Chapter 9

The trip back to Fort Smith took three days longer than the trip over to the Panhandle. Twice along the way, Eli killed a small deer late in the day, so they could cook it all night and be gone at daylight, eating the cooked meat along the way.

The rest of the time, they only stopped long enough to feed and water the horses and relieve themselves. The prisoners were left to their own devices, as for relieving themselves.

While riding on the boards of the rough, bouncing wagon bed, they would roll to the outside of the circle and piss toward the back.

When a man felt the urge to relieve his bowels, they would rotate the circle, the others supporting the man, while he squatted with his butt over the rear edge of the wagon bed. At first, there was bitching and griping about being transported in this cruel manner. That whining stopped as Eli would ride back beside the wagon and stare the man down who was doing the griping.

When they saw the K-T Railroad ahead, they knew they were only a day or so from Fort Smith.

Upon arrival at the courthouse, there was once again a crowd gathering to see another wagonload of prisoners being delivered by Marshals Crow and Duncan. They were beginning to make quite a name for themselves.

Judge Parker, with Jefferson Whitehead, stepped to the window of his chambers to look down at the scene in the street, as the prisoners were taken off the wagon and escorted to jail.

Eli looked up to see the judge smiling down. This made him proud, that they’d pleased Judge Parker once again. It was late in the day and Jefferson made his way out to speak with Eli and Duncan, with a message from Judge Parker.

“Eli, it’s good to see you and Duncan once again. The judge is pleased. He sent me to tell you both that he wants to see you in his chambers early tomorrow. I’m not supposed to let this out, but I know he’s going to grant you and Mary permanent custody of the five young girls. He’s going to sign a paper providing state funds for the health and education of the girls until they’re eighteen.”

“Jefferson, I thank you my friend. I want you to meet another friend we’ve made on this last trip into the Territory. This is Moses Kidd, he wants to be a Deputy U.S. Marshal. Duncan and me will stand good for his honor and reputation. If you have the chance, would you talk for Moses with Judge Parker?”

“Moses, I’m pleased to meet you. I’ll be glad to speak for anyone Eli and Duncan stand good for,” he shook hands with the black Indian Half-Breed.

“We’ll see you later at the boardinghouse, Jefferson. We’re kinda butt-whupped from most of three weeks in the saddle,” Eli said as they mounted up once more and rode back west to the river bluff, and home.

The three turned up the dirt street which runs along the river bluff, in front of the boardinghouse. The only dwelling on the whole street.

“Would you look at that, we got chickens all over the yard and two milk cows with calves,” Duncan said and they all laughed.

“The womenfolk have been busy since we’ve been gone this time, I reckon,” Eli said.

They rode through the yard where the cows were staked out on long ropes, the two young calves running and bucking and kicking, while the cows grazed in the tall grass. The chickens were scratching and pecking in the dirt, flying up squawking and cackling as the horses scattered them.

Suh Youngbird was the first to spot them, as she looked out to see what had scattered all the chickens.

“Eli is home. Here’s Eli and Duncan and they have a Black-Indian with them,” she yelled into the house, before leaping from the porch and running to the barn. Her long skirts were kicking up as she ran, her long black braids whipping at her back.

Eli turned to see her, just in time to catch her in a flying leap into his arms.

“Eli, you’re back. We’re all so happy to have you and Duncan back home. We’ve been really helping and learning while you’ve been gone,” she talked, out of breath and wiggling as he held her tall thin body to him.

“Suh, we’re happy to be back too. This is Moses Kidd, he’s a Half-Breed, Black-Indian.”

“Hi Moses Kidd, you’re not much older’n me, are ya?” she said as she shook his hand and whirled to jump on Duncan’s back as he bent to pick up his saddle.

All the other girls ran out to the barn to welcome them home. They met and welcomed Moses to their home and into the family.

The seven women were really swelling in their bellies, walking with a slight waddle as they hurried to the barn.

They welcomed their men home with hugs, tears, and kisses from all.

They welcomed Moses Kidd as a new friend and welcomed him to stay at their boardinghouse, as their guest, until he knew for sure about Judge Parker hiring him as a deputy U.S. Marshal.

Moses had never known a big family. He never knew there were people like Eli, Duncan, and their family and friends. In no time, they had him telling about himself and how he come to be there.

“How old are you, Moses?” Rose asked as they sat at the dining room table, eating a few pieces of bread and drinking coffee. Supper was on the stove and the smells of home cooking filled the whole house.

“I’m nineteen, Miss Rose.”

“Moses, you call all of us by our given names and we’ll all call you, Moses.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“Tell us about how you come to be a Black-Indian,” Clarissa said, picking up a tablet and wooden pencil.

“My Mammy was a high-yellow slave that was sold to an older Cherokee man by the name of Pike Longfeather, when she was just a girl. She had took the name of Kidd, that was her white family’s name.

“When her white owner died, his daughter sold her instead of freeing her. Pike bought my Mammy at a cattle auction barn up in Missouri for ten dollars.”

“Pike was an educated man, having lived in Kansas City as a servant to a rich household for years and was taught to read and write the white-man’s words. He taught me to read and write the words too. He hired on to scout for the cavalry and he got me hired on. He got killed three years ago down in Texas and my Mammy died last spring of the fever.”

Rose looked at Eli as Moses talked. She nodded toward Suh as the young girl sat beside him while he talked. Suh was right next to him, smiling each time he looked down at her. Rose thought she was cute, as she already liked the young man.

Eli and Rose shared a look of approval as they watched Suh. She had started gaining a little weight in the three weeks they were gone. Her small tits were pushing hard against her dress front.

They had all been busy and each of them had a story to tell about what they’d all been up to the past three weeks.

Jefferson had hired an old man as a carpenter and handyman. He had built chicken pens and chicken coops with a row of nests up high near the roosts. Rose and Mary had bought some settin’ hens, young chickens, and a rooster from a stock trader.

The handyman had already built a hog pen in back of the barn and they’d bought a sow with ten suckling pigs from the same stock trader. They bought two milk cows with small calves from him too.

Clarissa, Catt, and Eva had bought six bushels of early peaches from a peddler and they had canned sixty quarts of peaches. All the young girls had learned to peel and cut up peaches for canning. They had already ordered another six bushels of late peaches to be delivered in July and six bushels of apples and pears to be delivered in September.

All the fruit would either be canned or dried, for cooking during the winter and early spring months.

They already had fresh eggs and now had two dozen fryers that would be laying age pullets in a few more weeks, if they didn’t get killed and fried first.

They’d hired a man with a mule and plow to turn up a long place on the backside of the barn and planted a big garden, using horse, chicken, and pig manure for fertilizer. The garden was green and growing and they’d soon begin canning vegetables for winter.

The women were working to make the boardinghouse self-sufficient – with Rose, Mary, and Clarissa watching over the expenses. Jefferson had posted an advertisement in the newspaper about rooms to rent and they were now at capacity, with most of the renters signing six month leases. The last five rooms had been leased through the Fort Smith School Board, for the new teachers that would be moving in for the new school year in the fall.

“Eli – Mary, Clarissa, Jefferson and I have all talked about maybe building another boardinghouse next to this one. We know if we do some more advertising in the paper, we can rent more rooms and Jefferson has already talked to the men at the school. They’d like to have all their teachers that aren’t married, living out here close together,” Rose told him as they moved back from the table so the younger girls could set the table for supper.

“Well, we own all the land on this side of the river, all the way to the bottom of the hill, then all the way back to that other street.

“Jefferson, you might talk some to the mayor and see about getting us another street laid out down through the middle. We could have lots more houses built and even a big hotel too.”

“Eli, we all just knew you’d agree. Jefferson has already talked to the mayor and we’ve already hired the handyman to get us some carpenters together.

“We’re going to need some more money, but by the time we get that far, we’ll have lots of rent coming in too,” Rose said and they all laughed.

After running downstairs to greet Eli and Duncan and meet the new friend with them, Sundy, Jessie, Sissy, and Lettie went back to their chores upstairs of changing sheets on all the beds on the upper floor.

While Catt, Eva, Juni, and Tin Yu were finishing supper, Eli led Rose, Mary and Clarissa out to the tack room in the barn. He gave each of them a bag of gold and a bundle of money from his saddle bags and told them to put it up in the house to pay for the buildings.

“You’ll need to take the gold to the bank sparingly and tell that it came from a passing through renter. Keep your paper money, and the money you collect on rent to pay for the new houses and new boardinghouse.”

“Eli, up in St. Louis they had houses that were made for two families, one on each side, but built under one roof. If we build some like that, we could rent to families too,” Clarissa suggested.

“I like that idea, Clarissa,” Rose agreed.

“I like that too. Let’s get your man to build us two like that and see if we can rent them. If we can, we’ll build more.”

“Eli, we may need more land, if we keep building like we’re talking about,” Mary laughed, making a joke at first, then they all looked at her.

“Rose, go call Jefferson,” Eli said and the others grinned.

When she came back with Jefferson, he and Rose were holding hands and sat sideways on the saddles, next to each other.

“Jefferson, we were just talking about building and renting more and Mary suggested we buy more land. I’ve been saving my money and I’ve even come upon some more loose money on the trail twice now. I want you to buy up all the land that’s out here on both sides of the river, all the way to the border of Indian Territory. I got a feeling we’ll need it one day.”

“I’ll start asking around and look at the city maps to see who all owns this land. Since there are no streets here yet, we may get us some good deals on it,” Jefferson told him.

“We’ll leave all that up to you. You know people and you have reason to look at the court books to find out who owns what.”

“Eli, Judge Parker told me the other day that he’s pretty sure that the Indian Territory will be taken back over by the government. There’s already some that want to make it a new state and scoot the Indians back closer and closer on smaller reservations.”

“What does all that mean, Jefferson? I hate to see that happen, but I reckon there’s nothing that can be done to stop it.”

“What it means, Eli, is the land will be opened to homesteaders when all that happens. Judge Parker will know a lot more about all this, and faster than most folks. But if I were a betting man, which I’m not, I’d bet on all that happening. Men like you and Duncan could be looking at some real good land that would make some fine homesteads and lay claim to it before most folks even knew about it. You’ll have to file claims on it before others do though, like they did in Kansas and Nebraska a few years ago.”

“I see what you’re saying now. I already know of some fine land up around Tulsey Town, on the Arkansas, that I’d love to have our name on. Just keep on listening so we can get in on that in a hurry. I’ll keep on saving all I can and we’ll all make lots of money renting houses and rooms and we’ll buy up a bunch of land one day.”

Eli told them he wanted to spend some time with his horse and tighten up a shoe or two. He shooed the rest of them back to the house. When the others went back to prepare the meal, he loosened the short board in the very corner of the tack room, down below where his saddle always rested on the rack when he was home. He lifted the heavy lid on the metal box, to make sure his other bags of gold coins and nuggets were still there, then reached back to feel the big bundles of money, before he took the rest of the bags of gold and the bundles of money from his saddlebags.

He had made this spot his own personal bank. It was built around a square box, made of sheet iron, that he’d gotten the local blacksmith to make for him. He wanted to be sure the mice couldn’t get to his paper money, though he didn’t really like paper money that much. He wasn’t sure how much he had, but his big iron box wasn’t half full yet, so he knew he had a ways to go.

The next morning, Eli, Duncan, Moses, and Jefferson met with Judge Parker in his chambers. He gave Eli a signed paper declaring him and Mary legal guardians over the five young girls.

He told them that as soon as the court cases against the Salters and Y.B. Yoes were settled, he’d have a friend of his start filing adoption petitions for all of them.

“Judge Parker, you have made all of us proud to even know you. We’ll be in debt to you forever for this,” Eli said as they all shook hands.

“Jefferson tells me you and Duncan are willing to stand good for this young man to be one of our deputies,” Judge Parker said as he turned to look at Moses.

“Yes Sir, Your Honor. Moses Kidd is a good and fit young man and he has some good education from his pa.”

“Moses, raise your right hand and put your left hand on the bible. We’ll swear you in and pin a badge on you. We already have a black man riding as Deputy Marshal in the Territory by the name of Bass Reeves, you’ll meet him soon I expect. He’s a good one, just like Eli and Duncan. I can always count on my best men to bring them back.

“You’ll ride with Eli and Duncan for a trip or two, then we’ll more than likely have to split all of you up. We’re losing a lot of good men and the load is falling on my dependables, as I prefer to call them.”

Judge Parker gave Eli and Duncan the next three days off. They’d been on the trail most of the month, since his arrival in Fort Smith. Before they left his chambers, he gave them warrants for four men that were last known to be down in the southeast part of Indian Territory, near the old Fort Towson area.

They walked out after thanking him once again. Jefferson told Eli he would have some information about the land they had talked about when he came home later.

“Hot Damn Moses, you made it. I just knew you would when Eli told Jefferson that we’d stand good for you. We get to make a trip or two together before we’re split up. I like that first part, but I sure hate to be split up from you two,” Duncan said as they walked out of the courthouse and looked across to the new gallows that was being completed.

“I never saw a hanging, have either of you?” Moses asked as he pointed in that direction.

“I never, but that thing looks like it can handle six to eight hangings at a time, don’t it?” Duncan said.

“I never saw a hanging either, but I passed by where a man was hanging in a tree once. I’d just as soon make a man die fast, as to see him walk up all them steps so they can hang him like that,” Eli told them as they looked across to where the men were working the huge gallows.

The three took the time to get to know one another better, as friends as well as fellow lawmen. They helped chop the weeds in the garden and bought two sling blades to cut the grass that was growing on their land faster than the cows and calves could eat. Duncan bought a kaiser blade to cut the bigger brush, weeds, and saplings along the bluff of the river in front of their boardinghouse.

By the time they were to leave on another manhunt in Indian Territory, they were all more than ready. This time off was about to wear them out.

Eli met with the old man who was heading up their handyman jobs and putting together carpenter crews to build their houses, he called it contracting. They made a deal to have his two young grandsons come over twice a month to cut all the grass.

He paid the man in advance, with paper money from his cast iron metal box, hidden in the tack room wall.

“Duncan, you ever been down to that part of the Territory before?” Eli asked as the three of them were saddling up in the barn before daylight.

“No, never been in that direction. I heard one deputy tell it was a lot of hills and pine trees all the way to Texas though.”

“I took a troop down that way once, Eli. The big brass in the cavalry wanted to send a few men down to see about maybe opening up the old fort.

“Pike and I had been there years before when I was younger. I knew the way so they sent me as a scout. It was my first time scouting a trip alone,” Moses said.

“I hope there’s some good trails so we can make good time. That’s the hardest part about these long trips, it takes so long to get there,” Eli said.

“There’s wagon roads all over, where they been cutting trees to haul over to the rivers to float them down to the sawmills. They haul some to other parts of the Territory where there’s no trees.”

“Good, come on and let’s get breakfast in our bellies and we’ll head out down that way.”

The women had not only gotten up and cooked them a big breakfast, they had cooked and packed food for three to four days for each of them. With their bellies full and the food packed away in their saddlebags, they stood by the front porch, ready to mount and leave. The sun was coming up over the hills to the east and they knew daylight was wasting.

Eli and Duncan went down the line, hugging and telling all the women and girls they’d see them soon and they loved them.

Moses stood by his horse, waiting.

When they were ready to leave, Suh Youngbird ran to Rose and whispered to her. Rose smiled and walked with her to where the men were about to step in the stirrup.

“Moses, Suh wants to hug you before you leave. She thinks you need to be hugged like the other men.”

Suh looked up at the tall young Black-Indian Half-Breed, and smiled when he smiled at her. He held out his arms and she rushed him.

“Be safe Moses and hurry back ... I like you already,” she said as she hugged him.

He looked around and all the others were watching.

“I like you already too, Suh. I’ll return soon and we will talk with Rose and Eli.”

“Bye, Moses.”

The three left Fort Smith and this time they turned south and didn’t cross the Arkansas.

A few miles south of Fort Smith, they came to a small river running north where it emptied into the Arkansas in a big bend.

This was piney-woods country and except for the wagon roads, there was pine trees as far as the eye could see from the hilltops. There were only a few willows and cottonwood, mostly on the small creeks that fed the river. On the hilltops there was a scattering of pin oaks and red oaks among the pines.

“What’s this river, Moses? It’s running the wrong way,” Duncan said as they rode along the east side of the river.

“It’s called the Poteau River. Poteau means post in French words,” he answered.

“Well, how about that, Eli? We learned a French word today.”

“Why would they call the river a post, Moses? Did you learn about that when you came down here?” Eli asked.

“There’s a big trading post down here, where the river swings back against the Ouachita Mountains. I heard once they named it for the Post Oak that grows here too. When we went down through here to Fort Towson, we heard the early French trappers drove a tall post in the bank where it empties into the Arkansas back up there, to mark it for other river traders.”

“Well, I guess all that makes sense then. I hope this trading post is friendlier than the ones we been running upon.”

“Yeah, as you well know, we ain’t been having too much good luck with trading posts lately, Moses,” Duncan agreed.

“It’s been a while since I was down here, but the trading post was a busy place at that time and handled just about everything a man or family could need.”

“You said a family, are there settlers down here?” Eli asked.

“There was some down near the old fort when I was here. I’d think there still is. That part of the Territory is called Little Dixie and has always had settlers since after the war. Some of them were claiming it was even part of Arkansas.”

“How far is it on down to Fort Towson from the trading post?”

“Near as I remember, it’s about another two to three days. We’ll be at the trading post before long,” Moses answered.

They crossed the Poteau River when they came to a sand bar, where the channel was choked down to a narrow stream.

Just ahead on that side of the river, they saw the trading post, built on a high bank right above the water’s edge. There were canoes tied to the bank below the trading post and many horses tied to the hitching rail at the north end. In back, there were two wagons hitched to teams of horses.

The big building was made from pine logs, with cedar shake shingles on the roof.

There was a long porch all the way across the front, overlooking the river and men sat all along the side, with their feet hanging off.

There were four Indians sitting together, the rest were white-men.

Eli, Duncan, and Moses let their horses drink from the watering trough, then stepped up on the north end of the long porch. A quiet fell over the men that had been laughing and talking. No one turned to look at the three lawmen, until they’d entered the open door.

Three of the men stepped quickly from the far end and walked all the way around to the back, where their horses were tied.

Another two men slid back to stand up and walk to the north end, where they mounted and rode around the post and off to the south. In no time, the porch was cleared.

“Yes Sir, what can I do for you, Marshals?” the store man asked.

“I reckon I need a box of them blue whistlers you got there,” Duncan said, pointing at the 12 gauge double-aught buckshot on the shelf.

“Will that be all?” he asked.

“Put three small pokes of that fresh jerky on that bill too,” Eli said as he laid a gold coin on the counter.

“Yes Sir, Marshal. You’re gonna like this. My wife makes it. She’s part Indian like you. Sure knows her stuff when it comes to flavoring and drying meat.”

“Then if it’s that good, you best make that three big pokes, we’ve got a ways to go yet.”

When they left, they walked out the back door and started around to where the horses were tied. There was a man helping a woman climb into a wagon. An older woman was already sitting on the wagon seat – holding two babies, one in each arm.

The three looked down and smiled as they saw the tall Indian Marshal looking up at them.

Eli, Duncan, and Moses watched as the wagon loaded with supplies pulled out, headed south.

They turned to put their purchases in their saddlebags, after pulling out some strips of jerky to chew on, since the store man had bragged on the taste.

The three marshals mounted and continued south on the same wagon road they’d been on since they’d crossed over to the west side of the Poteau River. The same wagon road the other five riders had taken, when they’d left the trading post in a hurry. The family in the wagon had taken this road south too, when they left.

“Moses, do you remember this part of the country from when you come down here before?” Duncan asked, as they rode the rutted, dry wagon road.

“I remembered that trading post, and I remember we’ll come to another river down this way.”

“What river, Moses? We just left the Poteau back there,” Eli said as he swallowed a wad of jerky.

“We’ll be coming to the Kiamichi River about dark. Near as I remember, we’ll have to cross Bear Track Creek on this side, about where it empties into the Kiamichi.”

“This sure is some wild looking country down here. I kinda like the open country better than all these hills and trees along here. Ain’t no telling what all could be hanging back in them trees looking out at a man,” Duncan said as they rode along.

He was looking at the tall thick pine trees, then at the rough wagon road behind them.

“You’re right about that, Duncan. When I scouted for the cavalry down here that time, we camped at the mouth of Buck Creek one night, and all of us heard a screaming in the night, like a woman.”

“Moses, you don’t mean that! Was it really a woman?” Duncan jerked his head around to look at Moses.

“They were all so scared, they sent me out to scout around the camp. I can see fair at night, and I know I saw a black painter run by me. I pulled my pistol and took a shot in the dark, but all I got was a loud squall. I never knew if I hit it or not. There was no blood to be seen the next morning.”

“Moses, you saw a black painter down here, and we’re ridin’ right down through here again? Ain’t there a better way to get down to Fort Towson than this way?”

“There’s lots of ways, Duncan, but most of them are even badder than this way.”

“Eli, you reckon we might ought to ride on a while, if there’s a moon out tonight?”

“No moon tonight, Duncan. We’ll just have to camp at Bear Track Creek tonight, then we can camp tomorrow where Moses said the soldiers camped. That place should be as safe as any, don’t you think, Moses?”

“I do, Eli. There’s a place to let the horses graze near the water and a good high bank on one side so we don’t have to watch all around us.”

They rode in silence for a long time, before Duncan spoke again. He was still worried about that big black cat Moses had seen years back. This just looked like a place where big black cats would live, along with any other mean-ass critter that wanted to live here.

“Eli, you ever seen a painter?”

“No I heard tell of them back home, but never saw one. I figured it was just another tale that was told to keep the boys home at night.”

Once again, they rode in silence for a long distance, before dark began to settle in on the long, hilly, winding wagon road through the piney woods.

With the Kiamichi Mountains to the west and the tall trees along that side of the road, it was dark before they reached the mouth of Bear Track Creek.

“How far is it on down to the place you were talking about, Moses?” Eli asked as the night began to close around them fast.

“Maybe a mile, Eli, near as I can remember anyway.”

“We need to head on that way then; we sure don’t need to try and camp out here on this wagon road, with no water and no place for the horses.”

Eli clicked his tongue and the horses were ready to step on out a little faster.

“I see the creek over there, Eli. We can cut right down through here and make camp. We’ll be off the road a ways and still have water and a place for the horses.”

“We’ll follow you, Moses, I see the white of the fast water now,” Eli told him.

“Eli, I can’t even see the water. I hope we can find some firewood, I’d hate to be out here in all these trees in the dark with no fire,” Duncan told them.

Moses led them to the creek’s edge, stopping just short of the drop-off near the water’s edge.

“We can camp here, there’s plenty of dry wood and we can tie our horses off until morning, to keep them close,” Moses said as he dropped to the ground.

The swift, tumbling water was loud, yet Eli and Duncan were able to hear him.

The three of them quickly built a fire and Duncan gathered more wood to pile next to the fire. They replenished their canteens and watered their horses before tying them close by.

“Moses, is this Buck Creek?” Duncan asked, still worried about the big black cats that would be roaming the dark.

“No, this is Bear Track Creek. Buck Creek is on down south a ways yet. We’ll more’n likely be there about this time tomorrow night.”

“Bear Track Creek? I don’t even want to know how it got its name ... I’m goin’ to gather up some more firewood,” Duncan said.

With the fire burning bright, there was light dancing among the shadows and on the tall pine trees nearby. The dry limbs and sticks that had fallen from the trees were burning bright but not lasting long at all as Duncan kept gathering wood to keep the fire going.