the Strong Shall Live (Ss) (1980) Read Free Page B

questions. There were not four white men between the San Jacintos and the Colorado River.
    "I've got to get to that hot spring this side ofthe pass, up there by the San Jacintos," Cavagan said. "I can get a horse from the Cahuillas."
    The old man stirred his fire and moved the coffeepot closer. "You listen to me you won't go back."
    "You know who I am?"
    "Got no idea. Figgered you didn't get where you was by chance. Six years I been prospectin' hereabouts an' I ain't seen nobody but a Chemehuevi or a Cahuilla in this here country. A man would have himself an outfit, gun, knife, canteen. Strikes me somebody left you out here apurpose."
    "If you could let me have a canteen or a water sack. Maybe a knife."
    "How d' you figger to get out of here?"
    "West to the Hayfields, then Shaver's Well and the Yuma stage road."
    Pearson studied him out of shrewd old eyes. "You ain't no pilgrim. You made it this faron nerve an' savvy, so mayhap you'll go all the way."
    He tamped his pipe. "Tell you something. You fight shy of them Hayfields. Seen a couple of gents settin' on that water with rifles. A body could figger they was waitin' for somebody."
    The old man helped Cavagan to more stew. He rarely looked directly at Cavagan.
    "Are they on the Hayfields or back up the draw?"
    Pearson chuckled. "You do know this country. They're on the Hayfields, an' could be they don't know the source of that water. Could be you're figurin' a man might slip around them, get water, and nobody the wiser."
    "If a man had a water sack he might get as far as Hidden Spring."
    The old man looked up sharply. "Hidden Spring? Never heard of it."
    "Southwest of Shaver's . . . maybe three miles. Better water than Shaver's."
    "You must be Cavagan."
    Cavagan did not reply. He finished the stew, rinsed the bowl, then filled his coffee cup.
    "Nobody knows this country like Cavagan. That's what they say. Nobody can ride as far or shoot as straight as Cavagan. They say that, too. They also say Cavagan is dead, left in the algodones with his hands tied. Lots of folks set store by Cavagan. Them Californios, they like him."
    Cavagan slept the day away, and the night following. Pearson made no move to leave, but loafed about. Several times he cooked, and he watched Cavagan eat.
    Cavagan found him studying some Indian writing. "Can't make head nor tail of it," Pearson complained. "If them Cahuillas can, they won't say.'*
    "This was done by the Old Ones," Cavagan said, "the People Who Went Before. I've followed their trails in the mountains and across the desert."
    "They left trails?"
    "A man can go from here to the Cahuilla village at Martinez. The trail follows the canyon back of the village and goes back of Sheep Mountain. There's a branch comes down back of Indian Wells and another goes to the Indian village at the hot spring at the entrance to San Gorgonio Pass. There's a way over the mountains to the coast, too."
    Back beside the fire Cavagan added coffee to what was in the pot, then more water before putting it on the fire. Pearson watched him. "Met a damn fool once who throwed out the grounds . . . throwed away the mother. Never seen the like. Can't make proper coffee until she's two, three days old."
    He lit his pipe. "A man like you, he might know a lot about water holes. Worth a lot to a man, knowin' things like that."
    "The rock tanks in the Chocolates are dry this year," Cavagan said, "but there's a seep in SalvationPass." He poked twigs under the coffeepot. "Twenty, twenty-two miles east of Chuckawalla there's a red finger of butte. Maybe a quarter of a mile east of that butte there's a little canyon with a seep of water comin' out of the rock. Good water."
    "Place Mice that could save a man's life," Pearson commented. "Good to know things like that."
    "The Cahuillas used the old trails. They know the springs."
    Wind was rustling the dry palm leaves when Cavagan crawled out in the early dawn and stirred the coals to life to make coffee.
    Pearson shook out his boots,