Antebellum BK 1 (35 page)

Anna looked at Nancy, then back at Robert. “We’re not in Kansas?”

“
This is the territory,” he said. “The Town of Kansas is seventy miles south of here. We’ll have to change horses at each relay station, so we barely have enough time to get there.”

“
Why can’t we go by boat?” Nancy asked.

“
We can’t make it in time by boat,” Robert replied in an exasperated tone. “If we don’t hurry we won’t make it on horseback. We’re wasting time.”

“
Why the rush?” Anna asked. “Mother’s perfectly capable of finding accommodations or transportation. She…” Anna looked at the telegram again. “Does MOM mean
mom
? As in the vulgar form of
mother
that our mother hates?”

“
Yes.” Robert nodded. “Tom, William and I always called her Mom behind her back.”

“
It just says mom.” Anna looked searchingly at her brother. “There’s no mention of Josiah. Does that mean something?”

“
It might,” Robert said. “There’s been a serious outbreak of Yellow Fever in New Orleans. Thousands are dead. Most of the non-indigenous population is infected.”

“
Could Mother be infected?” Anna asked.

“
She had it when she was a child,” he said, shaking his head. “She’s immune.”

“
How do you know that?”

“
I remember the Yellow Fever epidemic when Dad was stationed in New Orleans,” he replied. “Please go eat so we can get started.”

“
Another minute won’t matter,” she shouted at him. “Why don’t I remember the Yellow Fever epidemic? I’m two years older than you are.”

He shrugged. “You never seem to remember things from our childhood. I always do.”

“
And none of us got it? The Yellow Fever?”

“
William and Dad both did,” Robert said in an annoyed tone. “William was in bed for a week but Mother had to scold him to keep him there. Dad looked awful, but he reported for duty every day.”

“
How did the rest of us avoid getting it?”

“
Nobody knows the answer to that question. Now, let’s get going, Anna. After you’ve eaten I’ll have a change of clothes for you both.”

“
What kind of clothes?” Anna asked.

“
Just shirts, hats and overalls,” Robert answered. “You can’t wear dresses on this trip.”

“
We wore dresses from Washington to Lawrence and from Lawrence to here,” Anna replied.

“
You’re not dressing me like a soldier, Robert Van Buskirk,” Nancy protested. “I will not wear trousers.”

“
Please,” Robert said in an exasperated tone. “I have ten thousand men under my command and they all trust me that I know what I’m doing. Why can’t you?”

“
How many women?” Nancy asked.

Robert whispered a prayer.

“
We’re going to wash and eat,” Anna grumbled. “We’ll discuss wardrobe when we return.” She took Nancy’s arm and started toward the mess tent.

“
I’m not wearing trousers,” Nancy said to Anna, “and that’s final.”

“
Why not?” Anna asked.

“
Well for one thing you have to undress from the waist down in order to pee and for another...” She looked over her shoulder at Robert. “I’ll tell you the other later.”

June
1, 1854

Pacheco Pass, California

C
olonel Jack Van Buskirk threaded his horse through the rocky terrain toward the sound of gunfire.

“
Hold it.” A man stepped out and tried to catch the bridle of Jack’s horse but got slapped with the flat of Jack’s sword instead. “You sum-bitch.” The man reached toward his holster.

“
Bad idea,” Jack said as two troops of mounted cavalry appeared behind him. He put the point of the sword under the man’s chin.

“
Now hold on a second, Major,” the man whined. “You don’t understand what’s goin’ on.”

“
Explain it to me then.” Jack rested the sword across his pummel. “And I’m a colonel, not a major.”

“
Yes, sir, Colonel. Well, the thing is, y’ see – we got Joaquin Murietta and his gang pinned down up there.” He pointed toward the crest. “All I was tryin’ to do was keep you outta the line of fire.”

Other men were now cautiously coming out of the rocks behind the man. In response, both troop commanders were deploying their men in a rough line with their rifles at port arms across their chests.

“
Hey, Colonel,” the man said nervously. “We’re all on the same side.”

“
What side is that?” Jack was scanning the top of the pass but he could see nothing moving.

“
California and the US of A,” he stammered.

“
Who are you?”

“
Jake Johnson.”

“
Do you and these other men have some legal right to be shooting at citizens, Mr. Johnson?”

“
We’re California State Rangers.” The man named Johnson showed Jack the ribbon that was pinned to his shirt. “All of us is Rangers. And Murietta ain’t no citizen. He’s a Meskin.”

“
Under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo he became a citizen of the United States when Mexico ceded California,” Jack said.

“
Well it don’t matter no-how ‘cause he’s a bandit with a price on his head.”

“
Who’s in charge of these Rangers, Mr. Johnson? You?”

“
No, not me. Captain Harry Love.”

“
Where is Captain Love?”

“
Well I can’t rightly say at the moment,” Johnson replied. “We split up back at Monterey.”

“
So he’s not with you?”

“
No, sir. Not at the moment, he ain’t. But I sent word to him. He should be along directly.”

“
If not you, who was put in charge of this detail?” Jack stood up in the stirrups to look the men over.

“
Well nobody, really. We was headed to Los Banos for a kinda vacation, but we run into these outlaws and…”

Jack caught a glimpse of movement on the ridge and sat back in his saddle. “You’re sure Murietta’s up there, Mr. Johnson?”

“
Yes, sir. Pretty sure.”

“
Pretty sure or sure?”

“
Well, pretty sure.”

“
So let me see if I understand. You’ve been exchanging gunfire with someone, but you’re not sure who.”

“
Well that ain’t exactly right.”

“
Have you identified yourselves as peace officers?”

“
Do what?”

“
Did you announce that you were California State Rangers and did you offer the people up there the opportunity to surrender?”

“
That’s a pretty far piece for havin’ a conversation, Major.”

“
It’s colonel.”

“
Colonel. Yeah. Sorry.”

Jack turned in his saddle. “Captain Avery.”

“
Sir.”

“
I’m going to ride up to the top. You’re in command until I return. If any of these men fires a weapon or tries to run away, please arrest and hang them.”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
Now wait just a minute, Colonel,” Johnson complained. “Them outlaws has a bounty on ‘em and it’s ours by rights.”

“
Indeed,” Jack agreed. “And if they prove to be outlaws you’ll be paid the reward. If on the other hand they’re private citizens that you’ve attacked, you’ll be arrested. Is that clear?”

“
Yes, sir.” Johnson said to his boot tops.

Jack urged his horse forward through the men that were in various firing positions among the rocks. The pass was only thirteen hundred feet at its crest, but the road through it was rutted and littered with rocks, which made progress slow. When Jack was, at last, about fifty yards from the top, a man’s face appeared in a narrow stone window. “Stop.”

Jack kept riding. “Keep your head and your voice down,” he said in Spanish. “We can talk when I get up there.”

“
Ah, I know you, Van Buskirk.”

“
Then get down. I want the Rangers to think that everyone up here is dead.”

The man vanished.

Jack reached the crest, dismounted and still holding his sword, tied his horse to a dead tree. “Where are you, Murietta?”

“
Close.” Murietta stepped into the open. “But not close enough to be stuck on your blade.”

“
How many men do you have up here?”

“
Enough.”

“
Stop playing games with me, Joaquin. I am trying to find a way for you to live through this day. How many?”

“
There were three of us,” Murietta said after a moment. “Two are dead.”

“
Let me see the bodies.”

“
Why?” he asked suspiciously.

“
If one of the dead men resembles the picture on your wanted poster I might be able to convince those Rangers that they killed you.”

“
Why would you do that?”

Jack looked at the sky for a moment before answering. “I was in the Mexican War. I owe somebody something for the things I did there. It might as well be you that I pay.”

“
My cousin, Juan, is younger than me, but his face is like mine.” He pointed. “Up there. Behind those rocks.”

Jack walked into the rocks and knelt beside the body. “Your cousin will do.” He moved to examine the second corpse. “Three Fingered Jack. That should make the Rangers happy. The reward for him is almost as big as the reward for you.” He looked at Murietta. “You might not want to watch this.”

“
What are you going to do?”

“
I am going to cut off your cousin’s head and Three Finger Jack’s hand.” He showed Murietta his sword.

Murietta turned his back. “If you do this – if you convince the Rangers that I am dead, how do I get away?” Murietta asked.

“
All you have to do is hide in the rocks until the Rangers go. They were headed toward Los Banos, but they will turn back and look for their captain now. He is the only one that can claim the reward.”

“
Our horses ran away during the fight.”

“
I will wait until the Rangers are out of sight, then leave one of our remounts for you, and a canteen of water.”

Murietta crossed himself. “What can I do to thank you?”

“
Stay dead.” Jack walked back to his horse, wrapped his grisly cargo in an extra blanket and rode down to tell the Rangers that the notorious Joaquin Murietta, the
Robin Hood of California
, was dead.