Ole Devil at San Jacinto (Old Devil Hardin Western Book 4) (24 page)

Watching the pursuers ascending
the slope, the colonel scowled as he noticed that they were not
attempting to duplicate the little ‘Indian’s’ speed. Without
sympathizing, as he was not personally endangered, he knew why they
were holding back. Deciding that bellowing for them to hurry would
do more harm than good, by drawing attention to their reluctance to
carry out a duty of such importance, he walked over to inspect
the
gringo’s
body. He drew no conclusions, other than that Dimmock was a
Texian and had been party to a plot to assassinate
el Presidente
which had failed at
each attempt. The arrival of the Dragoon with the horse saved him
from the need to conduct a closer examination.

‘
Search him,’ Almonte barked, taking
the animal’s reins. ‘Bring any papers he has to me.’

On the point of mounting the horse, the
colonel noticed that the right side saddlebag was open and
something white showed from within. Failing to notice that the bags
were not secured to the rig in the usual way, more out of curiosity
than for any other reason, he lifted the flap and pulled forth the
sheaf of papers. One glance drove all thoughts of anything else
from his head. The top sheet’s message was not written in his
native tongue, but he could both speak and read English with
considerable fluency.

‘
Madre
de dios
!’
Almonte croaked as he read the printed words, then he
looked at the second sheet.

‘
What is it,
senor
!’
asked the Dragoon who was kneeling by the corpse, gazing at
his superior in alarm as the discovery of the paper’s inscription
elicited an even more violent and profane ejaculation.

‘
Mind your own damned business!’
Almonte thundered, and the man cowered before his obvious rage.
‘Has that carrion any papers on it?’

‘
I
—I haven’t found any yet,
patron
,’
the Dragoon replied.

‘
Then
keep looking until you do,’ the colonel ordered, thrusting back all
but the top two sheets of paper and swinging astride the horse. ‘If
there are any, bring them straight to me. Don’t read
them—’

‘
I
—I can’t read,
senor
,’
the alarmed soldier confessed.

‘
So much the
better
—for you,’ Almonte said grimly. ‘Make sure that nobody else
sees them—
nobody
at all, understand?’

‘
Si,
senor
,’
assented the Dragoon, returning to his task and wondering
what had been on the papers to cause his superior such
consternation.

Deciding that it was none of his
business and he might even find it ill-advised to pry, the Dragoon
appropriated Dimmock’s knife as his loot. Promising himself that he
would also try to lay claim to at least one of the
gringo’s
pistols, he went on
with what proved to be a profitless task. The Texian had no
documents on his person, nor anything else which could have
identified him.

Riding towards where Santa Anna
had dismounted, Almonte noted without surprise or pleasure
that
—as was
only to be expected—the rest of the staff were assembling.
Galloping from where he had been leading the main body of the
column, General Vincente Filisola almost flung himself from his
saddle in a manner vastly different to his normally stodgy
movements. Colonel Ricardo Dromundo had quit
el Presidente’s
carriage, in which
he had been riding, and was already on the scene. All the rest of
the previous night’s dinner guests, equally curious, were also
there or coming fast so as to find out what had
happened.

‘
We’ve got
the
gringo
who shot at you, Your Excellency,’ the colonel reported
unnecessarily, conscious of the way the others were scrutinizing
him, as he swung to the ground and kept hold of the horse’s reins.
‘My men are after the “Indian”.’

‘
I hope
they
have enough sense to
take
him
alive,’ Caro put in. ‘His Excellency wants prisoners to
question, not corpses.’

‘
There’s something I must
show you, Your Excellency,
’
Almonte continued, paying no attention to the
comment beyond scowling at its maker. ‘But it should be for your
eyes only.’

‘
What is it?’ Santa Anna
demanded impatiently, glancing at the papers in the colonel’s hands
and impressed, in spite of the annoyance aroused by
Caro’s reminder, by
his air of urgency.

‘
The less who know of
these the better, Your Excellency,
’
Almonte warned, sharing all the staffs
knowledge of how
el Presidente
expected the honorific to be used every time he
was addressed. Making a small gesture with the documents, but
preventing their contents from being read, he hinted, ‘Shall I send
my men away?’

‘
Tell them to go and wait
by my carriage,
’ Santa Anna instructed, his curiosity making him
more amenable than he would otherwise have been.

While Almonte could dismiss the
men under his command to a safe distance, he had no such authority
over his fellow members of the staff. Nor, being bitter rivals and
none trusting any of the others, were they willing to be excluded
from
a
discovery which was obviously of considerable importance.
So Filisola and the
rest gathered closer as the Dragoons retired. Wanting to avoid
dissension by appearing to make favorites,
el Presidente
allowed them to remain.

Although the group pretended to
dismiss the ‘reward posters
’, which Almonte—ever the showman—exhibited first,
their attitudes were much as Lieutenant Carlos Gataneda y Abamillo
of the Zacatecas Lancers had been when Ole Devil Hardin had allowed
him to read one. What was more, being closer to the source, they
had better cause to duplicate the young officers summation of what
might happen if such a proposal was presented to the members of the
column. All of them realized, although none would have been foolish
enough to admit it openly, that Santa Anna was far from being the
popular and well-loved leader to which he laid claim. There were
enlisted men, officers even, to whom the chance of gaining such a
large reward might have considerable appeal.

‘
So they offer to pay a
bounty for me,’ Santa Anna sniffed, but he too was displaying a not
too well concealed apprehension. He waved a hand towards the poster
which the colonel had exhibited. ‘Even if they had posted those
things,
nobody would have taken the offer seriously.’

‘
Except that, as Your
Excellency knows,
somebody
already has,’ Almonte pointed out, not averse to
making capital from his superior’s dilemma.
‘Twice!’

‘
Who?’
el Presidente
demanded, surveying
the members of his staff with considerable and, under the
circumstances, unjustified, suspicion.

‘
The two men who have
already tried to kill you,
’ the colonel explained, ignoring his
colleagues antagonistic glares although delighted to have scored
such a point against them.

‘
The
two
—!’
Caro snorted derisively, falling even deeper into the trap. ‘One
was a Texian and the other an “Indian”. They had—’

‘
Had been sent by the
“land thieves” so-called
Government
to deliver the posters to our soldiers,’
Almonte finished, when the secretary’s words trailed away due to a
realization that they might be injudicious. ‘Only that might not
have been all they were told to do. They might have had another
purpose, too.’

‘
And what
might
that
have been, Juan?’ Santa Anna inquired, almost mildly for
him.

‘
To assassinate Your Excellency
themselves,’ Almonte explained, noticing the use of his Christian
name with satisfaction. ‘If they had succeeded, the reward would be
given to them. Even if they were killed trying, their leaders were
confident that the posters would be found and distributed amongst
our men.’

‘
That’s true,’ Filisola conceded,
before he could stop himself.

‘
They wouldn’t do such a
thing!’
Caro protested, as the Colonel had hoped he
would.

‘
Why not, if they were
authorized to do it and indemnified against the consequences?’
Almonte challenged, grinning savagely at the secretary before
making his face respectful and offering his
superior
—he counted only
el Presidente
in that category—the other sheet of paper. ‘As
Your Excellency will see from
this.’

Accepting the document, Santa
Anna stared at it for several seconds. His eyes went along the
printed lines and his lips worked soundlessly as he mouthed the
more lengthy and difficult words. Although he spoke English
passably, he was less familiar with the language in its written, or
even printed,
form. For all that, his breathing turned to deep, almost
snorting, grunts and his florid cheeks became suffused with the
blood as he realized what the message implied.

From what
el Presidente
was able to deduce,
he was reading an authorization for the bearer of the document to
kill him by, to quote:
whatever means or methods are most convenient, the
more painful and lingering the better, as befitting a tyrant and a
cold blooded murderer whose death will benefit all mankind,
including the down-trodden and ill-used Mexican soldiers he is
wantonly sending to their death.

There followed a far more
accurate estimate of the casualties suffered by his Army during the
siege at the Alamo Mission than he had allowed to be published in
Mexico.
^l
It was printed on
the official stationery of the so-called ‘Republic of Texas’—copies
of which he had already received from his spies—and, apparently,
signed by ‘President’ David G. Burnet, who was reported to have
supplanted the former ‘Governor’, Henry Smith.

‘
What is it, may one ask,
Your Excellency?’
Caro said, puzzled by the expression of
malevolence and alarm which had come to his employer’s
face.

‘
Take a look at this!’ Santa Anna
commanded, so overcome by wrath and concern that he passed the
document to his secretary without a moment’s hesitation. ‘Those
“land thief” swine are trying to have me assassinated!’

‘
It is as
I said, Your
Excellency,’ Almonte commented, hiding under an aura of
commiseration, his satisfaction at having had his judgment of the
situation’s gravity confirmed. ‘They know that with
you
dead, we are without
a leader—’

‘
What does it say?’
Filisola demanded of
Caro, before the colonel’s platitude could be
completed.

‘
However, there’s no proof that it’s
genuine,’ the secretary concluded, having translated the contents
of the document for the benefit of the other members of the staff.
He refused to admit that he did not doubt its authenticity because
of his greatest rival’s contribution to its delivery. ‘I’ve never
seen Burnet’s signa—’

The ploy failed miserably!

‘
Genuine?’
Santa Anna bellowed, before Almonte in particular
could express a refutation of the secretary’s statement. He knew
that, while he would not have been so indiscreet as to put them
into writing, the orders and the indemnification of their bearer
against any legal consequences were such as he would have given.
‘Of course it’s genuine!’ He glared around furiously, continuing,
‘Do you think any of that foreign scum would be willing to let
himself be killed just to convince me that a forgery is
genuine?’

‘
Only a man who is devoted
to
you
would make such a sacrifice, Your Excellency,’ Almonte
declared and, seeing an opportunity to make yet another display of
their loyalty,
^li
the rest of the staff muttered
sycophantic concurrence. ‘So that damnable document
must
be
genuine.’

‘
It’s genuine all right!’ Santa Anna
gritted.

‘
What do you intend to do
about it, Your Excellency?’ Filisola inquired respectfully, being
aware that
el Presidente
invariably dictated every aspect of policy
personally and without consulting anybody else.

‘
Do?’ Santa Anna almost
shrieked, crushing the paper as if wishing to choke the hateful
words from it.
‘Do?
Those swine want me killed, do they? Well they’re
going to have a chance to earn their blood money themselves. We’re
marching to this “temporary Capital” of theirs as fast as we can
move.’