The Treasure OfThe Sierra Madre (22 page)

“Certainly not. But they may have been joined by another stray group not yet captured.”

“It looks like it,” Howard said. “Well, there are hard times coming for us. The peasants down in the village, to get rid of them as quick as possible, have told them that up here there is a hunter who has guns and plenty ammunition. That’s what they want, because they may need them badly. We’d better start thinking of our defense.”

Howard directed the plans, while Curtin, having the best eyes, was to stay at the look-out to make sure that the bandits really Were coming.

The burros were brought in from the pasture and taken into a thicket in a ravine near by, where they were tied to prevent them from running away.

Right at the base of the naked rock that formed a sort of wall for the camp, there was, almost the whole length of this rock, a narrow and not very deep ravine, which appeared to have been washed out by the rain. This ravine was like a natural trench. Howard was quick to choose this as the main bulwark in his tactics. This trench could hardly be attacked from the back, because the rock was rather high, and its form was not straight, but rounded. Anybody on the top could not shoot anybody in the trench. Only with the help of long ropes would it have been possible for a man to come down from the top to the trench, and in a fight he would never set foot in the trench alive.

The trench could not be flanked either, as rocks also prevented this. On one side the rocks had to be climbed almost from the valley up, and it had to be done just at this slope, which could be scaled only by experienced alpinists with perfect equipment. The other side was partly walled in by rocks, and the only opening could easily be covered by the gun of one man in the trench, whose duty would be to watch this opening.

The bandits had no choice but to pass the whole camp if they wished to attack the trench. The camp offered no ambush, and the defenders in the trench had only to take aim to finish any bandit who came in sight.

The buckets were filled with water and brought into the trench. The tent and all the belongings of the partners, including provisions, were also taken into this fortress.

“We have to keep them away from the mine,” said Howard.

“From the mine?” Lacaud asked. “I haven’t seen a mine yet.”

“Now you know it, you jackass,” Dobbs sneered. “The cat is out of the bag. Did you think we were up here to tell one another bedtime stories, you mug?”

“We can keep them away best by holding them here,” Howard explained. “We’ll make them believe that this is the only camp we have. Besides, they won’t come across the mine anyway, even should they try to corner us from that side. The mine is not in their way, whatever they do to try to lure us out of our hole.”

“They couldn’t do anything with the mine anyhow, even if they found it.” Dobbs was gathering the ammunition out of the bags.

“No,” said Howard, “you are right, they could do nothing with it; I mean they could steal nothing. But—and this would be just too bad—they could destroy everything there. Still, come to think of it, it wouldn’t matter so much; that would save us the labor of breaking it down ourselves when we leave.”

“What about a retreat?” Lacaud suggested. “It might be better strategy not to fight at all—just to hide out and let them leave with long faces.”

“I’ve thought of that also,” Howard answered. “In the first place, there’s no other road out of here but the one on which we’d have to meet them. If it comes to a fight, we are better off here than on the road or anywhere else. Of course, we can hide somewhere near; we might even try to go across the rocks, but we might break our necks in doing that. What is worse, we could take nothing along with us. We’d lose the burros and our whole outfit. The outfit we could bury or hide somehow. But do you think they would leave us alone? They would be after us whatever trail we took. In finding trails in the Sierra we can’t beat these men. At that they are experts and we bad amateurs. Better not think of that any more.”

“You’re right, old man, as usual.” Dobbs patted him on the back.

At this moment Curtin called from his look-out: “They are at the loop now and turning into the trail up here.” He jumped down and came to the others, who were completing the last things to be done.

“You know the trail best, Curry,” Howard said. “How long do you think it will take them to get here?”

“With their tired horses it will take them two hours at least. Of course, they may be lazy and take a rest, or have difficulty making out the trail and the shortest route. So it may be as much as four hours.”

“All right.” Howard jumped into the trench. “Let’s say for sure two hours. Two hours in our favor. Let’s make the best of it. Have our eats now, so we waste no time when the dance starts.”

2

They sat down, built a fire, and cooked their meal. All this was done inside the trench.

Curtin did the cooking while the others were busy building stations and getting all the guns and ammunition at hand.

“If nobody objects, I’ll take command. Right by you, partners?” Howard asked.

“No objection,” was the answer.

“I’ll take the left center. You, Lacaud, take the right center. Dobbs, you take your station at the left corner, and, Curtin, you take the right corner. This corner you are to hold, Curty, is important, for here is where, through that crack in the rocks, a guy may sneak in. So you watch that side well, and Lacaud may also have a look at that flank.”

When the meal was ready, they sat down and had their final war-council while eating.

3

The partners were still strengthening their stations with piled-up earth, so that they could hide their heads while shooting, when the first bandits appeared on the glade.

Howard hissed to get the boys’ attention. A hiss was a very good signal, invented by the old man, as it was not different from the natural sounds of the vicinity and so was noticed only by those who were meant to hear it.

Three men were standing in the narrow opening of the bush. One of them was the man with the huge gilded palm hat. They stood for a while rather bewildered, seeing the place bare and no sign of a human being near. They called back to the other men coming into the clearing. It seemed they had left their horses on a little plateau, located some hundred and fifty feet below on the road, where there was a bit of thin pasturage. Since this last part of the trail was the hardest to make with animals, they had left the horses farther down and so reached the camp earlier than the boys had figured they would.

Two minutes later all men save two who guarded the horses were on the camp-site. What they said the boys in the trench could not hear; the distance was too great.

All the men carried guns on their hips—guns of different types and calibers. Four men carried shotguns, and two had rifles. All were in rags and had not washed or shaved for weeks; for months they had had no haircuts. Most of them wore the usual sandals; a few had boots, but ripped open and with torn soles; some had on leather pants like those worn by cowboys or cattle-farmers. All carried cheap woolen blankets over their shoulders.

Two men ventured farther into the camp-site. They noted that a tent had been pitched and a fire built not long before. Then they looked around and, on seeing no other sign, returned to the other men, now squatting on the ground near the opening.

From the spot where they were sitting, it was hard to tell that there was a ravine at the opposite part of the camp.

They were smoking and talking. The boys in the trench could see from the gestures of the men that they did not know what to make of all this or what to do. A few were heard quarreling because they had made so hard a trip without the slightest gain.

Some rose and began again to walk about the place to see if there was any trace of the hunter supposed to be there. When they returned to the main group it seemed as if they had decided to leave the camp, go down the valley, and look there for further adventures.

There was a long discussion about several points. A few men went to the middle of the camp and sat down there. Now they had to talk louder so that all the men spread over a wider space could understand what was said and give their opinions. The leader seemed to have little authority, nor was there any sort of discipline among them. Each had his own opinion, and each thought his own advice should be followed by the others.

One proposed that they use this site for headquarters from which to raid the villages in the valley.

“That would be the goddamned worst thing they could do,” said Dobbs to Howard in a hushed voice.

“You bet it would, but be quiet, so that we can listen in better.”

“I wonder,” said Curtin to Lacaud, “if it wouldn’t be best to bump them all off right now; none could escape alive. Give the word to the old man and ask him what he thinks.”

The word came back from Howard that he meant to wait; they might change their plans yet and go.

“Just look at these guys nearest here.” Curtin spoke again to Lacaud. “A fine bunch they are; they have hanging around their necks medals and pictures of the saints and the Virgin to protect them from the devil. That’s something, oh boy!”

“I told you that the papers said that the passengers had observed that all these murderers were pious Catholics.”

“Here the church has sure done a great thing,” Curtin said. “Our Methodists can’t beat that. But, man, look, what are they about now?”

Two men began to build a fire right where the partners used to have theirs, where there were still a few half-burned sticks lying about.

“There’s no doubt that they mean to stay here at least for one night,” Howard said to Dobbs.

“Well, it won’t be long now before we’ll have a real movie here.”

“They’ve got plenty of ammunition.” Lacaud pointed to some of the men who had three cartridge-belts slung about their chests, most of them well filled.

4

Having built the fire, one of the men went exploring, for fuel or for water or for a rabbit-hole or for wild green pepper. He went straight across the camp and right up to the trench.

He did not look at the base of the rock, but glanced up the rock, thinking perhaps he might find a trace of the gringo. Perhaps there might be a cave in which he lived.

Not seeing anything, he was about to return to the fire when he looked down to the bottom of the rock, where he saw just the head of Curtin—nothing else. He seemed not quite sure whether he had seen right, so he stepped one pace closer.

“Ay, caramba, chingue tu madre,” he said in a surprised voice. Then he turned round to his gang and shouted: “Ven aca, come here, all you muchachos. Here you will see a great sight. Hurry. Our little birdie is sitting on his eggs, waiting to hatch. Who ever would have thought them goddamned gringos and cabrones would use a skunk-hole for their headquarters?”

All the men rose and came hurrying toward him.

When they were half-way across the camp, Curtin shouted: “Stop or I shoot!”

The bandits immediately stopped and the man who had discovered Curtin and was only five feet away from the trench raised his arm and said: “All right, all right, bueno, muy bueno, don’t get sore at me, ya me voy, I am on my way.” Saying this, he retreated, walking backwards. He made no attempt to reach for his gun.

The bandits had been so taken by surprise that for a while they could not speak. They returned slowly to the opening where the trail ran into the thicket.

Here they began to talk rather rapidly. None of the boys in the trench could understand a word of what they were saying.

A few moments later the leader, the one with the golden hat, stepped forward right in the middle of the camp. He put his thumbs close together in front of his belt, wishing by doing so to indicate that he did not mean to shoot as long as the other did not draw.

“Oiga, senor, listen. We are no bandits. You are mistaken. We are the policla montada, the mounted police, you know. We are looking for the bandits, to catch them. They have robbed the train, you know.”

“All right,” Curtin shouted back. “If ypu are the police, where are your badges? Let’s see them.”

“Badges, to goddamned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don’t need badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges, you goddamned cabron and ching’ tu madre! Come out there from that shit-hole of yours. I have to speak to you.”

“I have nothing to say to you. If you want to speak to me, you can do so just as well from where you are. You’d better not come any closer if you want to keep your health.”

“We shall arrest you by order of the governor. You are hunting here without a hunter’s license, nor have you any for carrying guns. We have orders to confiscate your guns and your ammunition.”

“Where is your badge?” Curtin asked. “Let’s see it and I might be willing to talk things over with you.”

“Be reasonable, tenga razon. We are not going to arrest you. Just hand over your gun with the cartuchos, the ammunition, you know. Your shotgun you may keep for yourself. That’s the Sort of guys we are.”

He came two steps nearer the trench. Four or five of the others started to follow their leader.

“Another step,” Curtin yelled, “and I shoot, so help me!”

“No sea malo, hombre. Why, we don’t want to do you any harm. No harm at all! Why can’t you be just a little more polite? Or at least moire sociable. We mean well. Give us your gun and we’ll leave you in peace. Sure we will.” He made no attempt to come nearer.

“I need my gun myself and I won’t part with it.”

“Throw that old iron over here and we’ll pick it up and go on our way.”

“Nothing doing. You better go without my gun and go quick. I might easily lose my good temper, listening to your babble.” Curtin waved his gun over the rim of the trench.

The man retreated a few steps and again held council with his followers. They had to admit that Curtin held the strongest position. It would have cost the life of at least three of them had they tried to overpower him by direct attack. None of them wanted to be the victim. The price for that gun was too high.