Chapter 5

Look in my blog for a glossary if you have trouble with understanding some words in the dialog done in dialect.

Mr. Big had been located! Unfortunately, Mr. Big, Sr. Ernesto Ruiz, was living in a mansion in the heart of Santo Domingo del Hormo, Mexico. This small city was much too large to be overpowered by a small detachment of Rangers and sure to attract the attention of the federal government if a large force of Rangers was sent in. It looked like the only way to capture Sr. Ruiz was by trickery. Somehow, they had to entice Sr. Ruiz to come to Texas where he would be accessible.

Capt. Jones happened to know that Sr. Ruiz had a daughter that he would like to marry off in an arrangement that would be profitable to him. Capt. Jones also knew that there was a Mexican American crime lord, Hernando Diaz, who had an unmarried son. Jones proposed faking a message to Ruiz from Diaz, offering to negotiate a possible marriage. The message would emphasize that Diaz would negotiate with Ruiz only in person, not through a broker. Both Diaz and Ruiz were known to be very haughty and easy to take offense, so Ruiz would have to accede to all of the requirements if he was interested in following up on this proposal.

This was the sort of proposal that Ruiz would be likely to grab, so Jones proceeded to make the necessary arrangements. He had a very flowery letter written in the most courtly Spanish prepared and sent to Ruiz. The letter invited Ruiz to visit Diaz's hacienda on a ranch about 40 miles north of Laredo. This would give the Rangers plenty of opportunity to capture Ruiz, once he had crossed the border.

The letter was mailed from the post office nearest the Diaz hacienda, so the postmark would not give anything away. The postmaster at that post office was on the look out for any mail coming to Diaz from Ruiz; he would snatch the letter before it was delivered. That way, Diaz would never know anything of the ruse and would not be able to interfere with the plot.

All of this took nearly three months to set up and advance as far as Ruiz actually coming to Texas. By this time, Al had recovered from his attack, so he was ready to join in the apprehension of Ruiz. The Rangers found out from the intercepted correspondence just when to expect Ruiz, so a detachment of Rangers under Al's nominal command, was sent to capture him as soon as possible after he crossed into Texas.

Jed went along as Al's second in command, but Al planned to let Jed actually run the show. This was to be the final test of Jed before he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. The party consisted of Al, Jed, and 18 other Rangers. Capt. Jones wanted to be sure that nothing went wrong for lack of an adequate number of Rangers in the detachment. They left in plenty of time to be ready when Ruiz showed up.

Sr. Ruiz entered Texas at about 10:00 AM. His entourage used one of the more common fords across the Rio Grande River. There were 43 people in the group, counting the three concubines, the servants, and the guards. The 28 guards were armed with Winchester repeating rifles and Colt six-shooters. All of them carried some sort of knife.

The Rangers let them get completely past the ford so that there was no doubt that they were actually in Texas. The Rangers were in luck because the road passed through a dense growth of oak and pecan trees, so the caravan tended to bunch up. Half of the rangers were on the north side of the road under the command of Al, and half were on the south side of the road under the command of Jed. The Rangers had spread out so that they covered the entire length of the caravan. The eastern end of the road through the trees was blocked by enough tree limbs to cause the horses to stop, no matter what the riders wanted them to do. As soon as the caravan passed far enough along, the west end of the road was blocked in a similar manner. The Rangers were tense, but confident of their superior tactical position; they were apprehensive, but not frightened.

Sr. Ruiz and the concubines were riding in an ornate carriage; Al rode near it and called out in a commanding voice, in Mexican Spanish, "SR. RUIZ? YOU ARE SURROUNDED BY TEXAS RANGERS! WE HAVE A WARRANT FOR YOUR ARREST ON A NUMBER OF CHARGES, INCLUDING MURDER! WE ASK FOR YOUR SURRENDER AND NO ONE WILL BE HARMED!"

Ruiz paled in fear, screamed out that he would never surrender, and ordered his guards to protect him. The guards had been holding their rifles at the ready as soon as the caravan had been forced to halt, so they immediately began to shoot into the trees on the north side of the road where they had heard Al's voice come from. Al had expected this sort of reaction from Ruiz and the guards, so he did not hang around for a formal invitation to the party.

For some strange reason, the Mexicans did not consider that there could be Rangers on both sides of the road, so they were caught completely by surprise when Jed ordered a devastating fusillade to erupt from the Rangers to the south of the road. The Rangers were standing on the ground sheltering behind the large tree trunks, so they made poor targets, but the same could not be said for the Mexicans sitting astride their horses.

The Rangers poured fire into the ranks of the guards, killing or seriously wounding 15 of the 28 guards in the first few seconds of shooting. Unfortunately, a few servants were also killed or wounded by stray shots, but neither Sr. Ruiz nor any of his concubines were hit by the Rangers' bullets.

Sr. Ruiz ranted and raved at his carriage driver to get moving to escape, but the poor man had no where to go. The road was blocked both to the front and rear, so he simply could not follow the frantic orders. In a fit of absolute stupidity, Ruiz drew his pistol and shot the driver dead because he would not follow the impossible orders. This frightened the three concubines, so they clambered out of the carriage and hid under it to try to escape the bullets of both friend and foe.

Jed and Al had agreed before the fighting started not to try to capture anyone but Ruiz, so when guards and servants bolted for the trees in a effort to escape, they were allowed through. The entire conflict lasted no more than 10 minutes, if that. The guards quickly realized that the Rangers did not shoot at them if they did not shoot at the Rangers, so they dropped their rifles and rode for their lives. Thus, 9 servants and 8 of the guards were able to escape; the Rangers waved them through the lines unmolested. As far as anybody knew, they did not stop running until they were well into Mexico.

Meanwhile, Ruiz was frantically blasting away at random until he emptied his gun, and he threw that in frustration when he had no more bullets to shoot. It was obvious how much he was loved by his concubines, because, when the shooting was over, one crept back into the carriage, assisted by the other two, and put a knife blade into his back, completely destroying one of his kidneys and wounding him beyond any hope of recovery. When Al saw the situation, he pulled out the knife so that Ruiz would bleed out faster and commented, "Looks ta me like the old man committed suicide ta keep from bein' put on trial." With that, he turned and winked at the women; then he threw the knife in among the trees.

It took over an hour to clean up the mess in the road. The dead horses and men were dragged off the road into the trees and left for the scavengers. By this time, there were only four wounded guards left alive, so they were put in the carriage and the women were given horses to ride. There was a whispered conversation with Jed and Al, and the women rode away, back toward Mexico, never to be heard from, again, by the Rangers.

This was a very successful operation: the quarry was captured and no Rangers were injured, except for one man who broke his leg when he tripped over an exposed tree root. He, too, rode in the carriage and was the butt of many jokes from his friends for months afterward. The jokes finally let up when he threatened to shoot the next man who teased him about the whole affair.

They reached Laredo in due time, but all of the wounded guards had died by this time; they did not need the help of the Rangers to do that, since the wounds were very serious. Ruiz also died before they reached Laredo; he, too, needed no help from the Rangers to do this. They had no laudanum with them, so he died in considerable pain. Everybody agreed that he got what he deserved!