Adan’s face and jaw were swelling and it looked like he had a small plum in his cheek. He talked with a mumble, “Hurts.”
“Heck, I guess so. He really let you have it. Let’s get you back to town.”
Adan shook his head, “No.”
“You’re bleeding. That cut looks bad, and your face is swollen on that side.” He ran an index finger along his own jaw to show where.
“Help me find some nopal, some prickly pear.”
“What for?”
“It’ll help with healing and the pain.”
It took them only a few minutes to locate a small patch in an arroyo, and Adan cut off two pads, then scraped the sides with a piece of flint used as a crude blade until all the thorns were gone. Then he split the pad to expose the wet center and held it to his cheek over the cut.
“I wish we had something to tie it on for you.”
“It will be fine. I’ll hold this on the cut for a while, and that will be enough to make it clot and start a scab. It will still be sore, but I can live with sore.”
Dario sat down and leaned back against the gravel wall, “Okay, then what do we do?”
“You don’t have to go with me, you’ve shown me where I need to go.”
“I haven’t shown you the big white house yet.”
“Okay.”
“So, when you’re ready, we can make a circle and see it from the far side where there aren’t any guards.”
“We hope.”
That got a small grin from Dario. “Here’s to hoping,” and he led off, checking back every few minutes to see if Adan still kept pace and held the cactus pad to his jaw.
They didn’t notice the small drone, flying silent and high above them as Dario led the way, making sure to stay on the far side of the hills and mountains to keep out of sight. As they walked, Adan checked the cut every few minutes to see if it had stopped bleeding, and after ten more minutes he dropped the cactus pad and continued after Dario, although his jaw and cheek appeared swollen. It didn’t slow him down, and he said, “Can we pick up the pace, get us to where we need to be?”
“Sure,” Dario said, “You up to it?”
“Uh-huh.”
“All right, let’s double time it.” He sped up to a shuffling trot and stayed to the more level areas to travel. It was another hour before Dario said, “Just over that big hill up ahead, you can see it then.”
Adan notice several small mines in the hills they passed, with talus slopes from the tailings. He asked “Are those cinnabar mines?”
“My dad said those were exploratory shafts, showed a little mineral, but wasn’t rich enough to keep digging there. There’s two big mines about a mile from the ranch house, and they’re still being worked after all these years.”
Where are the gold and silver mines he found?”
“Those are around Shafter on another ranch he owns.” They stopped and rested several minutes before Dario said, “Do we keep going?”
“I don’t want to make another trip out here with those guards around.”
“Come on, then.” They started up the big hill at an angle, not wanting to try it straight up because of the steepness.
A mile away, Anselmo watched them through a Swarovski spotting scope, checking their progress. Ben had received the text from the house earlier, saying to bring the two boys there. That changed things because he wanted to shoot somebody with the sniper rifle, so he was in a sour mood. Anselmo said, “They’re almost where we can get them.”
“I don’t care. I hope they fall off a cliff.”
“Don’t be a grumpy ass, we may get them yet.”