GABRIEL PASQUALE
A red-hot cannon ball was flaming high in the heavens when Yeager drew
out of Los Robles at a road gait. The desert winds were whispering
good-night to the sun as he crossed Dry Sandy just above the Sinks. Many
dusty miles in Sonora had been clipped off by Four Bits before the chill
moon rose above the black line of the distant hills and flooded a
transformed land with magical light, touching a parched and arid earth
to a vibrant and mysterious beauty of whispering yucca and fantastic
cactus and weird outline of mesquite.
Twice he unsaddled the bronco, hobbled it, and lay on his back with his
face to the million stars of night. The first time he gave Four Bits an
hour's rest and grazing. It was midnight when he dismounted at a
water-hole gone almost dry under many summer suns. Here he slept the
heavy, restful sleep of healthy, fatigued youth, arms and legs
sprawling, serene and peaceful, unmoving as a lifeless log.
With the first faint streaks of dawn that came flooding into the eastern
sky he was afoot, knocking together such breakfast as a rider of the
plains needs. Presently he was once more in the saddle, pushing across
the tawny, empty desert toward the hills that hid Noche Buena, the
village where Pasquale had his headquarters.
The smell of breakfast and the smoke of it were in the air when he rode
into the street lined with brown adobe huts. The guards paid no
attention to him. Gringos evidently were no unusual sight to the
troopers of the insurgent chief. Most of these were wearing blue denim
suits of overall stuff, though a few were clad in khaki. All carried
bright-colored handkerchiefs around their necks. Serapes, faded and
bright, of all hues and textures, were in evidence everywhere.
He stopped a boy in riding-boots reaching to his hips, down the sides of
which were conchas of silver dollars. Like most of those in camp the
face upturned to that of Yeager was of a strong Indian cast.
The American inquired where the general might be found.
The boy--Steve judged him not over fifteen, and he was to find many
soldiers in camp younger even than this--pointed to a square two-story
house near the center of the town.
Two sentries were on guard outside. One of these went inside with the
message of Yeager. Presently he returned, relieved the American of his
revolver, and announced that the general would see him.
Pasquale was at breakfast with one of his lieutenants, a slender young
man with black sleek hair who sat with his back to the door. From the
first moment that his eyes fell upon that lithe, graceful figure the
American knew that presently he would be looking into the face of Ramon
Culvera. A chill shudder passed through him for an instant. If the
gambler recognized him he was lost.
But as yet Culvera had not taken the trouble to turn. He was eating a
banana indolently and stray Gringos did not greatly interest him.
"You want to see me, señor," demanded Pasquale in Spanish.
"I'm out of a job--thought maybe you could give me something to do. I
met Tom Neal. He figured you might."
"In the army? Do you want to fight?"
Pasquale leaned back in his chair and looked at his guest from narrowed
eyes that expressed intelligent energy and brutality. He was smiling,
but there was something menacing even about his smile. It struck Steve
that he was as simple, as natural, and about as humane as a wolf. He was
not tall, but there was unusual breadth and depth to his shoulders.
Something of the Indian was in the high cheekbones of his rough,
unshaven, coffee-colored face. The old ruffian looked what he was, a
terrible man, one who could brush out a human life as lightly as he did
the ash from his cigar.
"I don't know. Perhaps. Can you give me a commission?"
"Hmp!" The beadlike eyes of the bandit took in shrewdly the competence
of this quiet, brown-faced man. He might be a thief and a
murderer,--very likely was since he had crossed the border to join the
insurgents,--but it was a safe bet that he had the fighting edge. Men of
this particular stripe were needed to lick his tattered, nondescript
recruits into shape. "Where you from? Who knows you?"
Culvera slewed round in his seat and glanced at the man standing behind
his chair. The indifference did not fade out of his eyes.
"I've been with the Lunar Film Company. Before that I was riding for the
Lone Star cattle outfit," answered Yeager.
The younger Mexican showed a flicker of interest. "The Lunar Film
Company? Do you know a man named Harrison, señor?"
"Yes."
"And a boy named Pheelip Seymour?"
"I've just met him. He doesn't work for the company."
Culvera turned to his chief. "It is this Pheelip that shot Mendoza, he
and another Gringo."
Pasquale nodded, still watching Yeager.
"Know any military tactics?" he asked.
"None--except to hit the other fellow first and hit him hardest."
"And to hit him when he isn't looking. Those three things are all there
is to know about war--those three, and to keep your men fat." Pasquale's
momentary grin faded. "I'll give you a try-out for a week. If we like
each other we'll talk turkey about a commission. Eh, señor?"
"Go you one. If we ain't suited we part company at the end of a week."
The noted insurgent leader spoke English as well as he did Spanish.
Sometimes he talked in one language, sometimes in the other. Now he
relapsed into Spanish and asked Yeager to join them at breakfast.
The cowpuncher sat down promptly. It had been three hours since he had
eaten lightly and he was as hungry as a Yukon husky. He observed that
Culvera's table manners were nice and particular, whereas those of his
chief, though they ate off silver taken from the home of a Federal
supporter during a raid, were uncouth in the extreme. He wolfed his
food, throwing it into his mouth from knife or fork as rapidly as he
could.
Glancing up from his steak, Steve observed the brooding eye of Culvera
upon him. Faint suspicions, recollections too vague as yet for
definiteness, were beginning to stir in the mind of the man. He had
taken on the look of wariness, masked by a surface smile, that his face
had worn the night of the shooting.
Yeager's talk flowed on, easy, careless, unperturbed. His stories were
amusing Pasquale, and the old ruffian had a fondness for anybody that
could entertain him. But back of his debonair gayety Steve nursed a
growing unease. He was no longer dressed in the outfit of a cowpuncher,
but wore a gray street suit and a Panama straw hat. Culvera had caught
only a momentary glance at him the night they had faced each other
revolver in hand. Yet the American was morally convinced that given time
recognition would flash upon the young Mexican. Some gesture or
expression would betray him. Then the fat would be in the fire. And
Steve--where would he be?
After breakfast Yeager rode out with Pasquale to review the troops. It
was an entirely informal proceeding. The youthful army was happily
engaged in loafing and in play. A bugle blew. There was an instant
scurry for horses. They swung into line, stood at attention, and at a
second blast charged yelling across the plain, serapes flying wild.
Pasquale turned to Yeager with a gesture of his hand. "They are mine,
body and soul. They eat, sleep, starve, and die at my word. Is it not
so?"
The charging line had wheeled and was coming back like the distant roll
of thunder. "Viva Pasquale!" they shouted as they galloped. Steve had a
momentary qualm lest they charge over him and their chief, but the tough
little horses were dragged to a halt five yards from them in a great
cloud of dust. Bullets zipped into the air in their wild enthusiasm.
Wild whoops and cheers increased the tumult.
"Looks that way," agreed the American.
Returning to the village, Steve observed a bunch of cattle a hundred
yards from the trail. A Mexican lad, half asleep, was herding them.
Immediately a devouring curiosity took hold of the cowpuncher. He wanted
to see the brand on those cattle. It struck him that the shortest way
was the quickest. He borrowed the field-glasses of Pasquale.
As he lowered the glasses after looking through them, Yeager laughed.
"Funny how things come out. In this country cattle are like chips in a
poker game. They ain't got any home, I reckon."
"Meaning, señor?" suggested the insurgent chief.
"Meaning that less than a week ago I paid a perfectly good check of the
Lunar Company for that bunch of steers. We did aim to use them in some
roundup sets, but I expect you've got another use for them."
"Si, señor."
"Hope Harrison held you up for a good price," suggested the American
casually.
Pasquale showed his teeth in a grin. "He was some anxious to unload in a
hurry--had to take the market he could find handy."
"Looks like he was afraid the goods might spoil on his hands," Steve
commented dryly.
"Maybeso. I didn't ask any questions and he didn't offer any
explanations. Fifteen gold on the hoof was what I agreed to pay. Were
you in on this with Harrison?"
"I was and I wasn't. Me, I drove that bunch 'most forty miles, then he
held me up and took the whole outfit from me."
Pasquale saw he had made a mistake and promptly lied. "It wasn't
Harrison I got them from at all--just wanted to see what you'd say."
"Well, they didn't cost me a red cent. You're welcome to 'em as far as
I'm concerned. Slow elk suits me fine. I'll help you eat them while I'm
here, and that will be a week anyhow."
"You're a good sport, Yeager, as you Gringos say. We'll get along like
brothers. Not so?"
The revolutionary chief was an incessant card-player. He had a greasy
pack out as soon as they reached camp. Steve was invited to take a hand,
also Ramon Culvera and a fat, bald-headed Mexican of fifty named
Ochampa. Culvera, playing in luck, won largely from his chief, who
accepted his run of ill fortune grouchily. Pasquale had been a peon in
his youth, an outlaw for twenty years, and a czar for three. He was as
much the subject of his own unbridled passions as is a spoiled and
tyrannous child. Yeager, studying him, was careful to lose money with a
laugh to the old despot and equally careful to see that the chips came
back to him from Ochampa's side of the table.
The cowpuncher knew fairly well the political rumors that were afloat in
regard to the situation in northern Mexico. Pasquale as yet was dictator
of the revolutionary forces, but there had been talk to the effect that
Ramon Culvera was only biding his time. Other ambitious men had aspired
to supplant Pasquale. They had died sudden, violent deaths. Ramon had
been a great favorite of the dictator, but it was claimed signs were not
lacking to show that a rupture between them was near. Watching them now,
Yeager could well believe that this might be true. Culvera was suave,
adroit, deferential as he raked in his chief's gold, but the
irritability of the older man needed only an excuse to blaze.
A blue-denim trooper came into the room and stood at attention.
Pasquale nodded curtly.
"Señor Harrison to see the general," said the private in Spanish.
A chill ran down the spine of the American. This was the last place in
the world that he wanted to meet Chad Harrison. A swift vision of
himself standing with his back to a wall before a firing line flashed
into his brain.
But he was in for it now. He knew that the ex-prizefighter would
denounce him. A daredevil spirit of recklessness flooded up in his
heart. A smile both gay and sardonic danced in his eyes. Thus does
untimely mirth in the hour of danger drive away a sober, prayerful
gravity from the mien of such light-hearted sons of nature as Stephen
Yeager.