Send Angel! (A Frank Angel Western #2) (3 page)

Angel was awake and dressed
before reveille. He stood beneath the ramada savoring the cool
sweetness of the morning air and watched in the yellow dawn as the
enlisted men stumbled from their huts beyond the parade ground,
heading for the latrines, stretching and scratching, grumbling
good-naturedly at each other, their voices clear in the still half
light. The stretching notes of the bugle spread sweet across the
valley. He knew the routine of the day which would follow, like the
routine of every other day. The drills and the exercising, the
caring for the horses of the cavalrymen, the long easy siesta-like
middle of the day with light lunches in the
officers
’
mess. It was time to go.

Blackstone came hurrying out as
the bugle call soared into silence. He was stuffing his shirt into
his trousers, struggling
with his uniform jacket at the same
time.

‘
Damn,’ he muttered. He loped towards the assembling ranks
of men, suspenders dangling. Angel smiled. Some men loved the
army.

He headed down towards the
stables, saddling the dun without haste, filling his canteens at
the pump, checking his rifle and pistol for dust, going carefully
over the horse
’s hoofs. He was busily doing this when he heard the
regular tramp of feet coming into the stable, and turned to see a
young officer flanked by two enlisted men heading towards him. The
young officer came to attention and saluted. The enlisted men
stayed rigidly behind him.

‘
Mr.
Angel, sir?’ Angel nodded. ‘Colonel’s compliments, sir, and would
you step across to his office.’

The boy was looking through
Angel
’s head
into some far off place.

‘
He
say why?’ Angel asked mildly.

‘
No,
sir,’ the young man said.

‘
You
his adjutant?’

‘
Yes,
sir,’ the officer said. ‘Lieutenant Peter Ellis at your service,
sir.’

‘
Thank
you, Lieutenant Ellis. Will you tell the colonel I’ll be over right
away?’

The young man looked embarrassed and shifted
his feet a little. His face started to get red.

‘
My
orders were to accompany you, sir,’ he said, still staring away on
through Angel’s head.

Angel frowned.
‘You mean it’s not
a request, it’s an order — right?’

‘
Sir,’
Ellis said.

Angel shrugged.
‘Let’s get at it,
then.’

‘
Thank
you, sir,’ Ellis said. At his command the two enlisted men fell in
behind Angel. They marched across the parade ground, focus of all
eyes. Angel realized that it would look to any bystander as if he
was under arrest. He saw Richard Blackstone detach himself from one
group and come hurrying across to intercept the little
phalanx.

‘
Lieutenant Ellis!’ Blackstone snapped. ‘What is
this?’

‘
Colonel’s orders, sir.’

‘
This
gentleman is my guest,’ Blackstone said. ‘Is he under
arrest?’

‘
No,
sir,’ said Ellis, plainly uncomfortable.

‘
Then
why—’

‘
Are
you questioning my orders, Mr. Blackstone?’

Angel looked around to see that a tall,
well-built man of about fifty had come out on to the porch of the
office towards which the squad had been heading, and stood now,
feet apart, glowering at the group.

‘
Sir,’
Blackstone stammered. ‘I was just—’

‘
Kindly attend to your dudes, sir,’ snapped Thompson. ‘Mr.
Ellis, be good enough to bring Mr. Angel inside.’ He turned on his
heel and went into his office ignoring the sergeant who jumped to
his feet behind the desk just inside the door.

Ellis dismissed the squad and
extended an arm towards the open door of the
colonel
’s
office. ‘If you please, sir,’ he said. He came in behind Angel, and
Thompson looked up from the papers he was examining.

‘
That
will be all, Mr. Ellis,’ he said. Ellis saluted and turned on his
heel, closing the door behind him. Angel stood as the colonel bent
his attention on the papers again, frowning in concentration. After
a few minutes, Thompson looked up.

‘
Now,
then,’ he said. ‘Mr. Angel.’ He said it with a kind of
satisfaction, as though he had been savoring the moment.

‘
You
wanted to see me?’ Angel asked.

‘
I
have a report here’ - Thompson shuffled the papers -’that you were
involved in an altercation yesterday in the sutler’s
store.’

Angel said nothing. It had not been a
question.

‘
Have
you anything to say, sir?’ Thompson’s voice was harsh, a cultivated
harshness. It did not escape Angel’s notice that the man’s eyes
were bloodshot, and his uniform already speckled with cigar ash. He
had the slouch of a man who had spent many years unprofitably
behind a desk, and the greedy mouth of someone who felt he deserved
better things. The teeth clamped on the cheap-smelling cigar were
yellow.

‘
I
tried to prevent one of your men being tromped to death, if that’s
what you mean,’ Angel replied.

‘
I
see,’ Thompson said. There was a sneer in his tone, as if he had
already adjudged Angel’s action and found it that of an interfering
fool. ‘You do admit that there was a brawl and that you were
involved.’

‘
I
just told you that,’ Angel said. He kept his voice
level.

‘
I am
perturbed, Mr. Angel,’ Thompson said. He tapped his teeth with the
stogie. ‘It is bad enough to have brawls on a military post. To
have brawls which involve civilians and military personnel is even
worse. It leads to bad feeling between the civilian population and
ourselves, Mr. Angel. I do not care to have that
happen.’

‘
You’d
like it better if they killed one of your men?’

‘
You
are impertinent, sir,’ snapped Thompson. ‘I am well able to take
care of any disturbances which occur on this post.’

‘
I
don’t doubt it, Colonel,’ Angel said reasonably. ‘But there wasn’t
a hell of a lot of time to wait for help.’

‘
That,
sir, is none of your concern,’ ranted Thompson. ‘I will not have my
officers involved in brawls. Lieutenant Blackstone will be punished
severely for his part in it. As for you, sir, I have not yet made
up my mind.’

‘
Then
let me make it up for you,’ Angel said, a coldness coming into his
voice which stilled the soldier’s anger. ‘There’s only one thing
you can do to me. You have the power to escort me to the boundaries
of this post, and you have the power to bar me from entering again
without your permission, and so informing your men. Now since I was
just about to leave anyway, why don’t we just be reasonable about
it instead of all this performance to impress your men with what a
tough old bastard you really are?’

Thompson had risen to his feet
during Angel
’s speech, and his face had gone brick red. Angel watched
the man as he fought to control himself, and saw the anger fade,
leaving behind an evil smile that worked its way to the surface of
the colonel’s face.

‘
Sergeant!’ called Thompson. The door burst open, and the
grizzled old three-striper came into the room on the
double.

‘
Sah!’
he yelled.

‘
You
will take four men and escort Mr. Angel five miles beyond the
perimeter. You will see that he speaks to no one. Do you
understand? No one.’

‘
Sah!’
The sergeant frowned.

‘
Enter
my judgment accordingly in the roster, Sergeant,’ Thompson
said.

‘
Sah.’
The soldier looked at Angel and jerked his head. ‘On your way,
boy.’

Angel swung on his heel and walked to the
door. Thompson sat down and glared at his papers, looking up as
Angel left the room.

‘
If he
is seen here again - shoot him on sight!’ he hissed.

‘
Sah.’
The sergeant closed the door and straightened up. He shook his
head.

‘
You’re in big trouble, boy,’ he said. His eyes were like
holes in the sand. ‘Wait here, and don’t do nothin’
stupid.’

He went outside and Angel heard him
summoning a squad of men. Presently he was escorted out into the
sunlight, where his horse was waiting. His gunbelt was looped
around the pommel of the saddle. He swung into the hurricane deck,
and reined his horse around.

‘
Don’t
make the mistake of layin’ a hand on that gun, boy,’ warned the old
sergeant. He nodded towards his squad. Angel saw that two of the
men had Spencer rifles across their laps, and the guns were
cocked.

‘
No,
sir,’ Angel said. The sergeant led the way across the parade ground
and troopers averted their eyes as the procession swung into single
column ahead and jogged on to the dirt packed road. They headed
west with the sun hard on their backs, moving steadily down the
trail. There were deep shadows on the canyon walls of Dobbs Butte.
The country was flat and harsh; ocotillo, prickly pear, mesquite,
barrel cactus, cholla speckled the sandy waste. The Fort fell
behind and then out of sight as they moved down a slight incline,
the horses making a small dust cloud which lifted and fell behind
them. After about fifteen minutes, the sergeant held up his hand
and brought the column to a halt. He turned in the
saddle.

‘
Bring
him up front,’ he ordered.

Angel
’s horse was led forward. The
sergeant pointed off to the west.

‘
Yonder lies Tucson,’ he said. ‘About a hundred miles. North
lies Baranquilla, but you wouldn’t like it there. South is Daranga,
which you’d like even less. Back behind is the Fort, an’ if you
turn up there we’ll shoot your ass off. Any questions?’

Angel shook his head.
‘Seems right clear
to me,’ he said.

‘
Git
movin’,’ the sergeant told him.

‘
After
you,’ Angel said. The old soldier glowered at him.

‘
Move,
I said.’

Angel shook his head.
‘They tell me it’s
real hard to know whether a man’s been shot trying to escape, or
just plain shot,’ he said. ‘I don’t want anyone worrying that way
about me.’

‘
You
think we’d backshoot you?’ the sergeant asked. There was amazement
in his voice. ‘Soldiers?’

‘
It’s
been done,’ Angel said. ‘Even if it hadn’t, I wouldn’t want to be
the first.’

The old sergeant leaned heavily forward in
his saddle, pointing a gnarled finger at Angel.

‘
You,’
he said, ‘are very close to gettin’ your brains beat out. Let me
tell you something, mister. I’ve served in this man’s Army for nigh
on thirty years. I’ve served with good commanding officers an’ bad
ones, an’ I’ve learned one thing: no matter what I think about it,
the CO is always right. Now I heerd about you an’ young Blackie,
an’ personally, I’m delighted you beat the shit out of them two cow
thieves. That’s my personal point of view. But as a soldier I have
an order. Right or wrong, I’m carryin’ it out. No more, no less.
Now git out of my sight, Mr. Angel, ‘fore I forget
myself.’

‘
Sarge, I’m sorry,’ Angel said. ‘You got to admit this isn’t
what you’d call usual.’

‘
On
your way, mister,’ snapped the soldier. ‘I ain’t got all day to
jaw.’

He slapped
Angel
’s dun
across the rump with his own reins and the startled animal jumped
into a gallop, heading on down the incline towards the open malpais
below. When Angel turned around, the squad was already kicking up
dust on its way back to the Fort.

He eased the horse into a walk,
letting his thoughts get into order. The soldiers had done what
they were told, as the sergeant had said; right or wrong, their CO
was their CO. But what was the point of Thompson
’s insistence on his being
escorted from the post? The man knew that any self-respecting rider
could turn his horse’s head and find his way to wherever he wanted
to go, and Thompson must know that he would turn towards Daranga.
Yet he had obviously given specific orders to head Angel towards
Tucson. He took a bearing on the mountains off to his left. He was
about five miles from the Fort, over the mountains, making easy
time, he could be in Daranga tomorrow evening. The sun was climbing
high now and he felt its heat on his shoulders. It would soon be
too hot to travel. He lifted the six-gun and belt from the pommel
and started to strap it on. As he did so, something caught his eye.
He lifted the belt and examined it more closely. A curse escaped
his lips. The shells in the belt had been removed, and empty shells
substituted. A quick flip of the cartridge showed that the gun was
also loaded with empties. He pulled the carbine from its saddle
holster, worked the lever. An empty shell came up into the breech.
He did not bother to check his saddle-bag. The extra cartridge
bandolier would not be there. So he had been set up! How and for
what, he had yet to learn. Another thought struck him, and he
swirled the canteen looped on the saddle horn. It was empty. So
that was it! Cast adrift in the desert, without ammunition or
water! If he turned towards the nearest source of aid, the Fort, he
would be shot on sight at the colonel’s orders. What had the old
sergeant said? Tucson, a hundred miles west. Baranquilla to the
north, but he wouldn’t like it there. A warning that Baranquilla
was also hostile country to him? And south, Daranga. Forty miles or
more. By no means an impossibility, even without water.