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himself on his hand as he fell, and got clumsily to his feet, then looked
stupidly at his bloody, lacerated palm.
Clinging to a rock to steady himself, he edged around a corner and looked
upon a wide, shallow pool of water. At one side, where a trail came in, there
was a flat surface and a small edge of sand. At the far side of the pool the
water became deeper.
He walked back to his horse. "It's there," he said, "enough to fill our
canteen and water the horses, and drink what we want."
He motioned them around to the trail so they could bring the horses up. Then
he took the olla and went back to the pool. He went to the deepest part,
filled the olla, and placed it back in a shadowed corner where a shelf of rock
would protect it from the sun. When the others came up, he was drinking deeply
at the basin's edge.
"Hold the horses back," Harbin said. "Let's get our water before they stir it
up."
Badger filled the canteen before he drank. While Nora was drinking, Rodelo
looked around. This was a sheltered spot, a place that could be guarded, and
defended. And there was some shade against the late afternoon sun. "Let's camp
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right here," he said.
Tom Badger glanced over at Joe Harbin before replying. "Might as well," he
agreed. "We ain't likely to find a better place."
They brought the horses in and watered them, then led them to the shadows
under the basaltic rim that partly enclosed the basin. The horses needed the
rest ... they all did.
"There's enough dry wood for a fire. That stuff won't send up any smoke,"
Badger said.
"All right," Rodelo agreed.
Westward, and within plain view from where they stood, were the dunes, the
great wall of dunes at least five miles across that separated them from the
somewhat harder surface along the shore of the Gulf of California. Southwest
was the short range of jagged mountains, the Sierra Blanca, already partly
buried in the drifting sand.
Dan Rodelo looked at those dunes and swore softly to himself. He hated the
thought of attempting to cross them tomorrow. All of them were already
exhausted, and the horses had given all they could. The heat and the shortage
of water had sapped their strength and their powers of endurance to the limit.
And somewhere not far off were the Indians.
Somehow, he was sure, they had evaded the Yaquis for the moment. By some
accidental twist and turn they had slipped off and left the Indians following
along in another direction. Not that it would give them more than a few hours
leeway. Without doubt the Indians had scouts out searching for them even now.
There had been no horse tracks or human tracks around this tank, and that
meant it was either unknown to the Yaquis or unused by them. Perhaps the tank
was normally empty at this season, but even so, had it been used at times the
tracks would have been there. And the only ones he had seen were those of
bighorn sheep and the odd twisting trail of a sidewinder.
Dan Rodelo stared off toward the dunes, but he was keeping Badger and Harbin
within view at all times. From now on he must be wary, for he was sure neither
of them had any plan to share the gold with him. As soon as the danger of
Indian attack seemed past, they would waste no more time.
Nora moved over to stand beside him. Her lips were cracked, her cheeks burned
red along the cheekbones, but nothing could spoil completely the quiet beauty
of her face.
"I love the desert at this hour," she said, as she looked westward. "I like
to see the shadows gather, and feel the coolness come."
"Enjoy it while you can. Tomorrow will be our worst day."
"I think so too. I can remember the sand dunes."
"I wonder that you survived. That must have been a tough trek for a
youngster."
"It wasn't that. It was what I'd left behind. I lost my family in that wreck.
At least, I lost all of it I knew." She looked at him suddenly. "You see, I
don't even know who I am, or where I came from. My father was drowned over
there in the Gulf, my mother died in the desert just at the edge of the dunes,
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only a few miles from here."
"Dean Stafford brought you across the desert. Five of you started, and three
of you made it across. I heard the story."
Rodelo paused a moment. "What I don't understand is why you ever wanted to
come back."
"I was alone in the world, and I did not want to be alone. I ... I wanted to
find something, something we left back there."
"You left a lot back there, Nora. You left a father and a mother, but you
cannot find them now. It is too late for that."
"Maybe it isn't."
He turned to face her questioningly. "Nora ..."
"You do not understand. We did leave something back there ... a box."
"Abox ?"
"Oh, it was nothing much. Just some things my mother loved. Some letters, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]