Search for the Shadowman by Joan Lowery Nixon

fork and lit into the meat loaf on his plate.
    Mr. Thomas shoved a sheet of paper at Andy. “More e-mail for Hunter,” he said.
    Andy sat upright. “More of Coley Joe’s letters?”
    “Nope. You’ve got another correspondent. A DrPR. I guess, from the way he’s chosen his ID, that he’s a doctor.”
    “A doctor? What kind of a doctor?”
    “Read and find out.”
    Andy read aloud, “ ‘Hunter: If you are a student of Texas history, you should know about the last battle of the Salt Wars that took place a few days after a public execution on December 17, 1877, in San Elizario. If you aren’t familiar with the Salt Wars, go to your library. In the social sciences department, you’ll find
The Handbook of Texas
, 976.4. In volume three read what C. L. Sonnichsen has written about the Salt Wars. Also,
The History of Texas
, by Bretze and Lehmberg, Noble and Noble, 1954, gives a brief account of the Salt Wars.’ ”
    Andy put down the sheet of paper. “Dr. PR writes like a teacher. What’s all that stuff about Salt Wars? What does that have to do with Coley Joe?”
    “There’s one way to find out,” Mr. Thomas said. “Do what Dr. PR suggests. Go to the library.”
    Andy poked at his meat loaf as he tried to think. “Coley Joe wasn’t a soldier, Dad. He wouldn’t have gone off to fight in a war.”
    Mr. Thomas shrugged. “You asked a question, and somebody out there sent you an answer. Check it out. What have you got to lose?”
    Glancing at the kitchen clock, Andy said, “I’ll ride over to the library right after dinner.”
    “Bill,” Mrs. Thomas said, “it’s getting late. Why don’t you drive him?”
    “Aw, Mom,” Andy said, “it won’t be dark for a couple of hours. I’ll be home long before then.”
    His mother and father gave each other a look. “I don’t see anything wrong with that,” his father said.
    Mrs. Thomas sighed. “If you say so,” she murmured, then turned to Andy. “Would you like dessert now or after your trip to the library?”
    “After,” Andy said.
    As his mother began talking about what she’d wear to Saturday’s opening night of Hermosa’s Community Theatre, Andy wolfed down the rest of his dinner and pushed back his chair. “May I be excused … uh … please?” he asked.
    “Of course,” Mrs. Thomas said. “Watch the traffic. Be careful.…”
    There was probably more, but Andy, who had grabbed his pen and notebook, leaped out the door and onto his bike. He fastened the chin strap on his helmet, raced down the driveway, and arrived at the James Jonathan Gasper Memorial Library within ten minutes.
    It wasn’t hard to find volume three of
The Handbook of Texas
, with the information about the Salt Wars. The library even had one old, slightly battered copy of
The History of Texas.
The information about the Salt Wars took up only a few paragraphs in each book.
No long, dry stuff to get through
, Andy thought, so he happily settled down to read and take notes.
    Andy read carefully. Before settlers came to the El Paso area, there were shallow lakes, or “flats,” at the foot of Guadalupe Peak, east of El Paso. These flats held great quantities of salt.
    For years Native American tribes gathered the salt they needed, sharing without problems, until the white settlers arrived. At first, the settlers shared, too. But in 1869 two men—W. W. Mills and Albert J. Fountain—tried to acquire title to the salt deposits. They were opposed by a Louis Cardis, who controlled the local Mexican populace, and a Catholic priest—Father Antonio Borrajo of the nearby settlement of San Elizario.
    In 1870 fighting broke out over the salt rights, and a Judge Gaylord Judd Clark was killed. Fountain moved to New Mexico, and for a few years there were no problems.
    Then in 1874, Charles Howard, a former Confederate officer, became district judge. He filed on the Salt Lakes in the name of his father-in-law, Major George B. Zimpleman. This act outraged the citizens from Mexico,