“  Haven’t I taught you anything?  “

            “  You’re an old man! You got nothing left to lose like I do!  “

            “  What about your soul? You want to love, have a child and then see angry men storm your camp and take their vengeance? Wasn’t living through it enough?  “

            “  The strong take what they want. The weak have to take it! Just like them! You think you can save’m all?  “

            It took every fiber of his being to keep from lashing the boy’s sneering mouth.

He made himself turn his back, staring at his clinched hands until he could make them stop shaking, his ears listening for the rifle shots that would destroy everything he’d been working to build up since the boy had stumbled into their night camp more dead than alive. Then his hips hurt too bad to keep his weight centered on them any longer and he began to slowly walk down the hill. What was a man’s life worth of he left nothing of himself behind, not even his footprints in the lives of the young he’d influenced.

            It was past dark with the moon having risen and set almost immediately before Manolito returned. Though Paul waited on the front porch to speak to the youngster, he remained down in the bunk house with their two guests from Carson City.

            “  Marshall, may I speak with you?  “  Marcy asked.

            Paul pulled down his pipe and tried to wave the smoke away one handed, but with the smoking bowl of the cob still in that hand, he simply made smoky circles in the still air.

            “ Please don’t try to stand on my account. “        

            He smiled in gratitude.

            “  Yes’m. Thank you.  “

            She reached over and pulled one of the weathered straight back chairs beside him, on his injured side, but that allowed the breeze trapped under the porch to follow in her direction, so with an apologetic smile she stood up with a groan and moved it again.

            “  You came her to die, didn’t you?  “

            “  Not that I’m aware of. “  He said at last, but even the smile was gone from his voice.

            She nodded, giving no sign of her emotions.

            “  What if they try again and I or one of the children gets hit?  “

            “  That’s the reason I’m leaving in the morning instead of staying here to mend. That, and what I told the boys is true. The grass is thick, the weather is good, its going to hard enough to find some way to trap ’m but now that I have my brother’s horse to turn loose with ’m, I see more than ever I want a couple of those fillies I watched grow up. If you and the children stay or not, I’m going up to the Nez Pez in Idaho after we take Doc Wilder and the Padre to San Francisco Bay, and I’m going to get me seven of them spotted mares I’ve been hearing so much about, if’fn they’ll trade that many to me in the time I’ll have left to get back before the snow closes off the mountains. I got four years before I have to return to civilization with Miss Becka. I’m going to discover that I’m old onces’t I sink into my Pappy’s velvet chair at the family home. I’ll have a man to take off my boots and a washerwoman just to iron and starch my shirts, all the things I hated so much forty years. I admit they’re calling to me, but until then, I ain’t got time to be old. What about you?  “

            She shrugged eloquently. 

            “  I don’t get no older, Marshall, only my children age. “

            “  No, I meant coming with us?  “

            “  Are you asking me to marry you?  “  She demanded in shock, offended by his repugnance at her suggestion.

            “  Not hardly. I don’t think I’ll find a white woman what can bear my flesh. I ain’t even asked an Indian woman although a couple of older matrons in Red Hand’s band has attracted me. They have a way of looking at life that I admire greatly. “

            “  But they’re Indians!  “

            “ They’re people. Haven’t you learned that by now? Mrs. O’Donnell? “

            “  I haven’t been able to hold my breath that long, Mr. McWhorter.”  She snapped icily, rearranging her long skirts to cover even the toe of her shoe, which had become visible.

            His sigh caught her off guard.

            “  As much as the Irish are hated in New York when they arrive, I would have…  Never mind!  “  He said sharply, reaching to tap out his pipe before he realized there were still burning embers in it. He placed it in his lap, as far from her as he could, but he felt distant and angry at having to defend his hard won beliefs even here in his own home. Becka had learned the prejudice of the age, mocking him for being ‘an injuin lover’. Would it never end?

            “  No, Marshall, you’re right. I apologize. I hate being forced to meet new people and adjust; I’ve had to do so much of it!  “

            “  The apologies are mine to make. If you returned with us, the children would be uprooted again, you’d have to make new friends, learn a new language to all intents and purposes, no, I wasn’t thinking.  “  He startled violently at her touch and she quickly withdrew her hand.

            “  I don’t think you’re mocking me?  “

            “  I’m not.  “

            “  Good. “  She said helplessly, between constricted sighs. “ I’m looking for what’s best for my children. Here I see only crude mining towns, inhospitable towns where outsiders are hated more than the English back home, and land that’s free for the taking, but cost a body’s soul to maintain. But I came for the sake of my children while they were yet unborn, and nothing has happened as I imaged!  There’s so much emptiness here! And within me. “

            “  I can’t help with that.  “

            “  I know that. “  She laid her hands in her lap and stared at them with resignation.

            “  Maybe you’d be better served by going to see the Judge about employment in Carson City. It isn’t as rough as when you first arrived. President Lincoln gave us statehood in thanks for helping with the War effort… “

            “  You were on the wrong side…  “  She stopped at the grimace of pain on his face.

            “  No Ma’am. “  He corrected her somberly. “  I just wasn’t on the side that won.  “  He braced himself for the gnawing tumble of memories and angers and doubts, but oddly, there was neither an increase nor a decrease in the gentle hum of the nighttime desert around them. He let out his breath cautious, with a swift, silent prayer of gratitude.

“  We won’t have time to take the three day journey with you, and we’re going to ne4ed the wagon and horses, but as soon as I get back we can go.  “

            “  Go where? Out of the heated frying pan into the fire? I don’t think that would be wise, no matter my foolish pride, Marshall. “

            “  Can’t one person tell another person, what to do. That’s up to you. But seeing how well you’ve handled adversity to this point, and how fine your young men are, I think you’ll come up smelling like a rose no matter how deep the puddle of mud and manure you fall into!  “

            She laughed, as he hoped, but then she lingered when he’d hoped she’d go back inside the overheated house. After three long sighs, her feet escaped their rigid pose and she leaned back against the cane and wood chair, causing it creak and threaten.

            “  You think it’s going to rain soon?  “

            She asked at last.

            “  Not any time, soon.  “

            “ Can you forgive me, Marshall?  “

            “  For what? Being human?  “

            He sensed rather than saw her smile.

            “  For working so hard for the war effort?  “

            “  You did what you thought right. “

            “  How could you fight to keep men and woman enslaved?  “

            “  I didn’t. I fought for my home, for the right to do and say what my conscience tells me is right, and not the will of some fat, pox marked politician who can’t keep his hands from where they don’t belong! “

            She gasped at his vehemence and crudeness but she lingered, savoring the only adult moments she’d had in nearly two years.

            “  Let’s agree not to speak of it again.  “ She urged sweetly, gaining a new insight and respect for the burly giant who seemed too big and slow to have such intelligence behind his bulk.

            “  Not while I’m breathing!  “  He agreed and she understood even the things he’d left unsaid.                        

-

            The standing bear on the pictograph drew Speckled Bird’s attention once the evening brought enough chill to light a fire. By the dancing flame of the tiny campfire the outsized bear seemed to quiver its muscles, as if straining to be free of the impediment of stone holding it in place. A small figure, either a youth or a small man was holding up a strangely shaped bow that was built up in the middle as it two bows hand been strung together in the warrior’s hand while next to him another male figure leaned back holding an arrow in an awkward position as if to fling it at the hulking beast. ‘It wouldn’t have penetrated all four layers of fur’, she thought in puzzlement, and yet it had been an important enough event to warrant being etched in stone.

            “  Standing Bear ” had been the White Eye’s name until the death of a member of their moiety and her father had chosen a different for Paul McWhorter, to illustrate how he had presented himself among the People, as someone who could be trusted, no matter how difficult the battle or how uneven the numbers against them. And though speaking the name was forbidden to those who knew both men, it was a hunting reminder to her of the way her life had turned. He had given her father presents at her birth, had attended her

mother’s burial, treated them both as one of his own, and yet she knew nothing about him other than what she gleaned listening over their shoulders when the adults thought she was asleep with the other children. As the only White Eyes she’d ever been in close personal contact with, he was an endless source of fascination to her.     

            Hausu stepped out of the darkness. He’d caught two sage hens asleep with their heads under their wings and wrung their necks. All the way back, he’d been thinking less of his belly than of the strange ache that loneliness was bringing. Since they arrived on the shores of the ancient lake she’d ben avoiding him going off on her own and hardly speaking to him when they were together. It had sounded so grand; to ride out boldly and come back with stories to tell that would leave the bother boys his age speechless with awe and envy.  He hadn’t given any real thought to the time in between and he hoped presenting her with smoked meat would allow her to release him without causing strife, something his gentle soul abhorred. 

            Speckled Bird cried out suddenly in pain as she doubled up, clutching at her belly. Bringing the tall youth to her side at a dead run, as he threw the lifeless lumps to one side in his haste to hurry to her.

            “  What is it?  “

            “  I don’t know, I hurt. Like I ate something wrong!  “

            “  You’re bleeding!  “ He cried out in shock, pulling back from her in repugnance.

“  Something’s eating you from the inside!  “

            “  Go! Go!  “  She demanded.

             Frightened out of his wits the youth jumped back from her and quickly disappeared from the dim light cast by the fire.

            She lay back on her side, weeping violently, feeling the hot gush of blood draining from her as she beat on her mounded belly to attempt to kill the beast that had crawled within.

            “  She’s simply become a woman!  “  Bright Cloud demanded angrily, seeing the old man’s disgust and fear.

            “  She’s too young to bleed!  “

            “  She’s too young to mate, but not to bleed. Her mother was only a year older. “

She said in a quiet voice but the tall youth beside her pulled back his gums from his teeth

In an angry snarl.

            “   But what if you’re wrong? What if a beast has crawled inside my belly? I will die!  “

            “  Is it a power Silver Fox gave only to women. It was Coyote’s male jealousy that brings to pain, like childbirth! Go! Ask your mother!  “

            “  You were harsh with him!  “

            “  And you weren’t harsh with Stands By The Shoulder?  “

            “  That was different!  “

            “  Why? Because I’m a woman and you’re a man, Husband?  “

            Lacking a good answer. The old Peace Chief closed his mouth and stood to his feet with difficult.

            “  When you’ve found a civil tongue to speak to someone who does you no harm, I will return!  “

            “  Don’t hold your breath while you’re waiting, my husband!  “

            He stiffened at the doorway to the conical, brush topped U’macha, but at the last moment he swallowed his pride and retuned to the slow shuffle his worries inflected on his limbs. One never won an argument with a woman and then expected any peace under the bearskin covers!  Less so, when she was right and they both knew it!

            But at the end of their two-day travel, the girl was gone and no trace remained of where they had camped except an oval of scorched sand, pox marked by the shod hooves of White Eye’s horses! Had she run from the riders or from them? With her new ability to grow a child if they forced themselves on her, Red Hand grimly search for where her moccasins had left some trace of where she was headed.

            “  What are they doing now, Hank?  “

            “  How am I supposed to know?  They’re injuins!  It looks like they sat down, talking?  “

            “  Let me see!  “

            Malcolm Tolbert seized the binoculars and twisted the dial until they suited his eyes.

            “  Chet’ll have our hides if we let that girl escape. They’re our best chance for finding her before him and Jonas get back!  “ 

            “  He’ll know!  “  Hank sobbed.

            “  How are you going to tell him?  “

            “  He’ll know!  “  Hank repeated, cringing in fresh fear.  “  Let’s get out of here while we still can, Matey! Even the cat-o-nines and grubs in our biscuits ain’t half as bad as cooking to death in our skin! And if we get on-board we can always jump ship somewheres else better, if’fn we don’t like it. Where we going to go from here?  “

            “  The one time in your life you ever had a good thought.  “  Malcolm agreed, returning the rusted glasses to be cautiously returned to their case. “ I ain’t going to offend the gods by not acting on it. Come on! We can get back to port quicker ’n he can get back! Let’s go. Let go of me you mindless puke!  I ain’t that way! “

            Hank wiped his nose on the back of his torn shirt as he pulled back ashamed from his instinctive embrace.  “  I ain’t neither. I was overcome by emotion, I was. “

            “  You do that again and you’ll be overcome by my fist smashing out what teeth you got left in your rotting head!  “ 

            “  Aye, Capt’n.  “  The larger man agreed humbly, suddenly frightened that if he angered the other too badly Malcolm would simply ride off and leave him here!

            “  Ain’t no Chit worth all that, black or white! Or Red or Yellow… “  He added slowly. Then he blushed violently and gave his friend’s shirt collar a jerk. “ Come on.  “

-

             Speckled Bird slowly released the pressure on the bow, easing the strain on her arm as she read their body language from a safe distance. She was conscious that the odor that escaped the twisted reeds and absorbent filler between her legs would have given her away to anyone with sense, she’d half hoped that being downwind would allow her to catch some of their words, but their language was strange to her ear. It was enough to see that they were clearly disgusted and planning to leave. She decided to follow them a short ways on her horse, to be certain they weren’t pantomiming a plan to give a sense of false

Security, but approaching her mare was difficult as the horse was unsettled by the strong odor but once she was finally able to mount, she picked up their trail easily. The speed with which they were lashing their horses was dangerous but it spoke of their fear of something they’d seen. She looked over her shoulder, indecisive about whether to return or pick up her few stores and move to another site. As carefully as she remembered everything she saw while she was watching them, she couldn’t think of anything that might have raised such fear for two able bodied men. Deciding not to dismount, she rode to the edge of the rim rock where they’d been peering for so long, but the only movement was of a small herd of wild horses and the family group of pronghorn antelope moving away casually from the slow passage of the horses. That they were moving now implied someone or something was chasing them, and she though she couldn’t see anything now, it seemed reasonable that the two White Eyes had seen something that made them so afraid they’d risk killing their horses! 

            She drew in a breath cautiously. ‘Why couldn’t she see what it was?’  She asked herself in superstitious fear. ‘ Why wasn’t she seeing it?’  Her rational mind countered, since she was at so great a height over the dry valley floor she should have been able to see for miles! Since neither side could prove weight over the other, she pushed the question behind her, envisioning it falling into an acorn basket on the back of her shoulders. Once she had found new sheltered and more reds and padding she would take the time to prayerfully consider all that she had seen today. Survival came first.        

-

              Ducking his head from the stiff, chill breeze that blew up the hill from the band of blue supporting the isolated island of Alcatrez, Arthur Reinbeck tried to hide his feelings of rage knowing that any emotions he foolishly showed would only be used against him but he was in such a difficult spot! If he paid the money his informant was clearly expecting before he’d even divulged how much value it would or wouldn’t be, then he’d be taking coins from his belly! This was all the money had left to eat with!

            “  Begging your pardon Sir. Obviously! There are so few immigrant women or women arriving on every ship with child-swollen bellies that you can indulge your search at your leisure! I’ll be going now. “

            Sheer anxiety made him take a step after the mocking street urchin when a hand seized his. At first he thought it was child, then he saw the heavy-lined face of a mature adult on a short-legged stocky body. 

            “  I don’t usually get involved but Paul McWhorter killed a friend of mine. You follow the lad and you’ll be jumped by his cronies. They may be small but they stopped being children the minute they was let loose on the streets to fend for themselves! ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’ the Greek used to say. I think I knows who you mean. Don’t pay me till I point her out. But if I’m right-you’ll owe me as big a favor in return, no questions asked. I ain’t opposed to doing something legitimate, even Christ-like I may add, I just don’t make a regular habit of it, you might say.  “

            “  Don’t take the Lord’s Name in vain!  “

            “  Now that we ’s understand one another, follow me. I may get lost since I ain’t used to be denied me shortcuts, but I’ve the feeling you and me belong together, like smut and ore.  “

            Had the short, round man delayed, Arthur would have shown him the back of his hand and simply started looking on his own, but there was a purposefulness to the little man’s uneven gait that implied he knew what he was talking about. Mindful of every shadow that came at him from overhead as he attempted to force him trembling legs up and down the steep hills of the City.

            He cursed the day he was born as he soon as he saw the expensive carriage the well-dressed dwarf was pointing too and recognized the round, pudgy face dressed in lace and expensive bird’s feathers, thinking she was spending his hard earned money like a fool. But when he followed her on foot, as best he could, he lacked the breath to do anything more violent than breathe in and out harshly. His legs were shaking and his belly protested its emptiness with loud growls that he firmly shut away from long years of miserly habit that he might see his precious store of coins grow inside their hidden chamber.

            “  I have to live to see another day. I’ll find her!  “

            “  If you want to live to see that other day, pay me what you owe me. “  A voice said kindly, but when he finally looked down to see the bore of the pistol aimed at his face there was nothing behind it to suggest generosity or compassion.  “

            “  Can you help me rob her?   “

            “  Who?  “

            “ That overstuffed sausage I was chasing!  “

             Carl the Lute gasped, his eyelids blinking in surprise rapidly. He’d been braced for the denial that it was the woman sought after, and he knew enough of the story from the servant’s chatter to guess this was the cuckold husband, so his expecting to exact revenge was plausible enough, but he hadn’t stayed out of irons this long by being trusting!

            “  They can’t find where she hid it! Why can you?  “

            “  I lived with her three years. I know her insides and her outside better than she does! “

            “  What’s in it for me?  “

            Arthur Reinbeck wet his lips and puckered them against his lower teeth.

            “  You could kill me, and take what’s there. ‘As if I’d tell you where the rest is’ “

He added inwardly. “  But if we work together we’ll make so much money we’ll have to hire other people to spend it for us!  “

            “  How can you be sure if that?  “

            “  What made you save me? You could have allowed me to follow and been beaten senseless and robbed!!  “

            “  What good would that do me, I wouldn’t see a cent of it!  “

            “  What made you save me? “  He repeated, allowing the shorter man to think over the implications. “  There’s something about me that makes you trust me; people do.

Though I don’t pretend to know why. But I lack the knowledge you have, the resources of the dark alleys and the night stalkers. What can stop us if we put them together? “

            “  You could get greedy we’d make so much and want to keep it all! “  The shorter man demanded, but his eyes were filled with that familiar look Arthur Reinbeck was waiting for.

            “  Let’s cross that bridge when we get there. I’ll be sleeping with one eye open too, Little Man.

            “ Carl. “  He said in a moment’s decision, thrusting up his hand. “ Carl Lutemann, at your service.  “  He clicked his heels together and bowed gracious as he’d learned to do in the circus, but this time it illicit no laugh or condemnation.  “  We’d better get you something to eat before somebody mistakes you for a bear and shoots you!  “

            “  Make yourself to home while I light some fire, Gov….Now, tell me, what’s you got to do with the likes of a lady like her?  “

            “  Landed gentry?  “  He mocked. Then his brow furrowed. “  If she’s gotten all this on mostly credit, like you say the servants tell you, then she must have the rest of it the house. We’ve got to stop her before she wastes it all on some spindly trickster who can keep his dinner down while telling her how beautiful she is. “

            “  What ‘we’ would that be?  “

            “  Why! You and I, Mr. Lutemann. You and I.  “ 

            The smaller man leaned back and looked over his steepled fingers. His mother always claimed his father was Beelzebub, the prince of demons, but looking at what lay beneath the outwardly placid features of the red faced ‘gentleman’ occupying the one unbroken chair in the apartment, he began to wonder if he wasn’t striking a deal with Old Ned himself?

            “  Count me in. For as long as there’s profit. “

            “  Oh, there’ll be profit. “  Arthur Reinbeck said in a low, frightening tone. “  More than you can stuff in a pillow in the time of cat’s yawn!  “

            “  How’d you know?  Who told you?  “  He screeched, jumping to his feet in alarm. The taller man’s cane barred his way while Reinbeck smiled maliciously.

            “  The boys you hired to lure me into the ally.  “

            Carl the Lute sank to the floor sobbing, moving with a grace usually denied his stubby form. He had died and was in hell; surely that was the only answer to this strange twist of fate!

-

            The short rotund man allowed the screen door to fall shut behind him knowing the aproned woman wouldn’t dare to correct him to his face like she did her children when they forgot and came in and out through the elegantly pillared front porch.

             “  Why you avoiding me, Paul Lee? I got bad breath? My farts stink? What?  “

            The stocky giant looked up from the chair, pretending a sudden interest in his unlit pipe.

            “  Answer me now or I’ll pull down my trousers and moon you till you do! The way you did me in my office that first day we met!  “

            Paul McWhorter had to hold his side while he laughed. But as soon as he caught his breath, the old Jurist’s face became somber again.

            “   I will think of you as my closet friend till the day I draw my last breath, Paul Lee McWhorter! But you weren’t fit for my job at thirty and your twice as unfit now at almost seventy!  “

            “  I got a ways to go before I get there, Judge.  “  Paul snapped in wounded pride.

            “  About as far as I can spit. Come on! Get up! I want to talk with you, in the house!  “

            “  We’ll be overheard in there, if we can even hear ourselves speak, Judge.  “  Paul pleaded, but the shorter man was adamant. Hurrying him to his feet with a curious need for haste that set off an alarm in the big man’s heart. He was almost inside when a frenzy of barking made it sound like the ranch was being attacked by a bear or a full sized war party.

            “  What’s that?  “

            “  Your dogs barking. “  Willard answered, deliberately vague.

            “  Yes, but why are they barking?  “

            “  You remember the Bible story of Samson and Goliath?  “

            “  Vaguely.  “

            “  Well, You ain’t exactly David, and he ain’t exactly Goliath but he’s been coming to that there ridge every afternoon to call you out to battle. The boy wanted to bushwhack him and we had to sort’ tae tie him up to keep him from it. We don’t even know why he’s calling you out so spooky like. “

            “  Did he say his name Judge?  “  Paul asked, annoyed by the look that passed between his old friend and Liam Chord before Willard Orrville cleared his throat again and turned back to him to answer. They’d gotten awful chummy in just two weeks! 

            “  Chet Macalister. Says he’s come to get his horse. “

            “  Over my dead body!  “

            “  Yeah…  “  Willard agreed slowly, betraying his Louisiana Bayou roots. “ That pretty much sums up the whole affair.  “  He added, nodding his head sagely.

            “  Well he gets tired of not getting an answer to his provocations he’ll quit on his own and go away. I’ve had enough death and violence to last twelve lifetimes! I came here to put the War behind me once and for all, and by all that’s holy, that’s exactly what I aim to do, Judge!

            Paul hated being invalided, especially in his own home. Having given the stern, thick bodied woman time to settle in he and Luke Cole began to make use of Mollok’s expertise in blacksmithing and carpentry, but when he had to come indoors to rest he couldn't avoid being so handy to baby sit the three year old or her sleeping sister while their mother worked outside in the garden!  He hated taking naps while the children were awake and noisy because they allowed the nightmares to creep back in and it was humiliating to be shaken awake while four little heads stood in the doorway to his bedroom with their eyes and mouths as round as saucers! But his body simply refused to bow to his will and he had to take to using a cane on his uninjured side, sitting on the front porch in the cool of the day after dawn or in the brief descent of nightfall, watching Luke Cole attempt to make friends with the wary black stallion, while pretending to himself that it was Robert or Curry, seen at that distance.

            The judge’s sudden relief at his being alive allowed him a two-day drinking binge to purge his anger and fear. Meekly obeying Marcy O’Donnell’s dismissal to the partially furnished bunkhouse until he sobered up. Liam Chase joining him there, since he seemed to feel any attempt at reconnecting their decades long friendship might somehow jeopardize his chance to take over the Judge’s job when he retired, or passed out too publicly and had to be replaced. Friendship, or even genuine concern for others seemed the least of his interests, but he was literate and precise and could count higher than ten without taking his socks off, so Paul withdrew every time Chord came near rather than risk alienating someone Willard Orrville needed, whether he admitted to it or not. So seeing the bevy of wagons approaching and hearing the singing accompanied by a hand held accordion called to something inside him that rebelled against the grimness attempting to overwhelm him as guilt and sadness had before it. 

            “ Hello the house!  “  A male voice called loudly from the lead wagon as the dogs, awakened to such unusual noise, fled out from under the coolness of the front porch, streaking like three arrows from the same bow.

            “  Hello Bernie!  Come sit a spell. What’ yah got there with you?  “

            “  Just yore neighbors, Marshall!  “  He called in high-pitched excitement. It was obvious he wanted to say more but his wife was pulling on his shirttail anxiously before he got knocked over by standing upright in a moving wagon.

            Paul heart began to beat wildly in his chest. Never in a million years had he thought they would come to see him since he hadn’t been able to call even once since his return, but clearly their isolation linked them too much for small grudges.

            Paul levered himself to his feet slowly using the arms of the chair that Mollok had constructed and attached to his natural height, putting it well above the comfort of the other people around him. He smiled as he watched Clara Larchmont turn around for last minute instructions to their three little ones since in the baby in her arms was the only one not waving and shouting excitedly as the other two wagons came into view. He hadn’t realized how large a part empty silence had become of him!

-

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