Chapter 2
Will wasn't worried at first. Mexican roads were not often repaired, and the telegraph lines south of Chihuahua City went down for days at a time and stayed down without apology or explanation. Del had been on assignments that ran long. He knew how to send word when he could.
It was Virginia who was uneasy and troubled.
She came to the doorway of the study on a Tuesday evening while Will was reading. He looked up and smiled.
"Del would have sent word by now," she said.
"I'm told lines south of Parral go down for days at a time."
"He would have ridden to where the lines were working," she said. "He knows you'd worry."
Will set down the paper. "Your instinct is usually right."
"I think Del Cole has never once in his life left you wondering longer than he had to. Not on an assignment. Not on anything."
Will thought about that. Virginia was right. Del was particular about that kind of thing. He had come back from the Presidio County business three years ago with a broken arm he'd set himself and still gotten a telegram out from Fort Stockton before he crossed into Brewster County.
"I've got no contact down there, and I don't want to involve the United States Consulate in Chihuahua City because if I have to use force to bring the family back, I don't want to create an international incident."
"Is there no way to find out?"
"I'll have to go down there and find out what's going on."
"Are you taking Isum with you?"
"More'n likely, but I haven't asked him yet."
"You don't have to ask," she said. "He and Del are like two fingers on the same hand."
Will laughed. "You're not far wrong."
"You know, I remember Elena telling me one time she had come to Texas because her father had promised her to the son of a rich landowner.
I think his name was Vega, but it's been years since she came to Texas.
I doubt it has anything to do with that.
" Before marrying Del, Elena had been a housekeeper in the Fain household and she and Virginia were very close.
"You never know," Will said, "but I'll keep that name in mind."
Will rode to Isum's place Tuesday morning.
He found him out on the east fence line with James, setting posts in the ground that had loosened after a week of spring rain.
James was twenty-one now and had his father's build through the shoulders, and he worked the post digger the same way Isum did, without wasted motion, without complaint, getting the holes dug with shoulder strength.
Isum saw Will coming across the pasture and drove the digger into the hole two more times before he handed the digger to James and waited.
Will stepped down and tied his horse to the fence wire.
"I'm worried about Del and his family," Will said.
Isum took his hat off and ran a hand over his head and put it back on. James stopped working and stood still.
"What do we know?"
"Nothing," Will said. "That's the problem."
"Nobody we know down there?"
Will shook his head. "Not that far down in Mexico. I'm thinkin' we need to get ourselves down there and find out what's going on."
"We goin' down officially or not?"
"Not," Will said. "You're Jones, I'm Smith."
Isum laughed. "Jones and Smith, huh? That show imagination."
Will couldn't help but laugh."Yeah, maybe we should use Johnson and Brown."
"A little better," Isum said.
"I could write to the consulate in Chihuahua City, but I don't want us on record anywhere. If there's a gunfight, I don't want it to be official, just Jones and Smith fighting off some Mexicans. Nobody will notice that unless we end up in a Mexican jail."
"Ain't likely," Isum said as he looked off across the pasture. A pair of mockingbirds were working through their repertoire in the live oak at the fence corner, loud and indifferent to everything else going on. Isum watched them for a moment, then looked back at Will.
"When we leavin'?"
"Two days. Tomorrow, I'll ride into San Antonio and see Judge Freeman and brief Abram and Ross on the Texas business. They'll have to take care of things while we're gone."
"Route?" he asked.
"Southern Pacific west out of San Antonio to El Paso.
Day and a half, maybe two, with the water and coal stops.
We cross the river on foot into Paso del Norte, that's the Mexican side if they haven't renamed it yet.
We rent horses there and board the Mexican Central south to Jiménez.
That railroad's new, just opened in March.
From Jiménez we ride a day south to Parral. "
"How's your Spanish?"
"Good 'nough."
"Mine's better," Isum said. It was a fact, not a boast. "What are we walking into down there?"
"We'll find out when we get there, but bring the Greener and Spencer," Will said. "I'll bring a Greener and a Winchester. I hope I'm mistaken, but Virginia reminded me that Del has never failed to keep me informed and not hearing from him concerns me."
"Me too," Isum said. "Okay, I'll be ready to go Thursday, first light."
Isum nodded and turned to James. "Finish these four posts and then check the south line where it crosses the creek. That stretch has been giving way. Dig those holes deeper."
"I'll take care of it, Pa," James said.
Isum dismissed it from his mind because he knew James never failed. If he said he'd take care of something, it was as good as done.
Will and Isum walked across the field. "I got some things to do here on my place, but James and I'll get 'em done 'fore we go."
Jacob was in the corral working the roan filly on a long line when Will came in through the south gate.
The boy saw him and brought the filly to a walk and let the line go slack but did not stop the work.
He'd been working the thoroughbreds since he was eight, and he handled them the way Alfa Teewee had taught him, patient and unhurried, always reading the horse, never forcing the animal to do what he wanted.
Will watched him for a minute from the saddle.
"Del will appreciate what you're doing with his filly," Will called.
Jacob brought the filly to the rail and tied her and came over. Will stepped down, and they stood together at the fence.
"Don't know for sure, but I'm headin' down into Mexico to see about Del and his family," Will said. "I'm thinkin' they might be in trouble."
Jacob took it in without showing much. "What kinda trouble?"
"Don't know for sure."
"How long, Pa?" he asked.
"Best case, two weeks. Could be three or even longer.
You know the horses as well as Alfa. You're in charge of this whole place.
Anything comes up on the ranch side that you need advice on, send word to Abram.
He's good counsel." Abram Shallot was one of Will's deputies with a small ranch about three miles away.
Jacob nodded. "Del's filly is about ready to start under weight. Another week on the line and she'll take a rider without much argument."
Will looked at his son. Seventeen years old and already reading horses better than most horse trainers would ever do it. "Start her easy. Walk and trot in the corral before you take her out."
"I know, Pa."
Will laughed. "I know you know." Will put a hand on Jacob's shoulder briefly. "You're the best horseman I know, and I know you don't need any advice from me, but I can't help myself."
Jacob chuckled and said, "I know that too, Pa."
"Yeah, well, don't be late for supper."
"I'll be right in," Jacob said as he turned back to the filly, and Will went inside to wash up.
Jacob rarely thought of his real father, who'd died when he was three up on the North Concho.
Will had married his mother when he was four, and he'd called Will Pa ever since, and so had Annabelle.
He was the only Pa he and Annabelle had ever known, and they both respected and loved him fiercely.
After supper, Will looked over the homework of the twins, Joshua and Jesse. They were studying fractions and how to multiply and divide them. Will checked their work and found a couple of errors.
"You missed these two, Jess," Will said.
Jess looked at them and said, "Oh, just multiplied it wrong." He changed it and handed the paper back.
"The rest look good, and yours are fine, Josh. I read over your essays, and the grammar is good. What else is going on?"
"We're studying geography in school," Jess said. "You know, seven continents, five oceans, peninsulas and islands and other landforms."
"Did you know Greenland is the largest island in the world?" Josh asked.
Will thought about it for a minute. "I don't think that's right," he said. "I think Australia is bigger than Greenland, but you can check it out in the Mitchell's Atlas."
Jess ran down the hall, got the Atlas and said, "Yep, Australia is lots bigger. I thought Mister Donovan said Greenland was the biggest."
"That's what he told us," Josh said.
Will chuckled. "You two be nice when you tell him Australia is bigger."
"We will, Pa," Josh said. He was the calm one, the one who sometimes had to settle down his brother."
"Can we go to Hawaii, Pa?" Josh asked.
"Uh, that's a long way, Josh," Will said. "I doubt we'll be going there any time soon."
"It's like warm and nice all the time, even in winter, but it has lots of rain," Josh said.
"And live volcanoes," Jess added.
Annabelle, now fifteen, never needed help with her schoolwork. She was a straight A student and proud of it. While the twins were reading, Will wandered down to her bedroom and found her door open. "Just checking in, sweetheart. How're things going?"
"Fine, Pa," she said. "I'm supposed to give a speech tomorrow in class."
"About what?"
"The origins of the state of Texas," she said.
"Oh...interesting," Will said. "I'd love to be there to hear it, but I have to meet with Judge Freeman. Have you got it all written out?"
"Yes, right here."
"Oh, can I read it?" Will asked.
"Sure, it's only supposed to be ten minutes, so I can't cover everything."
Will read the talk through and said, "That's an excellent summary, and I know you'll deliver it well."
Later, he read to four-year-old Josephine and tucked her into bed.
After the children were in bed, Will sat with Virginia at the kitchen table in the quiet of the house with the lamp burning low between them.
"Two days," he said. "Isum and I go Thursday morning."
"How far?"
"Southern Pacific to El Paso. Then the Mexican Central south. Maybe three or four days to get there. It's over five hundred miles south of El Paso. I haven't been that far into Mexico before, and of course I have no legal authority there."
"And to get back?"
"Maybe longer depending on who might be chasing us." Will and Virginia both laughed.
Virginia turned the cup in her hands. She was quiet for a moment, looking at the table. Then she looked up at him.
"Bring them home," she said.
"I'll do my best."
"Your best has always been good enough," she said. "I'm anxious to see all of them."
Will looked at his wife, the best and truest woman he'd ever known. She was completely without guile. "Isum and I'll find a way."
"You always do," Virginia said with a smile.
They both stood, and she put her arms around him and held on longer than usual, not as a woman who is afraid, but as a woman who has learned not to waste the moment when it is there.
Will squeezed her body to his. The lamp threw their shadows long across the kitchen wall.
Judge Freeman was in his chambers at the Courts Building, a big man with iron-gray hair who had the useful quality of understanding a situation quickly and not requiring it to be explained twice. Will told him that he'd be out of touch for a while.
"How long's a while?" Freeman asked.
"Two to four weeks," Will said.
"I sense it's something you don't want to talk about," Freeman said.
"Judge, I'm keeping this low-key, but one of my deputies took his family into Mexico to visit his wife's folks, and they haven't come back.
I don't know what's going on, but in the morning, I'm heading down there to find out what's happened.
I could have contacted the consulate, but I don't want to do that.
I don't want any record. I'm not going down there as Will Fain, I'm going there under an alias.
But for any business you have here in Texas, you can use Marshal Theder, or Ross and Abram are available at your call for anything you need. "
"Good to know," Freeman said. "That means you're taking Isum with you."
Will nodded. "Just the two of us."
"And you'll do what you have to do to get your man back?"
"It's not that simple, Judge," Will said. "He has his wife and child with him."
Freeman leaned further back in his chair. "That does complicate things."
"It does, but we'll figure a way to get the whole family back," Will said.
"And if that means some dead Rurales?"
"All I can tell you, Judge, is I'm coming back with my deputy and his family. Isum and I'll do whatever it takes, but I'll do my best to avoid gunfights and dead men."
Freeman nodded. "Thanks for telling me, Will. I'll keep it between us. I'm glad you're taking Isum. In a fight, he's better than a whole squad of Rurales."