Free Escape from Five Shadows (1956) by Elmore Leonard Page B

and on, and every ten or fifteen feet the team was pulled off to the side, dragging with it the loose rocks and sand that the timbers gathered.
    Two men with shovels came last filling the potholes that the scraper passed over and did not fill completely. Renda stayed even with them, walking his horse along the east-wall shade approximately one hundred feet behind Brazil.
    The Mimbre n os were up on the canyon patrolling along both sides. They remained in the shadows of the pinyon pines and were not seen all morning, not until Renda stopped work at noon.
    As the convicts drifted over to the east wall where the equipment wagon stood, Salvaje and two of his Mimbres came down a shallow wash, a dust cloud trailing behind them. They were riding past the equipment wagon when Renda called to them and they pulled up. The two Mimbres sat their horses, motionlessly watching Salvaje rein toward Renda who was now facing the convicts grouped at the back end of the equipment wagon. He pointed to Bowen, Pryde and the Mexican. You three step out, he called. Then turned to Salvaje again. You're going to the creek?
    The Mimbre n o nodded and held up three fingers. That many at a time.
    Take these men with you, Renda said. They're going to water the teams.
    The Mimbres moved off one at a time as each pair of horses was brought out. Salvaje waited until Bowen came up, then fell in next to him and they moved the team down the canyon, winding through the scattered scrub brush to a stand of sycamores that showed darkly against the west slope. A trickle of water came down from the rocks and formed a shallow pool in the deep shade of the trees. From here, the creek flowed to the end of the canyon, disappeared into the rocks and came out again miles to the south, above the Pinale n o station.
    They drank: the convicts first, the Mimbres one at a time, and now they rested as the horses stood over the clear, sand-bottomed pool, their muzzles touching the water, rippling the water with breath from their nostrils, raising and shaking their manes, tails fanning lazily and now and again a rump or flank quivering to dislodge an unseen something.
    Salvaje touched Bowen's arm. But for the work of getting more horses, I wish you would run away another time.
    Bowen frowned. I don't understand.
    That was a good thing with you in the meadow, Salvaje explained. But the two horses you killed I was made to replace.
    Renda made you buy two horses?
    Salvaje shrugged. Not buy; but it is the same thing.
    You'd think he'd supply the horses, Bowen said.
    Salvaje shook his head. He is not easy to live with. Sometimes I see him as an escaped man. If he was ever that, he would not be brought back alive.
    Bowen hesitated. The Mimbre's words took him by surprise and stayed in his mind as he said, You speak English very well.
    From San Carlos.
    I visited Cibucu many times, Bowen said. When I was trading horses. I knew Zele and Pindah and Bu-sikisn.
    Salvaje's eyes came alive. They were of Victorio.
    Bowen nodded. I drank tulapai with Zele and he told me much about Victorio and old Mangas.
    Perhaps I was there then, Salvaje said.
    They spoke of a band still in the Sierra Madres, Bowen said. Maybe you were there.
    Salvaje nodded thoughtfully. The good days. At San Carlos it was not easy to live among Tontos and Mojaves.
    But better than here? Bowen asked.
    Sometimes. The men such as you make it worth staying here.
    The men who run?
    The ones who know how to run. Some are like children about it. Others do well.
    Listen, Bowen said then, I'm sorry I cracked a couple of heads that day. I mean that truthfully, because I don't have any fight with you or your men.
    Salvaje's eyes held on Bowen and he studied him thoughtfully, as if wanting to understand all of Bowen, all of the things about him that would never be spoken. Finally he said, Maybe you try it again some time.
    Bowen nodded. Maybe I will.
    The team horses raised their heads from the pool a moment before Bowen heard the