by Jake Logan
“Good. Take your clothes off. Noko won’t miss you. He has a cousin who loves him when he comes back here.”
“A cousin?”
“Oh, yes, they once planned to be married, but his mother had a fit. His girlfriend is a double cousin. Their parents were brother and sister. His mother said it was bad luck for them to marry—so they sleep together when they get the chance. It is a shame. But these are the ways of my people, the Sioux, I guess.”
“All people have some such things that make little sense when you are in love.”
“Oh, yes.” She was in the process of shedding her buckskin dress off over her head.
Undressed, she crawled under the blanket on her pallet. He wrapped the holster around his pistol and put it close to the bed, then completed getting undressed.
He joined her, and in the dim light, he saw her smile.
“Tell me about the mean men you are after.”
“They killed my friend, Sam, for little money. Beat me up badly. I think they thought I’d die, too. They took a woman, a Cheyenne, who I was taking back to her people at Red Cloud’s agency. We’ll find and kill the men who have her and take her on up there. What do you wish from me tonight, if I have the power to give it to you?”
“I would like to leave this world with you. It is a sad one for me, and I want you to take me places far away, so spare nothing. I am yours.”
“I will try my damnedest.”
She wrapped her arms around him. He reached in and lifted her chin to kiss her on the mouth. Even in the tepee’s darkness, he saw her eyes fly open in shock. No one had ever kissed her before—she would be easy to bring to a boil.
She was thin-bodied for an Indian woman, but her breasts were still proud, and she quickly began to moan when he teased her womanhood with his finger. They soon were connected. She felt tight-fitting at his entry, and many muscles ran the depth of her vagina. Oh, damn, what a woman. Free as the wind, she gave herself entirely to him. Many neat white women acted free, but they held back a reserve—like, You can’t have all of my body and definitely not all the control of it.
Swan gave him one hundred percent, and the power of that made him stronger and more powerful than he ever could have been with a less receptive woman. They went flying away to where the stars shone and produced brilliance to their bond, made him close his eyes and grind at loving her. Their efforts were like a great magnetic force that drew them to each other. Their pubic bones rubbed hard on the coarse hairs that kept them from being totally one body. Greater than wonderful. Better than most. Hotter than a blacksmith’s fire. And then he came. She fainted, limp in his grasp.
“Oh, my God. You are the most powerful man I have ever known. Stay with me. I could face the sunrises and not be saddened by him being gone anymore. Or wish he was here to love me at night—I would have you.”
“Let’s sleep. I’m still recovering from that beating two weeks ago. But you are a wonderful woman, and in the night, if you need me, wake me and I’ll do it again.”
“I want to ‘kiss’ you, like you did me.”
“Kiss away.”
She’d soon learn how. He hugged her tight, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.
Sometime in the night, they shared another such experience, and he dropped asleep again holding her naked form tight to him. What a delightful repast with a woman that deserved a real man to love her. Someday she would find one, and he hoped her new one appreciated her skills as much as he did.
Noko had the horses saddled and ready to go at dawn. Swan apologized for not making Slocum breakfast, but he dismissed her concern, kissed her, and rode off, gnawing on dry jerky and recalling his night of pleasure.
“This woman you were with last night, Swan said you are prohibited from marrying her?”
Noko bobbed his head. Slocum chewed on the smoky-flavored dry meat. Obviously, his companion was not talking about his situation. They reached the top of the windswept grassy hill, and he reined to a stop in the soft morning breeze.
“When this is over, I have decided I will marry her regardless of who tells me things. She and I have been lovers since we were children. She doesn’t want anyone else. I don’t want anyone else. Why we have no offsprings, we do not know. We have tried to make a baby, so we could say that is why we wish to marry, but the spirits have avoided us. Nothing can stand in our way. When you are through with me, I will marry her.”
“You can go back now and marry her.”
He shook his head and booted his horse off the top. “No, I promised Bill to help you. My word is my word.”
“I wish you and her many happy years.”
Noko nodded and rode on. He turned back and said, “Swan is a good woman. When she gets over grieving, I hope she finds a man.”
“Oh, she will.”
“Good. I know the old days are gone, but I liked them much better.”
“Yes, the old days, when we were innocent, were much better than today with all our troubles and trials. A man gave them my name when he held up a bank in Kansas.”
“So the law looks for you?”
Slocum nodded.
“That is worse than what happened to me. What will you do when this is over?”
“Fade away for a while. I’ve done it before.”
“How will they know who you are?”
Slocum laughed and pushed up beside him. “Hopefully, they won’t.”
• • •
The outlaws had set up camp in a deep canyon covered in a forest of lodgepole pines. These patches of hills rose out of the grassy portion of northwest Nebraska, close to Wyoming and South Dakota. Their own horses hobbled two miles away, they climbed over a rugged mountain, then through his brass telescope Slocum studied the several low-walled cabins and the cooking smoke. He thought he saw Snow once, but there were several Indian women in the camp working on butchering deer and fleshing hides. He counted four different ones.
The best thing he found was Sitting Bull among their horses. He’d missed the crop-eared buffalo chaser.
He also saw bandaged members of the gang, walking around with an arm in a sling or on crutches. He counted four of them that would not be great fighters, if he and Noko tried to take the camp. But there was no sight of the main man, Abraham Grosbeck. He must have left someone in charge, but so far Slocum hadn’t seen anyone who might lead this group.
“I haven’t seen Grosbeck.”
Noko, who also did some scoping while they sat on the mountainside, agreed. “He must be away.”
“I think we can go down there at night, cut their throats quietly, and take the camp.”
Noko nodded. “Maybe then they will be drunk, too.”
“They’re drinking hard right now.”
“Yes. We can move closer. I only saw one man with a rifle.”
Slocum agreed. “Just be careful. I don’t want her hurt.”
“I was down there once, and I almost took her away, but my horse was back where we left ours, and I knew they’d be in hot pursuit.”
With a bob of his head, Slocum said, “You’ve done well. I wish I knew where Grosbeck was, but if we get her out of there, I’ll be happy. I can get him anytime.”
“At dark, we can take them on, right?”
“Yes. Do they have dogs?”
“Not the last time. I have not seen any today.”
“Good. Quiet-like, we’ll go down there and take them tonight.”
They went back over the hill to rest until dark. The moon would rise late, so they would have cover.
“Maybe they will have some of that venison cooked for us when we get through.”
Slocum laughed. “That would be nice.”
“I am tired of jerky.”
“Me, too. I bet those women can fix us something.”
Hat over his face, the warm sun on him, S
locum slept some. When darkness came, they were on the hillside, concealed close by one of the cabins. They’d noticed one guard—a man with a rifle walking about. He looked like Grosbeck’s only camp guard. With stealth, they moved into the camp. The gang’s horses were in a pen, snoring and shuffling, with an occasional kick and fit at one another. Slocum spotted the rifle-bearing one sitting in a ladder-back chair on a small porch, with the Winchester across his lap and smoking a quirley in the starlight.
The rest of the camp was quiet. If not asleep, they’d gone to bed. Slocum slipped up on the guard, conked him over the head, then cut his throat. Noko grabbed the rifle, while Slocum dragged the guard by the armpits to the side of a cabin, out of sight.
A woman came out of one cabin to squat and pee. Before she stood up, Noko had her mouth covered and whispered in her ear as he made her rise. Slocum saw her nod her head as she agreed. His man drew her back in the shadows with them.
He watched carefully for any more activity. “Ask her where the Cheyenne woman is.”
The woman pointed to a cabin and spoke in Sioux.
Noko said, “Says she is in chains.”
“We can get her later. Where are the other men?”
“One is in her cabin.”
Slocum nodded. “You want to kill him, or shall I?”
“I can kill him. Two others sleep in that cabin beside where she is being held.”
“Where is Grosbeck? Ask her. There’s three more somewhere. I counted four wounded and the armed guard.”
Noko agreed and asked her in Sioux where the other three were.
“She says one rode off to get some whiskey.”
“When will he be back?”
More Sioux dialect was exchanged. “She says tomorrow, and she does not know where Grosbeck went, but he took two men with him.”
“Probably to rob a stagecoach. We need to be aware he might come back.”
Noko agreed, set down the rifle, drew his big knife, and went in the cabin. He returned shortly and wiped his blade on his pants. “He won’t rob no more.”
Slocum thanked him, then he and Noko went for the last two outlaws. They slipped into the cabin, and the two snoring men were easy to locate. With his cocked pistol in a sleeping man’s face, Slocum ordered him up and on his feet. Noko did the same to his man, and they took both of them outside dressed in their long johns and bare footed. They seated them on the ground with their hands tied behind them.
With all secure, Slocum went to Snow’s cabin and kicked in the door. After he lit the lamp, he found Snow. She was huddled on the bed in irons, fearful it was one of his men busting in to rape her. Seated on the bed, he held her tight.
“It’s going to be all right. We have the others that are in camp,” he told her.
“I thought they had killed you.” Snow sobbed into his chest.
“They didn’t, but they beat me up pretty bad, and I had to rest at the Borne ranch to recover. That’s Noko with me. Where are the keys?”
“On the wall, by the door.”
Noko tossed the keys to him, and Slocum unlocked her hands. She rubbed her raw wrists while he undid her leg irons.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Now you are here, I am fine.”
“I’m sorry, but when they got through with me, I couldn’t even ride a horse.”
“I thought you were dead. They killed poor Sam, didn’t they?”
“I buried him. Where did Grosbeck go?”
“To rob a bank. He was afraid to take his gang, so there were two of them, and they went separate to not raise suspicion.”
He hugged her tight.
“The women say they will feed us good,” Noko said after Slocum introduced him to Snow.
“That sounds good.”
“What will you do with those men outside?”
“Hang them for murdering Sam. Two are already dead. One of the women told us one man went for whiskey.”
“I think his name is Waites. He is no good and mean,” Snow said.
“We’ll catch him, and he won’t be mean for long.”
“I almost took you away from here one day,” Noko said to Snow. “But I told Slocum I feared we couldn’t get to my horse fast enough.”
“Was that about two weeks ago?”
“Yes.”
“I felt your presence that day. But when you left, I felt my spirits had left me.”
“It was the smart thing to do,” Slocum said.
“Oh, I agree. But when I felt your presence, I just knew I would be free of them.”
Noko nodded that he understood. “I think the other women are pleased, too. Come, the food will soon be fixed. I am so glad to meet you, Snow.”
“The pleasure is mine. And my people are at the fort?”
“Yes,” Slocum said. “They are prisoners though, so they don’t run away.”
“I would gladly have been a prisoner with them, than what existed here for me.”
Slocum led her out into the night to take a seat beside the blazing fire the women had built. Two women who were talking like magpies to Noko soon joined the three who sat on the ground. Slocum guessed they talked about Snow’s future at the Red Cloud Agency for the Sioux.
Slocum told the women they were safe and could go back to their people when all this was over. His words settled them down, and food soon came heaped on tin plates. There was lots of tender venison in rich gravy, new potatoes, wild turnips, chokecherries, and garlic onions in a stew. It tasted wonderful to Slocum’s longtime jerky-eating taste buds. The coffee could have been stronger, but he never complained.
“Hey, mister, what about us?” one of the prisoners shouted.
“You two won’t live long enough to need any food. Better get to praying. Come sunup, you’ll meet your maker.”
“You ain’t the law, you can’t hang us.”
“We’re the law in this land. You killed a good man and stole our horses. Both are death penalty cases, and you two are guilty. The sentence is, come daybreak, to hang both of you by the neck until dead.”
There was no more talk from the rope-bound prisoners. Noko found Slocum the hemp to make nooses, and they decided the outlaws could both be hung on the crossbar over the corral gate. They tossed ropes over the crossbar and tied them off. Kicking and cussing, the two men were hoisted onto saddled horses.
At Slocum’s direction, Noko stood on another saddled horse to adjust the nooses around their necks. Then, with them affixed properly, he got off and stood behind the prisoner’s horse on the right, with Slocum behind the left one.
When he asked if they had anything to say, the Indian women yipped, the prisoners were silent, and he and Noko sent them to hell by shouting and beating on their horses’ asses. The crossbar sagged under their weight, but both their necks snapped, and silence fell on the onlookers.
One of the women broke into a war dance and stomped around the still swinging bodies, whooping and chanting as she went. Then the other three joined in and did the same thing.
“Join them, if you like,” he said to Snow.
“No. I will dance when I am with my own people.”
“I will bring our horses down here. Will the one who went for whiskey come back here?” Noko asked Slocum.
“Not fast enough for me. Let’s take these women back to Fort Robinson, and Snow to her people. They can share the horses left here and the items they want to take, and then we’ll burn this place down so no outlaws can use it for their hideout again.”
“I will go get our horses and things and be back. I’ll tell them about your plans. They can go home very rich women, with their guns, iron kettles, tin plates, bedrolls, and the hides they have tanned.”
“And we’ll split the money found on the outlaws, and any they hid here.”
After Noko told the
m, the women ran to the cabins, and soon there were many coins and paper money poured out on a blanket. Slocum rode in and cut down the dead outlaws. They were searched for money and money belts, and then their bodies were carried into one of the cabins Slocum planned to burn.
The money was divided in half. Slocum only wanted a hundred for his part and that left three-fifty for Noko. That meant each woman had a hundred and ten apiece. A fortune for an Indian woman. Two of the women made leather pouches for Noko’s money. By the time he returned and learned of his good fortune, the pouches were finished.
“You should take more of this,” Noko said. “I am just a helper.”
“No, you’re getting married. I’ll just be moving on. We’ll take them to Fort Robinson and then take up finding Grosbeck.”
“I want one day to have my wedding.”
“You can have whatever time you want.”
“Good. We will go that direction in the morning.”
“We’ll need to take turns watching for the whiskey man’s return,” said Slocum.
Noko agreed.
Mid-afternoon, one of the squaws ran over and told Slocum that Waites was returning—she’d heard him singing coming up the road.
When Waites arrived, both Slocum and Noko stepped out and held him at gunpoint.
“What’s happened?” the man asked, obviously drunk.
“Hands high and get off the horse. Where did Grosbeck go?”
“North Platte, to rob a bank. Why?”
“Thanks. Now, put your hands behind your back.”
“What for?”
“We’re tying your hands behind you, and then we’re hanging you for killing my friend Sam and stealing my horses.”
“Hangin’ me?”
“Yes, four of your friends are already in God’s hands.”
“Oh, God, save me. I’m a sinner, but I don’t deserve to hang.”
“No, you deserve to hang. Find another rope,” Slocum said to his partner.
“No!” Waites cried.
“Shut up or I’ll gag you.”
Noko returned with a rope.
“Sit down,” Slocum ordered the man and began fashioning a noose. The women were busy stacking things they wanted hauled back with them. Slocum’s attention was on the noose. If Grosbeck intended to rob a bank in North Platte, maybe he could wire the law from the fort and warn officials down there in time to stop him.
