Is-A-Man (A J.T. Edson Standalone Western)

by J. T. Edson

  Trained by having received the upbringing which was considered necessary to produce a potential warrior, Tuinep’ was judged competent at everything she might be called up to do in that capacity. Anybody who questioned her right to either wear masculine attire or bear her name quickly came to regret having done so. Regardless of her physique becoming curvaceously buxom in a way which displayed her sex beyond any doubt, there was not an ounce of surplus fat on her body and powerful muscles lay beneath the skin to supply the means by which she could put her objections to the suggestion into effect. Nor did she lack the ability to do so. Skilled in the use of various weapons—including such firearms as came into the possession of the band—due to the lessons she had received from her mother, she was also probably better able then any of her male contemporaries to defend herself with bare hands if the need arose. Furthermore, albeit only in practice against other members of the band as yet—who, nevertheless, had done their best to catch her out—she had proved to the satisfaction of her elders that she was capable of everything a warrior riding a war trail would need to know and do.

  Having attained such a status, like all those of her generation who had reached a similar stage in their development, Annie longed for an opportunity to gain acclaim and social advancement. Before this could happen and almost certainly lead to her being brought into contact and conflict with either the ‘ride plenties’ or the soldiers who also were appearing in increasing numbers, events occurred which were to shape her destiny along lines different to those which she envisaged.

  Natural exuberance and rivalry caused Should-Be-A-Boy and others of her age group, now the leaders of the various gangs of roaming tuinep’ to compete more actively to bring themselves to the notice of their elders. By doing so, they frequently caused the village to be thrown into a state of uproar. While they could not be ordered to desist, long experience had taught the population how to gain a respite from their activities. This was done by taking advantage of them still being required to continue the training intended to turn them into seasoned and experienced tehnap.

  In the company of the half a dozen boys who shared the responsibility for the disturbances with her, Annie was sent on a training expedition under the guidance and command of Feeds Many, a tsukup noted for his long experience and success as a hunter. They were not allowed to take along any provisions, but were expected to live off the land. Finding suitable sustenance proved far from easy. Over the past few years, the great herds of buffalo which had once formed a major portion of their food supply and source of other close to essential materials had diminished. What was more, while the area in which the band was currently making its home had not yet been taken over by the white man’s cattle—which had been allowed to roam and breed without check during the four years of the War Between the States—some other reason had reduced the wild life to a fraction of its former quantities.

  After four days which failed to produce anything larger than jackrabbits, selected to ride scout ahead of the others, the girl had located what would provide a far more substantial meal. Furthermore, although not as large as the buffalo, the creatures she had located were considered almost equal to that great shaggy beast in the matter of acclaim to be gained from them being hunted successfully.

  From birth, especially as her proclivity for masculine rather than feminine activities had manifested itself, Should-Be-A-Boy had been encouraged to be completely self-reliant. Her education had tended to stress individual rather than group effort, particularly where the gaining of acclaim was concerned. Nevertheless, if the animals she had discovered were buffalo—aware that they could be approached and run down on horseback without too great difficulty—she would have returned and enlisted the aid of her companions so as to increase chances of making several kills.

  Knowing that such tactics would not be suitable for dealing with the kind of creatures she had found, Annie had decided that she must conduct the hunt without assistance. She had also concluded that, although the bag would be smaller, doing so would be within her capabilities. Not only would the nature of the terrain allow her to ride closer without being detected in the early stages, but she was carrying the means of making the final approach across open ground attached to the cantle of her saddle. However, the method she was meaning to employ could only be successful if used by a single person.

  There had been an inducement even more potent for Annie than a desire to obtain food and the approbation of the party with whom she was travelling. If she was to be successful, she would have taken a long step towards leaving her days as a tuinep’ behind and being accepted first as a tuivitsi, then, in the course of time, a tehnap, perhaps even a lance carrier, to continue the proud heritage of her family.

  Realizing the situation was offering her a chance to achieve something which had so far eluded her companions, the delight Tuinep’ had experienced over the possibility was tempered by knowing that making anything of it was going to prove far from easy. Regardless of the thought, she had not hesitated before setting off to see if she could prove herself worthy of the advancement.

  Eleven – Go Home, Tuivitsi

  There was nothing in the mouth of the draw that she had descended to reach the open ground to which Annie Singing Bear could fasten her blue roan gelding. However, this did not worry her. She knew it was sufficiently well trained to remain where she left it without needing to be secured in any way. In fact, there was not even the necessity to ‘ground hitch’ it by allowing the one-piece reins to dangle down from the hackamore. What was more, it being her favorite mount, she had taught it to come in answer to her whistle and she could bring it to her when needed.

  Leaning her bow against the right side wall of the gap, Should-Be-A-Boy removed and hung her quiver on the sharply forward curved horn of her saddle. Then she unfastened the bundle attached to the cantle and shook it open to reveal the hide of a buck whitetail deer with the skin of the legs, the head and its antlers still attached. Slipping the hollowed out skull on to her rusty-red brown braids, so the horns rose in almost a natural fashion, she draped the skin around her shoulders. With this done, she continued with her preparations.

  Despite having laid aside the bow and arrows, Tuinep’ had no intention of leaving them behind. Since having been presented with it and the holster by her parents, she had acquired the ability to handle the Colt Army Model of 1860 revolver on her weapon belt fairly well. This included having learned a variation of a technique which her mother had told her was used by white men for bringing it from the holster with reasonable speed. However, it was not the means in which she intended to try and bring down the largest quarry yet to come her way.

  Although Singing Bear had never come into contact with a western gunfighter, he had instinctively adopted a gun expert’s policy and had taught his daughter to regard the six-shooter as a readily accessible defensive weapon, for use only at close quarters. Therefore, she considered the bow was far more suitable to her immediate needs. In addition to having a greater effective range, she could dispatch a succession of arrows, without being restricted to six, just as quickly as she was able to cock the hammer of the single action Colt and squeeze the trigger to discharge bullets.

  Selecting an arrow from the quiver, Annie checked that its shaft was absolutely straight and the vertical hunting head was very sharp. Having assured herself upon these vital issues, she retrieved the bow and quiver. Holding the former with her left hand, she nocked one arrow to the string with her right thumb and forefinger. Having done so, she curled the other three around the carrying strap of the latter so it could be dropped if the need to use the bow should arise. Contriving to keep them all concealed beneath the hide, she advanced a couple of paces. Then, showing great caution, she surveyed her surroundings to check that everything was ready for the final and most difficult part of the approach to within shooting distance of her quarry.

  As Should-Be-A-Boy knew all too well, although she could not have put the thought into exact words, she was in conten
tion against creatures ideally suited by selective breeding over thousands of years for survival upon the kind of terrain which formed their natural habitat.

  However, while the Pahuraix did not hunt them as regularly as the Kweharehnuh Comanche band, Annie had been taught enough about the habits of the animals she would be stalking to believe there was a chance of her efforts meeting with success. On the other hand, she did not delude herself into considering the task a sinecure. Regardless of contriving to arrive undetected at the mouth of the draw, the hardest part of the task still lay ahead. There was a small clump of flowering dogwood bushes no more than fifty yards from the nearest of her intended quarry, but it was almost a quarter of a mile away. Reaching the shelter it offered would be far from easy.

  In spite of the kind of hide being used as camouflage by Tuinep’ the animals she had located were not whitetail deer!

  When first coming into contact with the vast herds of American pronghorn, early white trappers and buffalo hunters called them ‘goats’. With no greater justification, laymen of later generations referred to the species as being an ‘antelope’. Naturalists, studying the animals with greater attention to detail, in spite of classifying the species, Antilocapra ‘Goat-Like Antelope’ Americana, found it to be very much of an anomaly. While having some of the habits of both types of creatures to which it been erroneously related by less knowledgeable people, and regardless of having an appearance resembling the antelopes of Africa and Asia and sharing the same predilection for open spaces, it was related to neither them nor the goats. Furthermore, while it had characteristics of other animals, it was closely related to none.

  Branched forward in a distinctive fashion, growing around a blade-like boney core permanently attached to the skull, the protuberances rising from the head of the pronghorn were shed annually like the antlers of a deer. Nevertheless, being comprised of hair, whereas antlers were bone, they classed as horns. No other animal had branched horns capable of being shed. Like the sheep and goat families, the species possessed a gall bladder and the females of all three had small horns. To further confuse the naturalists, it shared with the camel the distinction of having no dewclaws. However, the anomalies which plagued white scientific students notwithstanding, it was ideally suited for its way of life.

  Neither knowing nor caring about the problems of classification caused by the pronghorn for white naturalists, Should-Be-A-Boy studied the herd she had located with the gaze of a predator seeking food. With a mature buck standing between thirty-two and forty inches high at the shoulder, being about four to four and a half feet in length, it had a weight of anything from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five pounds. The does averaged about ten per cent smaller. Although she hoped she would be able to bring down at least two regardless of sex, allowing the surplus meat to be taken back to the village, even one of either sex would provide a more adequate meal than jackrabbits for herself and the other members of her party.

  The problem Annie was seeking to solve was how to arrive at the shelter offered by the flowering dogwood bushes from which she hoped to make at least one kill with the means at her disposal. While a very skilful Comanche archer could send an arrow with accuracy over greater distances, she knew the limits of her ability were somewhat less than a hundred yards. However, she was convinced that—provided she could avoid putting her quarry to flight before having approached to within that range—she ought to be able to achieve her purpose. But she had to get much nearer to the fifty or so pronghorn loosely scattered on the open land which offered no other cover. Doing so was not made easier by nature having equipped them to detect and avoid stalking predators in such terrain.

  Should-Be-A-Boy was aware that the pronghorn had sharp hearing and a keen sense of smell. Nevertheless, according to all she had heard, it was the most remarkable eyesight which she considered would pose the greatest threat. Set wide apart and deep in boney sockets, the eyes of a pronghorn had a diameter of around one and a half inches. Far seeing, with spherical vision, she had been told they had a power so great that on a clear day moving objects could be located at distances ranging to three or more miles. If any member of the herd detected possible danger, two muscular discs contracted and caused the mass of white hair on the rump to rise abruptly and reflect a remarkable amount of light. What was more, twin glands in the discs released a pungent odor which served to draw further attention to the maker of the alarm signal. As the flaring disc patches of the one locating a potential threat were seen, they were immediately repeated by others until every pronghorn within visual distance was alerted and on the lookout, ready to take flight if necessary.

  Talking of the ‘good old days’, before the coming of the paleface brother, tsukup claimed there were times when the plains as far as the eye could see would be dotted with the alarm signals. It was also told how inexperienced tuivitsi sometimes mistook the flashes emitted by the pronghorn for the sun glinting upon the shiny metal worn by enemies such as white ‘long knife’ soldiers. xxv

  However, regardless of their superb means of self-preservation, there were ways by which the pronghorn could be hunted successfully. Unlike the buffalo still to be found in the northern part of the band’s now reduced territory, albeit in much smaller numbers than were known to previous generations, they could not be approached and run down in a chase on horseback. There was, in fact, justification for the claim that the pronghorn was the fastest creature on four legs.

  Nevertheless, although the girl had never heard of such a term, she had been taught there was a vital chink in the armor of the species’ otherwise well developed instincts for self-preservation. This was the trait of curiosity and she was intending to exploit it to her benefit. She had heard of hunters having been able to hold the attention of the creatures while moving closer by waving a blanket or hide over the head, but she was relying upon a disguise which she had been told was even more likely to lead to success.

  Pausing for a moment before leaving the concealment offered by the mouth of the draw, knowing she would almost certainly be located almost as soon as she stepped on to the open ground, Should-Be-A-Boy silently breathed the appropriate prayer asking Ka-Dih to look kindly upon her efforts!

  With the precaution taken, Annie stepped forward to attempt to make possible the acquisition of food for her companions, and for her to receive the acclaim of the rest of the Pahuraix band when they returned to the village. Instead of trying to avoid being detected, knowing this would be impossible, she walked from her hiding place openly. However, she bent at the waist and allowed the hide’s legs to dangle down as if they were still being used as a means of locomotion.

  Grazing on the tender green shoots of grass and range weeds such as chicory, onion, larkspur or dandelion, the master buck, even more than the others in the herd scattered across the open ground, did not allow eating to override vigilance. Between plucking up food, he kept darting repeated glances all around. However, aware that such a growth could offer shelter for a predator, he never let his gaze stay long away from the clump of flowering dogwood bushes which was the only piece of sizeable cover in the immediate vicinity. The need for such frequent scrutiny was increased by the undergrowth being downwind and, therefore, no warning smell would be forthcoming if some dangerous beast was lurking in concealment.

  Catching sight of a movement, the buck was ready to give the warning which would cause his family to take flight. However, the grazing hereabouts was good and, before warning he wanted to be certain the departure was necessary. Therefore, he turned his very keen gaze upon the source of the movement. From all appearances, the creature which had attracted the attention was horned and was moving on four legs. There was no wind borne scent to help form conclusions, but the actions were not suggestive of a predator trying to approach its prey unnoticed. They were, nevertheless, sufficiently unusual to arouse interest. With his curiosity stirred, the buck elected to hold back the signal until certain whether flight would be necessary. With that in mind, while resumi
ng his grazing, he kept darting looks at the slowly advancing creature.

  Peering from beneath the head-piece of her disguise, Tuinep’ was elated by her success so far. However, knowing her task was still nowhere near completed, she kept her eagerness under a tight rein. Each step took her nearer to her goal, but she realized any undue haste could ruin all she had so far achieved. Once she attained the concealment offered by the bushes, she could discard her disguise and be ready to use the bow from a distance over which she was confident she could make a hit even if her quarry started moving away.

  Step by step, occasionally causing the head and antlers to jerk upwards and, hopefully, add to the belief that she was some harmless kind of animal, the girl advanced across the open ground in her crouching posture. She was ready to stop if any of the pronghorns, more of which had noticed her, showed signs of becoming alarmed. However, judging from appearances, they were just as curious as the master buck and, following its lead, were doing nothing more than keeping her under intermittent observation while carrying on grazing.

  At last, Tuinep’ was behind the shelter of the bushes!

  A sigh of relief burst from Annie as she realized she was now hidden from her quarry and need no longer remain bent over beneath the hot and far from comfortable disguise. Lowering the quiver to the ground, she rested the bow and nocked arrow against the branches. Then, easing off the hide, she draped it over the foliage so the antlers would be in view from the other side. With that done, not hearing or receiving any other indications that the pronghorns were alarmed by her actions, she swung the strap of the quiver over her head and suspended it across her back. Picking up the bow and arrow, she started to ease herself into a position from which she would be able to use them.

  Still partially concealed by the dogwoods, having found a point at which two were sufficiently far apart for their foliage to form a shallow U-shape instead of being at practically the same height, the girl was delighted by what she saw. One of the antelope, a doe approaching its prime, had grazed closer than she realized during her approach. It was standing broadside on no more than twenty-five yards away and offered as near a perfect target as any Nemenuh hunter could desire. Moving with all the caution she could muster, struggling to control her excitement and eagerness to take up the challenge offered by the largest animal she had so far sought to kill, she concentrated all her attention upon making the smoothest draw of her life.