Free DC03 - Though Mountains Fall by Dale Cramer

and loathing in her father’s eyes as he slowly turned the wagon. Jake’s horse trotted alongside.
    The wagon pulled up in front of the portico, and her dat stared hard at the soldier. “You need something from me, Captain Soto?”
    The officer grinned, but there was a hollowness in it that sent a shiver up Rachel’s spine. His grin reminded her of El Pantera. The captain motioned to one of his men, who stepped inside and shoved a lanky bandit out in front of him. The prisoner’s hands were tied behind him and his head was bowed as he stumbled onto the portico, hat missing, hair hanging loose. It wasn’t until he stopped and looked up at her that she saw the long jagged scar angling down across that odd, milky eye.
    El Pantera.
    Terrified, even now, she shrank down behind her father. Jake reached over from his horse to brace a hand on her shoulder.
    Captain Soto said, “ Lo siento , but it wasn’t you I wanted, Señor Bender. I was calling to your young friend. Our horses were scattered in the fight and my men are still rounding them up, so I will borrow this one. For El Pantera. He will not need it long—only a few minutes, señor, and then you can have it back.”
    Rachel flinched and her face turned deep red as she spotted a clutch of soldiers near the hacienda wall tossing a rope over the stout horizontal limb of a big oak tree. There was a noose on the end of the rope.
    “You gave your word,” Dat rasped, his eyes sharp and fierce. “You promised you would let them live.”
    Captain Soto shook his head, still grinning. “No, my yanqui amigo, I promised I would let his men live. Perhaps next time Captain Aguilar will choose his words more carefully.”
    The captain was laughing .
    “You can’t have my horse,” Jake said. “Not for that.”
    But two of the federales were on him before he knew what was happening. One of them grabbed the reins while the other pulled Jake from the saddle and flung him roughly to the ground. Two others dragged El Pantera down the steps and hoisted him up into Jake’s saddle.
    Jake rolled onto his back and sat up, shaking his head as if to clear it.
    El Pantera glared down at him, and as soon as he steadied himself on the horse he leaned out and spit on Jake.
    “Coward!” he hissed. “All these months I thought it was Domingo Zapara who murdered my guard in the barn that night, but when I confronted him a few minutes ago I saw the truth in his eyes. He was not the one. That leaves only you, you spineless worm. You won’t fight, but you will sneak up behind an unarmed man in the dark and choke him to death with a chain!”
    Jake crabbed backward on the ground, eyes wide in stark terror, glancing desperately from Domingo to Rachel and back to El Pantera.
    “But the guard lived!” Jake cried. “He was alive —they said so!”
    As a soldier tugged on El Pantera’s reins and led him away, the bandit twisted around in his saddle and spat at Jake one more time. His gaunt face was purple with rage, cursing Jake to the last.
    Jake pulled himself to his feet and grabbed the side of the wagon with both hands, his anguished eyes pleading with Rachel, imploring her to refute the bandit’s accusation.
    “Rachel, tell them!”
    But she couldn’t do it. She knew the truth, and she couldn’t bear the hurt in Jake’s eyes, the pain of betrayal. Rachel covered her face and wept.
    Her father clucked at the horses, and she felt the wagon lurch to the left, turning away from the scene. No matter what else plagued his thoughts in that moment, her dat would never have his children bear witness to a hanging.
    But Rachel raised her head and looked back. The noose was around El Pantera’s neck now, that white eye still glaring, that gravelly voice still railing at Jake.
    “Stand and watch, coward! I will show you how a man dies!” El Pantera roared through gritted teeth as he spurred the horse out from under himself and swung, kicking.
    Horrified, Jake sank to his knees in the dusty