Free the Bounty Hunters (1953) by Elmore Leonard

the square. A sign above the door said, Las Quince Letras red lettering crudely done and fading as the adobe sand wore away. The man opened the screen door and put his head inside.
    Warren!
    He heard the horses behind him then and let the door swing closed and turned to see the rurales crossing the square at a trot. He watched Duro dismount in front of his headquarters and climb the stairs as his rurales passed down the side street. They would be returning to their garrison of tents on the south side of the village. Duro kept only two men with him on guard duty.
    The one called Warren came out of the mescal shop adjusting his hat, squinting in the direction the rurales had gone. They going home?
    The two men were the Americans who had witnessed the execution that morning. Now the one who had been on the corner, whose name was Lew Embree, said, They let them go. They're not even guarding the old man any more.
    Who do you suppose they are?
    I don't know, Lew said.
    Maybe we ought to tell Lazair, Warren said.
    They looked up as Flynn and Bowers and Hilario Esteban came out of the street and crossed to the church, following the church yard back to the house in which the priest lived. The cemetery was just beyond. The two men watched them pass out of sight.
    Warren said, All of a sudden the old man can go where he wants. He tried to understand this. Maybe Duro feels sorry for him.
    Or else he's tiptoeing till he finds out what's going on, Lew Embree said. That younger one's got army written all over him, but that doesn't mean anything. He might of just gotten out. He shrugged. We'll let Lazair figure it out.
    They rode out of Soyopa by the south road, passing the rurales' camp area, and went on in the same direction for almost three miles before beginning a gradual swing to the east. Hours later, toward evening, they were traveling northeast and now began a winding, gradual climb into timber, scrub oak at first then cedar and sycamores and finally, when they were up high, pines. They crossed a meadow of coarse sabaneta grass and as they approached the heights on the west side, the sun barely showed over the rim-rock.
    The base of the slanting rock wall was in deep shadow, and passing into the dimness, Warren said, looking up overhead, Somebody must be asleep.
    They heard the click close above them, sharp in the stillness the lever action of a carbine. Stand there!
    Lew looked up, but could not see the guard. Who's that, Wesley? He called out, Wes, it's me and Warren!
    The voice answered, What're you sneaking up for? sing out, or you're liable to get shot!
    Go to hell' .
    They passed on, entering a defile that climbed narrowly before opening again on a pocket in the rocks, walled on all sides. Four tents formed a semicircle behind a cook fire. Off to the left another fire glowed in the dusk, a smaller one, in front of a tarpaulin rigged over the entrance to a cave. The cave was Curt Lazair's. His fourteen men shared the tents.
    Lew Embree handed his reins to Warren who led their horses off to where the others were picketed along the far right wall. He nodded to the men sitting around the cook fire. They looked up from tin plates, some mumbling hello, and watched him make his way over to the cave, wondering what had brought him from the pueblo, and as he reached the tarpaulin awning, Curt Lazair appeared in the entrance.
    What are you doing back?
    Somebody hauled in a load of dead Mexicans right after you left, Lew said.
    I didn't think they'd find 'em so quick. Lazair eased into a camp chair, sucking his teeth, and propped his feet on a saddle in front of the chair. You eaten yet?
    No.
    Lazair nodded back toward the cave entrance. That girl ain't a bad cook' At least she's good for something.
    The people who found 'em weren't from Soyopa.
    Lazair looked up. Who were they?
    A couple of Americans.
    Prospectors?
    Lew shrugged. That's the question nobody knows.
    Well, why didn't you stay to find out?
    I figured you'd want to know right