"Not quite as amazing as you might think. Why, less than fifty miles south it is not so uncommon to find water trickling sweetly out of sun-blasted canyon walls. And as for the gold, it was G.o.d's miracle."

"What did you do with the gold?"

"I prayed long and hard over that," Dan replied. "At first, I thought that I should give it all away to those less fortunate than myself. But that wasn't what the Lord wanted."

"How did you know?"

"Every time I gave it to some poor soul, he'd just use it to commit a mighty sin and then generally wind up filling the pockets of bad men and soiled women."

"Yeah," Longarm said, "I can believe that. So what did you do?"

"I invested it in businesses. I figured that I'd donate half to myself and half to G.o.d's works."

"To charity."

"That's right. And you see, our missing friend, Jimmy c.o.x, became one of my favorite charities. Oh, I grubstaked others, but Jimmy and poor Eli were by far my favorites. They were both rough as the rest a and profane, but they had Christian hearts and would help anyone in their need. And I've seen them do it many a time. So, I helped them."

"Did Jimmy ever tell you where he found those gold Spanish coins?"

"He wanted to tell me, but I wouldn't let him."

"Why?"

Dan scratched his long white beard. "Well, to begin with, I didn't believe he'd really found those coins."

"You sound like you changed your mind."

"I did! Jimmy had too many of them, and it was clear that they were the real thing. At first, some folks in Wickenburg thought they were Mexican bra.s.s, but they quickly changed their minds. I'll tell you, it caused quite a stir."

"Any chance that the outlaw Hank Ba.s.s had something to do with Jimmy's disappearance?" Longarm asked.

"Of course there is. Ba.s.s is a very evil man and those that ride for him are no better."

"Well, Preacher, they don't ride for him anymore."

Dan c.o.c.ked a bushy eyebrow, but he didn't ask exactly what Longarm meant by that statement. "We'll be riding today and most of tomorrow to get to where I think Jimmy disappeared."

"I a.s.sume that will be the same place that he found the Spanish coins."

"That's right. We'll camp there and have a look around. I went there right after Jimmy disappeared but couldn't find anything to tell me what happened to him. But then, I'm not good at that sort of thing and you have the professional eye. I'm hoping there are a few clues, although the wind blows pretty hard out here and everything might have been brushed away."

"You think he's dead, don't you?"

Dan sadly nodded his head. "Yes, I'm afraid that I do. I'm very afraid that whoever slit poor Eli's throat also killed Jimmy. It seems to me that the two events must be related."

"I agree," Longarm said. "And it seems to me that whoever is behind all this must believe that there is still a lot of Spanish gold out here yet to be found."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because," Longarm replied, "what other reason would they have for killing Eli after I talked to him about Jimmy?"

"To keep from being identified?"

"No," Longarm said, "I didn't know Eli at all, but you did and I'm sure you agree that the man would have identified Jimmy's killers if he'd known their ident.i.ties."

"You're right," Dan said, nodding his head. "See, you have the mind for this sort of thing. I don't."

"Did Jimmy have any relatives?" Longarm asked.

"No. He never married. Always been a loner. I think that Eli, myself, and you must have been the only ones that he really trusted. You see, if a man stays out here in this desert by himself for too long, he starts to talk out loud, at first to his burro, if he has one, then to himself."

"is that a fact?"

"It is," Dan insisted. "I have carried on day-long conversations with myself and my burro. The three of us have argued and even almost come to blows a time or two. Now, I also talk to the Lord a lot, but someone like Eli or Jimmy, they don't, and so they get to hearing strange voices."

"You mean, in their heads?"

"That's right," Dan replied. "Sometimes the voices are friendly, but sometimes not. And after a long while, prospectors just sort of go a little crazy. I'm sure you've seen them wandering around frontier mining towns, muttering things to themselves. Arguing back and forth. It's pretty common."

"I doubt that Jimmy was crazy," Longarm said. "He'd been a prospector a long, long time when I met him and he wasn't crazy."

"He changed some after he found those Spanish coins and started our big Wickenburg gold rush. People were always trying to get him drunk so he'd tell them where he found those coins. And they followed him everywhere. Jimmy got to where he wouldn't hardly come into Wickenburg anymore."

"I see." Longarm squinted into the heat waves and watched a dust devil dance across the desert floor. This was, he knew, bad country to get into without a guide who knew the watering holes.

They rode all that day and made a dry camp at sundown. Dan had bought some big skin bags and filled them with water, but their two thirsty horses could have drunk it all and lots more. There was also fifty pounds of oats tied to the back of each saddle, so the horses had plenty to eat.

"If we get an early start," Dan said, "we'll arrive at that deep spring by mid-morning."

"The one where you found gold?"

"That's right. From there, we go on a few miles farther and then I'll show you about where I think that Jimmy discovered those Spanish coins. Would have been a lot better off never to have found them, don't you agree?"

"Yes," Longarm said, "I do."

That evening, they ate well because the preacher had paid someone to pack them a fine supper with beef, potatoes, and even a couple of thick slabs of apple pie. Longarm and Dan talked only a short while and then they collapsed on their blankets and went right to sleep.

When Longarm awoke the next morning, Dan was frying salt pork and making biscuits. He had even brewed a pot of coffee and looked happy and content. Dan gave Longarm a warm smile of greeting. "Mornin', Marshal Long!"

"Custis. And yes, it is a fine morning."

And indeed it was. The sun was floating off the horizon, and its soft crimson glow made the Arizona desert look almost hospitable at this hour. Sunrise and sunset were the finest hours in country like this, and Longarm accepted a cup of coffee from Dan and sat cross-legged on his blankets to enjoy it.

"You know, Marshal, most people think that the desert is a hard, awful place, but it isn't. Want to hear my theory on deserts?"

"Sure."

"They are meant to be experienced at night."

"In the dark?"

"It never really gets all that dark on the desert. You have starlight and moonlight and the sage get silvery so that it all shines. You must know that the critters that live out here sleep in the daytime and only come out at night."

"Yeah, I've heard that."

"It's true! The desert comes alive with goings-on at night and it just kind of b.u.t.tons up in the daytimea"even in winter when it can get cold."

Longarm finished his coffee, ate a good breakfast, and then enjoyed another cup of coffee before they packed up their things and continued on to the southwest. The day was growing quite warm when Dan finally drew in on his reins and pointed to a cl.u.s.ter of rocks out of which spurted some mesquite.

"Over there is where the spring is and where the Lord led me to that gold."

Longarm nodded. "Can you point out where you think Jimmy found those Spanish coins?"

"Sure," Dan said, raising a finger. "You see that notch in the blue ridge straight on past the rocks about ten miles?"

"Yes."

"Well, there are some caves dug out of the sandstone cliffs up there. I expect that is where Jimmy found that Spanish treasure."

"What gives you that idea?"

"He told me," Dan said. "Pointed them out to me once, saying that he had found some old Spanish armor. You know, rusted helmets and breastplates. And not far away, he discovered the skeletons of their owners in some of those caves. I expect that we will find them too."

Longarm could feel his pulse quicken. "Why, I don't see why not." He squinted and then urged his horse into a trot.

"Hey!" Dan shouted. "Go easy on my horse out here! This is hard country. Bow a tendon or give him a rock bruise or a cactus spine in the hock and you're on foot, Marshal!"

Longarm knew that Dan was speaking the truth. But he hadn't exactly put steel to the flanks of his animal and he was getting awfully anxious to unravel the mystery of Jimmy's disappearance.

It seemed to take forever for them to reach the hidden spring where Dan had found his salvation. They watered their horses and filled their canteens.

"Told you this water was sweet, didn't I?" Dan said, smacking his lips.

"You did and you weren't exaggerating one bit," Longarm said. "I can't even imagine how happy you must have been if you were out here staggering around and ready to die of thirst."

"I think the Lord put this spring here just to save me and open my eyes to see that we are here to serve our fellow man, not oppress or kill him."

"Sometimes, Preacher, our *fellow man' needs to be killed," Longarm argued. "Hank Ba.s.s is a prime example, as is whoever cut poor Eli's throat."

Dan shook his head, but Longarm could not tell if he was in disagreement or just generally depressed by the grim subject. Either way, Longarm didn't really care. When he found the men who had killed old Jimmy and Eli, then justice would be swift and final. Maybe that was entirely the wrong att.i.tude for a man who carried a badge, but Longarm couldn't help feeling that way.

"All right," Dan said after they had rested and replenished their water supplies. "Let's go find those Spanish conquistador caves and skeletons."

"Let's just hope we don't find Jimmy's skeleton with them," Longarm said.

Dan nodded, then he went against his own advice as he forced his mount into a trot despite the unforgiving and intensifying heat of the desert sun.

Chapter 11.

Longarm threw up his right hand as a signal for Preacher Dan to rein in his horse, then he dismounted and made sure that his shotgun was loaded and ready to fire in case someone was watching them from the rocks. He handed his reins to the older man and removed his hat, then started forward.

"I don't think we have much to worry about," Dan whispered. "It's not likely that anyone is here."

"Why take the chance?"

"But even if there were someone here, Marshal Long, I'd sure hope that you would try not to kill them."

"What?"

"You're a federal lawmana"not an executioner."

Longarm spun around on his boot heel. "That's right, I am a federal marshal, but that doesn't mean I'm also a fool! And if the same murdering son of a b.i.t.c.h that cut Eli's throat and probably did the same thing to Jimmy is waiting up there for me, you can bet your life that I'm going to shoot to kill!"

"With a shotgun that big, you could hardly do otherwise."

"That's right. So just stay back here with the horses while I go up and scout around. It'll be better for the both of us that way."

"Very well," Dan said. "Be careful."

"Count on it."

Off in the distance, Longarm could see a trail leading up into the rocks and it was clear that it had been used within the last few months. But he could not tell if it had been used in just the last few days.

There was an open place that he had to cross without any cover whatsoever. Longarm judged it to be perhaps twenty-five yards long and well exposed to the higher rocks. If there was an ambusher or two up above, this was where they would try to make their kill.

Longarm hunkered down behind some brush and sleeved sweat from his brow. He would wait awhile even though there was no indication that this place was inhabited. Besides, in a very short while, the sun would be burning directly over his left shoulder and into the rocks. It would create problems if there was an ambusher in waiting.

Longarm flicked a couple of big black ants off the back of his hand. He looked around to make sure that he wasn't in the company of a rattlesnake or a scorpion, then he stretched out to full length and relaxed. He would have been quite happy to take a catnap, except that the sun was too bright and hot and the d.a.m.ned ants were a constant bother.

Time pa.s.sed pleasantly enough, and every few minutes Longarm would tilt his hat back from his face and gaze up at the rocks and those sandstone caverns. He couldn't see inside them because he was too low and they were a good fifty feet higher in elevation. And as for some dying Spanish conquistadors ending up in a h.e.l.l like this, hundreds of miles from the nearest reliable river, well, Longarm could not imagine the anguish they must have felt or even why they would come so far to get themselves into such a terrible situation. But that was another time and another issue that he had no business wasting his time thinking about right now.

When the sun was blazing into the face of the rocks and the higher sandstone caverns, Longarm decided that he might as well make his move. Yes, it would have been better to have circled around behind for a safer approach, but he knew that Dan would have complained about the extra work for his horses. It would also have been better to make this move at night, but Longarm felt time was too precious. Besides, he was so anxious about finding something, anything related to Jimmy's disappearance that he was determined not to wait any longer.

Longarm gathered the shotgun in his hands, took a couple of deep breaths, and then rushed forward, eyes riveted on the nearest rocks. No sooner had he jumped forward than a rifle shot boomed from above, and Longarm felt a searing fire across his leg and went tumbling. The shotgun spilled from his grasp and a second rifle bullet ricocheted off the rock beside his face, momentarily blinding Longarm. Knowing it was unlikely that the ambusher would miss again if he didn't start moving, Longarm rolled sideways as fast as he could until he dropped into a shallow creva.s.se in the rocks. Still fighting to clear his vision, Longarm dragged out his six-gun and fired blindly upward in the general direction of the ambusher. His bullet was more than matched by the return fire.

"d.a.m.n!" Longarm swore, angry at himself for getting into such a bad fix. No one had to tell him that the rifleman above had all the advantages. As if to reinforce the fact, the ambusher resumed firing. He couldn't quite reach Longarm with a bullet, but it was very close and he might get a ricochet and get lucky.

"Preacher Dan!" Longarm cried, his voice echoing through the boulders. "I need your help!"

There was no answer except for the retort of more rifle bullets.

"Dan, get the rifle and give me some covering fire!" Longarm pleaded, not really expecting that the preacher would do anything more than rattle the ambusher and perhaps give Longarm a chance to escape back down the slope to good cover.