Chapter 14

That night we had a meeting with the whole camp. The letter was discussed and what it would mean to all of us. Timothy Whitehead, the man that had given me the letter from Black to the governor, had given us a wealth of information on Black's operation, including a map of his compound. The problem was moving through the country. One or two hundred armed men would cause the locals to panic. As near as we could figure St. Jo was only about three hundred miles away, but between here and there was Fort Leavenworth.

Matthew Johnson, the former commandant of Ft. Larned, said he knew the commanding officer at Ft. Leavenworth and knew him to be a fervent abolitionist. Both he and his wife were sure that he would support any action we took against Black. The decision was made to take the herds and the wagons with us. If it got to looking like we wouldn't make it in time we would take two companies and rush ahead. The problem was the attention two or three hundred armed and mounted riders would draw.

Matthew wrote a letter to his friend at Leavenworth it was entrusted to one of our best squads and they left at first light along with three other squads that were to scout and set up our relay system.

I'm sure I've mentioned before how irritatingly slow travel is in this day and age. Three hundred miles, five or six hours easy in a car, I was deep in thought trying to divide three hundred by seventy when I heard the call. "Rider coming" followed closely by the whistles for officers, I spurred Jack and we headed to the head of the column.

George Washington Smith, one of the many teenaged slaves that we had freed, slid his pony to a stop and saluted Red Hawk, "Sir, it's another wagon train with the special wagons."

"How far away are they trooper?" Red Hawk asked.

"About twenty five miles, they have fifteen of the wagons and there's a guard on each and ten men mounted all carrying M-4's," the young trooper reported

It wasn't quite noon yet, I turned to Red Hawk, "If we keep going we'll meet them before dark. Let's just keep going and when we meet them let's see if they feel like taking all of us on."

Red Hawk just grinned and whistled for the wagons to move out. He sent the trooper to get a fresh horse and then spread the word that we wouldn't be stopping at noon.

It was a little before five when we met them. Red Hawk had Capt. Mills unlimber his guns and sent Red Hand and Broken Knife to the left and right with two companies apiece. That left three companies directly in front of them. It didn't take long for them to come up with a white flag and ride out to meet us.

"What is the meaning of this? How dare you stop us? We are on official business," a well dressed man screamed at us.

"Would that be business with the governor of Santa Fe?" I asked.

"Yes, it is. Why?"

"We overthrew the late governor several months ago. Santa Fe has a new government and this one is loyal the U.S." The older man with the dude seemed very pleased to hear this. "We will be searching your wagons for weapons and we will also be removing any slaves that you have with you."

"You can't do that."

I smiled, "Look around, because I think we can, the question is will you or any of the others be alive to see it? Do you work for Mr. Black or the late governor?"

"The governor and that's the second time you've called him the late governor. Is he dead?"

"Yes, we executed him, or rather the US Army did after we captured him. He was a traitor, are you a traitor?" He started reaching for his pistol, "Don't even think about touching that pistol, you'll be dead before you clear leather."

The older man started laughing, "Well Mr. Johns what are you going to do now?"

"You're a Johns?"

"Yes, the governor was my father," he replied the hatred and anger etched on his face.

I looked at the man with total disdain, "Well, just so you know, I killed your brother and I did it the same way he killed all those children except that I didn't put a hot iron to the severed joint to keep him from bleeding to death. He lasted through cutting his fingers and toes off. We sped things up a bit when we cut his dick and balls off. You should have heard him scream and beg."

Johns was turning pretty green and suddenly turned and threw up. After he finished he looked at me, "You're nothing but a bunch of savages."

He grabbed for his gun and his head exploded, "Mister, you better keep your hand where everyone can see it. That young lady that just shot him doesn't miss and doesn't need much of a reason to pull the trigger." The man nodded with out saying a word, "Now then we need to search those wagons."

Red Hawk whistled up advance and all of our troops moved up on the wagon train. Before we started moving I reached across and offered my hand to the man in front of me, "I'm sorry that Mr. Johns wouldn't let us do this peaceful. I'm Tom Dunlap by the way, and this is our leader Red Hawk and his brother Two Horses."

The man reached across and took my hand, "Robert Morehouse glad to meet you. Milt Thorp told me about you and your Band. I took this job just to find you and thank you for what you've done." I tried to tell him that it wasn't necessary, but he shook his head and continued, "My brother his wife and three of his four kids were on one of those wagon trains. When Milt told me how you killed that animal I at least felt like we got some justice."

"Well Robert, I'm just glad we caught the bastard before he could butcher any other children." We had got to the wagons and Jase Trammel had the first one opened and was pulling out the crates. Robert and I got off our horses and walked over to the wagon.

"What is it Tom? It's different from the M-4's." Jase asked as he handed the weapon to me.

"It's an MP-5. It shoots a 9mm pistol round," I looked over the gun it was brand new and reeked of cosmoline. It had a collapsible stock and a suppressor. "Is it full of those Jase?"

"Near as I can tell Tom," he reached into and box that was under the tarp and pulled out a box of 9mm ammo. "Is this what it shoots?" Jase was looking at small bullet thinking it couldn't hold enough powder to push it out of the barrel.

I looked at the box 124 grain jacketed hollow point and thought how these little beauties could come in handy when we went to visit Mr. Black. Maggie brought me out of my day dream, "Tom there's two wagons full of this one, it's a HK 33KA2 and there's two wagons full of HK G3 A3's and Zoë has found something she called PSG 1. I don't know what it is but she's over there talking about giving up her beloved 'Kate'."

I shook my head. Zoë had to be the only girl I ever knew in either time that gets orgasmic over a gun but she'd saved my ass too many times for me to complain. I whistled for my favourite sniper and a few minutes later she ran up to the wagon where I was standing, "Oh Sir, you just have to let me have one of these, please."

"How many of them are there?"

"There are nine of these ... I mean ten, ten MSG90's and twenty S-I-G 550's but they're all .223 and I don't like that small bullet for long shots," Zoë explained as she caressed the rifle like it was a lover.

I turned to Robert, "This is the little lady that made Mr. Johns head explode." Turning back to Zoë, "Look, I'm sure you're going to end up with one of those, but you know I can't let you have that right now. I'll get swamped with troopers wanting guns if I do. Go put it back so Maggie can get the inventory and we'll assign weapons tomorrow or the next day." Zoë walked away but she didn't look all that happy.

"It's hard to believe that a slip of a girl like that would be that interested in a rifle even if it was the fanciest one I ever saw. Tom I've never seen guns like these other than the ones Black gave the guards. They showed what they could do and they are frighteningly deadly. Where do you think Black is getting them from?"

I was trying to figure out what to tell Robert when a red haired freckled face beauty runs up and grabs a hold of Robert's arm, "Uncle Bob isn't this exciting? Some of them are real Indians."

Fanny ran up to me and came to attention and saluted and then handed me a message. I turned my back to Robert and his niece and read the dispatch and answered it. Fanny put the piece of paper into her pouch that she always carried. She let loose an ear splitting whistle and a brown and white paint came running straight for her and slid to a stop.

"Robert watch this." Robert and his niece turned and watched as the four foot nothing Fanny grabbed a handful of her pony's mane and whistled. The horse bolted with familiar ease in a dance that the two of them had choreographed and spent countless hours practicing. Fanny was jerked from her feet landing in the McClellan saddle her feet searching for the stirrups as she fanned the extra long reins that she had Simpson make for her. And just like that, Fanny was headed out of the camp headed for the horse herd.

"Man alive! That little stink can ride that's for sure." Robert was grinning from ear to ear.

Robert's niece had turned and we faced each other for the first time, "Uncle Bob would you introduce me to your handsome friend."

I smiled at her then taking my hat and sweeping it across as I did an exaggerated cavalier bow, "Thomas Jefferson Dunlap at your service ma'am." She offered her hand so I kissed the back of it and listened to her sigh softly. That sigh and the noticeable increase in her pulse told me that I might have laid the charm on a little thick and worried that it might come back to bite me on the ass, so to speak.

"Tom this is my niece Glenna Morehouse," Robert was getting that matchmaking look in his eye which made me all the more tickled to see two of my wives coming up behind Robert and Glenna

Jana ran and jumped up on me wrapping her legs around my waist and giving me a red hot kiss. Since it didn't seem that Jana was going to break the kiss any time soon Beth smiled, "Hello, I'm Beth Dunlap."

When she finally did let me up for some air, "And this lusty lassie is Jana," I added. When Jana turned her head to speak to Robert and Glenna we saw the hurt on Glenna's face.

Beth pulled her into a hug and Jana slid off me to stand on her own. "You fell for this rascal didn't you?"

As Glenna's tears began to fall she looked up to Beth, "Are you his sister in law?"

"No," Beth giggled, "I'm his wife."

"But the other girl?" Glenna looked shocked.

Jana smiled and took the girl's hand, "I'm his wife too."

"Come on," Beth took Glenna's free hand, "let's go to our wagon and you can meet the others."

I was watching them walk away, "You have two wives?" Robert was clearly as disappointed as his niece had been.

"Try seven," I grinned at his stricken look, "and I hope it's not fixin' to be eight wives." Looking up at Robert, "No offence. I went from none to four in one day and I didn't do anything but nod my head. The girls decided everything."

Robert was shaking his head, "Seven?"

"Yep," I heard the triangle being beaten, that meant that supper was ready, "come on Robert let's go see if my lovely wives are ready to go to supper. If they're not we just go unescorted." When Robert and I got to our wagon we had company. "Robert this is my mother, Millie Hand and her sister/wife and Husband, Elizabeth and Red Hand. Mom, Elizabeth, and Dad," I winked at Red Hand, "this is Robert Morehouse."

Red Hand stuck out his hand, "Good to meet you Sir."

Robert seemed to be a little shook up, "Are there a lot of multiple marriages here?"

Mom smiled at the man's obvious distress, "Pretty much. There are a few couples, but not many."

Before Robert and Mom could get involved in a discussion of plural marriages, Beth walked up with the rest of my wives and Glenna, "Why don't we all head over to the Mess area" As we were walking over Beth held me back, "Glenna fell for you bad. You have to stop doing that bow and kissing the hand thing you do. It just isn't fair to the women of our age. It's bad enough to have dreamed of prince charming all your life without meeting him and having him act like they do in the story books."

"Okay, I'll stop."

"Don't you dare," Beth stopped and kissed me, "I was just kidding you. She really did fall for you but she's not sure she could ever share her man with anyone."

Robert was amazed by the Mess area. One of Moses' men, Zack, was a master carpenter. He had made over a hundred tables that could be put together and taken apart in minutes. They were stowed on the wagons and dropped off in the Mess area for tables or in an emergency they could be used as a barricade. In one of our drills the Mess area is turned into a safe place for the children. When an attack is signaled the squads assigned to the Mess turn the tables into a totally enclosed fort. Zack even modified the tables. Each table has a small port that can be opened from under the table thus allowing the squads to fire from a protected position.