by Jack L Knapp
"Matt's ahead of them, I'm going to be right on their heels, and if you guys can catch up on the left and right side we've got them surrounded. You'll be downhill from the raiders, so just be careful if they decide to leave the ridge.
"There's no way they can outrun us, not with Tex and two wounded men. They may have other captives too. Even if they turn Tex loose, we're going to keep following. I don't want them thinking they can raid up north without paying a price. We'll kill this bunch, all of them. I know what Matt would do; he'd cut off the heads and leave them as a warning, and that sounds like a good idea to me too."
"You want us to slow them down until you can bring your men up, Lee?"
"You've got it, Laz. Just don't let them escape. If they split up and only one or two is coming your way, kill them. If it's the whole group, slow them down and wait for us. Just hold them until we can get there. We won't be far behind, no more than half a mile. Don't shoot Tex, and if you see someone who's not armed, don't shoot him either."
#
Don Alfonso tried to plan as they headed south along the ridgeline.
The ridge would soon descend to the flats along the narrow seaway. The raiders had left a pair of large canoes there, hidden along the shore after they paddled them across the seaway. Once they reached the canoes, they'd be safe. It was a simple matter to paddle for a day until they reached the southern coastline and then they'd be among friends. Trade the captives, recruit new warriors to replace the killed and wounded, then plan another raid for the following spring. Perhaps even try raiding the swamp people in the delta, a dangerous business but raiding due north had also become dangerous. It was something to think about.
But those were considerations for the future; for now, he had another ten miles or more of ridge crest to negotiate, all while avoiding that archer to his front and maintaining a pace that would leave any possible pursuit far behind him. He nodded to the raider who followed close behind the captives and that man cracked his strap across Tex's back. Tex winced and increased his pace slightly.
The headache was gone now. Tex might yet find a chance to escape. The group was trotting, albeit slowly. Tex trotted too, and waited for an opportunity.
He would not be a slave. He would die first.
Chapter 33
Laz and Marc left as soon as Lee finished speaking. They headed west down the ridgeline and turned south as soon as the slope leveled out slightly.
“I want to get a little ahead of Lee. They’ll be pushing the people who grabbed Tex, and if we can be in position when Lee catches up we can take any of the raiders that try to break away.”
“Got it, Laz. The ground’s not bad down here, not too many rocks and there are only a few trees. We can move faster than the guys with Lee. And if they get into a heavy scrap, we can move upslope to help. It’s only about two or three hundred yards at most. We get within a hundred yards and we’ll be in long bowshot.”
“That’s what I was thinking. I’ll lead off, you move maybe ten yards to the side. I don’t think there will be anyone ahead of us down here, but having a set of eyes looking from a different location means we won’t be surprised.”
Marc nodded and the two set off running. After gaining a lead on the group atop the ridge-crest, Laz slowed to a trot.
“We’ll keep this lead and just watch Lee to make sure we’re not too far ahead.”
#
Matt was becoming concerned. He’d found no suitable cover for a second ambush that would also conceal him should he decide to go east or west of the ridgeline. A slight breeze had begun blowing from the south and the air smelled faintly of salt. The seaway couldn’t be far away, so he would have to do something fast. If the raiders got to the shoreline, sufficient cover was unlikely; an ambush would be out of the question.
So be it. Matt found a bush that offered concealment and settled in to wait for the raiders to come to him.
His priorities had changed. With the coast behind him, slowing the raiders was no longer enough. Matt’s arrow, launched from fifty yards ahead, thumped into the chest of the leading scout. The rest of the party paused in confusion, then began spreading out in response to shouted commands. They charged in his direction. Matt reached for a second arrow and brought down a running man.
Tex had been waiting for just such an opportunity. In the confusion, he looped the long strap around the neck of the rearmost raider. Yanking back as hard as possible, he’d dragged the man to the ground. A fast stomp to the throat had left the man gagging and Tex wrenched the spear from his hand.
Reversing the spear, he thumped the butt between the raider’s eyes. Leaving the unconscious man, Tex used the spear’s blade to slash through the leather strap. He pulled it through the loop in the cord that was knotted around his neck, then headed forward with the spear.
Ahead, the line of raiders had slowed. A second, then a third man had fallen to arrows coming from a clump of brush ahead. The line had wavered despite shrieked commands from Don Alfonso.
Tex made a quick decision. The raiders had no idea that he was loose behind them. Holding the spear low, he slipped in behind Don Alfonso where he attempted to press the others to rush forward. Gripping the spear tight, Tex lunged forward and thrust it deep, just below the ribs and left of the spine.
Don Alfonso arched backward in sudden agony. The other raiders heard his boots scuffle on the ground as Tex tried to pull the spear free. Stuck, he finally abandoned it and stepped back, picking up a spear from a dead raider who’d fallen to Matt’s arrow.
Don Alfonso was down, dying. The raiders broke, some heading down the ridge to the east and others west. The remaining captives had slipped their neck straps free of the cord and one had found a spear on the ground. The other went after the spear in Don Alfonso’s kidney. Holding the body down with his moccasin, the former captive wrenched the spear left to right, cutting enough flesh to free the blade. Triumphantly he waved it overhead and ran to join Tex.
Lee raced ahead, attracted by the noise of the fighting and the shrieks of dying men. One of the former captives turned on him with the spear and backed slowly toward Tex.
“Friends! Put the spear down. If you want to do something, go after the rest of the raiders.”
The man nodded, then trotted east down the slope.
Four raiders had taken the west slope off the ridge. Slowed by brush and rocks as they ran downhill, Laz and Marc had found them easy targets. The four had fallen on the side of the ridge; none had gotten within fifty yards of Laz or Marc.
Matt, realizing the fight on the ridgeline was over, left his cover and approached Tex.
“Glad to see you, Matt. I was getting worried. How’d you get ahead of us?”
“I rode your horse, Tex, but I lost him after the first ambush. The rein broke and he bolted.”
“Lost my horse? Damn, I worked hard to catch him. Maybe I can get close enough to rope him again. I guess I can’t complain. I’d have tried breaking loose at some point and they’d probably have killed me. I’m just glad you realized I was gone before they got clean away!”
“Yeah, I don’t think they had you more than half an hour when we found out you were gone. I thought you were more savvy than that!”
“I thought so too. I guess I had other things on my mind. You punch pretty good.”
“You ready to play nice with the other people in the tribe, Tex, or do you want to hit the trail?”
“I’ll stick around for a while if that’s all right. I’ll leave soon enough, but I need to finish breaking one of the mares. I got used to riding. Having that bastard whup me with a strap so I’d run faster didn’t change my mind.”
“Is he one of these, Tex?”
Tex looked at the dead men littering the small clearing.
“Don’t think so. I got the leader, though. That’s him over there. Called himself Don Alfonso. This wasn’t his first trip north, not by any means.”
“As soon as you’re recovered, how about you and the other two
start chopping the heads off this bunch? You’ll want to get the rest of that strap off your neck first. Use my knife.”
Tex nodded and accepted the knife. After slicing through the neck strap, he found the others who’d been captives and cut the straps from their necks too. The three soon assembled a growing stack of heads.
“Matt, they’d heard of you. I heard one of them say something about the headchoppers. They thought all the chopping was being done by a tribe east of here. They didn’t know we were moving.”
“So much the better, Tex. We’ll leave these ahead of us along the shore. They must have canoes or boats somewhere. We can destroy them or at least hide them where they won’t be discovered, at least not without a lot of work.”
“Sounds good, Matt.”
#
Lee assembled his party and they joined in the beheading. Soon everyone held at least one of the heads, carried by gripping the hair. Matt leading, the party continued down the ridgeline to where it joined the shore.
Matt, Lee, and Tex stood with the two rescued men, looking across the waterway. Far off, mountains showed, southwest of where they found themselves.
“I wonder where they left their boats?”
One of the men had overheard conversations between raiders. “The boats will be more west of here. The raiding party planned to make a big sweep, loop northeast and then come back from the northwest. They didn’t have time to complete the loop the way they wanted to. I figure the boats are maybe half a mile, a mile at most from here.”
“Did they leave a guard on the boats?”
“I don’t think so. They just pulled them on shore and hid them with brush. There are a lot of small coves along the shore and the people living north of the seaway don’t use boats. There are some down in the delta southeast of here that use canoes, but the raiders stay clear of them for the most part. The swamp people know every creek and pothole down there. Raiders have gone in but only a few ever came out.”
“Well, let’s pile the heads above the high-water mark. Keep enough spears so that everyone is armed. Save me one, too, I had to leave mine back at camp. Use the others to stick a head on, and leave the extra heads stacked on the ground. Make sure that Don Alfonso’s head has a spear, OK?”
“Will do, Matt.”
“Tex, let’s you and me take a run down the beach. Lee, you come too, in case they did post a guard. Three of us should be able to handle him.”
“Matt, I could use more arrows. Your quiver is nearly empty too.”
“You’re right. See if you can gather up a few more arrows. Tex, you’ll have to make do with a spear.”
“Been a while. I’ll make out ‘til I get back to camp. My bow and arrows are still there, far as I know.”
“Should be, Tex. You did pretty good, grabbing that spear and sticking that Don fellow.”
“I figured I owed him. He got the point.”
Matt grinned and took the arrows Lee offered. The three ran down the beach, watching for any sign of the boats. Shortly they came to a cove and found two large canoes, dragged up on shore.”
“Took them a lot of work, making these; the paddles too. Should we destroy them or just hide them better?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. We killed all the raiders, right?”
“Far as I know, that’s right. I didn’t count the heads.
“We got most of them anyway. If one gets here, he’ll be hard pressed to drag this heavy canoe down to the water. And one man is bound to have a tough time, paddling it across to the other side. I can’t see the coast at all, just those mountains. How far do you think they are?”
“I’m guessing at least twenty miles. Could be more.”
“Waves, tides maybe, paddling won’t be easy.”
“Not easy at all. And if he gets to the other side, what’s he going to tell them? That he ran into a camp of the headchoppers? If that doesn’t slow them down, the next ones to find the heads we’re leaving will get the idea.
“We probably can’t stop the raids, but if we make it expensive they’ll have to send larger parties. That means more boats too. If they figure to lose as many as they catch, they’ll look for easier pickings. Raids won’t be profitable, that’s for sure. Bring twenty or thirty men in a raid to catch four or five? Not much profit to share around, even if they don’t end up losing their heads.
“We’ll just leave the canoes hidden in new places. I think we’ll be bending our course south as soon as we leave the river camp. We don’t have enough time to get where I wanted to go before winter sets in. If we end up close to this seaway, we can come back and try to salvage the canoes. We’ll need food and salt anyway, and having a sea nearby can help with that. Catch fish, maybe clams or oysters? Lobster? I haven’t had a lobster in a long time. We could make nets.”
“Might be worth it. Tell you what, why don’t we take one of these and paddle back to where the others are? We can send a few men to pick the other one up if you want. Let’s paddle a few miles northwest and find a place we can hide the canoes, and when we do come back, the canoes will be there.”
“Grab a canoe. Let’s get it in the water.”
Lee held the canoe while Matt climbed in the bow. Tex gingerly crawled over the side amidships and Lee finished pushing off. As the canoe floated, he slipped over the stern and picked up a paddle.
Paddling wasn’t among their skills, but soon the three began making headway. Turning parallel to the beach, they stroked northwest, soon finding a natural rhythm.
#
The rescuers walked into the riverside camp just after dark. Piotr, taking his turn at guard, saw them coming and came out to greet the weary men.
“You look beat, Matt.”
“It’s been a long day, that’s for sure. But we got Tex back, a couple of others too. I’m going over to the fire, see if there’s any food left. None of the people with us are in shape to help with guard duty tonight.”
“We’ve got it covered, Matt. I expect Lilia will be glad to see you. Sandra too; she’s been anxious ever since Lee headed out.”
Matt nodded and led his party to the kitchen fire. Margrette and three other women had meat on skewers over the coals. Matt flopped down near the fire and Lilia handed him a mug of tea. Matt sipped the hot liquid...it had been liberally sweetened with honey...and felt better.
“Tex, you owe people an apology.”
“Apology? What for?”
“Mainly for being an ass. We managed to get along with each other until you got here. If you’re going to stick around, you need to get used to that. Get along with people, or get gone.”
“Damn. Well, I reckon I can do it. Can I wait ‘til morning? I’m fair beat.”
“Tomorrow’s fine, Tex. Get some food, find a place to sleep. We can talk more tomorrow.”
“I’ll do ‘er, Matt. Say, is one of those chunks of meat about done? If it ain’t still hollering, it’s probably cooked enough.”
Chapter 34
“What do you think of the new people, Colin?”
“Mixed bag, Matt. A couple of them are very interesting. They were engineers of one type or another before being selected for transplanting. They still remember a lot. I think we can use their knowledge.”
“Are they going to be able to work without computers? If they’re electrical engineers they’re going to be useless until we actually invent electric things.”
“No electrical engineers, although they probably understand quite a bit of the theory. I think one was a mechanical engineer and the other was a civil engineer of some kind. I didn’t ask what they did, beyond establishing they designed and built things.”
“Hmmm. They might be very useful, Colin. Are there any of them you want to send packing because they’re likely to cause trouble?”
“Not so far. We’re building more carts already and we can have bows and arrows ready for the new people soon. We can stay here longer if you want, or get on the road when the carts are done.”
&nbs
p; “I want to get moving. It’s already late summer and we don’t know when the first snow will arrive. Get the carts done, use enough people to help Piotr make bows and arrows, and if there’s time Lee can start training the new people to use them. Maybe they can help with the daily hunts. With more carts, we can haul everything we’ve got and probably more stuff too, extra wheels and pottery. We might find more things along the way, so having the transport ready will be good. We can spread the things we’ve already got over more carts and lighten everyone’s load. We’ll be able to move faster.
“We can change course a little more southward as soon as we’re past the ridges; the land is flat farther west. We’ll be in the mountains soon, and as soon as we are I want to find a place we can stay. The mountains will have canyons and there will probably be undercut cliffs we can use. The Cliff Dwellers did that for centuries; we can do it too, and do it better.”
“Having a couple of engineers, former engineers anyway, will be a real help.”
“We could have done it, Matt. Most of us transplants know how to do things the ancients only discovered by trial and error. We’ve got the accumulated knowledge of centuries, just from having lived in an advanced culture. We understand about communications and transportation, about food storage methods and good sanitation, we know so many things that we’re using already. Experience will only add more knowledge.”
“We’ll be doing things in a few years that took centuries to learn, Colin, things like conservation of resources, about taking the older animals from a herd instead of the young ones, about breeding plants and animals. Everyone knows something we can use. Tex is founding ranching as an industry, even if he doesn’t yet know it. The first group we rescued knows about metals, and as soon as we find ore for them to work, they’ll start producing steel. It took centuries to develop that industry downtime.”
Colin nodded. “I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you’re right. In a century, two at the most, we’ll have highways and cars, maybe telephones and computers. Just knowing it’s possible is half the battle. The resources are here and we’ll be a long time using them up. Maybe we can skip some of the worst mistakes, this time through.”
