After a cursory tour of all the exhibits and games, they all gathered for the cake raffle and community picnic on a tree-shaded lot near the church. A small creek ran close by, and Jeremy eagerly joined a fishing contest after stuffing himself with as much food as he could possibly handle.
All through the day, and especially during the picnic, Tanya was uncomfortably aware that Suellen was undoubtedly at the festivities, and that they could run into her at any moment. As the day progressed, a feeling of unease hung over her like a cloud of doom, growing gradually. Adam tried to reassure her, telling her she was worrying needlessly, but nothing he said made Tanya feel any better, and she could not shake her conviction of impending disaster.
Tanya begged Adam to be as inconspicuous as possible, but it was nearly impossible for him to do, with so many of his friends urging him to participate in various events. He ended up riding Shadow in the horserace down the main streets, coming in second. Then he entered the turkey shoot.
When Tanya complained that all the competitive events were either for children or men, he talked the other entrants in a knife-throwing contest into allowing Tanya to try her hand. Reluctant at first to admit her, they had no recourse when Adam chided them for their fear that a woman could beat them at their own game. Their taunts and guffaws soon changed to amazement when Tanya walked off with first prize, a brand new knife almost as good as the one she’d bought Adam.
The town had set up a small rodeo with several events, and Adam and Roberto participated in calf-roping, which Roberto won; bronc busting; and stunt riding, in which the rider had to exhibit his talents and maneuverability on horseback. Tanya was not surprised that Adam won this hands down.
It was nearly suppertime when they all decided they’d better try to find Jeremy and the elder Martins. With a day so full of excitement and activity, Hunter and Mark were exhausted.
They’d just left the rodeo area, headed toward home, when Sheriff Middleton came loping up, a grim look on his face. Without a word, the sheriff plucked Hunter out of Adam’s arms, handing him to Melissa. Then, to their utter amazement, and before anyone could guess what he was about to do, he hauled back and hit Adam with a sharp right to the chin.
As Adam staggered backward, stunned by the unexpected blow, Sheriff Middleton hissed, “Hit me, damn it! Hit me back!”
When Adam hesitated, shaking his head to clear it, sure his hearing had been damaged, the sheriff hit him again, this time with a fist to the stomach. Reflex took over, and Adam swung back automatically, landing a telling blow to the sheriff’s midriff.
“You’re under arrest, Savage!” the sheriff grunted.
Chapter 25
ABOUT THE same moment, Tanya saw Suellen and Jeffrey hurriedly fighting their way through the crowd toward them.
Middleton drew his gun, leveling it at Adam. “Don’t argue; just do as I say, and I’ll explain later,” he growled, nudging Adam with the gun. “You know the way to the jailhouse. Now let’s get going!”
A look of total confusion on his face, Adam started to argue, as did Justin and Roberto, but Tanya took one long look at the sheriff and caught his quick, worried glance over his shoulder at the advancing lieutenant. Grabbing Adam’s arm, she tugged him toward the jail, sure that regardless of how it might appear, Middleton was doing his best to help them. Something was afoot, and it had to do with Suellen and Jeffrey.
Pulling Adam along as fast as she could, with Middleton right behind, Tanya entered the jail about ten seconds before Suellen and Jeffrey. Adam was sure he’d never seen Tom Middleton move so fast as he shoved him into a cell, slammed the door and locked it. The sheriff pocketed the keys and strode to his desk, quickly jotting something down in his log.
“This man is under arrest!” Jeffrey shouted as he stormed into the office, Suellen close behind.
“Yeah, I know,” Middleton drawled.
This abrupt announcement took some of the wind out of Jeffrey’s sails, causing a look of confusion to cross his face momentarily. “I am arresting Adam Savage in the name of the United States Army!” he proclaimed with loud authority.
“Well now, sonny, you’ll just have to wait in line. This man is my prisoner right now, and possession is nine-tenths of the law.”
“What have you charged him with?” Jeffrey demanded.
“I might ask you the same thing,” the sheriff countered. “What are yourcharges against him?”
Jeffrey looked disconcerted. “I — uh — I’m not sure what the exact charges will be,” he blustered, “but I have a witness here who will swear that Adam Savage and the Cheyenne chief known as A-Panther-Stalks are one and the same person!”
Sheriff Middleton stared at Jeffrey as if the lieutenant had just sprouted three heads. Then, after the first shock began to fade, he started to laugh, great rolling belly-laughs that seemed to come clear from his toes and shook his entire frame.
After several minutes and much effort, he managed to get hold of himself. “That’s a good one, Lieutenant!” he chortled. “Best laugh I’ve had in ages!”
Jeffrey glared at him, his face red with suppressed rage. “I’m not joking,” he said through clenched teeth.
“I know, and that makes it twice as funny!” Middleton chuckled.
Suellen decided it was time she put in her two cents’ worth. “Sir!” she said tartly, spearing the sheriff with her direct gaze. “I was with Tanya Martin in the Cheyenne village all those months, and that man,” she pointed to Adam who was lounging indolently against the bars, “is her husband.”
Sheriff Middleton smiled benignly at her, as if placating an infant. “Of course he is,” he agreed. “I was at their wedding just last Saturday.”
Suellen stamped her foot in exasperation. “No, you fool!” she huffed. “He’s her Indianhusband, Panther!”
Middleton cocked an eyebrow at her. “Sure he is, miss! And I’m George Washington. Now, just who might you be?”
Ready to spit nails by now, Suellen let out a small shriek, then tried to calm herself. “I am Suellen Haverick. I was captured in the same raid as Tanya, and I know what I am talking about! Adam Savage is Panther!”
“Well, now, even if he was, that’s not a crime,” Middleton said firmly.
At this, Jeffrey intervened. “But it isa crime to kidnap women and use them as slaves and whores. Also, this tribe has been particularly noted as troublemakers and has been active in unlawful attacks against settlers and the U.S Military.”
Tanya could hold her tongue no longer. “And just what do you call the massacre at Washita if not an unwarranted attack?” she spat out. “Those people were peacefully minding their own business, and within hours a tranquil village was turned into a bloody, burning ruin!”
Jeffrey glared blue daggers at her. “That was a military coup.”
Tanya snorted in disgust. “Is it standard military policy to murder women and children and old people? It was an absolute bloodbath, and you and I both know it!”
“Ahem,” Tom Middleton cleared his throat loudly. “That is not the question here, Mrs. Savage. Miss Haverick and the lieutenant are claiming that Adam is your Cheyenne husband. What do you have to say to this?”
Tanya gave Jeffrey and Suellen a killing look. “I’d say Suellen has been out in the sun too long!” she retorted sharply. “Of course, the poor dear didhave a rough time of it with the Cheyenne. One can’t really blame her if she’s not quite right in the head!”
A look of rage contorted Suellen’s features, and Jeffrey looked as demented as Tanya knew he actually was.
“That’s a lie!” Suellen shrieked. She leveled a finger at Melissa. “Melissa knows! She was there, too!”
The sheriff sighed and rolled his eyes heavenward. “What is this, a reunion?” Turning to Melissa, he said, “Okay, Miss Anderson, can you shed some light on the situation?”
Melissa turned her huge cornflower-blue eyes on the sheriff, the very picture of innocence. “Tanya must be right, sir. Suellen could be a bit addl
ed. I know for a fact that Suellen despises Tanya and would do anything to get revenge on her.”
Suellen choked on her anger and could not manage to get a word out at the moment. The sheriff nodded in silent understanding of Melissa’s statement.
Jeffrey, however, had no trouble finding his voice. “I know what you are trying to do here, but it won’t work. Miss Haverick is in full control of her faculties, and I intend to prove she is telling the truth!”
“Adam, what do you have to say to all this?” Middleton asked. “We haven’t heard a word from you.”
Adam leaned an elbow on one of the bars and surveyed them all with a lazy smile. “Frankly, Tom, I’m stunned almost speechless. You and Justin here have known me since I was in diapers. If anyone knows me, you do.”
“I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous in my life!” Justin added. “Adam and I grew up together! Everyone knows Rachel Savage, and a lot of folks remember when she and her father moved here from Santa Fe when Adam was just a baby. We all know her husband was English, and that her people are Spanish. I fail to see how anyone could claim he was Cheyenne, let alone a chief!”
Roberto now took up the cudgels. “Adam is my cousin, and I too have known him all my life. What you say is too ludicrous to give credence to. It is absurd!”
Middleton exhaled a cloud of cigar smoke. “There you have it, Lieutenant. Justin is right. Most of the population of Pueblo have watched Adam grow up under their noses. I’d say you don’t stand a snowball’s chance in Hell of bringing such far-fetched charges against him, let alone making them stick.”
Jeffrey eyed them all malevolently, his blue eyes shooting flames. “We’ll just see about that!” he threatened. “I’ve sent a runner to Ft. Lyon for authorization to bring him up on charges before a military court, where you have no authority. It is purely a military matter, and you know how General Custer and General Hancock feel about Indians.”
“You have to prove I amone, first,” Adam pointed out.
Jeffrey sneered at him, his eyes narrowed with hate. “That shouldn’t be too hard in a court of cavalrymen just itching to string up a ‘dirty Injun’. Then too, there are others besides Suellen who know what this Panther looks like. I’m sure Major Wynkoop, the Indian agent to the Cheyenne, could easily identify him.”
Only sheer willpower enabled Tanya to keep her face from showing the shock this last statement brought with it. She was never so thankful for the rigid training Panther had drilled into her. She was also thankful that Melissa was facing away from Jeffrey and Suellen just then, and had somehow managed to stifle her involuntary gasp before anyone noticed. Adam’s face revealed nothing.
Middleton frowned and rubbed a hand along his cheek. “I thought Wynkoop was back in Washington raising a ruckus over the Washita massacre.”
“He was, the fool, for all the good it will do him,” Jeffrey replied, “but we expect his return any day now. In the meanwhile, I intend to keep an eye on Mr. Savage here and file the proper charges against him.”
“Like I said, the line forms behind me, and even if you had authorization today to arrest him, you’d have to wait until I’m done with him.”
Jeffrey nodded stiffly. “Just as long as I know where to find him — and believe me, Sheriff, I’ll be watching closely. I intend to post my own guards around your jail to make sure he doesn’t suddenly disappear.”
“You just keep your men outside my jailhouse and out from under foot. I won’t abide having my office overrun and my routine upset by a passle of greenhorn know-it-alls.” Middleton snapped. “Now get out of my office. I’ve got better things to do than talk nonsense all day.”
“I’ll be back!” Jeffrey barked the warning over his shoulder as he left, shepherding an indignant Suellen before him.
For long seconds after he’d gone, no one spoke.
They just looked at the door and each other. Not until Melissa let out a long-held breath was the spell broken.
“Adam,” Tanya began, turning a worried face to his.
Through the bars, he reached out a hand to stroke her cheek, his dark eyes burning into hers. “Later,” he said gently.
In a louder voice, he directed his attention to Sheriff Middleton, “I believe you have something to explain to me, Tom.”
A wide grin split Middleton’s face. “Wondered when you’d think of that. I should apologize, but fact is, I did you a favor.”
Adam groaned. “Tom, if your idea of favors is slugging someone when they least expect it, save them for someone else in the future.”
“Well, you didn’t do my bread-basket a lot of good either.” Tom rubbed a broad hand across his stomach and grimaced. “You pack quite a wallop.”
“What was that all about?” Julie asked, thoroughly bewildered.
“It was the best I could come up with on the spur of the moment,” the sheriff explained. “I happened to stumble on those two just as the Haverick girl was babbling about Adam being a Cheyenne Indian. The lieutenant was lapping up every word like a cat at a bowl of cream. I tell you, he got a real dangerous look to him, all excited and hateful, with those blue eyes of his gleaming wild-like. One look was enough to tell me he was off his rocker and bound to cause some kind of trouble. Then I heard him say she’d just given him all the proof he needed — the perfect reason to arrest you, the excuse he’s been looking for to see you hang.”
“I didn’t wait much longer, except to hear him ask if she knew where you were now. When she said she’d last seen you at the rodeo corral, I took off to find you before they could.”
“But why did you have to arrest Adam?” Melissa asked. “Why couldn’t you just warn him, or tell Jeffrey to back off? This whole thing is insane!”
“It does seem a little extreme, Tom,” Justin put in.
Middleton gave Justin an incredulous look tinged with mild annoyance. “Son, for a lawyer you sure can be dense sometimes! Use your common sense. If Young had latched on to Adam first, his authority would override mine, and none of us could have done a thing about it, not even the judge. It would have been a military matter then, with trumped-up charges, few witnesses, and a biased jury, with a military trial and execution so quick it would be over before it started. It wouldn’t matter that both the girl and the lieutenant are crazy as bedbugs. It would be their word against Adam’s — if he were even allowed to tell his side of it — and none of us would have been permitted to testify in his behalf if I read the lieutenant right.”
“It’s a lot different here than back East, where they can drag a trial out forever. Here we are dealing with a bunch of glory-seeking cavalrymen eager to prove themselves superior to the savages, while they jump at their own shadows. Some of their commanding officers are so fresh from the East they don’t know a lance from a toothpick. They don’t know a Sioux from a Comanche, and couldn’t care less. As long as they make themselves look good, get an advance in rank, and get out of here with their scalps, it doesn’t matter what they have to do or how they do it. I’ve seen some of these jackasses bragging about how brave they are in battle and showing off scalps I know damned well came off a child or squaw instead of a warrior.”
Middleton sighed and shook his head in disgust. “Now, I ain’t saying I have a lot of kind feelings for the Indians, but a cavalry full of greenhorn soldiers and glory-hunting officers ain’t much better. Seasoned officers who know anything about the Indians are as rare as bird’s teeth, and those like Lieutenant Young stir up more trouble than they are worth.”
“What I am trying to tell you is this. Right now the troubles with the tribes are starting up heavy again, and it would be a feather in Young’s cap if he could claim to have caught a Cheyenne chief. Feelings are running high, and the military is out for every coup they can grab. They’d love to make an example of someone, and I’d hate it to be you, Adam. It wouldn’t matter that it was all a cock-and-bull story. It wouldn’t matter that half this town has known you all your life and would be up in arms defending you. One gli
mpse of possible fame and honor, and the military would hang President Grant himself without a proper trial or defense! They’d most likely arrest you, try you, and hang you so fast it would be over before you could do anything about it.”
Roberto had wandered to the front windows of the sheriffs office. “Lieutenant Young didn’t waste any time posting his guards,” he observed. “They are out there already. What do we do now?”
“We have to figure a way to sneak Adam out of town before Young gets the authorization from his superiors to arrest him,” Middleton said. “You were going to take a trip anyway, so at least it won’t upset your plans much. In the meantime, you’ll remain my ‘prisoner’.”
“Oh, dear!” Tanya murmured in frustration. “While Jeffrey runs around creating havoc, Adam must sit here like a treed raccoon. It isn’t fair!”
“Don’t you fret, Mrs. Savage,” Middleton said with gruff kindness. “We’ll think of something.”
“I hope it includes tearing Suellen’s hair out and slicing Jeffrey’s black heart into tiny pieces,” she suggested with a vengeance. “I could kill them both with my bare hands right now and feel no remorse whatsoever!”
“Tanya.” The tone of command in Adam’s voice brought her back into control. “Take the boys home. They are tired and hungry.” She nodded wordlessly.
“Justin, explain what has happened to my mother and the Martins, and also to your father. See if he has any suggestions.”
“Of course, Adam.”
“Roberto, I put you in charge of looking after Tanya and the boys, if you will. Jeffrey’s main objective is to have Tanya for his own. He is as mad as a rabid dog, and just as unpredictable, so take great care.”
“I will guard them with my life,” he vowed.
Silken Savage Page 38
