Chapter 3

When I got back Sam wanted to know what we had found out from the boy. As I explained to her, Fran, and Jana, I noticed that Fran seemed to have her mind on something else. I gave them all the information that I had and went to check on my patients.

The jostling Beth Ann had taken being moved to safety and back had taken a toll on her. She was also pretty unhappy with the diet that I had her on. Two of the other ladies in the wagon train had come around to check on her. Actually the reason they were there was to see for themselves that she was still alive, they had been busy with children during the early morning move. People in this day and age did not survive being gut shot. When they walked up I was just taking the thermometer from her mouth. "No fever! That's good."

"How can she not have a fever?" One of the women asked. The ghoulish bitch almost sounded upset that Beth Ann didn't have a fever.

"She doesn't have a fever because I closed up all of the places that would cause infection. That and I gave her some medicine to keep her from getting sick.

The woman was shaking her head, "It's not natural. It's just not natural." The two ladies turned and went back to their wagons.

"Singing pigs," I said.

Beth Ann looked at me her eye brow arched, "Singing pigs?"

"Yeah, it comes from this: never try to teach a pig to sing, it wastes your time and annoys the hell out of the pig."

Beth Ann laughed then grimaced in pain, "Don't make me laugh. It hurts when I laugh."

I saw Jana's face cloud over and turned around to see what had caused it. Walking towards us was Mrs. Abernathy, Jana came to me and I put my arm around her shoulder and waited for her to catch up to us. "What can I do for you Mrs. Abernathy?

"I don't have anyone to pack up my things," she said while standing there, trying her best to look aloof.

This woman still left a bad taste in my mouth, "And why exactly can't you pack your own kit?"

"I ... I've never done it for one thing. Who will be driving my wagon tomorrow?" she asked.

"Well you need to go talk to Milt and I suggest you take some gold with you because you are going to have to hire some people. From what I've seen of the way you and your dead husband treated the people on this train you aren't going to find anyone that is going to help you for free and that boy we questioned this morning made it clear that your husband was involved in that as well. So get your money out and maybe, just maybe, for fifty dollars or so you can get some help. Otherwise we leave you here to your own end." She had walked over to us a princess but she walked away a broken woman.

Turning back to Jana I asked, "Where's Fran?"

"She left a little bit ago with Sam, they didn't say where they were going," Jana answered and then smiled.

I turned toward Jana and wrapped both my arms around her. A curl of her beautiful auburn hair had fallen down into her left eye. I took and wrapped my finger in it as I gazed into her eyes. "You're very beautiful. Did you know that?"

Jana looked into my eyes as I stared back at hers, "I never felt that I was beautiful," she began, "until I met you. I don't think that I was even alive before I met you."

I had never felt about any girl the way that I felt about Jana. Every time I saw her I had this urge to hold her. I pulled her tighter and with my nose in her hair I inhaled deeply, bathing my nose with her smell. For a brief few seconds I allowed my senses to completely merge with hers. Suddenly I was overcome with the desire to kiss her, to feel those lips against mine, and without any thought to any one around us I did just that.

Our lips met and I felt something that I had never felt before, it felt as though I could fly. When we finally broke our kiss the only thing that I could get out of my mouth was, "Wow!"

Jana just melted more into my body and that's how we were when Fran and Sam walked up. Fran took one look at mine and Jana's faces and asked, "What just happened here?"

Before either of us could answer Beth Ann, who had witnessed the kiss through the open side of the wagon responded, "Love just happened," she sighed, "it was amazing to watch."

"Well little sister, if you can turn loose of your man for a minute, Sam and I have brought you some travelling clothes." Jana turned and took the buckskin shirt and pants that Fran handed her.

"Tom, I've been thinking," Fran started, "for this governor to form an army, he'd need guns wouldn't he?"

"Yeah, I guess he could take some from the federal troops in the area, but they'll need some guns to do that."

Fran started nodding her head and a sly smile started to form on her face, "That boy you questioned said they had specific orders to attack this train, right?"

It was plain as day that she had figured out something, "What are you on to?"

Fran got up, "Come on, I want to show you something."

Jana and Sam and I followed Fran over to the Abernathy wagons. I hadn't realised that there were four wagons, "Who did he have driving these?" I asked Fran.

"Two of them were killed in the first attack and the third is the man with the chest wound. He's not going to be fit to handle a team is he?" Fran responded.

"No, he's past caring, he didn't make it. Now what is it you want to show me?"

I watched as Fran walked over to a sapling about five feet tall, "Cut this off as close to the ground as you can." My Bowie knife made short work of the sapling and I handed it to her. Fran walked over to one of the three freight wagons. Holding the end of the stick flush with the bottom of the wagon she marked the stick at the top rail with her finger. Now she had a measure of the depth of the wagon she threw back the tarp that was covering the wagon and pushed the stick down to the bed of the wagon. Her fingers were over twelve inches above the side wall of the wagon, "Do you think that this wagon has a bottom that's over a foot thick?" her smile was amazing.

"Fran I could just kiss you." I started towards the back of the wagon to undo the tail gate.

"Hey where are you going? What about my kiss?" Fran was giggling now. I was going to just give her a peck but she had other ideas. She gave me a kiss very much like the one I got from her sister earlier. To my surprise I felt myself responding to it the same way, when we did break the kiss we were both weak kneed.

Now that the kissing was out of the way I went back to undoing the back of the wagon. Mrs. Abernathy had heard us and came around the corner, "What are you doing Mr. Dunlap?"

"I'm trying to find out why this wagon has a false bottom in it. I don't suppose you have any idea do you?"

She stared at me as though I had two heads, "False bottom?"

I had just got the two boards that had been slid down a slot formed by two one bys. The bottom section was still closed off however and I could see several big nails that were going to keep it that way. Jana appeared out of nowhere with a hammer and a nail bar and I put them to good use.

When the board finally came loose I could see that the hidden space was packed with wooden crates. I pulled one out and pried the top off of it. I let loose a low whistle. The crate was filled with Walker Colts in .44 caliber, each in its own box

There was a rope that had been lying on top of the crate. I pulled it and another much longer crate came out. Taking the top off this revealed a case of lever action Henry rifles. Now I knew something was wrong. "Fran what year is it?"

"It's 1847 you ninny, why do you ask a silly question like that?"

"Sam go get Broken Knife and bring back my saddle bags, Jana go get Milt." I didn't know what was going on but something was wrong. I knew the history of the Henry rifle, I had a replica back home and I knew that it was invented in 1860, so what was a crate of them doing here thirteen years early. I looked at Mrs. Abernathy and she seemed genuinely surprised but I had to ask, "You knew nothing about these?"

"No, honest Mr. Dunlap I've never seen a rifle like that."

"What do you know about the Governor in Santa Fe?"

"I know that he and my husband were in business together. My husband promised me that we would be treated like royalty for what we were doing." She looked up more frightened and broken than ever before, "He was doing something bad wasn't he?"

"Yes, Mrs. Abernathy, he was. Try treason." It was a good thing Broken Knife was close by because Mrs. Abernathy's eyes rolled into the top of her head and she fainted. Broken Knife caught her in his arms and carried her to a place in the shade. Fran had gone with him and loosened the woman's collar and then went and got a cool wet rag to wipe her face. When she had recovered I asked Fran and Broken Knife to come back to the freight wagon. By now Milt had shown up and he was looking at the rifles and not really believing what he was seeing.

I looked around, "Milt, Jana, and Fran I need your word of honour that what I am about to tell you goes no further that right here." They all gave their word and I reached in to my saddle bags and dug out my wallet. Opening it up and removing my driver's license I handed it to Milt.

He stared at it for several minutes before asking, "I don't understand, what is this?"

"That is my license to drive a motor vehicle, something you don't have in 1847 but something we had more of than we needed in 2006 where I came from." I waited as they tried to digest the strangeness of it all.

"You're from the future. That's why you're so smart on military stuff ain't it?" Milt asked.

"Yes and these rifles are too, they weren't even invented until 1860. Look I don't know what's going on here; the history of New Mexico that I know never mentions anything like this happening.

"What do we do now?" Milt asked

"I don't know other than we don't let these guns fall into the hands of that Governor. I'm not sure I want the army to get a hold of them either."

Milt's face took on a real puzzled look, "Why's that son?"

"In my history, Broken Knife's people are hunted down and slaughtered. They are given land only to have it taken away when it's found to be valuable. I had already made up my mind that I was going to change that part of history."

"How can you do that?" Milt asked a worried look on his face.

"By making the Comanche strong. I don't know exactly how yet, maybe by using the governor's idea and forming a country."

"Won't you have to fight the government if you do that?"

"Milt, in just a few years the United States is going to tear itself in half over slavery. Hundreds of thousands will die and it will leave an open wound that is still bleeding in 2006, and if there are more of these it will be even worse. I don't know what the right thing to do is. I just know that what happens is wrong and has to be stopped. The question is what do we do with these?"

Mrs. Abernathy had recovered enough that she had rejoined us, "If those guns are within the reach of the man they were meant for no one will be safe."

Milt turned to me, "I never did ask why you were headed to Santa Fe."

"We were going there to get pots, pans, blankets and other stuff that would make Red Hawk's peoples lives easier. Something that every white man needs to know is the Comanche have families too and the problems they face are the same as anyone else. They want a future for their children and grandchildren just like any of you would."

Mrs. Abernathy started pulling the tarp back on the freight wagon, "What's wrong with this stuff?"

I had been so wrapped in the guns that I hadn't even looked in the wagon. There, big as life, was all kinds of cast iron cook ware, as well as blankets and other goodies. The other two wagons all held more of the same.

Milt looked at me, "Looks to me like you and Mrs. Abernathy need to make some kind of trade."

I turned to Mrs. Abernathy, "I can pay you in gold." I don't know what I expected her to say, but it wasn't what she said.

She looked at me and with a tear filled face, "You can have it all on two conditions. That's if Fran will try to forgive me and you will take me with you. These people hate me and they have absolutely no reason not to. You seem like the kind of man that would give a person a second chance and that is what I want." I started to look around and see if Broken Knife would catch me if I fainted. I looked at Fran as she walked over to Mrs. Abernathy and put her arm around the woman's shoulder and the tears began to fall from both of them.

I turned to Milt saying, "Well it looks like we will be going back to the plains." I pulled out ten of the Walker Colts and handed them to him.

Milt smiled as he took the guns, "You may as well take all that medical stuff. Is there anything else your people could use?" Milt asked.

"Yeah, light saddles, pack saddles, horse blankets and tack, if you were to come up with some of that kind of stuff we could make it worth your while. Milt, you know that these rifles change everything don't you? Those three prisoners, two of them need to be dead. You know that, right?"

Milt sighed, "Yeah, I don't trust the governor's son anyway. Can you fellows take care of it?"

"Yeah, consider it done," I told him.

"What about the wounded? Do you have any instructions on any of them?" Milt asked

"The man with the chest wound didn't make it. The man with the head wound seems none the worse for the wear. Beth Ann is the only one I'm worried about." I looked over to see Jana shaking her head, "What?" I asked.

"If you think you are going to leave her with this train you better think again. She is planning on going with us, she just hasn't heard that we are leaving early." Jana was smiling.

Milt headed back over to the main cluster of wagons, I turned to Mrs. Abernathy, "What can I do to help you be ready to leave?"

"I ... the girls always packed everything up. Could one of them come and show me how? I'll do it, I ... I just don't know where to start."

Jana walked over to the woman and took her hand, "Come on, I'll help you. Can I call you Lucille?"

For the first time since I'd known the woman a smile crossed her face, "Please call me Lucy."

"All right Lucy, let's get ready to roll." Jana's laughter was enough to get Lucy started and they walked off laughing and giggling.

I walked over to Beth Ann's wagon, "How's my star patient?"

Beth turned towards me, "Upset with you. I was just told that you are going back to Texas without me."

"In my defense, I didn't know you wanted to go."

Beth sighed, "I started on this trip with my aunt and uncle. They died a month ago and I really don't want to be in a strange place all by my self. I like you and the girls so I guess I'll take my chances with you."

"Do you have any livestock that we need to know about?"

She smiled, "Just ten mules, the six we pull the wagon with and four extra. We were rotating them to give some of them a rest."

I was about to go and find something to eat when Tommy Davidson showed up, "What's up Tommy?"

"Huh?" Tommy responded and looking up in the air, "I don't see anything that's up."

"I'm sorry Tommy, let me rephrase that. What can I do for you?" I guess it would sound a little funny a century and a half out of place.

"Is it true that you and the Comanche are going back to Texas tomorrow?" Tommy asked.

"Yes, we've got what we came for and we need to get back. Why?" I had a sinking suspicion as to why and seeing Milt headed this way was only adding to it.

Tommy was standing there trying to make himself look as big and old as he possibly could but there was just so much he could do with what he had to work with. As twelve year old boys went he was on the short side and thin as a rail to boot. But spirit? That the boy had in spades. He had shown it during the fight with the men earlier that morning and he was showing that same spirit right now. "We want to go with you, my sister and me. If we go to Santa Fe they'll split us up and take away everything we have. Some of the women on this train have already tried it. They want to take my sister and raise her but they don't want me and we don't want to be split up."

I wasn't sure what to do, but Milt was here so I figured to let him in on the deciding, "Milt, do you know what this young man wants to do?" I watched out of the corner of my eye as Tommy stood a little straighter when I called him a young man.

"Tom, if you don't take him with you I'm not going to be able to stop these people from splitting these kids up. And I really would hate to see that."

"Tommy, what do you need to be ready to move out?"

"I sure would like to grease the wheels on that wagon, but I need help to get it done quick enough," his face had a million watt smile on it.

"Let's go." I told him and it must have just been too much for the boy as he let loose a "yippee" that made me feel good all over.

Tommy's excitement was more than he could hold, "I'll run ahead and get everything ready."

With that Tommy was off like a shot leaving Milt and me to talk. "There's going to be a couple of women that are going to pitch a fit when they find out that those two are going with you. They were trying to split those two kids before their parent's bodies were even cold. I really am glad that you're taking them kids."

"I didn't have any brothers or sisters but if I'd had some I sure wouldn't want someone trying to split us up."

Broken Knife walked up to us and handed Milt a six foot long stick that was painted and had two feathers and a piece of buffalo horn on the end of it. He then started explaining what it meant in Comanche. When he finished I turned to Milt, "Any time you're going through Comanche territory carry this where it can be seen. You will be left alone unless you start it."

Milt took the gift and offered his hand to Broken Knife. As they shook hands Milt added, "Broken Knife, it has been a real pleasure knowing you and the other members of your tribe. I will always consider you my friends."