Free Lando (1962) by Louis - Sackett's 08 L'amour Page B

were at a ranch southwest of Santa Teresa ... the gold lay somewhere off the coast we would parallel.
    So far as we knew, pa was the only man who knew exactly where that sunken ship lay. The Kurbishaws had killed the man who told them of it, thinking they could find it from the description.
    Captain Elam Kurbishaw's only map that showed the coast was vague, and had indicated only one inlet on that stretch of coast, where actually there were several. More to the point, there was a long stretch of coast that lay behind an outlying sand bar.
    If the ship had succeeded in getting through one of the openings in the shore line, it would be lost in a maze of inlets, channels, and bays. Looking for it would be like looking for one cow that bawled in a herd of five thousand.
    "Soldiers may stop us," Miguel warned. "It is well to give them no displeasure, for the soldiers can be worse than bandidos."
    As we rode along, my mind kept thinking back to Gin Locklear and that snippy little Marsha.
    Marsha was fourteen ... she'd be up to marrying in maybe two years, and I pitied the man who got her. As for Gin, she was older than me, but she was a woman to take a man's eye, and to talk a man's tongue, too. It was no wonder Jonas set such store by her.
    It lacked only a little of daybreak when we turned off the trail into the brush. We went maybe half a mile off the traveled way before we found a hollow where there was grass and a trickle of water. We staked out the horses and bedded down for sleep. Miguel took no time about it, but sleep was long in coming to me.
    Thoughts kept going round in my mind, and pa was in the middle of them. I thought how pa was always teaching me things. Had he maybe taught me where that gold was, and me not knowing?
    And then my mind was sorting out memories and feeling the sadness they brought.
    Ma was gone. ... Pa? Who could ever know about pa? Those were bad days for travelers and folks who went a-yondering. Chances were the Bald Knobbers had got him ... or somebody from ambush.
    I'd never believe it was the Kurbishaws.

    Chapter Five.
    We saw no more of the Bishop or the Kurbishaws on the trail in the next few days.
    We found Santa Teresa a sleepy, pleasant Mexican village, with hens scratching in the street, and the best tortillas I'd eaten up to then, or for a long time after.
    The hacienda where I bargained forand bought three hundred head of cattle was another pleasant place, and when we started the cattle back toward the border they loaned me three vaqueros to help until my own hands joined us--they were to meet us in camp just north of Santa Teresa.
    The range from which we bought our cattle had been overstocked and the cattle were thin, but they showed an immediate liking for the grass of the coast land and its plentiful salt. We were four days driving from the hacienda to the camp north of Santa Teresa, but when we reached the camp there was no one there.
    Here the vaqueros were to leave us, and here we must hold our stock until help came from the north. Five men could handle three hundred head without too much trouble when they were intent upon stuff+ their lean bellies with good grass, but from there on it would be more difficult.
    Scarcely were we camped, with a fire going, when we heard a rush of horses and suddenly our camp was surrounded by soldiers, their rifles leveled on us.
    Their officer was a lean and savage man. He rode around the herd, inspecting the brands, then he wheeled up to the fire.
    "Who is in charge here?" he asked in Spanish.
    Miguel gestured to me. "The Americano.
    We have bought the cattle from Se@nor Ulloa.
    We drive them to Texas."
    "You are lying!"
    "No, se@nor," one of the vaqueros spoke up quickly. "I am of the hacienda of Ulloa.
    Three of us have ridden with the cattle to this point.
    Here their own riders join them. It is of truth, se@nor."
    The officer looked at me, his eyes cold and unfriendly. "Your name?"
    "Orlando, se@nor." It seemed possible he might have heard the