“They stayed out for about an hour. Then one of the chiefs went out and called them in. All the bucks came in and rode back and forth among our tents, checking out how prepared we were, I guess. It was not a day I’ll ever forget.”
“Billy, you have more stories, for somebody who’s twenty-four years old than just about anyone I’ve ever known. I love to hear your tales,” Cade said.
“Well don’t sell yourself short. I’ve not had to get myself off a ship in Argentina after I killed a man, like you did,” Billy said. “You’ve had your fair share of adventures, too.”
“I hope this summer that the only adventure we have is making so much money we don’t know what to do with it,” Cade said.
“I’d go along with that,” Billy said, “but now we’ve got to get this outfit across the Canadian.”
The water was exceptionally high and moving quickly. Tree limbs, large and small, had been caught up in it and they were rushing down river so rapidly that if one of them were to hit Cade or Billy, or even one of the mules, they could be seriously hurt.
“I don’t think we can cross here,” Billy cautioned. “Let’s try it over by Chicken Creek; the stream’s a lot wider there, so it won’t be as deep, and it won’t be running as fast.”
“You know this territory better than I do,” Cade said. “Whatever you say, we’ll do.”
They followed the river west until they reached the mouth of Chicken Creek and here, as they had suspected, the river was wider, shallower, and not moving nearly as swiftly.
“One of us needs to wade in to test the bottom,” Cade said. “We don’t want to risk losing our mules the way Hanrahan lost that horse on the Cimarron.”
“All right, I’ll check it out,” Billy said.
Billy waded out into the river and determined that the mules could cross and wouldn’t have to swim more than 100 feet or so in the process. He started back toward Cade.
“I figure we’ll disconnect the team, get the mules across, then connect them to the wagon by rope so we can work . . .”
“Get out of the water,” Cade yelled, interrupting Billy in mid-sentence. “Somebody’s coming, and they’re coming hard.”
Billy splashed out of the water as quickly as he could, then reached down to pull his pistol from his holster that was on the wagon seat.
“It looks like its Joe Plummer,” Cade said when the rider was close enough to recognize.
“Indians!” Plummer shouted when he saw Cade and Billy. “Indians raided my camp! They kilt Dudley ‘n Wallace ‘n then they scalped ‘em both!”
“How many were there?” Cade asked.
“I don’t know,” Plummer said. “The bastards done it whilst I was at the Walls for supplies. When I come back I found ‘em both dead. So, I skedaddled out of there as quick as I could.”
“I don’t blame you,” Cade said. “Are you going to the Walls?”
“I sure am. All the boys need to know what happened, cause if it can happen to Dave and Tommie, it can happen to any of us.”
“We’ll ride along with you,” Billy said. “We’re going there anyway.”
“Billy, Joe is right. This can happen to any of us. I want to go back to warn Frenchy and Armitage,” Cade said.
“Yes, yes you should do that,” Billy agreed.
“Joe, can I use your horse? You can ride in the wagon with Billy,” Cade said.
“Take ‘im,” Plummer said, dismounting. “I hope your skinners are all right.”
“I do too,” Cade said as he climbed onto Plummer’s horse and headed back to the camp.
15
Mean To His Horses had won much honor among the others by his successful attack against the white men who came to destroy all the buffalo. Straight Arrow was jealous of all the accolades being heaped upon Mean To His Horses, though there was no word in his vocabulary for jealousy. He knew only that he, too, wished to be honored by the others in the village.
To fulfill that desire, Straight Arrow had assembled eight warriors, in addition to himself, for the express purpose of finding an isolated camp of buffalo hunters.
He smiled as he pictured himself riding back into the village with the scalps of the white men he had killed, hanging from his lance. Quiet Dove and the other young women would look at him with admiration and he knew that the blankets of many of them would be open to him.
Leaving the eight warriors behind, Straight Arrow went out on his own for a scout, and found a buffalo hunting camp where two men were busy scraping some of the hides they had taken.
With a smile of triumph, Straight Arrow headed back to his men.
“I have found them.”
“How many are there?” Stone Crow asked.
“Wa hat,” Straight Arrow replied, holding up two fingers. “They are ahead on the water that the white man calls White Deer Creek.”
“Cade, why are you back so soon?” Charley Armitage asked as he looked up from the hide he was scraping. “And where’s Billy? And the wagon?”
“He and Joe Plummer are on their way to the Walls. Indians attacked Joe’s camp. Dave Dudley and Tommie Wallace were killed.”
“Monsieur Plummer got away?” Frenchy asked.
“He wasn’t there when it happened. He’d gone in for supplies and he found them dead when he got back. Billy and I decided that you two needed to know what happened.”
“Is Joe sure it was Indians? We all know some of the horse thieves are trying to pass themselves off as Indians. Were the horses taken?”
“Joe didn’t say, but look at the one I’m riding. It’s his,” Cade said. “He did say both men were scalped.”
“That could be the work of the thieves as well. In all the time we’ve been out, I’ve seen nothing to indicate that we might be in danger,” Armitage said.
“Mon amie, you may be changing your song,” Frenchy said as he pointed to a rise behind them.
Both Cade and Armitage looked in the direction indicated by Frenchy, and they saw half-a-dozen or more warriors, their horses lined out abreast.
“I think they may be coming for us. Oui?” Frenchy said.
“I think they are coming for us, yes,” Armitage said.
“It looks like we’re about to get busy,” Cade said as he withdrew his pistol lamenting that he had left his Sharps in the wagon. “Get your guns.”
The Indians began yelling at the top of their lungs as they came galloping toward the hunting camp. At the moment, only Cade was armed. He saw that he was facing nine charging Indians with only a pistol. He turned himself in such a way as to present his side to the Indians, thus reducing their target area, then he pulled the trigger three times, and three of the Indians tumbled from their saddles.
Straight Arrow was shocked to see that his attacking force had been reduced by one third almost immediately.
Involuntarily, he pulled back on the reins, checking his horse’s forward momentum, but he had given nobody else orders to do the same. The remaining men forged by him, and maintaining their speed, continued on. They were headed toward the devil who was firing at them. He was standing as still as a tree.
Cade fired three more times, and three more warriors tumbled from the saddle. The remaining two, seeing how drastically their numbers had been reduced, and also that Straight Arrow wasn’t with them, stopped their charge, jerked their horses around, and galloped away.
Straight Arrow was shocked by the fact that one man had so completely decimated his force of warriors, that he was unable to continue the attack. Now, as he saw his remaining two men gallop by him in retreat, he found that he was being left behind.
With a loud yell of challenge, Straight Arrow shook his fist at the white marksman, then, turning his horse, he urged it into a gallop to catch up with the two who had survived the ill-fated attack.
On the Canadian River:
Billy Dixon and Joe Plummer were having their own problems. With the thought of Indians prowling about, Billy didn’t want to leave the wagon behind so instead
of sticking to his original plan of taking the mules across first, he left them connected to the wagon and drove on into the water, hoping for the best.
Before he was half-way across, the mules were swimming.
“This ain’t good!” Plummer shouted.
“No, it isn’t. Jump out.”
“What?”
“Jump out of the wagon,” Billy repeated. “I’m going to see what I can do about getting the mules across.”
The two men leapt from the wagon and Billy made his way to the front of the team. The swift current caught the wagon and turned it over.
“Disconnect the team!” Billy called, and Plummer, working quickly, pulled the doubletree pin that connected the team to the wagon tongue. The wagon, now free, was swept downstream, tumbling over and over.
Finally, Billy and Plummer got the struggling team ashore, but one of the mules lay down on the sand, took a few deep breaths, then stopped.
“What the hell?” Plummer said. “I think this damn mule just died.”
“He was a good mule,” Billy said. He looked at his remaining mule that stood there with his head bowed, as if mourning the mule that had shared his toils.
“It’s all right, Tobe,” Billy said, patting the mule on his forehead. “I know you’re going to miss him. But we all lose friends from time to time. It’s a part of life.”
“Hey, Billy, have you thought about this?” Plummer asked. “We ain’t mounted, we ain’t armed, ‘n we’re at least three miles from the Walls.”
“Yeah. My Big .50” is in the wagon. So is Cade’s, and four hundred hides are gone.” Billy put his hand on top of his head. “And the worst part, I lost my hat.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“We’d better get to moving,” Billy said. “I don’t know if there’re Indians close by, but if they find us, you know we’re dead.”
Billy took the remaining rein that was attached to Tobe, then started walking.
“Come on, mule,” he said. “At least you don’t have to pull a heavy wagon.”
Comanche Village
Straight Arrow returned to the village, not in the glory he had imagined, but in ignominy. He and the two warriors rode in with their heads bowed. As soon as they reached the village the warriors separated themselves from him. If the raid would have been successful, Strait Arrow would have gotten the glory, but with his raid unsuccessful, he now suffered the humiliation of his failure.
“Where is Red Hawk?” someone demanded, wanting to know about one of the warriors who had ridden out with Straight Arrow, but hadn’t returned.
“Where are Running Deer and Brave Bull?” another asked, inquiring of two other missing participants from Straight Arrow’s raid.
Demands were made as to the whereabouts of all six warriors who did not return with him.
“They were . . . killed,” Straight Arrow replied, after a pause.
“Were there many among the soldiers who did this?” Quanah Parker asked. “Did you kill many soldiers?”
“There were no soldiers.”
“Then it is the white buffalo hunters,” Quanah Parker said. “They have come not just to take our buffalo, but to make war. How many of them were there? Why do you have no scalps on your lance?”
“There was one,” Straight Arrow said.
“One? You left with eight warriors, you return with two, but you say there was but one man who stood against you?”
“Yes, but he was not like any ordinary man,” Straight Arrow said. “Ask Leaping Horse, ask Bear That Walks; they will tell you. The medicine of this white man was strong.”
“One man,” Quanah Parker said. “You take a party of nine, but you were bested by one man. And six of our brothers lie dead, and yet you did not bring them back.” Quanah Parker spat on the ground in disgust, then turned his back to Straight Arrow and walked away.
Straight Arrow looked at the others in the village. All turned their backs to him. He saw Quiet Dove, who did not turn her back. But the pity that she felt for him was reflected in her eyes.
Straight Arrow looked away from her. He would have rather had her disdain, than her pity.
As Straight Arrow returned to his tipi, he saw Mean To His Horses looking at him. The smile on Mean To His Horses’ lips was one of triumph.
Adobe Walls:
Tom O’Keefe had just engineered a rear bolster stake for Bat Masterson’s wagon, when he stepped outside of his blacksmith shop. Looking toward the river, he saw two men approaching. He knew all the buffalo hunters within 150 miles of Adobe Walls, but he didn’t know these two. One man was leading a single mule.
“Howdy, gents,” Tom called, raising his hand in greeting.
“It was Injuns!” Joe Plummer shouted as he started to run across the valley in front of the settlement. “Injuns! They kilt Tommie and Dave!”
“Hell, Joe! Billy! I didn’t even recognize you,” Tom O’Keefe said. “Where’d it happen? How many were there?”
By now several of the others, drawn by the commotion, came out to see what was going on.
“We weren’t attacked,” Billy Dixon said. “Cade and I were bringing in a load of hides, when we ran into Joe.”
“But you said Wallace and Dudley were killed,” Tom said.
“That’s right,” Joe said. “When I got back to my camp, I rode in ‘specting to see my men fat and sassy, but what I found was terrible.” Joe shook his head. “Poor Dave, his body was in the fire ring, blacker ‘n tar, and Tommie—he had a stake drove right through him, nailin’ ‘im to the ground. I just hope the guys were already dead ‘fore them bastards got a holt of ‘em.”
“We can pray that that was true,” Charlie Myers said as he was one of those who had gathered around to hear what the men had to say.
“Billy, you said you and Cade were bringing in a load of hides when you ran into Joe. Where’s Cade and what happened to the hides?” Jacob Harrison asked.
“Cade went back to camp to warn Armitage and Frenchy about the Indians,” Billy said. He lowered his head. “And the hides. I guess I miscalculated. They’re at the bottom of the river.”
“Damn,” Jacob said. “That’s too bad.”
“Losing the hides is bad, but that’s not the worst of it. When we made it across one of my mules just up and died on me. The wagon started tumblin’ over and over and we had to cut it loose. Cade’s gonna be mighty upset.”
“He’ll be all right,” Jacob said. “He’ll know those things happen and it couldn’t be helped.”
“There’s more. Both of our big .50s were in the wagon.”
“That is bad,” Jacob said. “That means Cade’s out at the camp without a long gun.”
Billy nodded his head as he started for Hanrahan’s saloon.
16
Dodge City:
Cetti Marcelli loved her work at the Red House, but she particularly enjoyed her friendship with the Willis family. She spent as much time as she could, visiting with Magnolia and the children. This had been a particularly stressful day, with the baby experiencing a bout of colic.
“Let me take the big kids for a walk,” Cetti said, emphasizing the word big.
Magnolia with a frazzled look on her face nodded her head.
“I think that would be wonderful, and if they could be gone a long time that would be even better,” Magnolia said, as she bounced the crying baby on her shoulder. “I don’t know what’s gotten in to Mary Lilajean.”
“All right,” Cetti said picking up some of the blocks that the three children had been playing with.
“But, Cetti, do be careful,” Magnolia said.
“I will,” Cetti said. “We’ll be just fine.”
Magnolia’s expression changed to one of apprehension. “You don’t understand. There are those in this town who would do anything to hurt . . .” She stopped in mid-sentence.
“I know,” Cetti said. “I’ve heard some of the talk at the Red House. I won’t let anything happen to him.”
Cetti, Chantal
, Bella, and Stone left the Willis house, and in order to avoid Front Street where all the saloons were, she took the children over the hill toward the school. Stone was especially enjoying being out of the house, and he began running so fast that Cetti had a hard time keeping up with him. Chantal and Bella were lagging behind, so out of frustration, Cetti had to slow down to encourage the girls to move faster. She could see the blue shirted child running toward Front Street.
“Come on girls, we have to catch Stone,” Cetti said.
“I’m tired,” Bella said. “I don’t want to run.”
“You have to,” Cetti said. “I’ll bet Chantal can run faster than you can.”
“No, she can’t.” Bella said, as she hurried to catch her sister.
When they reached Front Street, Stone was nowhere in sight. Cetti was beginning to panic when she saw her piano teacher coming out of Fringer’s Apothecary.
“Miss Fenton, have you seen a little boy, wearing a blue shirt run by this way?” Cetti asked between gasps of breath.
“No, I’ve not seen a little boy,” Demova Fenton said.
“Oh, dear, where could he have gotten too,” Cetti said. “I would be most grateful if you would stay with these two little girls while I look for him.”
“These are the Willis children, aren’t they?” Demova asked.
“Yes.”
“And the boy you are looking for, would that be the Indian they have living with them?”
“He’s a little boy. He’s four years old,” Cetti said. “Will you stay with the girls for me?”
“I suppose I can if you’re not gone too long.”
Cetti left the girls and began running down Front Street hoping she could find Stone before something happened to him. When she got to the Red House, she ran in hoping Jeter would be there. She didn’t know what she would tell him, but she had to find him.
“Is Jeter here?” she yelled from the door.
“No, is something wrong?” Pete Cahill asked.
“I was taking care of the little ones, and Stone ran away from me.”
The Western Adventures of Cade McCall Box Set Page 72
