Free Last Stand at Papago Wells (1957) by Louis L'amour

would still allow her time to have been in Tucson when Jim Fair arrived searching for Jennifer?
    He told himself that it was no business of his, but then he began to remember that sack ... what could be so heavy but gold? And what but gold could she be hiding out in the rocks? Had anybody seen her but him?
    For several minutes he lay awake, then dozed off, and when next his eyes opened there was a faint gray in the sky, and he came to his feet at once and crossed to the lower pool, where he bathed his face and hands then dried himself with his neckerchief. He combed his hair with his fingers and put on the black hat.
    Beaupre crossed to him. "All quiet." He struck a match to his cigarette and glanced at Cates out of the corners of his eyes. "How far is it to the Gulf? I mean, could a man make it, d' you s'pose?"
    "Maybe three days from here, maybe a bit more. If a man made it he would need a good horse, lots of water, and a very special kind of luck. There's no water south of here, and no people except Seri Indians."
    "Might be a way out," Beaupre suggested.
    "Not a chance!" Logan Cates found himself wondering who had suggested the route to Beaupre. "Whatever water you had, you'd have to carry along. There isn't enough in any canteen to get a man through, and when he got there what would he do?"
    "Catch himself a boat."
    "Just like that? Few boats come up that far, and fewer still come close to the east shore. No, Jim, you'll have to think of something else."
    Beaupre was obviously unconvinced, and Cates watched him as he walked away. A man would be a fool to attempt such a ride. The country was bleak desert, sand dunes and broken lava, without water, without any settlements, not even a ruined ranch. There was no more desolate land under the sun than that around Pinacate. But somebody had given Jim Beaupre the idea.
    To attempt to find another way out than that to Yuma was a waste of time. The desert to the south was a death trap that offered nothing, and their only hope was to make a stand here, and while making the stand attempt to locate the Indian camp. Once located they could make a counterattack and might deal them such a blow as to render them harmless for the future. In the meanwhile they were secure, or reasonably so.
    Yet their greatest enemy was not the Apaches, but the trouble that lay among themselves and the strain of waiting for an attack that seemed never to come.
    Logan Cates climbed among the rocks. It was very still, and upon the wide face of the desert nothing moved. Even now, surrounded by Indians, in danger of attack at any moment, able to trust no rock or bush, Logan Cates loved the desert morning. The stillness, the distance, the far blue serrated ridges, the lonely peaks, and over all the vast and empty sky.
    Nothing moved out there, not even a lizard. Yet the very silence was a menace, the stillness a warning. If they had been east of Tucson, or even closer to the town, there might be a chance of help, here there was none. Whatever future they had they must provide for themselves. And then he remembered the mysterious movements of Big Maria.
    A stir of movement caught his eye and he eased his Winchester higher, alert and ready. Nothing happened. Yet behind that brush there had been something, something alive.
    Where could she have hidden the gold, if gold it was? She had been gone only a few minutes, and could not have gone far, nor would she wish to chance being captured by Indians or being missed. Yet in this broken country of lava rock there were a million places. Everywhere there were cracks, hollows, tumbled broken rock. He had heard no sound, and if she had covered it, that meant there would have been a rattle of stones that he could have heard at the distance she could have gone. It must, then, be lowered into a crack or tucked into a hollow.
    Smoke began to rise from the stirred-up fire, and glancing down he was surprised to see it was not Junie Hatchett, but Jennifer.
    Zimmerman was walking