Chapter 1
"Papa, what are those called?" Carlos asked as his finger touched the train window.
"Those are antelope, and they can run fast," Del said.
"But not as fast as this train, huh, Papa?"
"No, this train at top speed can go faster than any animal on earth."
Carlos, who was on his knees on the seat, sat back on his heels and said, "Can it go faster than a tiger?"
"Much faster."
"It's time for lunch," Elena said. "Would you like some fried chicken or a sandwich, my sweet boy?"
"Can I have a drumstick and a sandwich with Miss Virginia's peach preserves?"
Elena grinned and said, "I suppose you can, my little six year old man." An hour later, Carlos was asleep with his head on Del's lap. Del looked over at Elena and chuckled.
"What?"
He smiled at Elena and said, "I'm a happy man, thanks to you and Carlos."
She smiled back. "You also have a very contented wife."
When they arrived in El Paso, they got a hotel and spent the night, and enjoyed breakfast the next day before walking across the bridge into Mexico. Del had hired a porter to bring their luggage across. He bought tickets on the Mexican Central Railroad for Jiménez.
Once they had traveled a few miles, Carlos said, "This train is not as fast as the other one, is it, Mama?"
"No, but it'll take us where we need to go," Elena said.
"And it's so full," Carlos said.
"Yes, I think it's always like this," Elena said.
The entire train was overflowing, and men and women were carrying goats, ducks, chickens and even squealing pigs. Every seat was taken and people were riding on the roof with the animals as well. For once, Carlos was quiet as he looked at the scene that surrounded him.
When he finally spoke, he said, "Look at that man, Mama. What's he gonna do with those squealing pigs?"
"Don't point," Elena said.
"Okay, but what's he gonna do with those pigs I can't point at?"
Elena laughed and said, "I'll bet he takes them home and raises them to be fatter pigs."
"But why?"
Del laughed. "Because when they get bigger, he'll slaughter them and eat ham and bacon with his breakfast and pork chops with his dinner." Carlos gave him a startled look. "That's right. That's where your bacon and ham comes from."
Every window was open and soot and cinders from the smokestack settled on everything. "What is all that stuff in the air, Mama?" Carlos asked.
"Cinders from the coal they burn to get the steam that powers the engine."
"It's nasty, isn't it?"
"Yes, but it's the price we pay to ride the train," Elena said. "It's lots faster than riding in a buggy."
Carlos fell asleep on the train, and he woke up in Chihuahua City and asked questions most of the way to Jiménez. Del got them a hotel room, and they stepped out that evening to a restaurant next to the hotel.
When they walked out of the hotel, Carlos said, "Look at that big church, Papa."
"I'm looking," Del said.
"Could we go inside?"
"After we eat our supper," Del said.
When they visited the church, Carlos was awed by the high ceilings, the stained glass windows and the artwork.
At the altar there was a crucifix sculpture of Santo Cristo de Burgos, before which the people offered prayers.
Elena had seen it several times as a young girl, and she explained things to Carlos, who took it all in but was ready to go after a half hour.
The next day, Del rented a carriage to get to Hidalgo de Parral, which was roughly sixty miles away.
"How long will you be, Se?or?"
"Two weeks, maybe three," Del said.
"Would you mind paying half now for three weeks?" the liveryman asked.
"Sure, no problem," Del said. "Give me a receipt, if you don't mind."
When they rode away from Jiménez, Carlos asked, "How far is it to where we're going, Papa?"
"It'll take two days, but we'll stay overnight in the village of Ciénega del Norte," Del answered.
It was hot in the open desert, and though the carriage had a canopy for shade, the heat was oppressive, which was nothing new since they'd been sweating on the train to Jiménez.
"You were right, Mama," Carlos said after they'd been on the road awhile.
"About what, mi amor?"
Carlos laughed. "The train is better even with all the cinders." Del smiled at Elena and gave her a wink.
On the journey, Carlos asked questions about the jackrabbits, the coyotes, snakes and zopilotes which hovered over the desert looking for carrion.
"How do they all stay cool in the desert, Papa?"
"I think mostly they stay in the shade," Del said. "And a lot of them only come out in the night or mostly at night. Many of the snakes have a hole in the ground or they hide in the cactuses. You can often find a rattlesnake in the big growths of prickly pear."
"Can they see in the dark?"
"Some of them can see very well at night, but many have a keen sense of smell that helps too."
Eventually the boy fell asleep leaning against Elena.
After a long and tiring day, they arrived in Ciénega del Norte, and Del rode up and dropped off Elena, Carlos and the luggage at the hotel entrance.
He drove to the nearest stable and dropped off the carriage and the horses before carrying his rifle and saddlebags over to the hotel.
As he walked toward the hotel, he noticed a man standing outside the jail, his eyes following Del's every move.
The man was much better dressed than most, and Del wondered why the man was eyeing him, but soon he forgot about it.
They enjoyed a quiet meal in a nearby restaurant that night and rested comfortably in their hotel room.
Elena's mind was filled with memories of her childhood and growing up years.
She'd visited this town many times, and the closer she got to home, the more anxiety she felt, but that was overshadowed by the anticipation of seeing her family for the first time in eighteen years.
The next day, upon arrival at the family home, Rosa and Imelda, with Imelda's family of four, came out into the yard.
Elena leapt from the carriage and embraced her mother, Rosa, and her older sister whom she hadn't seen for all these years.
Elena greeted Imelda and all of her family with a hug and kiss before introducing Del and little Carlos.
"Carlos, this is my mother," Elena said. "She's your abuela."
Carlos stuck out his hand and said, "Mucho gusto in conocerle, abuela." Rosa looked at Elena, charmed by the little man, but she swept aside his hand and hugged her nieto fiercely. "I have heard so much about you."
"How?" Carlos asked.
"Your mother writes letters to us," Imelda said.
Elena interrupted, "So where is Papa?"
"Oh, he's inside," Imelda said.
Ernesto Hidalgo was in the back bedroom, small against the pillows, his breathing shallow and slow. He turned his head when Elena came through the door and he gave an aged smile before saying, "So you finally came home to me."
"Yes, Papa, I'm here," Elena said. She sat on the edge of the bed and asked how he was feeling.
In a hoarse voice, Ernesto said, "I'm dying, that's how I'm feeling, but I'm glad to see you once more. I was hoping you'd come. Now I can die content."
"Yes, yes, I'm here, Papa, and I've brought along my family. This is Del Cole, my husband, and this is Carlos, your nieto."
Ernesto extended his hand and Del took it. "Take care of her," Ernesto said. "I know you're a good man or Elena wouldn't have married you. And you," he said, speaking to Carlos, "you are a fine-looking nieto."
"Gracias, abuelo," Carlos said. He was stricken almost speechless seeing the old man in bed. Del took his hand and led him from the room, leaving Elena alone with her father.
She sat beside him and held his hand and they spoke in Spanish, low and unhurried, the way people speak when they haven't seen each other in years.
Del stayed in the doorway a moment before leading Carlos into the kitchen where Imelda was fixing supper. "C'mon, Carlos, let's look around." Outside, they wandered through the neighborhood for a while before returning to eat.
Elena had eight days with her father. They talked several times each day, but by the end of the week, the old man wasn't often awake.
Ernesto Hidalgo died two days later in the early morning before the sun was up.
Del was in the kitchen when Elena came out and he knew from her face before she said a word.
He went to her and she put her head against his chest and he held her and neither of them spoke for a long while.
They buried Ernesto that afternoon in the cemetery at the edge of the village. The neighbors came and stood in the sun and Padre Morales gave the open-air funeral mass, and everyone went home.
That evening, Elena's younger sister, Lupita, rode in on a borrowed horse with a small bag of belongings.
She had her sister's eyes and an earnest look.
She cried at the grave the following morning but soon put aside her grief and made herself useful, helping with the cooking, washing and house cleaning.
Del went to bed early on the third night after the burial. He was tired and the bed was comfortable and he slept.
It was the horses that woke him.
The jingling of harness, the saddle creaks, the soft hooves in the sand. Nobody else in the house noticed, but Del was soon on his feet and at the window before he was fully awake. The corral was visible in the moonlight. The carriage horses were at the far rail, pressed together, heads up.
Del pulled on his boots and took his Colt off the chair.
He was at the back door when they came in through the front.
There were four of them in Rurales gray and they moved through the front room with the efficiency of men used to doing this kind of thing.
Del came around the partition between the kitchen and the front room with his Colt up and one of them hit his gun arm from the side with a rifle barrel before he could level it and his Colt went skidding across the tile floor.
He caught one of them in the face with his elbow before they had him down. Elena was in the doorway of the bedroom, wide-eyed with one hand over her mouth. She had heard. Her face was absolutely still.
"Don't," Del said to her in English. Just the one word.
She understood what he meant. Don't fight them. Don't give them a reason to put a hand on you or Carlos.
The man in charge was not in the dove gray of the Rurales.
He was lean, about forty, in a plain dark coat, the man Del had seen in Ciénega del Norte outside the jail.
The man told Elena in Spanish, formally, that her husband was under arrest for the theft of a horse belonging to a rancher in the district, and that she and her son were invited to accept the hospitality of Don Rodrigo Vega at his hacienda while the matter was resolved.
He used the word invited the way a man uses a word he knows it's a lie but has been told to say it anyway.
Elena said nothing. She looked at Del.
Del was on his feet with two of them holding his arms. His nose was bleeding where it had met the floor. He met her eyes and gave her a small nod. Go. Take Carlos. Don't fight it here.
She went to get their son, still asleep through all the commotion.
Lupita appeared in the back hall, awakened by the noise. One of the Rurales moved toward her and Elena turned and said something in Spanish that stopped him. He looked at the man in the dark coat, who said Lupita was welcome to accompany her sister if she wished.
Lupita looked at Del and then at Elena with the steady look of someone making a quick accounting of a bad situation.
"I'll go with her," she said.
Del was herded out of the house with his hands bound and put on a horse.
They rode for three hours in the dark, Del between two of the Rurales to a town where he'd spent one night.
They put him in a cell in the back of a jail that smelled of old adobe and standing water and a guard locked the door and left him there.
Del sat on the plank that served as a bunk and looked at the wall opposite and thought about his salvation, his friend in New Braunfels, Texas.
Will Fain was the better part of a week's travel even if Will already knew something was wrong, which he didn't. Del thought of how he could notify Will, but there was no way.
He knew they wouldn't let him write a letter or send a telegram even if he offered to pay, but he knew Will would figure it out after three or four weeks.
All he had to do was wait, and that was the hard part.
He thought about Carlos, who was six years old, always curious. His son had asked him the morning before once again how jackrabbits kept cool in the desert.
"It's so hot I can barely breathe," Carlos had said.
"They get used to it, I guess," Del had told him.
Del put his back against the jail wall and listened to the night outside the barred window and began his wait. He knew without a doubt that Will and Isum would come. It was just a matter of time...and maybe a long wait.