But Tanner wasnt paying any attention to him.
Two men and then a third one brought Diego Luz out in the yard. They bent his arms behind him, forcing him to his knees and this way got him facedown on the hardpack, spreading his arms, a man sitting on him and a man clamping each of his arms flat to the ground with a boot.
The segundo went to one knee at Diego Luzs head. He worked the tobacco from one side of his mouth to the other with his tongue and spit a brown stream close to Diego Luz. He said, I believe you; you dont know where he is. But maybe youre lying. Or maybe you lie some other time to us. You understand?
The American with the bony face and the high boots
went down to his knees close to Diego Luzs left hand that was palm-flat on the ground. The man drew his Colt revolver and flipped it, catching it by the barrel, and brought the butt down hard on Diego Luzs hand. The hand clenched to protect itself as Diego Luz screamed and the gun butt came down on the tight white knuckles and Diego Luz screamed again. This way they broke both of the horsebreakers hands while his family watched from the shade of the ramada.
I mean it, the segundo said, as Diego Luz lay there after the men holding him had moved away. You come work for me sometime.
They herded the family into the yard to get them out of the way while they destroyed the house and burned everything that would burn, beginning inside, pouring kerosene on the beds and the furniture, while outside two mounted men were fixing their ropes to the support posts of the ramada. The flames took the straw blinds covering the windows; the men inside poured out with smoke, and as they cleared the doorway, the mounted men spurred away to bring the mesquite-pole awning down over the front of the house. They burned the ramada and the outbuildings and the corn crib. They pulled his corral apart, scattering the horses, and came back across the yard, gathering and riding out southeast, leaving their dust hanging in the air and the sound of them fading in the early morning sunlight.
They were a good mile from the place, moving single file down the bank of an arroyo, the riders milling in the dry stream bed as they moved one at a time up the other side.
R. L. Davis looked back, squinting at the gray smoke rising in the near distance not a lot of smoke now; the house would be burned out and most of the smoke was probably coming from the corn crib. He turned in his saddle. Tanner was already up the cutbank, but he saw the segundo still in the dry stream bed, waiting for the file of riders to move up. R. L. Davis walked his horse over to him.
You see that smoke?
The segundo looked at R. L. Davis, not at the sky.
I reckon you can see that smoke a good piece, R. L. Davis said. Were about a mile. I reckon you could still see it eight, ten miles.
The segundo said, If hes no farther than that and if hes looking this way.
R. L. Davis grinned. You see what I mean, huh? I was sure you would, though I wasnt putting much stock in Tanner getting it.
Be careful, the segundo said. Hell eat you up.
I dont mean that insulting. I mean he might want to think about it a while, seeing things I dont see-
Hey, the segundo said. He took time to squirt a stream of tobacco to the dry-caked earth. Why do you think hed come if he sees the smoke?
Because theyre friends. He brought him clothes and his guns.
Would you go? If you saw your friends place burning?
Sure I would.
No, you wouldnt, the segundo said. But he might. If he sees it he might.
Its worth staying to find out, R. L. Davis said.
The segundo nodded. Worth leaving you and maybe a few more. He started off, reining his horse toward the far bank, then came around to look at Davis again. Hey, the segundo said, maybe smiling in the shadow of his Sonora hat. What are you going to do if he comes?
7
Valdez said nothing. Maybe he had to tie her and maybe he didnt, but a mile from Diego Luzs place now and the smoke gone from the sky an hour, he tied her and left her in the arroyo, marking the place in his mind: willows on the bank and yellow brittlebrush in the dry bed. He left her in deep shade, not speaking or looking at her face.
Though he looked at her over and over as he made his way to Diego Luzs place, picturing her in the darkness of the high meadow, the woman lying with him under the blanket, holding her and feeling her against him and for a long time, after she was asleep, staring up at the cold night sky, at the clouds that moved past the moon.
In the morning the sky was clear, until he saw the smoke in the distance, seven miles northwest, and knew what it was as he saw it. Valdez packed their gear without a word and they moved out, across the meadow and down through the foothills toward the column of smoke. At one point she said to him, What if theyre waiting for you? And he answered, Well see.
They could be waiting or not waiting. Or he could have not seen the smoke. Or he could have continued with the woman southeast and been near the twin peaks by this evening. Or he never could have asked Diego Luz to help him. Or he never could have started this. Or he never could have been born. But he was here and he was pointing northwest instead