Chapter 6

We left the hotel following that for a restaurant which turned out to be the largest and most expensive one in Pak Chong. It was certainly more impressive than the places where we had eaten previously. The building was masonry with a wooden second story. There were many types of meat on display such as roast chicken and duck, there was red barbecued pork cooking over coals still. Just the smells were delicious. There was also the smell of freshly cooked rice and the other items being prepared. On entering we were shown to a table near the back of the restaurant where it was more private.

The Captain ordered a large impressive meal of many courses for himself and the Governor's daughter. Chanthra and I ordered a more modest meal for ourselves. I will admit that the sweet and sour pork that I ordered was fantastic, if very spicy, or pet in Thai. Chanthra and I were finished well before the others were even halfway through their meal.

The Captain had also ordered Mekhong (Thai whiskey) with his meal, and he began drinking with the first course. I was a bit upset with what I was seeing, even thought I had seen such behavior before, and had a question for him when Chanthra and I had finished our meal.

"What are your men eating tonight, Captain?" I asked.

"They have some rice. That is good enough for them," he answered in a snide voice.

"Surely, they have been provided with more than that?" Chanthra injected.

"It will do for them. They are soldiers and should be grateful for what they are provided," he told us before taking another long drink of Mekhong. The Governor's daughter was looking at him with a shocked expression.

"Have you not provided more than rice for your men? Are there no vegetables or fruit for them?" Sonsri asked in an unhappy voice.

"That's all that they need," he told her in a grumpy voice, and I could see that she was unhappy with this answer.

"Do you always wear those spotted green clothes and carry that sack?" the Captain demanded after taking another drink from his glass.

"Yes, this is my field uniform and the backpack contains things that would be difficult or impossible to replace here. It also contains other things when we are traveling," I told him and could see a sly expression cross his face, and I was sure that it meant trouble.

A short time later, it was obvious that Sonsri, the Governor's daughter, was fed-up with the Captain's drinking and she turned to Chanthra.

"Would you and your Guardian escort me back to the hotel?" she asked ignoring the looks of disapproval from the Captain. "The Captain isn't ready to return yet, and I'm tired," she added in a sarcastic voice.

"Yes, we are also ready to return to the hotel. I'm sure that the Captain can find his way by himself," Chanthra answered. We all rose then and I slipped the backpack onto one shoulder and allowed the women to proceed me out of the restaurant. Once outside and in the dark, I lowered the backpack to the ground and retrieved the pistol just under the the top flap. Chanthra had stopped Sonsri a few feet in front of me, and they didn't proceed until I had the backpack on again. I kept the pistol down by my side and out of sight as there was still some light coming from the stores that we passed on the way back.

At the hotel, we delivered Sonsri to her rooms. Her maid was waiting there for her, and took charge of her. Chanthra didn't turn toward our room, however, once she was safely home.

"We should go to the Wat and join those praying there for a short time," she told me, when I looked at her with a questioning expression on my face.

"All right," I agreed. "Give me a minute to put the pistol away," I requested.

"Must you take them to the Wat?" she asked in distress.

"Only if you want me to go to the Wat. There is nowhere that I can safely leave the backpack and them," I replied.

"Yes, there is that. As long as they are out of sight there shouldn't be a problem," she answered with a sigh. We left the hotel and went directly to the Wat. It was fortunate that there was a partial moon and that it was up, since there were no such things as streetlights in Pak Chong at this time.

We found the Sergeant and another man with the old monks praying when we arrived at the location in the Wat where the body had been placed. The Sergeant smiled at me and the monks bowed to both Chanthra and me, as we joined then sitting on the ground. One monk was reciting something in what I took to be Pali, and he was doing it from memory since there was no light here to read by. The others repeated his mantra, but I was having trouble wrapping my tongue around the words that were strange to me. After a short time, Chanthra stopped following the mantra for a minute to speak to me in English.

"Do not worry, my Guardian, if you have trouble with the words. Your being here will be sufficient to impress the others," she told me before joining the men in the mantra again. I just sat there and went over some prayers and Bible passages that I remembered and thought would be appropriate for the occasion.

We were there for a good hour and a-half before the next relay of guards arrived to relieve us. My legs were all cramped up from the position that we had been sitting in all of this time, and I needed to stretch them out some before slipping the backpack on. I also took the precaution of removing the pistol from the top of the backpack before slipping into the straps. The others had waited a short distance ahead of me.

We had soon left the grounds of the Wat and started toward the hotel. The moon was now lower than it had been when we started out, and it now produced short dark shadows in front of us, but provided some light to see where we were going and what was in front of us. This was how I managed to make out the men hiding on the side of a building as we approached it.

"Trouble ahead!" I warned in a low voice that those with me could hear.

"Where?" Chanthra asked.

"Beside the building on the right," I told her quickly, as that was all of the time that we had before five or six men with knives and a sword charged out at us from the shadows. I brought the revolver up quickly and fired at the man with the sword. The bullet hit the sword knocking it out of his hand and causing him to scream in fright. I fired the second shot into the ground in front of the men who had stopped at the sound of my first shot. The bullet kicked up dirt toward the men who had stopped. I had the revolver cocked again but didn't need to fire since the men had turned and fled in panic leaving the sword on the ground.

"It is indeed fortunate that you brought that with you, my Champion," Chanthra said from my side after a few seconds.

"Fortunate indeed, Champion," the Sergeant agreed when he and the other man had regained their composure.

"I will retrieve the sword. Perhaps the local people will recognize it and can tell us who it belongs to," the Sergeant added and picked up the sword. There was a place on the blade near the handle where the soft lead bullet had struck it. The spot was easily seen when we reached the hotel and the light there. There were also questions about the shots that I had fired.

"What were those loud noises that we heard?" several people asked when we entered the hotel lobby.

"We were attacked on our way back from the Wat," the Sergeant informed those there.

"Attacked?" several of them asked in shock.

"Yes, the Guardian used his gun to drive the attackers off. One of them lost this sword," the Sergeant said holding up the sword for them to see it. "Does anyone recognize it?" he added. No one spoke up or would look directly at the Sergeant. It would appear that they knew who the owner was, but were afraid to identify him.

"It isn't important, Sergeant. We will be leaving in the morning," Chanthra told him after a few seconds.

"You may keep the sword, however. Bring it with you in the morning," she added before the Sergeant and the man accompanying him left for the room that the soldiers shared, and Chanthra and I returned to our room.

Once back in the room, I carefully checked it to ensure that no one was hiding there and that all of our things were still there and hadn't been tampered with. I found nothing amiss, but I still had things to do tonight and lit the second oil lamp in the room so I could see better.

"I need to do some cleaning on my pistols. It isn't good to leave cleaning go for too long after using them," I told Chanthra. Even though the pistols were mostly made of stainless steel, I didn't want to take any chances with them being affected by the fouling from the black powder that they used.

"I will prepare for bed while you are busy. There is a small shower area in the room and water in a medium size jar. Do not be too long, my Champion," she said and kissed my neck before moving to the other side of the bed to remove her clothes.

I removed both pistols cases and the pistols from my backpack. I also removed the cylinders from the pistols and checked both before wiping down their exterior with an oily rag. I inspected the other two cylinders and wiped them down also. The cylinder with the two fired chambers got more attention, and I cleaned out those chambers and removed the spent percussion caps from their nipples.

Next, I used a bore brush and some water on the bores of both pistols. This was a bit messy, and I was careful to use the rag that I had previously used for this purpose to absorb the mess. I would wash it out later. After cleaning and oiling the bores, and wiping the pistols down to remove any residual black powder residue, I reassembled the pistols. The cylinder with two empty chambers was reloaded after it was replaced in its pistol.

I was finished in a short time and undressed to shower, as Chanthra was already finished. The water in the jar was semi warm but not too bad to shower with. After showering I put on clean underwear, and then prepared for bed after brushing my teeth. There were no real dentist in this time period, and we needed to take good care of our teeth.

After opening the window and blowing out the oil lamp, I joined Chanthra in bed. She had a sarong on and cuddled up against me. It was very nice to have an actual mattress and pillows to sleep on, and this sweet young woman here in bed with me. I wasn't quite ready for sleep just yet, however.

"I don't believe that it was an accident that we were attacked returning from the Wat," I told Chanthra after kissing her for a short time.

"Yes, my Mike, you are correct. The Amulets have told me that they believe that it was the Captain who had those men attack us. They have assured me that they have taken care of those men and that they will keep a much closer watch on the Captain from now on," she told me.

"I can believe that it was him. He is not happy that we are here, or that I rescued all of them from the bandits. I'm sure that he sees me as a threat to his advancement in the Governor's favor, but he is a poor leader and is only interested in his own advancement," I told her.

"Yes, there are many like him in all time periods. There were the same types of men in the Thailand that I lived in before coming here," she told me and pressed herself against me even harder.

"We will be all right," I assured her, and hoped that it was true.

"Yes, the Amulets will protect us," she answered in return before kissing me again and closing her eyes to go to sleep.

Chanthra woke me before dawn, but put her fingers on my lips to keep me from speaking.

"I thought that I heard something," she whispered quietly in my ear. I reached under the pillow for the pistol there while trying to see if anyone else was in the room. I couldn't see anyone in the dark room and turned to look at the window which was still open. I didn't hear anything presently and turned toward her.

"What did you hear? Where did the sound come from?" I whispered to her.

"I'm not sure. It could have been from the hall. Perhaps someone was trying the door," she whispered back. I got off the bed and moved toward the door to the room to check it, but the sliding hardwood bolt was still solidly in place holding the door closed and no noise came through the door from the hall.

I moved over to the window and looked out, but there was little to see but the external darkness. The moon had long since set and there were no lights visible and no sounds of people or animals moving around. I returned to the bed and Chanthra. This was when I noticed that the discomfort from riding yesterday had disappeared. We had both been sore when we stopped at the hotel and it had continued until we went to bed, but now it was gone, and I wondered how?