[Texas Rangers 06] - Jericho's Road by Elmer Kelton Page A

that, they’d at least try to take our horses.”
    Andy did not like the looks of the men. They reminded him of a wolf pack circling a small buffalo herd and looking to bring down a calf.
    Len was uncharacteristically silent. As the men moved away, he said, “Andy, you look like you smelled a skunk.”
    “ It’s just a feelin’ I’ve got.”
    “ Me too. Seems to me like I’ve seen that hombre before. With all the whiskers it’s hard to be sure.”
    The drovers made camp on the opposite side of the adobe ruin. Once their horses were unsaddled and hobbled, Hatton walked back over to the Rangers’ campfire. He asked, “You-all headed for the border?”
    Len was usually the first to speak, but he kept his silence. His badge remained in his pocket.
    Farley said, “We thought we’d go down there and take a look around.”
    “ I hope you’ve been told what kind of country you’re gettin’ into.”
    “ We’ve got a pretty fair notion.”
    “ You’ll find more Meskins than white people. Damned shame, seein’ as this country is supposed to be American. We’ve chased a lot of them across the river, but they keep birthin’ more and more of them here. Seems like they’re bound and determined to outbreed us. A white man has got to keep his guns strapped on all the time.”
    Andy was a little disturbed by Hatton’s tone. “If a man owns his land, how can you run him off of it?”
    “ They’ll sell out when you put the proposition to them right. A Meskin gets real agreeable if you stick a pistol up against his ear and cock the hammer back. Especially if you can bribe a couple of Rangers to stand behind you.”
    Andy saw anger rising in Len’s eyes. He had seldom seen Len yield to ill humor. Len turned away from the campfire. “I’m goin’ to see about the horses.”
    Andy followed him. He kept his voice low. “A Ranger wouldn’t ever do that. Would he?”
    Len frowned. “There’s some that might. They think the border country would be a lot better off if all the Mexicans was moved to the other side.”
    “ That’s what they did to the Indians. They pushed them all north of the Red River.” Resentment stirred when he thought about his Comanche friends forced into exile on a cramped reservation away from their former range. Yet he realized it had been the only way to curtail their raiding.
    Len said, “The law says you can’t put people off of their property, but some gringos ignore the law. They tell the Mexicans they can either leave or die. More often than not they sell out for whatever they can get. It usually ain’t much.”
    “ I wouldn’t be a party to such as that.”
    “ Me and you, we’re just privates. We’ve got no say. If a sergeant says ‘Fire,’ all we can do is ask what at.” Len looked worriedly back toward camp. “I’d swear that Hatton looks familiar.”
    “ Maybe he’s in your fugitive book.”
    Rangers carried a book with handwritten descriptions of fugitives. They consulted it often and kept it as up to date as possible. They took special pleasure in marking off a fugitive as captured or killed.
    Len said, “Might be. I’ll read it after a while when that bunch can’t see me.”
    Andy returned to the campfire. He heard Hatton talking to Farley about border outlaws. “There’s one in particular you better be on the cuidado for. Guadalupe Chavez has got a big ranch over yonder, stocked with good Texas cattle his bunch has stole. Used to have considerable land on this side of the river too, but Jericho Jackson ran him off of it.”
    Andy asked, “Who’s Jericho Jackson?”
    Hatton seemed surprised that Andy did not know. “Just about the biggest man on the Texas side of the border these days. Took over a large part of what Chavez claimed north of the river. He ain’t a man to be crossed, not even by the likes of Guadalupe Chavez. They’re blood enemies.”
    Andy said, “This Chavez, what kind of man is he?”
    “ A real bad hombre. His pistoleros come across