BORDER SEARCH 12

del high loped his horse back into ruby. as he passed the general store building the store keeper was standing outside the door watcching him. at thier camp site there was no one there. maxines horse was gone as well as her gear.. del spun and loped back to the store keeper. "where did she go?" del pointed back toward his camp. the store keeper merley shrugged his shoulders. dels hand streaked out and grabbed the mans shirt front."i asked you a question, now where did she go?" " i dont know, she rode away headed south." the man pointed south. del pushed the man back as he released him" you better hope nothing happens to her, i know what you did concerning andy. you still have that to answer for. " dell swung his horse to the south and struck out curseing under his breath. the tracks of maxines horse was plain in the dust over the tracks of the banditos they had confronted. at least they didnt come back this way. he let the hammer back down on his rifle. maybe he wouldnt need it. del slowed his horse to a trott. the horse was running out of wind. he passed a couple of silver claims as he trotted on. one miner pointed south and yelled THAT WAY!it wasnt far to the border, del was almost praying she hadnt crossed into mexico. as he came up out of a shallow wash he could see her standing by horse. a tall thin man was talking to her, harry. del slowed his horse to a walk and came up to them easy. behind them he saw some horsemen comming. when he got up close to them he said " get mounted, its the rurales. if we arnt across the border we are damn near close. come on NOW!" maxine looked past harry and saw the riders comming on. she turned and mounted her horse. with out even looking at his own horse harry swung up behind maxine and they turned towar the north. del let them go ahead. he recocked his rifle. then followed along at a trott. harrys poor mexican horse nickered and trotted up to del who gathered up his bridle reins and led him along. the rurales seemed to slow down but hadnt stopped. del wasnt sure where the exact boundry line was but felt he was safly across it when he stopped and spun his horse to face the rurales. he rested the butt of his rifle on his thigh, his finger on the triger. the rurales stopped about 20 feet away. the one who had talked to him before rode forward. "hola gringo, where do you go?" " now ime headed home but i came to get the mujera that was looking for her brother. but they found each other and are now on the way to ruby." del explained . the rurales nodded. " be careful gringo, crossing into our country could cost you your life." " like the bandits paid with thier lives this morning raiding along the road to tucson. we sent the ones left alive back to you. if i need to come into mexico for any reason i will find you first. is that acceptable?" the corpral nodded and smile revealing a gold tooth. then turned and rode back to his men they started enmass back the way they came. "