Chapter Ten -- The Visitor
A call in the night could spell danger. The ranger didn't move a muscle. This might be a ploy to get him to move so that he could be shot down. Once again the groan came out of the night. He had to risk it. If that groan was real then a man was hurt and needed help. Hagan eased his way around the edge of the clearing and neither saw nor heard any sign of danger.
The groan came again and he rushed over to it. He eased in the last few feet in case the man was ready to shoot, but he was too far-gone for that.
"Where are you hurt, Amigo," asked Bud.
"I have been shot. Shot in the back by one who is truly ruthless," replied the wounded Mexican.
"Let me move you up by the fire, and I will look at your wound," offered the ranger.
"No, please, do not move me. I have not much time left and I wish to talk. There is money in my pocket but I have nobody to leave it to. Will you see that the church gets it?"
"Of course, it will be put to good use," Hagan promised. "Who shot you, Amigo?"
"King. I defied the King. I did not wish to go back to Lost Canyon, and when I turned to ride off, he shot me."
"Where is Lost Canyon? How do I get there?"
"It is east of where he started the fire. He wants to kill all the riders of the silver train with the help of the beast. I cannot in good faith murder my countrymen. When I told him this he said go - but he then shot me in the back. He has no, how you say....goodness in him. That one is truly evil."
The wounded man's breath was now coming in uneven gasps, and the ranger knew there wasn't much time left. "Who is this King, Senor? Do you know where he lives?"
"He lives in the town in a fancy place. He leaves his animal in the canyon."
"What is the animal? What kind of a beast is it?"
The Mexican gasped for breath. "It is a ....a ...." His gasping stopped and he was gone.
So. The ranger had been wrong. There was a real beast and it was kept in Lost Canyon. But why would someone bring it to a robbery? It made no sense; no sense at all.
When daybreak came Hagan dug a grave and buried the Mexican. He had sounded like a good man who had got involved in a bad situation and wasn't able to get out The ranger realized that he had never even learned the man's name.
"Rest in peace, my friend," he said before he started his ride back to town.
Hagan knew that he had to trace the track from the head of the canyon and see if it did go to Lost Canyon. That trip might take days, though, and he didn't want to leave Cody alone for too long since he was new to his job of deputy. For a town where nothing was ever supposed to happen, Sierra Vista had shown him a lot of trouble in the few days he had been there.
When he rode back into town a voice from behind pulled him up short.
"Ranger Hagan, hold it right there."
It took a second for him to recognize the voice, and by then another joined it. "Bud, are you going to greet us or are you going to sit on your horse all day?"
It was Linda Applebee and her father, and a sweeter sound he had never heard. He leaped from his horse and the girl ran to his arms. There, right in front of the whole town, she kissed him full on the lips. Bud could feel his face become scarlet.
"You look like you stepped on something hot," quipped her father, and he and the hands with him shared a laugh. They soon had another, for Hagan's horse was not trained to ground hitch and, accepting his newly found freedom like an uncaged bird, he went down the street. He just walked at first, but as the cries of alarm came to his ears he started to trot away.
Hagan started to run after him, then stopped when he realized just how foolish he looked. Of course the hired hands found this hilarious and continued to laugh until Linda laid down the law.
"You guys are a sorry looking bunch of coyotes, you are. Now ride over there and get Bud's horse before I get mad." Apparently she must have been a terror when she did get mad, for they had soon retrieved the errant horse and returned it to the waiting ranger.
"Never mind about them, Bud, they've been living with cattle so long that they're growing horns. They kind of smell like them, too. So, what are you doing here? We heard stories but I didn't believe them. Everyone knows that you can't be an Arizona Ranger and the marshal of Sierra Vista at the same time."
"Well, actually I gave it some thought and I have jurisdiction any place in Arizona. This town is definitely in Arizona, so..." Too late he realized that he had been duped. She had been joking and he had taken the bait.
"Did you just come over here to give me a hard time?"
"That's right."
"Well, good, I'm glad you did. I need a little taking down once in a while," he admitted to his girl.
Suddenly she was serious again. "When I heard about a gunfight and then you acting as marshal I had to come and see how you were. I told Pa we needed supplies."
Leon Applebee was in earshot after all, for he boomed out, "Needed supplies here, when we always go to Tombstone for them. They only have half as much stuff here and we pay half again for it."
"It's closer to come here," she countered.
"It may be closer but with the rough trails it takes longer. Plus we bought supplies less than a month ago. Oh, you pulled the wool over my eyes, you did."
"If you're so smart, then you can buy us all a meal, and taking Bud's arm with one hand and her father's with the other she led the way to the café. When they entered the ranger was amazed to see a linen tablecloth spread on the table for them. Not only that, it looked like a good set of silver was in place. Now how had Linda been able to manage that? He had previously eaten here and the food was good, but he had never had service such as this.
When Hagan witnessed the greeting between Leon Applebee and the woman who owned the diner he realized his mistake.
"How are you, Maria. How are you making out?" asked Leon.
"I'm just fine. The restaurant makes a good living for me, for I work hard and my needs are few. It is good."
"I'm glad to hear that, Maria"
When she had gone back to the kitchen he told them, "Her husband Jim and I were pards when I first came out here. He met Maria and they put up a small place near the fort. This area was a lot different in those days. Seemed like we were fighting somebody day and night. The Indians were trying to drive the white men out, and I can't say that I blamed them. They lived here for centuries and wanted to keep what they had. It must have been a really good life before the white man came.
"But anyway, we did our share of fighting them in those days. Because we were young and tough and we weren't about to be driven from what we wanted. There were a lot more outlaws, too. There wasn't any law then, not until the Rangers were formed in '62, and then there were mighty few of those for the size of the territory. So every man was his own law, and we tried to act accordingly.
"I knew how I wanted my spread to be, and Jim had a pretty good idea of having one for himself. We were prospecting, looking to make enough for a good start, when we hit a pretty good strike on the upper Verde. Rumor got around that we were a lot richer than we were. Outlaws hit us on more than one occasion, but each time we were able to come out on top.
"One morning when the sky was just getting light we were attacked. Jim was on guard, and he was shot the first thing. I emptied my rifle at them but then they gave up and the fight was over. I buried Jim where he lay and then returned to civilization. It was the hardest thing I have ever done when I told Maria that her husband was gone."
He waited while Maria served plates of steaming biscuits and tubs of golden butter. "I sold our strike and gave half of the money to Maria. Later I helped her get this business and she has made out well. Better than I thought she would after losing Jim. She must miss him something fierce, but she never lets on. Always greets me with a smile and says it's going fine."
"Pa, you never told me that story before. How come?" asked Linda.
"It was a long time ago. You weren't even born then. It hasn't come up in conversation until now."
Hagan had listened intently to the tail. "Perhaps you will tell us some more about those days, Leon, when you get the chance. I've often imagined what it was like before I got here."
The main meal appeared, still beef, but the meat was cooked with potatoes and vegetables with gravy. Back East it would have been pot roast, but Maria had never been there. Instead she called it tender meat, which was an apt description.
When the meal was nearly over Leon hit them with a bombshell.
"I was never sure that it was Indians that killed Jim," he said. "The sign looked like Indian sign, but the attackers didn't act like it."
"How do you mean, Pa," asked Linda.
"Well, after they got Jim they almost seemed to get cold feet, like they were worried about pushing their luck too far. Indians usually get more worked up as a fight continues. I expected them to crawl up through the grass and try to rush me. There was plenty of cover for that. But this bunch stayed in the shadows for a while and swapped shots with me. Then they gave up and rode off. I have often wondered about that whole morning.
"The Apaches weren't on the warpath at that early date. Not with the whites, anyway. They kept fighting their traditional enemies in the other tribes until white men were settled in. By then I believe they knew they were too late. Geronimo still leads them to battle, but really their fate is sealed. There are just too many of us here now."
"Did they steal anything?" inquired the ranger.
"You come to the crux of the matter," answered Leon Applebee. "What does an Indian want with ore? Some tribes hammer out some silver ornaments but that's about it."
"And the white men, were there many around then?"
"Oh, sure, a lot of traffic was going to and from the goldfields in California. A couple of men had started ranches here but they moved on to the North. There is only one man left in Sierra Vista that was here in those days."
"And who would that be?"
"That, my friend, would be J.D. Jones."
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