Predators and Prey

by F. M. Parker

  “Stanker came over here to shoot me, DeBreen,” Sam said. DeBreen had been too far away to hear what Stanker said. Sam began to lie. “I don’t know why. He called me a son of a bitch and dared me to fight. I had no choice. He was god-awful slow.”

  DeBreen’s eyes squinted until they seemed to have vanished into their sockets beneath the bony brows. He measured the Texans. Every man was poised, primed to reach for a pistol and fight. Wilde and the one called Nathan watched him closely. If DeBreen signaled to his men or grabbed for his gun, both opponents would try to kill him.

  DeBreen did not think he could kill the two of them before one put a bullet through him. At such short range there would be no possibility that they would miss.

  “It doesn’t make any sense that Stanker would jump you for no reason,” DeBreen said in a disbelieving tone.

  “It’s crazy, all right,” Sam said. “I haven’t the foggiest idea why he jumped me. Was he okay in the head?” Give DeBreen an excuse to back down, thought Sam. His lust to kill DeBreen was lessening as he realized that he did not want the Texans to die because of him. Further, they had come to stand with him as friends. If they had not, Sam would be dead by now.

  DeBreen knew Wilde and the Texans had to be removed as impediments to his plans. But to accomplish their destruction with some degree of certainty and safety, he would have to wait until they were not expecting his attack. It was obvious his adversaries were also hoping to avoid an immediate fight.

  Nathan saw DeBreen’s eyes come halfway open, and the man seemed to relax slightly. “Stanker was an ornery bastard,” DeBreen said to Sam. “Maybe he just didn’t like your looks because you’re so damn ugly.”

  “That’s probably the reason,” Nathan interjected hastily, wanting to prevent Sam from making some angry retort. “Come on, Sam, let’s get out of the hot sun and into some shade.”

  Jake, not removing his attention from DeBreen, took hold of Sam’s shoulder as a reminder of his warning.

  Nathan spoke. “Sam—and the rest of you—let’s go. This is over.”

  Warily the Texans began to back away. At a hundred feet Jake removed his hand from Sam’s shoulder. “You did that right,” he said.

  “Yeah,” Sam said disgustedly. “But I’m still going to kill that damn murderer.” Yet he was glad for the reprieve to have time to devise a situation where he would have more advantage. He would need it if he was to survive DeBreen’s men.

  ***

  Ruth’s trembling slowly subsided as Sam and the Texans drew away from DeBreen. “Oh, God!” she said. “A man killed right before our eyes. And the men with their big guns argued. I thought there would be more killing.”

  “It appeared to me that the man came to threaten Sam and got what he deserved,” Sophia said. “Sam was sitting and bothering nobody. Just looking at you now and then.”

  “There’s no reason for one person to kill another,” Ruth said.

  “You’re wrong,” Caroline said. “We live in a violent world, and there are times when a person must become violent and kill merely to keep from being severely hurt or killed themselves. You should be thinking of Sam. I believe he’s sweet on you. Did you worry about him, that he could be killed?”

  “Yes, I thought of that. I was afraid DeBreen would shoot him. Do you really think Sam likes me?”

  Caroline looked intently at Ruth. “You’re not that innocent. Don’t play games with me or with yourself. Women are born with the ability to read a man’s eyes and their emotions toward them.”

  “She had better do it often too,” Sophia said, “for sometimes a man is too bashful to say what’s on his mind.”

  “I truly believe Sam much wants you,” Pauliina said. “Or I am not understanding what Jake feels when he looks at me.” She smiled a large smile.

  “I like to see that certain expression in their eyes that they would like to jump on me,” Sophia said. “Ruth, what would you do if Sam asked you to go off with him to the mountains or maybe to Texas?”

  Ruth skimmed her eyes from one of her friends to another. “I’m going with the Mormons to Salt Lake City,” she answered. “Aren’t all of you?”

  “I am,” Caroline said.

  Neither Sophia or Pauliina answered. They were looking off in the direction of the Texans.

  34

  Far away, mirages of lakes, of strange, contorted landscapes, formed on the hot prairie ahead of the handcart caravan. The mirages weakened and died as the toiling, snaking stream of humans drew nearer. As the old false images vanished, new ones continued to appear on the flat distant plain.

  Nathan pushed at the rear of a handcart. Every hour or so he would drop back the line and lend his strength to another group of struggling people. His two horses were elsewhere, one pulling at a cart ahead, the other where he had left it with Mathias.

  He felt obliged to assist the Mormons as long as he traveled with them. But he had begun to believe he was not destined to find a wife among them. He was greatly saddened by that thought.

  DeBreen and his band were another worry. They rode in a line on the right side of the caravan. Frequently they threw measuring looks at the women, like a pack of predators sizing up their prey. Nathan knew that if the Texans left, DeBreen would destroy the Mormons. He still did not know why.

  The caravan reached the two buffalo Nathan had slain earlier in the day. Mathias and two other Mormon men skinned the animals and began to carve the carcasses.

  The travelers, holding pans or pieces of oilcloth in their hands, queued up in front of the men to receive their cut of the bloody meat. Then, smiling, their step lighter, they returned to their carts.

  The caravan moved out, having stopped for less than an hour. Of the two buffalo, only the heavy, wet hides and the bony skeletons remained behind on the prairie.

  A new image formed among the mirages ahead on the prairie, a jagged hill rearing up above what appeared to be a sheet of water. As the handcart company labored on, the water mirage thinned and finally melted away. The hill became more solid in form, darker in color, and grew until it rose a thousand feet above the plain.

  Scott’s Bluff was in sight about twenty miles ahead. The word came down the chain of handcarts from Mathias. A major milepost had been reached.

  Nathan watched the sun fall to the west on a long sliding trajectory, like a great, hot cannonball seeking a target. It intersected high, thin, white clouds, like a giant swan’s tail, scudding across the sky from the northwest. An hour later the swan’s tail had sailed on past to the southeast. Behind came a long storm line of dark cumulus clouds, created by moisture sucked up to tremendous heights in the warm elevator shafts of summer’s thermal updrafts. The thunderheads drove in beneath the sun.

  Swiftly the storm clouds piled up, towering in livid cliffs five, six miles to touch the heavens. They came striding like giants across the plains. Misty fingers of rain hung down from the broad, black bottoms of the thunderheads.

  The storm front charged ever more closer to the handcart people. The rain thickened, turning to long dark streamers touching the ground.

  Wind rushed out ahead of the storm, whipping the prairie grass and buffeting the toiling men and women. Dust fell upon them like dry rain.

  Nathan saw the storm’s imminent arrival. He collected his packhorse and hastened forward to find the gray.

  “When are you going to stop?” Nathan questioned Mathias. He pointed at the boiling black cloud mass bearing down on them. “The storm’s right on us and it’ll get dark early.”

  “Right now,” Mathias replied. He turned and held up both hands. “Make camp!” he shouted.

  Nathan untied the gray from the crossbar of the cart. He looked around for the other Texans as the carts came in and started to form their usual circle. Les and Emily arrived. Shortly Ash and Jake came into sight with the cart they helped pull.

  Nathan’s view fell upon Caroline. Her hat, blown from her head by the wind, hung down her back. Her hair had broken free of its bindi
ngs and the wind blew it out in a long tawny stream. God, she was beautiful! His heart hammered in his chest, as it had the first time he’d seen her. Never had he felt the ebb of his life running so strong and vital, and it was all because of this woman. Yet he could not possess her. A hellish, bitter piece of knowledge.

  Jake wheeled the handcart into position between two others. The women immediately unlashed the tarpaulin and removed the tent poles and canvas. All hands began to raise the tent.

  Nathan rode near the group. He dropped the reins of the horses. Without consciously planning what he meant to do, he caught Caroline by the shoulders and turned her toward him. Her hands came up quickly in a defensive manner, as if to ward off whoever had grabbed her. Her green eyes were tinged with feline yellow.

  “What do you want?” she said in astonishment. Her head lifted defiantly.

  “I came for this,” Nathan said. He crushed her to him and kissed her roughly. He tasted her, smelled her female perspiration, felt her hair whipping around his face. God, he loved it.

  Caroline remained totally rigid in Nathan’s arms. She did not struggle against him. It would be useless, for his arms were like steel bands holding her.

  Nathan released Caroline and stepped back. He had hoped to kindle some feeling, some response in her, but there had been nothing, not one sign that she shared his feelings.

  “Why did you do that?” she asked.

  “That was good-bye. I’m leaving for Texas tomorrow.” The thought had only just occurred to him, but the instant he uttered the words, he knew it was true.

  “Leaving? Tomorrow?”

  Nathan nodded his head. “Will you go with me?”

  “No. I’m going on with the people.”

  Nathan felt shattered. But he had expected nothing else. She had already told him she would not go with him.

  “Then this is truly good-bye.” He snatched up the reins of the horses, threw one quick look around at the surprised faces of the Texans and the three other girls, and walked stiffly off in the wind.

  Nathan moved away from the Mormon camp. He halted on a slight rise of ground and began to unbuckle the straps of the packsaddle. He felt only gloom. Perhaps he should make a search yet tonight for another woman. He could sort through them and in a straightforward manner ask the prettiest to marry him. If she refused him, then he could ask the next prettiest. One might eventually say yes. Even as the thought came to him, he knew he would not do it.

  He looked up as a horseman rode by close on his side. DeBreen stared down at him with a malignant glance, the hatred ageless and ugly in his eyes. Go to hell, Nathan thought. He was tired of all of them, the Mormons and DeBreen alike.

  Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. It would be raining in half an hour.

  He staked out the two horses. His gear was piled on the topmost point of a rise of land. Over this he spread his tarpaulin and anchored it down at three corners.

  Jake, Ash and Les came and made similar camps nearby. Finishing their task, they hunkered down by Nathan.

  “It’s kind of sudden to be deciding to go back to Texas, isn’t it?” Ash asked.

  “No more sudden than deciding to come north with you,” Nathan replied.

  “I reckon about the same,” Ash said.

  “How about DeBreen?” Les asked. “You know what he’ll do to the Mormons if we leave.”

  “You fellows don’t have to leave just because I do,” Nathan said.

  “We couldn’t stop DeBreen alone,” Jake said.

  “He can’t be stopped even if I stayed. The first time our backs are turned, he’s going to shoot the hell out of us.”

  “Here comes Sam,” Ash said. “Let’s get him in on this palaver.”

  Sam stopped and climbed down from his mount. “Nathan, Ruth said you were leaving tomorrow.”

  “That’s right. How did she come to tell you that?”

  “She looked me up. She was scared that all of you would leave. Then DeBreen would be left here to do what he pleases. The women are all frightened.”

  “She’s got it right,” Nathan said.

  “I wouldn’t want Ruth hurt,” Sam said. “I say we strike DeBreen now. A hell of a storm is coming, and we can catch him off-guard while he’s holed up to stay out of the rain.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if he plans the same trick for us,” Nathan said. He looked to the west some three hundred yards away and beyond a shallow, brushy gully where DeBreen and his men were making their camp. “If we could lay a trap for DeBreen and get in the first shots, we just might kill him and most of his men.”

  “I’d like to get that done without us getting all shot up ourselves,” Ash said. “I’d hate to think of not being around to take Sophia back to Texas.”

  “Has Sophia said she would go with you?” Nathan asked.

  “I haven’t directly asked her, but it’s kind of understood that she will. But it’s now time. I’ll do it tonight.”

  “I’ll ask Pauliina too,” Jake said.

  “I’ve already asked Caroline,” Nathan said. “You know her answer.” He spoke to Les. “How about you and Emily?”

  “She said yes today. We’re just waiting on you fellows.”

  “Sam, why don’t you take Ruth and come to Texas with us?” Ash said.

  “She’d never come with me,” Sam said wistfully. He yanked his hat down more firmly on his head and stared into the wind at the Mormon camp. “But I’d sure like that.”

  “All she can do is turn you down,” Jake said. “I imagine that hurts, but Nathan is still living after Caroline told him nothing doing.”

  “I’ll think on it,” Sam said. “Nathan, do we fight DeBreen?”

  “I have a plan,” Nathan said, pivoting back to face them. “If you fellows think it’s a good idea, we’ll try it tonight.”

  The men gathered closer together. They talked as the clouds threw lightning bolts and sent them skittering across the prairie. Thunder shook the earth. And the men talked on as an early dusk came and darkened the world.

  They finally nodded in agreement. In the dimming light their shadowy faces were stark with the realization that none of them might see the morrow. Jake and Ash rose and walked toward the tent of Sophia and Pauliina. Les went off to find Emily. Sam hurriedly began to make his camp near the Texans.

  Nathan climbed erect and stared into the whistling wind. The storm was gaining in intensity, the clouds boiling and churning directly above his head. The thunder deafened him; streaks of lightning blinded him. He felt as agitated and unsettled as the storm.

  Ash and Jake returned. They smiled and called out happily to Nathan and Sam. Les came running and dived in under his tarp.

  The rain came—giant, cold drops falling from a very great height, that had barely melted from ice. The storm fell upon the prairie like a mean, wet dog.

  ***

  Caroline lay and listened to the drumming rain and the keening banshee of the wind. The mighty wind snapped the canvas against the guy ropes, and the center pole bent and jerked. The flame of the single candle flickered and danced, barely staying alight. The tent seemed ready to fly away.

  Shortly before the storm struck, Sophia and Pauliina had gone outside and talked with Ash and Jake. After a time the two girls had reentered the tent, their faces bright with joy.

  “We’re going to Texas tomorrow,” Sophia said. “We’ve been asked and we said yes.” She laughed and hugged Caroline.

  “I think Jake and Ash will make fine husbands,” Caroline said. “Congratulations to both of you.”

  “How about your religion?” cried Ruth.

  “Well, what about it?” Sophia asked.

  “You can’t give it up.”

  “Sure I can, for a good man.”

  “But you don’t have to for you can find a husband in Salt Lake City,” Ruth said.

  “Maybe so, but this way I get to pick the one I want,” Sophia said. “Most likely I wouldn’t get that chance in Utah. And besides, any man who
chooses me might already have ten wives or more.”

  Ruth looked imploringly at Caroline. “Tell them they must go with us.”

  “They must make their own decision,” Caroline replied.

  “This is awful,” Ruth said in a plaintive voice.

  “I sure don’t think so,” Sophia said happily. She snuffed out the candle.

  The young women grew still, resting on their sleeping pallets and thinking their private thoughts. Outside, the storm raged on.

  Caroline climbed up from her bed. She knew the girls were still awake, but there was something she must do. She moved toward the tent flap that opened to the outside.

  Lightning flared, like a sun exploding. The inside of the tent became bright as day.

  The light winked out and black night once again filled the tent.

  “Caroline, where are you going?” Ruth called out above the storm.

  “I’m going to properly thank a man who did something very brave for me, and to say good-bye to him,” Caroline said in the darkness.

  “What do you mean?” Ruth asked.

  “Shut up and grow up,” Sophia snapped.

  Caroline untied the flap and stepped out into the storm. The rain struck hard, wetting quickly with its ice-cold deluge. The howling wind sucked away her breath. She shivered, and her lungs pulled hard to catch the swift air.

  She tied the tent flap back into place and turned, her eyes probing the blackness. Lightning struck the ground somewhere close to the south. In the glare the mounds of the Texans’ tarpaulins became visible, glistening like wet oilcloth for a brief moment. She moved into the night, walking the dark world with the wind and the rain.

  ***

  Nathan sat up quickly when the wind began to claw at the corner of his tarp. One corner was jerking and seemed ready to come free from the saddle that held it down. He put his hand on the tarp to hold it in place.

  “Nathan, let me in,” Caroline said, her voice coming as thin as a ghost’s from outside.

  “My God!” exclaimed Nathan. He jerked the tarp loose and lifted it.

  Caroline ducked down and slid in beside him. She trembled from the cold wetness and from what she was about to do.