Go on, Tanner said. Then what? He was still mounted, standing with his segundo and several of his men in the lantern glow of the square the lantern on the seat of a freight wagon so Tanner could see the woman while she told what had happened.
They went to the yard of the church, the woman said to Tanner. Then the man came over the wall toward her and told her to get a horse from the church, asking for a particular claybank horse if it was there. The woman brought out a horse but was not sure of its color in the darkness of the church and it wasnt the claybank but a brown horse. Then he told her to bring a saddle and bridle and a half sack of dried corn.
While this was taking place, the woman of Mr. Tanner was astride a horse in the churchyard, sitting in the saddle as a man does, though she was wearing a dress. I think a white or a gray dress, the woman said. When Valdez was ready and had mounted the brown horse, he rode into the churchyard and told the woman of Mr. Tanner to follow him.
Did she say anything to him? Tanner asked.
Not that I heard, the woman said.
They left through the alley next to the church. The woman waited until they were in the alley and followed, but by the time she reached the back of the church they were gone.
Could you hear them? Tanner asked.
I think going toward the river, the woman said.
To reach cover, the segundo said. He was sitting his horse close to Frank Tanner. Then maybe south into the mountains.
How long ago? asked Tanner.
The woman thought about it and said, Not long. They would be maybe two or three miles away only. Or a little more if they ran their horses.
You know what to do, Tanner said to the segundo. Whoevers here, send them out again.
In the dark, the segundo said, how do we see them?
You listen, Tanner said. Somebody could run into them.
The segundo waited, about to speak, but looked at Tanner and then only nodded. It was Tanners business. No, his business was in the morning with the arms and grain and cattle, taking it all across the border and coming back without being killed. That was his business.
But in the morning the freight wagons stood empty, and Frank Tanner waited on the loading platform for his men to come in. Some of the women stood in the square, watching him, waiting to see what he was going to do. The men came in singly and in small groups and would talk to the segundo while they watered their horses and while the women watched. It was almost midmorning when the three trackers came in. One of them was dead, the other two were wounded.
These three who came along the street single file, one of them facedown over his saddle, were the segundos best hunters and trackers. They had been in the Army and had lived through the campaigns against the Apache. But now one was dead and another would soon be dead.
Tanner sat in a rocking chair in the morning sunlight and watched them brought in: another dead man on the loading platform and a man coughing blood and a third one, luckier than the first two, shot through the left forearm, the bone shattered, and there was no doubt about that. This one could talk and he told what had happened, his the only voice in the stillness. Tanner listened to the man and did not interrupt. He heard how the three had put themselves in Valdezs place and decided he would follow the river south into the hills of the Santa Ritas, then maybe work his way west around toward Lanoria or maybe not, but theyd take a look.
With the first light this morning they had found tracks, fresh prints of two horses that showed the horses were walking. They werent sure of this man they were following; he didnt try to keep to rocky ground or cover his tracks, and he walked the horses, maybe thinking he had enough time. Still, when they came to the flat open stretch with the trees in the distance, they were careful, knowing he could be waiting for them in the trees. So they made a plan as they crossed the flat stretch: they would spread out before they got to the cover and come up from three sides and if he was in there theyd have him. But they never got to the trees.
Listen, it was flat open, the man with the shattered arm said, out to the sides as far as you could see and a mile in front of us. There was no cover near, hardly any brush to speak of. So it was like he rose up out of the ground behind us. He says, Throw down your guns and come around. This voice out there in the middle of nothing. We stop and come around, keeping our iron though, and there he is standing there. I swear to God there was nothing for him to hide behind, yet wed come over the ground he was standing on just a moment before.
He says, Go back and tell Mr. Tanner were waiting for him. Thats what he said, waiting for him . Meaning he wasnt talking to anybody else. Then he says, Tell Mr. Tanner I got something to trade him. We looked, but she wasnt anywheres around. Just him, and three of us. I guess we all had it in mind to bust him and he must have saw it. He says again, Throw down the guns. We dont move. He says it again and this time when we dont move he brings up the Colt gun in his right hand and puts one through my arm.