“Aw, Thomas—”
Thomas tossed the remains of his coffee into the fire and said, “I’m gonna wake the others.”
He got up and walked away from the fire.
Over coffee and bacon Thomas told Cory and Colon what he and James had decided.
“We don’t get a say?” Cory asked.
“It’s like you yourself have said before, Ralph,” Thomas said. “James and I are wearin’ the badges.”
“I just meant,” Cory said, “Berto and I don’t get any say about who goes with you and who goes with James.”
“No,” Thomas said. “You know the area, Ralph. You’re the one who can take me to the shortcut.”
“It may be a shortcut, but it won’t be easy,” Cory warned.
“What is?” Thomas asked.
After breakfast they each saddled their own mounts. They split what supplies they had, but James and Colon kept the coffee, and the only coffeepot.
Thomas and James faced each other.
“Splittin’ up again,” James said.
“It’s gettin’ to be a habit,” Thomas replied. “With any luck, though, we’ll see each other soon.”
The two brothers shook hands and mounted up. James joined Colon, and they continued to follow the trail being left by Cardwell and Jacks.
“Okay,” Thomas said to Cory, “which way?”
57
“Why are we stopping in Trinidad?” Jacks asked.
“We’re pickin’ someone up.”
“I thought all the men were gonna be waitin’ for us when we get there?”
“Not this one,” Cardwell said. “This one’s a special case.”
“What’s so special?”
Cardwell looked over at Jacks. “It’s Durant.”
Jacks immediately reined his horse in. Cardwell went on a few feet before he stopped his horse and turned it.
“Simon—”
“I won’t work with Bart Durant,” Jacks said.
“Jacks—”
“And you know he won’t work with me,” the other man went on. “How did you get him to agree—Oh, wait a minute. He doesn’t know about me, does he?”
“No.”
“He’s not gonna go for this, Ben,” Jacks said, “any more than I will. You know that.”
“I think you both will,” Cardwell said, “or you’re both off of this job.”
“Off the job?” Jacks repeated. “I don’t even know what the job is.”
“And neither does Durant,” Cardwell said. “But when I tell you, you’ll both agree to it.”
“Not if it means workin’ together, we won’t.”
“You wanna bet?”
Jacks hesitated, then asked, “How much?”
“Your end of the Vengeance Creek take against mine.”
Jacks hesitated before saying, “You’re that sure?”
“I’m that sure.”
Jacks leaned back in his saddle, the leather creaking beneath him. If Cardwell was so sure, he didn’t think he wanted to risk his end of the take to go against him.
“Okay…”
“It’s a bet?”
“No bet,” Jacks said, “but I’ll listen. But I’ll be shocked if you get Durant to listen.”
“I won’t be,” Cardwell said.
“Why not?”
Cardwell turned his horse and said, “Because you listened, and I thought you were gonna be the hard one.”
“Berto?”
“Sir?”
“You never seem to have any definite opinions about what we’re doin’. Why is that?”
“Señor Shaye asked me to go along and help you and your brother,” Colon explained. “That is what I am doing.”
“Did you think this was a good idea?” James asked. “Splitting up like this?”
“It was your idea, no?”
“Yes, it was.”
“And you are having the second thoughts about it?”
“Yes, I am.”
Colon thought a moment, then shrugged. “It is as good an idea as any.”
“That’s what Thomas said.”
“It will be like most ideas, I think.”
“And how’s that?”
“If it works, it will be a good idea,” the Mexican said. “If it does not, it will be a bad one.”
58
“Over the mountains?” Thomas asked. “That’s your big shortcut?”
“It’s the most direct route,” Cory said. “If the horses are up to it, it’ll get us there first.”
“And if they’re not?”
“One of us might end up stranded without a mount.”
They were standing with their reins in their hands, staring up at the mountains.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Hey,” Cory said, “you’re the one who asked for the shortcut.” He gestured to the mountain. “That’s it.”
“Maybe you should have told me this before we split from the others.”
“And you would have changed your mind?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, you can change it now, Thomas,” Cory said. “I’m sure we can catch up to James and Berto.”
Thomas thought a moment, then said, “No.”
“So we’ll go on?”
“Yeah, why not?” Thomas asked. “You’ve made this ride before, haven’t you?”
“Well…”
Thomas looked at him. “You have, haven’t you?”
“Well, I have….”
“You want to explain that?”
“A few years ago I made the ride with, uh, two other men, but…uh, they didn’t make it.”
“What’s so hard?” Thomas asked. “It’s a mountain.”
“It’s not a clear path,” Cory said. “And it’s cold at the top…snowy.”
“Are you tryin’ to talk me out of this, Ralph?”
“No, Thomas,” Cory said, “I’m just tellin’ you it’s not going to be easy.”
“Okay,” Thomas said. “I understand that. I’ve got it. Not gonna be easy. Right.”
“Let’s get mounted up, then,” Cory said. “We have to get to a certain point and camp, so that when we do make it to the top, it’s early in the day, not late.”
“And how many days will it take?”
“That depends on conditions,” Cory said. “We got an early start this morning, but by the time we get to the base of the mountain, it will be late. We’ll have to camp there, camp again halfway up—”
“Okay, never mind,” Thomas said. “Let’s just get started.”
It took them two days to get to the base of the mountain and camp.
“Why don’t we start up? We’ve got plenty of daylight ahead of us,” Thomas said.
“It’s too late in the day,” Cory told him. “We’ll camp here and start up at first light.”
Thomas looked up. From his vantage point, the mountain didn’t look that steep.
“Don’t let it fool you, Thomas,” Cory said. “It’s gonna look a lot steeper when you’re lookin’ down.”
Thomas had noticed a week ago that Cory’s speech pattern was changing. He no longer sounded like “Ralph Cory,” the owner of a store in Vengeance Creek. His speech had become more western, and he sounded more like himself and James now.
“What?” Cory asked as they unsaddled their horses.
“I—uh, you’re just, uh, talkin’ kinda different.”
“When you take on a different name, you also take on a different way of talkin’, and of livin’,” Cory said. “Out here, I’m not tryin’ to fool anybody anymore.”
“It must be hard,” Thomas said, “always tryin’ to remember to be someone else.”
“You get used to it, after a while,” Cory said, “but it’s hard in the beginning.”
“You can go back, you know,” Thomas said. “After this is all over. My pa and us, we’re not gonna tell anybody. Berto won’t say nothin’ either.”
“I know,” Cory said. “I know that. It’s just somethin’ I’m gonna have to decide.”