Chapter 16

Fort Smith, Arkansas
November 2, 1875

Before Duncan had completely recovered from the injury to his head, he was laid up with pneumonia. He’d gotten caught in a heavy downpour and arrived home wet and chilled. He spent two weeks recovering, with the first week spent in bed the whole time.

Eli and Moses were split up again, since they were short-handed.

“Eli, which way you headed this time? It looks like I’m headed up toward Kansas where you ‘n Duncan come from when he got whacked on his head,” Moses said.

“I’m headed over to Muskogee, at least we get to ride part way together this time before you cut north.”

“Eli, I didn’t get the chance to tell you; me ‘n Suh got married at the church when we went. She asked me if we could, and I talked to Rose about it, since I didn’t know the first thing about any of that. Rose talked to the preacher when we got there, and he married us right there in front of everybody. Can you believe all them folks came up and welcomed us to church and wished us well in our marriage? I told Suh we were going back there again, if they let us come in there like that.”

“Rose told me about it, Moses. I’ve already told you, you’re the same as me or any other man on the inside. Stop thinking about you being different and others won’t think it either.”

“Eli, you just make things sound a lot simpler when I talk to you like this.”

“Most things are simpler, Moses. You just got to stop worrying about what you’re afraid someone else will think. Just do what you know to be right.”

After they crossed the Arkansas, they split up.

“Moses, I’ll see you back in Fort Smith I reckon. Be careful out there, and remember what happened to Duncan. Don’t trust no man at your back, kill’em first if you have to.”

“I’ll remember that, Eli. I sure don’t want to go through what Duncan did. You ride easy over there to that Tom Starr’s place. I heard him and his kin were the worst horse thieves and outlaws around that part of the Territory.”

“Yep, I heard Duncan tell of them, I just never run upon them. Reckon I’ll just go have a look for myself.”

The next day when Eli came to the K-T Railroad he knew he was north of Muskogee and turned south, following the railroad. He knew according to the maps he had, he’d come to the Canadian River and Muskogee soon. From there, he’d only have a few miles down to the Eufaula area, where the Starr land was supposed to be.

Duncan had told him once that Tom Starr was a Cherokee Indian who owned his land separate from the reservation and that he’d been known to steal horses and cattle. He was also known to provide a haven for others who were running from the law; amongst them, what was left of the James and Younger gangs.

This woman he was after, Myra Maybelle Reed, was said to be living here with Sam Starr, the son of Tom Starr. The warrant said she’d been friends with the James Gang and the Younger Gang in Missouri, and here in the Territory too during her growing up years.

Eli had arrested some women, along with the arrests of those they rode with, but he’d never been sent to arrest one particular woman. He wondered just how bad this woman could be. He remembered the Salters, they were bad enough, but he didn’t have a name for them until he got there. They got arrested because they rode, robbed, and raped with Y.B. Yoes.

He was still north of the Canadian and couldn’t see any sign of a railroad bridge or a town, when he got a whiff of food cooking. He stopped his horse and turned to find the wind. When he turned to his left, he smelled it again. The smell was strong and he knew whatever it was, he was getting close.

Loosely tying his horse to a bush, he slipped into the brush to the side of the railroad, sniffing the air to keep track of where the smell was coming from.

He came to a small clearing and saw two horses tied off to one side. He saw the campfire with a skillet on the red coals. There was smoke coming from the grease in the pan and whatever was cooking was about to burn.

He stayed low, looking around until he heard a grunting, groaning sound.

Moving just a little to his left, he saw a man and woman lying naked on some blankets. The man was on top and she was grunting, as he thrust his body against her.

The man’s foot was pushing against a small tree that looked to have fallen in a storm. The top of the tree was resting on a big pile of brush and each time the man pushed against the woman, the treetop moved and shook the brush pile.

Eli knew this was the best time to get the drop on them, while they were so intent in their coupling. As he stepped out of the bushes behind them, he saw movement. There were two rattlesnakes ready to strike, their rattles shaking, not three feet from the man’s foot.

As he looked at them, he saw two more snakes wrapped and entwined in the limbs of the brush pile. This was a whole damn nest of rattlers. One snake struck at the man’s naked foot and hit just short of its mark. Eli pulled his pistol and killed it, then shot the other snake that was coiled, ready to strike.

The man and woman rolled over, screaming as if they had been shot, as Eli killed two more snakes in the brush pile.

“Get to your feet before you get bit by a snake,” he yelled as he pointed his gun at them.

The man started for his own gun lying nearby and Eli fired once more, right next to the man’s gun holster.

“I’m trying to save your lives. Now get your naked asses covered and stand over away from this brush pile, there’s a nest of rattlers in here.”

The man and woman grabbed the blankets off the ground and stood aside as Eli rolled the cylinder on his Colt ejecting the spent shells and dropping five more live rounds in. He watched as the man looked over toward his gun.

“You’ll never make it. Just rest easy and you won’t get shot. Now tell me your names and what you’re doing out here.”

“Fuck you,” the woman screamed at him.

“The way them rattlers were about to strike, you both would have died getting your last one. Now you just mind your mouth and talk to me.”

“I’m Sam Starr and this is Belle Reed. My father and I are Cherokee and he owns this place, you’re on our land.”

“I have a warrant for both of you signed by Judge Isaac Parker. Eli Crow here, United States Marshal out of Fort Smith, Arkansas.”

“You have no reason to arrest us, we’ve done nothing against the law,” the woman spoke.

“Then I reckon you’ll be set free after you’ve faced the judge. But until then, you both just get down on your knees in the dirt and put your hands behind you.”

Eli whistled shrilly and heard his horse thundering through the brush. His horse stopped beside him, his reins dragging the ground, a small limb still tied where he’d pulled loose.

After making them lie on the ground, he shackled the man’s left hand to the woman’s right hand, then her left foot to his right foot. They lay back to back, arms and legs twisted and tangled, as he cuffed them together.

With the man and woman taken care of, Eli pulled his knife and walked to the brush pile. He looked carefully for more rattlers, before reaching down to pick up the first one he’d killed.

It was almost four feet long and as big as his arm. Eli counted ten rattles as he laid the snake out on the ground and put his foot on its head. He cut the rattles off and stuffed them into his pouch. Then he slipped the point of the knife under its skin at the tail and slit it right up the belly all the way to its head as he held it stretched tight.

He cut the head off and pulled the skin from the snake. Spread out wide, the skin was nearly four feet long and a foot wide at the big end. Eli laid the skin aside and skinned three more snakes, before taking a stick and striking the ground near a big hole in the ground under the brush pile.

He heard more rattles and kicked the brush out of the way. Another big rattler struck at his moccasin. Just as quick as the snake, Eli trapped its head with a stick until he could get his foot on it. As he reached down to take hold of the big snake’s head, another one struck at his hand. He jerked his hand back, as the snake turned and moved back away from him.

With his foot pinning the first snake’s head to the ground, Eli leaned over and grabbed the one crawling away. This one was a lot bigger, and Eli grabbed it by its tail, swinging it in a circle over his head. He’d seen his Pa pop the head off a snake once. With the big snake already trying to ball up and strike back at his hand, Eli snapped it forward, popping it hard like a whip.

Blood splattered his leggings as the snake’s head snapped against the dry ground. The bottom part of its mouth was gone. Eli pulled it back again and popped it hard, this time popping it in the air like a whip. The snake rolled into a bloody, writhing ball as Eli turned it loose, its head completely gone.

The one pinned to the ground under his foot was coiled and twisted all around his leg, trying to pull itself free.

This rattler had to be the granddaddy of them all. He had twenty one rattles and was as long as Eli is tall. He reached down with his knife and cut the head off right next to his moccasin.

When he’d killed all that came out, he had fourteen full grown rattlers and six smaller ones. He skinned all of them out, stacking one skin on top of the other on the ground, then he took a large dry limb and broke off a two foot long piece of it over his knee. He rolled all the skins tightly around the stick and put them in his saddlebag.

These skins would be welcomed by Little Duck, Eva, and Catt.

Eli walked over to the shackled couple and threw the woman’s long dress at her. Belle Reed had been lying on the ground, shackled back to back with Sam Starr, watching this crazy ass Indian mess with these snakes like they were play toys. She just knew he was going to get bit at least a dozen times and they’d all die out here.

He loosened the shackles from her hands, leaving one of her feet hooked to the man.

“Get yourself covered, then lay back on the ground.”

“Marshal, you’ll be sorry for this, I’ll see to it,” she said hatefully.

“You may be right, but until then, you ‘n Sam are headin’ back to Fort Smith wearin’ these irons.”

Eli loosened Sam Starr the same way and with his hands free, he pulled his shirt over his head. Eli hooked one of his hands back to the woman and freed Sam’s feet so he could pull his britches up.

When they were dressed, except for their boots, Eli saddled their horses and brought them over. He searched the saddlebags and removed the guns and cartridges from them. He took the rifles from the boot and tied them behind his saddle, putting both their handguns in his saddlebags.

Eli tied a short rope between the bridles of the two horses, then with the man’s right hand shackled to the woman’s left hand, he made them walk between the horses and mount up. With one set of leg irons, Eli looped each end through the stirrups and shackled the two together, foot to foot with a three foot length of chain between the horses. With their feet chained to their stirrups, then to each other as they sat on their saddles, Sam Starr looked at Eli.

“You crazy bastard, if these horses spook, we’ll be both dragged to death,” the man said.

“Then you best hope they don’t spook, and you best listen to me good right now. I’m gonna tell you something you need to try real hard to remember, if you want to live a little longer.

“You cuss me again, and I’ll be the one that slaps them horses across their asses with a rope and see how long you both last. I aim to deliver the two of you to the Fort Smith jail to wait for your time before Judge Parker. You can go in one piece, or I can roll the pieces that’s left of you in a blanket, and take you over the saddle. That’s about the only thing you got any say so on this whole damn mess you’re in.”

“Marshal, if you’ll let us go, we can make you a deal that’ll pay a lot more than you draw as a marshal and be a lot more pleasurable too,” the woman said, trying again to keep from being taken to Fort Smith.

“You got nothing to deal with. I got more women than I can take care of back there in Arkansas. I like bein’ a marshal and I aim to live long enough to see a lot more of this land have my name on it one day.”

“We can get you all the land you want, Marshal. You’re part Cherokee like me, you can own land now. You don’t have to wait, just set us free,” Sam Starr joined in.

“I already got my own land, I don’t need your help. I got nothing personal against the two of you. You’re not as bad as some I’ve been sent to bring back. If you’re not too deep in your thievin’ and breakin’ the law, you’ll get off before long.”

“Marshal, I got two young kids back there across the river, you can’t take me away from them,” the woman said as they headed east.

“It was alright for you to be out here layin’ naked in the brush. They’ll be alright when you get back, if you come back. You sure don’t want them to go with you, now do you?”

“No I don’t. Look, Marshal Eli Crow, Sam and I haven’t done anything you wouldn’t do out here. This is a hard country and we just try to help others and make a small living, we’re not outlaws,” she pleaded as they rode.

“Says on the warrant, you and Sam have been helpin’ the wrong folks though. For that, you’re going to Fort Smith. Like I said, I ain’t got nothing personal against you two. If you didn’t have a warrant out for you, I reckon we’d even be likeable friends. I hope you do get off, but until then, you’re my prisoners. If you act half way right, I’ll be a little easier on you. If you make me mad, I’ll drag your asses behind them horses all the way back to Fort Smith.”

“Damn Eli Crow, you’re a hard man,” Belle said as she gave up.

“No I’m not, but I aim to stay alive and raise my kids here in the Territory when it gets settled, and all the hell raisers are gone.”

“They’ll never all be gone Marshal, there’s too many of them and this place is too big.”

“There’s over two hundred of us out here, marshals and deputies all told. We’ll put a stop to the wrong doin’, one way or the other. Even if we have to kill every damned last one of them.”

“How long you been a marshal?” she asked, still making talk as they rode three abreast.

“A few years.”

“How many men you killed?” she asked, hoping to trip him up somehow.

“Never counted, but I reckon I’ve had to kill at least a coupla dozen since I started bein’ a marshal, maybe another dozen before that,” he answered.

“Damn, Marshal, how many have you taken back alive?” Sam asked.

“About the same number, maybe a few less.”

“Then you can damn well bet we’ll take our chances with Judge Parker,” Sam Starr spoke up loud and clear.

They spent the night on the trail, with Sam and Belle hooked together, feet and hands. He was behind her, with his hands crossed in front of her and shackled. There was no way they could even stand.

When Eli turned them over to the jailer the next day, he stood looking at them for a minute.

“Sam, if you ‘n Belle get out of this without a lot of time spent, just go back there and stop all your theivin’ and robbin’. If you don’t, I’ll be back to get you.”

“We’ll get out of this, Eli, and we’ll be alright once we get back out there. We’re not bad folks; we’re just trying to make a living the best way we can,” she told him.

Eli knew she was lying. He knew as soon as they got back over there in that damn wild country they’d be right back amongst the other outlaws and thieves. He kinda hoped he wasn’t the one that was sent back after them. He kinda liked them, in a way.

Eli had a short talk with Jefferson before leaving the courthouse. He was happy to hear that Doctor Harrod was already applying for the names of Lettie, Nadalee and Hadalee to be added to the next session of nursing school there at the St. Louis hospital. The three of them would leave tomorrow on the Aunt Sally, as she made her way down the Arkansas and then back up the Mississippi to St. Louis.

“Eli, I used some of the money you gave me to pay for their passages. I knew you’d want me to do that. They’ll have to take enough with them to pay for the schooling. They’ll have food and lodging at the hospital in exchange for working there when they’re not in school.”

“Jefferson, you done good. I’m just proud them three girls will get the chance to learn about nursing and medicine in a professional school.”

“I am too, Eli, and those three girls would leave here walking today, if that was what it took for them to get there.”

“How long will they be gone, did you find out?”

“They’ll be in school for six months, then work fulltime at the hospital for three months, then back to school for a few more months. They’ll be back here by fall of next year.”

“That’s a long time, but I reckon when they get out, they can come back here and maybe we’ll have us a hospital one day like the one in Little Rock.”

Eli rode straight to the barn when he got home. Carl was behind the barn working on some more chicken pens and tall turkey pens when he rode up.

“Carl, how’s it going? You about to get all the building done for the women?” he asked as he stepped from his horse.

“No Eli, not even close. They told me this morning to start another bunch of men to working across the river and build ten of the two family houses and ten of the one family houses.

“I got one crew of men working on the new saddle shop next to Little Duck’s leather shop already. We should have them both finished in a few weeks.”

“You’re doing a good job, Carl. When are you and Sundy gonna get hitched?” Eli asked as he pulled the saddle from his horse, glancing over at Carl as he spoke.

“Eli, I’d marry her today, if you told me I could.”

“Then go tell her you want to marry her. We’ll send your brother for a preacher and do the wedding right here. You two need to be together, making a family. You spend most of your time here anyway.”

“Thanks Eli, I’ll be right back. I know Sundy is gonna be so happy, she’ll beat me back out here when I tell her you’re here.”

“I’ll be up to the house in a bit, just keep it quiet about me being here, for now.”

“I will, Eli. Thanks for letting me be in your family.”

“You more’n earn your keep, Carl. We’ll keep on paying you just like we do now, and you keep building whatever the women want.”

Carl left his tools lying and ran toward the house. Eli went to his bank and pulled a sack of money out. He counted out three thousand dollars, thinking that would be plenty for the schooling and for the nurse students to live on for a year.

Unbuckling his holster and hanging it over his shoulder, Eli stuffed the money into the waist of his buckskins and pulled his shirt down over it. He was on the back porch before anyone in the house saw him.

Jessie and Sundy were coming out the kitchen door when they saw Eli. They screamed as they both ran to him, grabbing him around the waist and hugging him as they laughed.

Eli reached down, and with his arms around the two young girls, he lifted them up and kissed both on their faces as they squirmed and giggled and laughed.

With both girls hanging onto his neck, he carried them into the kitchen to see all the mommas and young’uns sitting around the kitchen table.

“Eli, you surprised all of us this time. We were wondering what Sundy and Jessie were yelling about on the back porch,” Mary said as she jumped up and hugged him, reaching her arm around the young girls as she did.

“I saw Carl out at the barn and asked him not to tell I was back, I wanted to walk in on all of you. How’s my boy?” he said as he leaned down to rub his nose on the sleeping boy.

“He just went to sleep, they’re all eating and sleeping and growing like crazy.”

He put the two girls down and went around the table, hugging and speaking to the mommas, kissing them on their cheeks and looking down at the sleeping girls and boys.

Though he tried not to, he couldn’t help but pay special attention to his girls. Tin Yu and Clarissa sat next to each other and Eli knelt between them, looking at the two baby girls as they slept. He kissed Tin Yu’s cheek then turned to kiss Clarissa’s cheek, before making his round to the boys and their mommas.

Duncan was sitting next to Juni, with a grin on his face as wide as the Arkansas River, holding Isaac on his lap.

“Eli, you made it back a lot faster this time, did you have any trouble?” Duncan asked as Eli sat beside his friend.

“No, just didn’t go as far this time. I stumbled upon the ones I was after out in the bushes.”

“What were they doing out in the bushes, Eli?” Clarissa asked. She was writing in her tablet as she held their baby girl in her other arm.

“Well, they were too busy to even see or hear me when I walked up,” Eli laughed and they all laughed when they realized what he meant.

“Jessie, run out to the barn for me and look in my saddlebags. I brought something back for Little Duck and her girls to use in the leather shop,” Eli said.

Before he was even through talking, Jessie was out the back door, and running across the yard to the barn.

“While she’s gone to get that, I want all of you to know that Carl and me talked out at the barn and I told him it was time him and Sundy got married and started a family. We need to get the preacher over here and get these two hitched.”

“So that was what Carl whispered to Sundy when she pulled Jessie out on the porch to tell her the secret,” Rose said and they all laughed.

“When Carl told me about him and Eli talking, I thought he was just teasing me. I wanted to believe him and I wanted to tell Jessie too. She and I have been talking about that and I told her I wanted to be Carl’s wife. I didn’t know Eli was here until he walked up on the porch,” Sundy said as she laughed and hugged herself to Carl.

Sundy was over her shy ways. She talked openly about her and Carl and everyone knew how they felt about each other. They were all proud they were going to marry.

“Sundy, why don’t you and Carl go get Donald to find the preacher for you? We’ll just have us a wedding here today,” Rose told them.

“Tell him to saddle my horse and ride him over there; he needs to be rode so he’ll be ready for me in a few days,” Duncan told them as they went out the kitchen door, holding hands and grinning.

“Eli, did you and Moses go to the same place this time?” Suh asked when the room had settled.

“No, he went back up past Tulsey and I went almost straight west. He’ll be back by the last of the week, I reckon,” he told her.

“You needn’t worry none, we’ve all talked and we’re not gonna be taking chances like we been doing. I’m gonna ask Judge Parker if maybe the three of us can’t start back ridin together again. I know he’s let some of the other deputies do that, cause there’s still too many of them outlaws and killers out there,” Eli told her.

“Eli, I hope we can ride together like we did them other times. As bad as it was, it was better than being out there and nobody watchin our backs,” Duncan said as Jessie came back with the snake skins.

“Lord have mercy, Eli! Where did you ever get all these snake skins?” Mary asked as she saw what Jessie was carrying.

“I ran up on a nest of rattlers over there close to Muskogee on the Canadian River. I knew Little Duck, Eva, and Catt would like to have these skins to make bags and belts out of.”

“She was just talking the other day about wishing she had some; she’ll be tickled to get them, Eli,” Catt said as she and Eva looked the skins over.

“Those things give me the shivers. I wish all of you would take them off the table and out of the kitchen. I can just see those big snakes still crawling,” Clarissa said and they all laughed, until she too laughed at herself.

“Where are the four sisters? I got some good news Jefferson told me about when I was at the courthouse,” Eli told them.

“They were out there with Mr. Robertson a while ago. Want me to go see if I can find them?” Jessie said.

“Yes, and find Lettie too.”

“She was with them, I’ll find them for you,” she said and took off running again.

“Eli, she’s got her eyes set on Donald. We’ve all been watching them just like we did Sundy and Carl,” Mary told him.

“How old are they?”

“They’re both almost eighteen,” Rose answered.

“I want all our girls to be happy. Do you think we need to see if they’re ready to get hitched too?” he asked.

“They’re awful young, Eli, but we were eighteen when we married,” Mary said.

“Tin Yu, you’ve talked to Jessie more than us, what do you think?” Rose asked.

“They in love, she tell me they want to be together. I know how she feel, I was fifteen when I met Eli first time. Now I am here with family and happy with his baby girl.”

“She’s right, Eli, me and Tin Yu are now women, when a year ago, we were scared little girls. When Sissy and Jessie first came here with Lettie and Sundy, they were all just little girls except Lettie, and they all looked to her like a momma. Lettie wants Jessie to be happy and she likes Donald too,” Juni told him.

“That will just leave Sissy. Where is she?” Eli asked.

“That girl never rests during the day, she’s always cleaning somewhere in this house. She thinks she owes us something. I’ve tried to explain to her that she’s our daughter now and we love her like she was born here. She told me she was afraid the Judge will come get her and send her back to where she came from,” Mary said.

“I’ll go talk to her, after I tell the sisters and Lettie the good news,” Eli told them.

“Here they come now, all of them running races across the yard,” Mary said as she looked out the back door.

“Eli, we didn’t see you come in, you slipped right past us this time,” Lettie said as she ran to him and hugged him around his shoulders as he sat at the table. Hadalee and Nadalee were right behind her and took their turns as Eli turned in his chair to look at them.

“I got something for you three girls. I want to tell you that you have made us proud by wanting to do something good with your lives. Here’s some money for each of you. You’ll need it to pay for your schooling. You need to be packed and down at the river to board the Aunt Sally tomorrow morning. You’re going to St. Louis to nursin’ school.”

“OH ELI,” they all screamed and woke all the kids, as the three of them laughed and cried.

Everyone in the room was hugging and talking and planning and laughing.

“How long will we be gone, Eli?” Hadalee asked.

“Jefferson told me it would be about a year. I hope you three stick it out and make nurses out of yourselves.”

“We will, Eli. We’ll make all of you proud for helping us like you have, you’ll see,” Nadalee told him.

“Lettie, there’s three new leather clothes bags in your room. Little Duck, Adalee, and Cadalee made them for all of you. We already knew you would to get to go,” Eva told them.

“OH, you all are going to make me cry again, I’m so happy,” Lettie said as she started toward the stairs.

“Wait a minute, Lettie. Hadalee, Nadalee, all of you look in the top drawers in the chest in my room and you’ll find new underwear and new dresses we sewed for you three. We wanted you to have some new clothes for your stay in St. Louis. I know they’ll have you in nurse’s clothes most of the time, but we wanted you to have some everyday clothes too,” Rose told them.

“Girls, I’ll be up and tell you all about where to go and where not to go in St. Louis. We all want you to have a good time up there while you’re going to school. This will be the best times of your lives. When you come back, you’ll all be nurses and you won’t have much time to enjoy things like you do now,” Clarissa told them.

“We’re so excited, we’re going up to start packing our new clothes bags before we start crying again,” Nadalee told them as the three turned and ran up the stairs.

“I’m so happy for them, I may start crying myself,” Clarissa said and laughed at herself as she wiped her eyes and wrote some more in her tablet.

An hour later, Donald rode right up to the back porch with the preacher sitting behind him, on the back of Duncan’s horse. It was the same preacher who had performed the ceremony for Moses and Suh.

Jessie ran upstairs to find Sissy and get Lettie, Nadalee, and Hadalee to come back down. Little Duck, Adalee, Cadalee, Mr. Robertson, Carl and Suh all came in too.

Jessie pulled Donald over close to her, as she stood next to Rose. She kept looking up at her and moving as close as she could.

“Jessie, you and Donald will be in front of that preacher soon, won’t you?” Rose asked as she put her arm around Jessie.

Jessie pulled her down to whisper in her ear.

“Wait, we have another couple wanting to be married,” Rose said, pulling Jessie and Donald over to stand with Sundy and Carl.

The four Nightwalker sisters were standing next to each other, the two youngest standing with their beaus, Bill and Jack Robertson. They watched as the preacher stood ready to marry the two couples. Everyone kept looking at the four of them; they knew they were itching to be married.