"Why wouldn't the Apaches just kill him and his men and grab what they have?" Drew pointed out what seemed to him the obvious flaw in the system.

"Apaches, they are not stupid. Guns they could take. But once such a gun is broken, where can they get another? They cannot walk into Tubacca or Tucson to buy what they need. Kitch.e.l.l's men do, perhaps-it is thought that they do so. Also when he trades at the border it is with men who would meet the Apaches with fire and bullets. Apache war parties are never large. Perhaps in all this part of the country there are not more than half a hundred warriors-and those scattered in small bands. I do not say that this is truth, _Senor_ Kirby. I only say that it would explain many things-such as why Kitch.e.l.l has not been caught."

"Makes sense," Anse commented. "Always did hear as how Apaches were meaner'n snakes but they wasn't stupid. Keep a tame gunrunner to work for 'em-that sounds like th' tricky sorta play they cotton to. If it is so, th' man who gits Kitch.e.l.l may jus' rid this country of some of them two-legged wolves into th' bargain."

"According to what I've heard," Drew said, "this Kitch.e.l.l claims to lead a regular Confederate force that hasn't surrendered. If he wants to make that valid, he wouldn't dare any such deal!"

"I'll bet you without waitin' to see a hole card," Anse replied, "that if that coyote was ever ridin' on our side-which I don't stretch ear to-he cut loose them traces long ago. There were them buzzards we had us a coupla run-ins with back in Tennessee, 'member? Sc.u.m ... some of 'em wearin' blue coats, some gray, but they was all jus' murderin' outlaws.

What did they whine when they was caught? Did th' Yankees run 'em in, then they was unlucky Reb scouts. An' when our boys licked up a nest of th'

varmints-why, we'd taken us a mess o' respectable Yank 'Irregulars,'

'cordin' to their story. 'Course none of their protestin' kept 'em from stretched necks." His hand went to his own. "I oughta know, seem' as how I was picked up with a parcel of 'em an' was close 'nough to feel th' wind when a noose swung by.

"This here Kitch.e.l.l-I'm takin' Bible oath he's th' same mangy breed. Maybe so he started out to be Reb, but that was a long time ago an' he crossed over th' river long since. An' some of them beauties back east, they'da lapped muddy water outta an Apache's boot tracks, did it mean savin' their dirty hides. Sounds to me, Teodoro, like you've some plain, straightforward thinkin' there-a mighty interestin' idea. An' maybe we're jus' goin' to attend to th' provin' of it!"

"Not by ourselves," Drew corrected. "We have our orders."

"Sure. But there ain't no order ever given what says a man has to stand up an' be shot at an' he don't shoot back. No, I ain't sniffin' up trouble's hot trail like a bush hound. But neither am I goin' t' sit down an' fold my two hands together when trouble hits as it's like to do out here."

Drew agreed with that, though he did not say so. Rennie must know the circ.u.mstances. They would have to defend themselves if it came to a fight.

But he could hope that, if Kitch.e.l.l had stocked some hidden canyons with stolen horses, the outlaw leader had left no guards on duty thereabouts.

With Running Fox prowling ahead and with him and Anse using all the scout tricks they had learned in war-time, they should be able to learn just how correct Teodoro's suspicions were.

12

"See, senores, the land lies so...." Hilario Trinfan's crooked body pulled together in a lopsided perch as he squatted range fashion beside the morning campfire. He had smoothed a s.p.a.ce of ground the width of his two hands and was setting out twigs and stones to create a miniature relief map of the countryside. "Here is the water hole to which the Pinto comes.

Above that we were-moving in from this side. To do so we crossed here." A black-rimmed nail stabbed into the dust.

"It is then we see the tracks-five ahead-all shod horses, but not ridden, save for one."

"Apaches could have been running them," Drew commented.

"No." Trinfan shook his head. "This far from pursuit the Apaches would not have moved so. The Indio, he eats horseflesh. There would have been signs of a fire. Or one of the animals cut down. These horses were being moved with care-not pushed too hard. We trailed them on to here." Hilario stabbed his finger into the dust again. "Then-Teodoro, now tell them what you saw."

The younger mustanger hung over the crude map. "I climbed, _senores_, up over the rocks. It is bad, that ground, high, steep-but with care one can reach a ledge. And along that one can go to look down into the next canyon. A good place for horses-there is water and gra.s.s. I stayed there watching with the gla.s.ses _Don_ Cazar gave my father, the gla.s.ses which bring the far close. There were poles set up in the rocks through which they brought those horses-making it like a pen we build for wild ones. But those in it were not wild."

"How many-an' what brands?" Anse wanted to know.

Teodoro shrugged. "There are many trees, rocks; one can not see everywhere. I counted twenty head-there is room for more. As to brands, even the gla.s.ses could not make those plain to the eyes of one lying above. But there is no other ranchero who would run horses on the Range and _Don_ Cazar's _manadas_ are not driven in here-does he want the wild ones to run off his mares? Horses would be kept so for only one reason, that they must be hidden. And in such a place as we found they could be left for maybe a month, or more. _Don_ Cazar's riders do not patrol this far away from the Stronghold. Had it not been that the Pinto causes so much trouble, even we would not be here."

"What about the Pinto? If he's all you say, wouldn't he try to get at this band?" asked Drew.

"No reason if they are saddle stock-no mares among them," Anse said thoughtfully. "But would those hombres who put 'em there jus' leave-no guards or nothin'?"

"That is what we do not know," Hilario replied. "We took every precaution against being seen when Teodoro climbed to look into the canyon. And-this I believe-we were not suspected if there was any watcher. Otherwise, otherwise, _senores_, we would not have been alive to greet you when you rode in last night! This Kitch.e.l.l, he is like an Apache-here, there, everywhere. Today I am easier because you have brought the Pima, because we have two more guns in this camp."

"Why didn't you pull out yourselves?" Anse asked curiously.

"Because, were we watched, that would have made our discovery as plain as if we stood out in the open and shouted it to the winds. For three days before we found that trail we had been building a pen for wild ones, casting about for the tracks and runs of the Pinto's band. Having done so, we would not leave without completing our drive. And, should those out there suspect"-Trinfan shook his head-"we would not have lived to reach the Stronghold, and that is the truth."

"This is also truth, _padre_." Faquita came to the fire and picked up the coffeepot, pouring the thick black liquid into the waiting line of tin cups. "It is time for us to finish and be on the move-not to just talk of what must be done."

Drew looked up in surprise. The girl was wearing breeches, ready to ride.

In addition, instead of the gunbelts which all the men wore as a matter of course, Faquita had tucked a pair of derringers in the front of her sash belt. Their small grips showed above the faded silk folds.

"She goin' with us?" the Kentuckian asked, as the girl kicked dust over the campfire and stowed the empty pot in the cart. "Ain't that dangerous-for her?"

Hilario got to his feet with a lurch that made his crippled state only too plain. "_Senor_, to hunt the wild ones is dangerous. You see me, twisted like a root, no? Not tall and straight as a man should be. This was done by the wild ones-in one small moment when I was not quick enough. Among us-the mustangers-it is often the daughters who are the best riders. They are quick, eager, riding lighter than their brothers or their fathers. And to some it is a loved life. With Faquita that is true. As for danger-is that not always with us?

"In war danger is a thing which one man makes for another. In this country the land itself fights man-war or no war. A cloudburst fills an arroyo with a flood without warning, and a man is drowned amidst desert sand where only hours before he could have died for lack of that same water.

There is a fall of rocks, a fall of horse, a stampede of cattle, sickness which strikes at a lone traveler out of nowhere. Yet have you not ridden to war, and come now to live on this land? _Si_, we have danger-but a man can also die in his bed in the midst of a village with strong walls. And to everyone his own way of life. Now we ride...."

They did indeed ride, following a trail which, as far as Drew could see, existed only in the minds of the mustangers. But the three Mexicans swung along so confidently that he and Anse joined without question or argument.

At a distance they circled the waiting pen with walls of entwined brush and sapling, ready to funnel driven horses into a blind canyon. The Pinto's band must be located, somehow shaken out of the rocky territory their wily leader favored, before that drive could begin. Water, Trinfan said, would be the key. Horses must drink and they were creatures of habit, never ranging far from some one hole they had made their own.

Trinfan blankets already flapped about the Pinto's chosen spring. They had seen the horses approach several times in the past two days and shy away from those flapping things with the fearsome man scent.

"As long as La Bruja is with them," Faquita said, coming up beside Drew, "they will not come."

"La Bruja?"

"The Witch, as Anglos would say. We call her so because of her cunning.

She is the wise one who keeps lookout. I say she is possessed by the Evil One. It is possible the Pinto is her son. Together they have always outwitted the hunters. But La Bruja is old-she runs more stiffly. Last time in the chase she began to drop behind. She is of no use, only a nuisance. It is the White One I wish to drop rope over!"

"The White One?"

"_Si._ She is Nieve-the snow of the upper mountains. Among our people you will hear many tales of white ones, without a dark spot on them-the Ghost Stallions that run the plains and no man may lay rope over. But this mare is the truth! And someday-" Her eyes shone and she seemed to be making some vow Drew would be called to bear witness to. "Someday she will be mine! Not to trail south and sell-no-but to keep, always!"

"She must be very beautiful," he commented.

"It is not only that, _senor_. You have a fine horse, one which beat _Don_ Cazar's Oro, is that not so?"

"Yes. Shiloh ..."

"And to you that one is above all other horses. If you lost him, you would be-like hungry ... inside you, is that not also so?"

"Yes!" Her earnestness triggered that instant response from him.

"So it is with me since I have seen Nieve. Men find such a horse; for years they follow the band in which it runs to snare it. They will suffer broken bones, as did my father, and hunger, and thirst, because there is one tossing head, one set of flying heels before them. Sometimes they are lucky and they catch that one. If they do not, there is in them a pinch of winter even when the desert sun is hot. Once I loved all horses-now there is this one which I must have!"

"I hope you get her!"

"_Senor_, last season I hoped. This season-this season I have belief that my hopes will come true. Ah, look, the Indio!"