The Andre Norton Megapack - 15 Classic Novels and Short Stories

which a closely cropped mustache bristled. His color was high under a pink skin which in this hot country must burn painfully. And there was the permanent stamp of uncertain temper in the lines about his prominent eyes.
    CHAPTER 4
    “So, you see me, Bayliss,” Don Cazar returned evenly. “There is some trouble?”
    Bartolomé shifted from one foot to the other, his spurs ringing. Don Lorenzo’s expression was one of withdrawal, but on the round countenance of the Mexican was open dislike.
    The sun-reddened skin flushed darker. “All right, Rennie!” the captain exploded. “If you want it straight, that’s the way you’re going to get it! You’ve been hiring Rebs again!”
    Once before Drew had seen explosive anger curbed visibly by a man who knew the folly of losing control over his emotions. It had been on a hilltop back in Tennessee, with the storm clouds of January overhead. General Bedford Forrest, watching men driven to the limit by necessity and his own orders, had looked just that way when he had rounded on Drew, bearing news of yet another break-through by the Federals. Now it was this Anglo wearing Spanish dress and standing in a dim stable, reining temper to meet the open hostility of the captain.
    “Captain Bayliss.” The words sounded as remote as if the speaker bestrode some peak of the Chiricahuas to address a pygmy in a canyon below. “I know of no law which states that I may not employ whom I choose on my own land. If a man does his job and makes no trouble, his past does not matter. I am as ready to fire a former Union soldier as I am a Confederate—”
    “I tell you again: I’m not going to have Rebs around here passing on information to Kitchell!”
    “And I say once again, Captain, that men who ride for me do not in addition ride for Kitchell.”
    “ Sí —!” Bartolomé’s face was as flushed as Bayliss’ now. “We do not help those bandidos . Do they not also raid us? Two weeks ago Francisco Perez, his horse comes in with blood on the saddle. We ride out and find him—shot, dragged with the rope. That is not Apache trick, that, but the work of Kitchell and his snakes!”
    “Peace, amigo .” Don Cazar’s raised finger silenced his man. “Bartolomé is right, Bayliss. Kitchell is beginning to nibble at the Range. He has not many sources of supply left. Soon he will either have to cross the border to stay or make some reckless raid which will give us a chance at him.”
    “These damned Rebs around here will keep him going! You can’t tell me they don’t back him every chance they get. And I’m warning you, Rennie, if you hire any man you can’t answer for, he’s going to the stockade and you’ll hear about it from the army!”
    “And you also listen, Captain. I will not be dictated to, and the army had best understand that. I do not want Kitchell in this country any more than you do. He has made a boast of being Confederate leading what he terms Mounted Irregulars. But to my knowledge he never held a commission from the South, and he is nothing but an outlaw trading on the unsettled state of the territory. That isrecognized by every decent man in Arizona. And that covers those you call ‘Rebels’ as well as former Union men.”
    Bayliss was silent for a long second, and then he jerked his hat farther down on his peeling forehead. “You’ve had notice, Rennie, that’s all I have to say. I’m going to clear all the Rebs out of this section. Then we will be able to get at Kitchell, and the army will settle him for good and all!”
    “Bayliss!” The captain had half turned, but Don Cazar’s call halted him. “Don’t you try harassing any of my riders. They mind their business and will not make any trouble as long as they are left in peace. If there are any problems in town, Don Lorenzo Sierra, here, is the alcalde and they must be referred to him.”
    The captain favored Rennie with a last glare and was gone. Tobe Kells spoke first.
    “That one’s chewin’ th’ bit an’ gittin’ ready to hump under th’ saddle. This business of tryin’ to run out th’ Rebs, it’ll cause smokin’!”
    “He has no right to give such an order,” Don Cazar was beginning when the alcalde interrupted:
    “ Compadre , for a man such as that your talk of rights means nothing. He is eaten by the need to impress his will here, and that will bring trouble. I do not like what I have heard, no, I do not like it at all.”
    “You know what may be really eating at him this