”

“
You’ll get it when I’m ready. Or you’ll get what’s in it.”

Devlin was holding a paint horse with a huge Mexican brand across most of its left hip. It had undoubtedly come from across the river, probably on some dark night. Though Indians fancied paints for their unusual coloring, Rusty had taught Andy to regard them with suspicion until they proved themselves. Andy said to Devlin, “Looks like they gave you a new saddle, and a horse to put under it.”

Devlin said, “He ain’t as good as your black. I’m thinkin’ about another swap.”

“
You’d have to shoot me first.”

“
I’ve been thinkin’ about that too.”

Hatton snapped, “Come on, I got other things to do.”