A man named Santee

Hawkins sat on the porch of the hotel in Lordsburg sipping from a cup of coffee. They had been there almost a week now, and had no luck at finding someone to help them thru the Chiricahua Mountains and Apache pass.  He had spoken to Lieutenant Spear, who was camped out on the west end of town, but the Lt had no interest in trying to make his way back to Ft Benson until he got more men from Fort Stockton. The Calvary Soldiers had arrived the day after Hawkins and his men, and they had been attacked at Apache Pass and had lost six men, four others were wounded and being cared for by the town physician which left the Lieutenant and only three other military men. The Lieutenant was still shaken by his experience in Apache pass has he had only been in Arizona for a few months and was fresh from West Point. The Sargent that was with them, whom the Lieutenant had relied heavily upon, had been killed in the pass leaving the young Lieutenant waiting  for someone with more experience to help him out of his current situation, being camped outside of Lordsburg.

The Tall Texan walked out of the hotel and sat next to Hawkins on the porch. A young bar boy ran across the dirt street and up the steps handing the Tall Texan a glass of beer. Rooster stood in the doorway of the Saloon across the street and hoisted his beer to the Tall Texan who hoisted his in return. Rooster then turned and walked back into the Saloon. “Where’s Caed at?”  “He’s in the saloon playing cards, he said I was a terrible bore currently and he needed to find some entertainment.” Hawkins replied. The Tall Texan nodded and continued to sip the beer. “Well, at least we can still head north or south from here and aren’t held up in between some rocks surrounded by Apache Warriors in the Chiricahua Mountains” The Tall Texan said as he got up from his chair and headed across the street to the Saloon. Hawkins was sure he had made the right choice, all the signs had been there and the trip had been good so far. He wasn’t sure where he had gone wrong or maybe he just needed to be patent and wait as his answer was on the way. A man walked from the Saloon from across the street and stopped at the bottom of the steps. He had a mustache, and wore a long white duster, gray stripped pants, black vest, black Stetson hat, and white shirt. He stood there for a moment and pulled a Cigar from his vest pocket lighting it. He continued to stand at the bottom of the stairs puffing on the cigar and then took a long drag from it blowing the smoke out in one long breath. Without looking at Hawkins he said “I hear tell you fellas need a guide thru the Chiricahua Mountains”.  “Why you know an Indian that can get us thru those mountains?” Hawkins replied.  “Well, let’s just say I have some goods that I need to get to Tucson and I need a wagon. Now you and your friends got a wagon and are going my way to Tucson. So I figured it would be a good match, and we all get what we want out of the deal.” Hawkins sat in the chair silent for few moments while he thought about it. “Mister, I think we got ourselves a deal, when can we leave for Tucson?” Hawkins asked. “Tomorrow morning” the stranger replied, “Meet me down on the west end of town at the Mercantile with your wagon, and we will leave from there”. The stranger then turned and walked back across the street and into the Saloon. Hawkins continued to sit on the porch and wondered if he was making a good decision or if this was a trap of some kind to steal their supplies in the desert. He didn’t have the luxury of waiting to find a dependable and known guide to lead them thru the mountains, and he was confident that if they did find trouble the men he was with could handle it as they were all dependable men.

The next morning the Tall Texan and Hawkins rode down to the Mercantile followed by Caed driving the small wagon. The stranger was standing on the steeps talking with the store owner as the men dismounted and walked up the steps. “Good morning Hawkins” The man said smiling with an unlit Cigar in his mouth. He then looked over to the wagon, “Morning Caed”. “Good morning Santee” Caed replied looking down toward his boots. “Yea know Hawkins, Caed there is pretty good at Cards, But I wouldn’t let him play with dice. He just ain’t as good with them as he is with those cards” Santee said with a grin on his face.  Santee lit the cigar and began to smoke it. “Mr. Tailor, can you please have your boys load my supplies into these good Gentlemen’s wagon, so we can be on our way?” he asked the store owner. The store owner’s sons quickly brought out five sealed boxes that were two feet wide, two feet long and two feet high and loaded them onto the wagon followed by two bags about the size of flour sacks and a large wooden barrel. “Well, that’s everything Gentlemen, shell we head to Tucson?” he asked as Santee mounted his horse and headed out of town.

 The three men rode west out of Lordsburg followed closely by Caed in the wagon, and Rooster far enough back as to stay out of sight of Santee and the group. “Hey Hawkins, what happened to your Mexican friend Rooster?” asked Santee. “He headed south down into Mexico, as he didn’t like the idea of going thru Apache country after seeing what they did to those Solders back in Lordsburg”. “Hawkins, I didn’t figure you to ride with men that would turn tale and run at the first sign of trouble, so I figured you had him following us just in case I wasn’t as friendly a fellow as you hopped I was, and if he is following us and your lying to me. Well, then your exactly the kind of man I think you are, and I respect you being cautious.” The group continued to ride west until they reached the small town of Doubtful Canyon where they ate dinner and spent the night. The next morning the group continued west and into the Chiricahua Mountains following the wagon trail thru the mountain pass. A couple miles out of town a loan rider was stopped in the middle of the trail, he appeared to be an old Apache Indian dressed in a white cotton tunic shirt and pants like the Mexicans wore with a red sash belt and breechcloth, and he had on hide moccasins. The Tall Texan didn’t hesitate putting the reins in his mouth and pulling his pistols, he started to spur his horse toward the Indian when Santee grabbed him by the shoulder. “Now hold on their partner, that’s Cactus Jack up ahead and we will need him to get thru these parts. So you may just want to hold off shooting him for now” Santee told him. The Tall Texan put his pistols back in his sash and took the reins back in his hands as Santee rode forward to meet the old Indian. The two appeared to be speaking, but the group could not hear the conversation, then Santee yelled back to the group. “Jack says the rode is clear up ahead and he talked with a group of Braves a while back to let them know we had paid to travel thru here. We should be able to get thru Apache pass without any difficulties”. The group rode forward with Cactus Jack and Santee leading the way. The group traveled thru the pass without seeing a single Apache warrior. “Hey Santee, where are these terrible Apache Warriors at, I haven’t seen one of them”, Santee tapped Jack on the shoulder and made some hand gestures to him and Jack began to laugh. Santee yelled back over his shoulder, “Oh they have been watching us, and if they wanted you to see them you would”.  All of a sudden gun fire erupted from behind the group. Several shots rang out as Rooster charged forward on his horse firing his pistol behind him, in pursuit were a dozen or more Apache warriors on horseback and several more on the hills above firing on him with Rifles. Rooster lay low in the saddle firing from his right side riding hard.  Jack spurred his horse toward Rooster as the men in the group pulled their pistols. Rooster looked up to see the Old Apache riding toward him and almost fell off his horse as he passed him making signs with his hands to the Apache Warriors who were in pursuit. “So I guess Rooster was following us all this time wasn’t he Hawkins?” Santee asked. Hawkins looked at Santee “Hell yes he was, I don’t take nothing to chance”. “I respect that Hawkins, but you almost got him killed. Guess I should have known you would have had someone following us”.  Jack rejoined the group and made hand signs to Santee, than headed west down the trail. “Jack says we should head west to Tucson, just in case Rooster actually hit one of the warriors he was shooting at, they may want payment for that as well” Santee told the group, then turned and followed Jack as the rest of the group all followed closely behind.

The group arrived in Tucson four days later and unpacked the goods that Santee had loaded onto the wagon at a Merchant near the downtown area. Santee stood talking with the store owner and he was paid an unknown amount of money. He then walked down the steps and rejoined the group. Jack stood near Hawkins, and he looked at the Old Apache, “Jack, I am not sure that you understand me, but thank you for helping us to get thru the pass and into Tucson”.  Jack stood there for a moment, “Your Welcome” he replied, “And tell your friend not to follow so far behind next time or I may not be able to help him”.  The group all looked at each other with amazement, as it was the first time Jack had spoken during the entire trip. Santee walked beside the Old Apache handing him a wade of Bills, then yelled over his should “If you boys need to head back east from here, just asked for Santee and Cactus Jack” as the two men walked away and down the street. Hawkins just shook his head looking at the ground. The rest of the group stood there wondering what had just happened. Hawkins looked at the group, “Let’s find a place to sleep and get some food, my head hurts.”