Chapter 5

They were now leading one of the mules with them each morning as they ran their trapline. Most mornings, by the time they reached their leanto, they would have as many as twenty beaver pelts. They would scrape them, fold them fur-to-fur and tie them in bundles before putting the bundles into the pack on the mule. Once they were back at the cabin at the end of the day, they would stretch the pelts and hang them to dry.

They brought a large pan with them to leave inside the leanto. Each day, they would melt snow in the pan and use the hot water to bathe each other. More times than not, they would be too excited, not to mate.

Many times on their return trips to the cabin, they would see Wild Fire and his herd along the flat meadow beside the Shoshone River. Willah would always whistle for him and he never failed to come to the sound of her whistle. Now, he comes expecting his reward of dried berries and she never disappoints the big horse. He will even come to her with Ty standing beside her.

One day, late in winter when the sun had shone more days than not during the week, most of the snow had melted on the flat lands along the river. The valley floor was now covered in dry grass. Even the deepest snow had melted except for the northern slopes. Deer, antelope, elk and wild horses were out in herds, grazing in scattered groups.

Suddenly, there was a commotion occurring behind them, which caused the herd of elk to flee.

Willah and Ty turned to see two Cougars attacking a young elk calf. As they watched in shock, they saw Wild Fire charge through the elk herd and attack one of the Cougars. The second cat had dragged the calf off to the side as Wild Fire trampled the first Cougar to death. Then, with what seemed to them like a fit of rage, the big stallion chased down and killed the second Cougar before it could escape across the river.

“Ty, have you ever seen a wild horse attack predators the way Wild Fire does?”

“Never ... and I’ve been chasing horses with my brothers for years up through the valleys and across these slopes. Something must have happened to him in the past that makes him go crazy when he sees a Wolf or Cougar.”

“That has be it. None of the other horses seem to care, until Wild Fire attacks a predator, then they all join him.”

“Is a Cougar hide worth anything?”

“I’m sure to some buyers it would be. Let’s go see if their hides are worth saving after he trampled them to death.”

They skinned the two Cougars. Then skinned the elk calf, keeping the hide and the meat. With their packmule loaded, they were making their way back upstream toward home.

“Looks like you’re going to have to pay up, Willah.” Ty pointed toward Wild Fire as he ran up behind them.

When she turned to hold her hand out with the dried berries toward him, she noticed the cuts and scratches on Wild Fire’s left foreleg.

“Ty, while I feed him, tear off a piece of our drying cloth and see if he will let you wrap it around his leg to stop the bleeding.”

“You be sure and watch him close. I’d hate for him to turn on me like I was a predator, about to tear at his legs.”

Kneeling under Wild Fire’s neck, Ty first patted his leg gently. The big horse flinched, then stood still as Willah spoke to him, patting his neck as she fed him more berries. Ty folded the cloth, making two wraps around the lower part of his leg. Then he ripped the ends and tied the cloth as tight as he could in a hard knot. All he wanted was the cloth to stay long enough to stop the bleeding. He knew it would loosen and fall off in a few days.

“Willah, I have never seen anyone as good with wild horses as you are. I believe you could ride Wild Fire, if you took your time and didn’t spook him as you get on his back.”

“I may try one day, when we’re not so busy with trapping.”

“I was only kidding...”

“I wasn’t ... but since the sun is shining and it’s warm today, what I’d really like, is for us to strip off our clothes so I can ride my husband over there on that smooth log with no bark!”

“Would you really? I mean, right out here in the open like this?”

“Take your buckskins off, Ty. I’ll show you how much I want to be naked with you. Besides, there’s no one but Papa and Mama, within miles of this place.”

“You’ll have to be the one who stops this time, Willah!” he told her.

She threw her leg across him, to sit astraddle his legs as he lay back on the log.

“I’ll stop soon enough this time, but I can tell you now, when we decide to make a baby, this is the way we’re going to make it happen.”

“You like this? I mean being naked and mating outdoors in daylight?”

“I could ride you all day, if it was time for us to get a baby.”

“Then I’ll be glad when that day comes.”

High upon the slope, near the place where Ty saw Willah kill her deer the day they met – there was a man hidden among the rocks. He’d been scouting the wild horse herds, but now, his telescope was trained on the young couple...

‘I can’t believe that dumb brother of ours has done took up with Indians. We’ve been wondering whatever become of him. I’ll say one thing for ‘im, he sure picked a pretty one. Come warmer weather, I’ll get myself some of his little squaw’s ass. Just look at her, sittin’ on him naked, ridin’ ol’ Tyrell like a horse – straddlin’ him and the log too ... Damn his ornery hide, I never even knowed he liked women!’

By the end of March, the ice was melting in the streams and frozen beaver ponds, where beaver had damned the rivers and creeks. Spring was in the air and the beaver were busier than ever, cutting trees and limbs, adding onto their dams in order to stop the flow of water coming down from the spring thaw. The beaver still have their thick winter fur, and now was a good time for trappers to add more pelts to their harvest this trapping season.

“Willah, have you and your folks ever thought about living up here in these mountains year round?”

“Mama told me not long ago, that they have always gone down off the mountains in the spring, hoping that I may meet a young man. I’m glad I never did, now that I’ve met you ... Why do you ask anyway? Would you like to come back here after we leave The Rendezvous and build us a home next to theirs?”

“I’d love to live up here. I’ve always dreamed of having my own place up here in these mountains ... Living here with you, your Papa and Mama this winter, has made me want to stay here forever.”

“If Mama and Papa help us, could we build a house big enough for them to live with us? Maybe we can even stake a claim on the land and stay here to raise our family.”

“Let’s do it, Willah. I’ve helped saw and chop logs for men to build houses. With you, your Mama and Papa working too, we could build us a house plenty big enough for all of us, and our kids. I want lots of kids, don’t you?”

“YES! I hope we can have two boys and two girls. We could raise them here, teach them to read and write, to hunt and trap ... Oh Ty, let’s do it, even if Mama and Papa decide not to live here with us year round.”

“Then we’ll start making plans on how we’ll build our house. I saw a man draw his house out on paper the way he wanted it to look, then build it just like he wanted it.”

“Then we’ll do that too.”

“Willah, we could even build a barn and corrals and maybe raise some of Wild Fire’s young’uns right here, with our own young’uns.”

“Now, I know we’re going to build a home and live up here in these mountains! Where would you pick for our home place? Have you even thought about that?”

“I’ve already found a spot that would make a fine home place. Walk with me up this slope over here, and I’ll show you what I saw the other day.”

“What?”

“Come up here just a little ways. You’ll see...

He led her to the highest place in the valley floor, with a tall rock bluff rising up on the north side. They were standing on a smooth, virtually flat, stone – measuring over forty foot on all sides.

“This will be the floor of our new home...

...”Now, turn around and look back at the river below us, then look to the south, all the way down the valley.”

“OH YES! I can see it now.”

“That’s not all, right over here on the north side of this hill, behind where our house will be, is a spring coming out of the rock bluff. We’ll have plenty of water close by.”

“Ty?”

“Yes?”

“Let’s take our clothes off and put them on the ground for us to lay on. We’re going to mate right here where our new home will be.”

“When we get moved in our new home, could make our first baby?”

“Yes, yes we definitely will ... now hurry, Ty.”

They were eager to show Mejesse and Boothe what they were planning. Late the next day, after they had taken care of their beaver pelts they’d trapped, they took her parents to the place where Ty wanted to build their new home.

By the time they’d walked up the rise in the land and Boothe saw the large flat bedrock, he knew exactly what they had in mind.

“When do you plan to start building?” he asked.

“Papa, we want you and Mama to help us, and we’ll build a big house so you and Mama can live here with us year round. We want to stay here and raise our family here with you.”

Mejesse looked at Ty, “Ty, for years, we have thought about building a proper home to live here in this valley. The only reason we didn’t was because we knew Willah would never meet a man to marry by spending her life up here in these mountains with us. Now that you have come into our lives and our family, I think this would be the most perfect place ever, for our new home.”

“Oh Mama, I am so happy. When we move into our new home, Ty wants us to start our family. We’re so happy that you and Papa want to stay here and live with us.”

Boothe spoke to his daughter as they walked, while looking over their planned home site, “Willah, since the day you were old enough to roam this valley and these mountains alone, we knew that it would take a special man to tame you enough to love him and start a family. We never dreamed of a tall, gentle man like Ty, until we met him that day when the wolves were trailing you with your deer...

“Your Mama and I both agree, we could never have found you a better mate, than Ty Satterfield. We are so happy for you and Ty. We are also happy that you want us to stay here with you. We would be most happy to live the rest of our lives here in this valley, helping raise and teach our grandkids.”

“Papa, since we have twice the number of beaver pelts as we’ve ever had, could we stop trapping now and start building our new home? Ty told me that he once worked for a man who cut and hewed logs to build houses.”

Boothe told them, “We have another seventy days before we leave on our trip down to The Rendezvous. If we start tomorrow, we can have the walls up and possibly the roof framed by the time we leave. When we return, we’ll need to build a stone fireplace and chimney, before finishing the inside. We have a lot of work ahead of us, if we’re to live in our new home by winter...

“When we run our traps tomorrow, we’ll pull them on our return trip, and bring them in with us. Giles has a single-bit felling axe and a four pound, double-bit axe in his pack. We have a single-bit, and a double-bit axe. We also have a splitting maul, sledge hammer, and four hand-axes. We’ll have enough tools to cut, hew and fit our logs.”

“Mr. Boothe, when I worked for the man down near Green River a year ago, we started splitting his logs on the top and bottom sides, so they would lay flat together as they were stacked, to make the outside walls. He said it didn’t take as much chinking mud to seal them and they were better sealed against the rain and wind. It takes longer, but with both of us doing the splitting, it won’t take that much longer, and our house will have stronger outside walls.”

“I like your idea, Ty. By taking our time with the outside walls, we’ll have a warmer home in winter and we’ll not spend so much time each year chinking the walls.”

Over the next month, the men were busy cutting trees and trimming limbs. They used the three packmules to snake the logs up to the building site. This was Willah’s and Mejesse’s job. Using what ropes they had, they worked long hard hours each day as they pulled the logs from the treeline near the river, up to their building site.

They brought their food with them each morning and took one long break at midday.

There wasn’t a day pass that Wild Fire didn’t bring his herd to the building site. The first few times he made the visit, Willah and Mejesse were there with the mules. Then he began bringing the mares and fillies to the site when they were taking their break to eat.

One day, Willah asked Ty to help her up onto Wild Fire’s back. He wasn’t sure about this and looked at Boothe and Mejesse. They threw up their hands and nodded.

Willah always took time to feed him a few dried berries. Now, each time she did, Ty would help her upon her tall wild stallion to sit and pat his neck.

Later, she coaxed a very tall young mare close enough to eat from her hand as the mare stood beside Wild Fire. It wasn’t long before Willah was able to put her hand on the mare’s face and run her fingers underneath her neck.

A few days later, the herd showed up and the young mare wasn’t with them. Looking around, Willah and Mejesse saw her hobbling toward them with a limp.

“Something’s wrong with her right forehoof,” Willah said.

“Here comes Ty and your Papa. Maybe they can get her to stand still long enough to check her hoof.”

“What’s happened to the three year-old mare,” Ty asked as soon as he and Boothe walked up.

“We don’t know. She was behind the herd when we saw her limping. She’s favoring her right forehoof,” Willah told him.

“See if you can get Wild Fire to stand here beside her. We need her to stand still long enough for me to check her hoof ... She’s probably got a stone bruise, or she could have something stuck in the frog of her hoof.”