Chapter 3

“This big horse wants to run, Duncan. You want to make some time?”

“Let him run, Eli. We have almost 700 miles due west to ride and I’m ready. It’ll take us over 2 days hard riding to get to Tulsey Town, over on the Arkansas River.”

The two deputies rode hard for over an hour and then slowed their spirited horses to a long easy lope as they talked and laughed as friends, starting a partnership that would be remembered in Indian Territory and surrounding states for years to come.

The major north/south trail from Texas to Missouri, through Tulsey Town (later named Tulsa) of eastern Indian Territory was The Texas Road, originally used by settlers leaving Missouri and heading to Texas.

Later, this trail was used by the East Texas cattle drovers to take their herds directly to Kansas City to the slaughter houses.

The Osage Trail was used by the Indians and followed the Arkansas and Cimarron Rivers on a winding, east/west path. The California Trail started in Fort Smith, Arkansas and passed through the heart of Indian Territory, later leading west to the gold fields in California.

By noon the third day on the trail – both horses being fresh and frisky, the two deputies made Tulsey Town, Indian Territory on the banks of the Arkansas.

They rode across the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. The MKT was nicknamed the K-T, then later called The Katy. The railroad crossed Indian Territory just outside of the small settlement on the Arkansas River. Eli and Duncan looked northeast and southwest down the tracks; they could see for miles in either direction.

They spent the night in a stable after wiping their horses, brushing them out, and making sure they were fed.

When the horses were cared for, Eli and Duncan walked over to get food for themselves. The local boarding house on the riverfront was said to have the best cooking, so they headed that way. Stretching their legs and laughing and talking, they walked into the crowded boarding house, dining room.

They were seated next to a tall gentleman in a black coat and fancy pants. He quickly noticed the Deputy U.S. Marshal badges and turned to Eli.

“Deputy, where are you and your friend headed?”

“Cimarron, New Mexico Territory,” Eli said as he looked the man over.

“You have a long ride ahead of you. I am Anderson Bredamon, perhaps I can help you as you travel the Indian Territory. I am the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for Indian Territory.”

“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Bredamon, I’m Eli Crow and this is Duncan. We’re working under the jurisdiction of Judge William Story, out of Fayetteville, Arkansas.”

“I know Judge William Story. He and I have had dealings in the past.”

“Well, I just hired on and Duncan’s been with him a few years.”

“Perhaps I could deputize you both as Indian Police and make your travels easier. You’d be better accepted in the Territory as no one questions my deputies.”

“We sure would be thankful for such an honor. What would we have to do for you?”

“Well, nothing really. Just obey the rules of the commission you accept, uphold and enforce the law of the land.”

“We can do that, I reckon.”

“Good, come to my office when you finish your meal. It’s down the street to your left and I’ll deputize you and pin a badge on you.”

“Yes Sir, and thank you, Sir,” Eli said, proud that he and Duncan were also going to be Indian Police, as well as Deputy U.S. Marshals.

The next morning at daybreak, having stocked up on jerky and biscuits, they put their grub sacks in their saddlebags and headed west once more, each now wearing two badges.

“I figure it’s another hundred miles or so over to a little place called Omega. I been there once and there’s nothing but a saloon, a whorehouse, and a trading post, all in the same adobe shack and owned by a Half-Breed that’s as crooked and mean as they come,” Duncan said.

“What comes after Omega?”

“Nothing but the same thing we see here, just scrub brush and a few trees. I figure by this map that we’ll still be 400 to 500 miles from Cimarron. We won’t be making time as good as we did the first two days.”

They let their horses run at a long slow lope for an hour, then walked them for a short while before letting them get the long slow lope going again. Eli told Duncan they needed to build the wind in their horses slow. Then if they ever needed to get into a long chase, the horses would have a wind that would last longer than most horses.

The morning of the third day out of Tulsey Town, Eli’s horse slid to a stop, cocking his ears to the front, then to the side and shied away from the side of the narrow trail. Eli eased the reins over his horse’s head and handed them to Duncan, slipping into the brush as fast as a rabbit and out of sight.

Eli moved silently a few feet and stopped to listen. He heard it, a whimpering sound like a child. He heard it again and moved silently to skirt the sound and move back to it.

Eli saw a small man, holding a woman who was bleeding from a wound in her side and her head. Both wore loose fitting, oversize clothes that looked to be ragged and torn from the brush.

As he stood and watched, the woman died in the man’s arms. He felt sorrow for the man as he wept openly over her small frail body.

“I can help you bury her,” he said in a whisper, and the man looked to the sky.

“I am here, I am next to you and I can help you. What happened to your woman?” he spoke softly and the man turned to see the big man standing close to him. He jumped as if to run, then settled back in resignation.

“They kill Lee Yu, they take Tin Yu with them. Ahn Yu know they make a slave with Tin Yu and make her live life of hell,” the small man said as he rocked his woman in his arms.

“Come, I am Eli. I will help you bury your woman,” Eli said as he pulled the man to his feet. He was still holding the small frail body of his woman.

Eli took the dead woman from the man and walked out to the trail. Duncan was looking the other way and when he looked back, he jumped and reached for his gun.

“Damn Eli, you could talk when you come out like that, you scared the shit out of me.

“What’ve you got there anyway, is that Chinee woman dead?”

“Yes, she’s dead and the little man is close to dead. What is a Chinee, Duncan?”

“Chinee, they come from Chinee, on the other side of the world. They come to America to have a better life, sometimes they don’t make it. I’ve seen many Chinee women and young Chinee girls live in whorehouses to make money. Most times they never make it out again.”

“Yes, Tin Yu taken by the bad men. Please help Ahn Yu get Tin Yu back,” the small man said, repeating what he’d said earlier.

“Are you Ahn Yu?” Duncan asked.

“Yes, Ahn Yu. They kill Lee Yu and take Tin Yu, to live in brothel.”

“Is Tin Yu your daughter?” Duncan asked.

“Yes, she daughter, she 15 year old daughter. Please help Ahn Yu.”

“They killed his wife Eli and took his daughter to the whorehouse. The only whorehouse I know of is in Omega, the one I told you about.”

“I heard him, Duncan. How far is it to this Omega?”

“Maybe four miles, if I remember right. We just crossed that little river back there and it’s about five miles or so from there.”

“How long have they been gone with your daughter?” Eli asked.

“How long ago they take daughter, Ahn Yu?” Duncan asked.

“Not long, I ran from trail with Lee Yu. They cut her deep when she try to help Tin Yu. Lee Yu die soon then.”

“Eli, you make out what he’s saying?”

“Yes, we’ll bury his woman, then go get the daughter. Hurry, Duncan,” Eli said.

Using their hands, they dug into the dry, dusty earth near the trail. When they hit hard dirt, they buried the small woman and covered her with a big pile of dirt and sand.

“Duncan, you give the little man a ride. I’ll go have a look and meet you there. I’ll get her.”

“Eli, I really don’t think we need to split up like this. Wait, Eli...”

“Damn that Half-Breed, there he goes again. Hell, he’ll probably kill half of them before we get there. Let’s go little man, I mean, Ahn Yu,” Duncan said as he pulled the small man up on his horse behind his saddle.

Duncan rode hard and fast until he could see the trading post, and the saloon beside it.

He could hear screaming and yelling, then cussing and gunfire, then more screaming. He saw two men run from the door, shooting over their shoulders with their pistols. They both fell to the dirt with a bullet to the back of their heads. There were a few more shots, then a scream that made Duncan’s hair stand up and his skin crawl.

He saw a big Half-Breed man come stumbling from the door of the saloon and realized the man had been scalped alive.

Blood was running down his face, blinding him as he stumbled forward, reaching with his hands for the hitching post, then falling and rolling in the red clay dirt. His blood covered head was coated in the powdery red dust and his eyes were caked as he tried to clear it from his face.

Duncan sat on his horse, just a few feet from where the man lay. He looked up and saw the man’s scalp come flying out the door like a pelt from a varmint. The man crawled to his knees and pulled the blood and dirt from his eyes with the fingers of one hand as he pulled his gun with the other.

Duncan was about to draw down on the man, not knowing what was happening in the saloon, nor knowing where Eli was either. The man pointed his pistol at the doorway, and before Duncan could draw a bead, he saw Eli’s big knife glint in the sunlight, just before it stuck to the hilt in the man’s throat.

“Eli?” Duncan called.

“Yeah, Duncan?”

“You alright in there?”

“Yeah, tell the little man to come get his daughter. She’s been whipped and beaten, but they didn’t rape her.”

“Ahn Yu, can you hear Eli? He said Tin Yu is alright in there.”

“Ahn Yu hear good, let me on ground.”

Ahn Yu fell to the ground in a heap. He held his hand over his side and blood ran between his bony fingers from the deep wound in his side.

“Eli, I think Ahn Yu has been wounded too. Can you bring his daughter out here?”

Duncan looked at the doorway and saw Eli come out, his long hair awry, his hands bloody and his Colt still smoking in his holster. He didn’t even look like Eli. He looked like a wild man.

Eli held a tall slender, naked girl under his arm. He walked to where the Chinee man had fallen and let the girl to the ground. She fell beside her father, seeing his wounds and sobbing.

“Father, I am here. Tin Yu here, they do no harm. The tall man he kill them. They all dead, Father,” the frail girl sobbed through her tears as she held her father’s head against her naked breasts.

“Tin Yu, you alive. Tall man say he get you. You go with tall man, he good man, he save you from bad men.”

“I will Father, he good man,” she said, but her father’s head had fallen to the side, his eyes open.

He was dead.

Eli knelt and closed the man’s eyes with his fingers. He picked the slender, frail girl up by her waist and stood her beside him.

“We will bury your father now,” Eli said to her and she looked up at him and nodded, just before she fainted.

Eli picked her up and carried her to the saloon, where he got some water and splashed on her face, then gave her some to drink from his cupped hand.

“Eli, I found a shovel,” Duncan said and walked around back.

Eli carried the girl over to a bench at the back door of the saloon, then went back and picked up Ahn Yu and carried him through the saloon and laid him at her feet, throwing two blankets over him.

He picked up another shovel and told Duncan he would be right back. Eli rode back to the shallow grave where they had buried the Chinee woman, and uncovered her. He laid her frail body across his horse and mounted.

When he came back to the saloon, he rode around back and stepped to the ground, laying the woman’s body beside her man.

Duncan and Eli looked up when the naked girl got a pan of water and washed her parent’s faces. Then she stripped their clothes and washed their bodies. She rolled them in blankets, one at a time and sat back on the bench, talking in her native tongue.

Eli and Duncan took the blankets at each end and carried Ahn Yu and Lee Yu to their grave. They lowered them to the bottom and stood as Tin Yu came to look down at them. She looked at Eli and reached out to touch his big hand, then went back to sit in the shade as they covered them.

“Eli, what are we going to do with Tin Yu? There’s no one here now, you killed them all.”

“They were trying to rape her, Duncan. The big man was trying to get his cock in her while the others held her down. I was mad, and I killed them. I reckon it was my pa’s blood coming out of me again, Duncan. I can’t put up with people who rape women and girls like that.”

“Hell, I reckon you did kill them, Eli. I reckon you killed every last one of them. Damn, I counted six of them. Now what will we do with Tin Yu?”

“We’ll have to take her with us over to the next trading post.”

“Eli, there’s nothing else between here and New Mexico Territory.”

“Then we will take her to New Mexico.”

“I just knew you were going to say that, I just knew it. But then I reckon we don’t have a lot of choice.”

Eli went into the saloon to find Tin Yu some clothes to wear. He found a new buckskin shirt and took it to her. It was far too big for the frail girl, but he took his knife and cut the sleeves off at her elbows and it became a dress for her.

“Where is Juni?” the girl asked suddenly.

“Who is Juni?” Eli asked.

“Juni Moon. She try help me, big man slap her – she fall way cross room,” Tin Yu spoke American well for a Chinee, Eli thought.

“Duncan, you better get in here. Tin Yu says there’s another girl here somewhere.”

“Damn Eli, I hope you didn’t kill her too, in all the shootin and knifing and killing that was going on,” Duncan said as he came back in mumbling about the filthy, dirt floor, shit-house, shack of a saloon with dead men lying every damn where.

They looked all through the big room and the lean-to room on the side, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Eli walked over to a pile of dusty, mangy buffalo hides thrown across a wooden table and lifted them up. There she was, sitting naked under the table, still addled from the blows to her head.

“Tin Yu, come here,” Eli said and Tin Yu ran over to see Juni trying to get up.

“Juni Moon, Tin Yu thought they kill you.”

“They damn near did. That sumbitch slapped me so fuckin hard, I slid on my ass across that dirt floor. I hid under here and there was a hell of a fucking fight that went on. That big Injun there shot one of them bastards and he fell on me, knocking me under this pile of stinking hides. Did they get in your pussy, Tin Yu?”

Juni came out jabbering like a Magpie as she saw Tin Yu and the two Deputies.

“They no get Tin Yu pussy, they get you pussy, Juni?”

“Hell no, that bastard over there with his fat ass ripped open was trying to stick me when the Injun run his knife up his asshole and cut his ass wide open,” Juni said as she stood naked in the dirt floor, rubbing the big lump on the side of her head.

Eli stood looking at the two dirty, scrubby looking young girls as they talked.

Juni was no more than 14 years old, close to Tin Yu’s age. She was a little hellcat of a girl, with long stringy white hair and a round face. Neither of the girls weighed much over a hundred pounds. Both were so skinny they looked like they had been starved. Neither of them had tits bigger than a tin cup full. They were pretty though.

“Juni, get you one of them shirts like Tin Yu’s got and let’s get out of this bad smelling place,” Eli told her, taking her by her arm when she staggered a bit.

“Fuck, Half-Breed you sure are tall. Are you and the other deputy gonna take us away from here?” Juni said.

“Yes, we’ll take you both away, now get you a shirt on. Duncan and me will get you a horse,” he said as the girls went to find her something to wear.

“Eli, we’re going to be really slowed down with these two girls, but I reckon there’s much else we can do. We can’t leave them here. They’d just be found by some other raping, killing bastard,” Duncan said as they walked outside. The stench in that hell hole was about to gag them all.

“Find the two youngest horses and we’ll ride longer each day to make up the time we lost. We can’t leave them,” Eli said as they looked at each other.

“I know it, Eli, and I want you to know that I’m proud all over again to ride with you. You sure do know how to take out a bunch of bad men in a hurry. I’ll say that for ya.”

“I’m proud to ride with you too, Duncan. You’ve helped me and now we must help these skinny little girls,” Eli said as they caught two Indian Ponies from the corral and saddled them.

The two girls were running from the dirty, stinking shack as smoke billowed from the doors and windows. They had set it afire and both were laughing as they ran. Eli looked at Duncan and after the shock of seeing the place burning wore off, the two deputies smiled at each other and at the girls.

They helped the young girls on the ponies and were off as the black smoke seemed to follow them, along with the stench.

They rode at a fast gait for hours, not wanting to wear the horses down, but wanting to make as many miles as they could.

When they came to a wide river bed with just a small stream of water, they stopped only long enough to drink and water the horses before moving on.

“If I read my map right, that was the North Fork of the Canadian River. We’ll come to the Canadian before dark and we’ll have a place to wash up and maybe find some food,” Duncan said after folding his map and placing it back in the heavy waxed paper cover.

“Have you been this far before, Duncan?” Eli asked.

“Only as far as the Canadian down this way; I went all the way to No Man’s Land once to find a man.”

“Where is No Man’s Land?” Eli asked as they rode two abreast.

“Some call it the Panhandle, it reaches west all the way to Colorado Territory.”

“We’re south of there, right?”

“Yes, we’re miles south of there.”

“Eli, we’re hungry and we need to piss,” Juni said as she and Tin Yu rode up beside them.

“We’ll stop to piss, then ride on. We’ll find a place to camp tonight and find more food,” he told her. They pulled the horses up short as the two girls jumped to the ground and pissed in the trail.

Neither of the girls could get back on their horses and Duncan stepped off to help them, his hand slipped and he had a handful of Juni’s naked butt as he hefted her up. Juni giggled and looked down at him.

“Sorry bout that,” he grinned.

“Never you mind, at least you didn’t try to stick your thumb up my butt,” she said.

“Girl, you got a rough way of looking at things and even rougher way of talking about ‘em,” he said, grinning as he helped Tin Yu up on her pony, careful not to poke her naked butt.

They rode on for another two hours, and just as the sun set behind the red cloud-bank in the west, they came to The Canadian River.

“Duncan, if you’ll find us a good place to camp with shelter from the rain, I’ll get us some food. Tell the girls to build a big fire and I’ll be back soon,” Eli said.

“Eli, it never rains out here,” Duncan said as he looked up at the clear sky.

“It will rain tonight, find a place high up from the water,” Eli said, looking once more at the red cloud bank that covered all the western horizon.

Eli turned and rode off upriver, leaving Duncan scratching his head. He already knew that Eli knew all about these things, like horses and bad people. He began to look for shelter.

Looking up the sharp, red clay bluff he spotted a small indent with a narrow path leading to it.

“You girls gather wood for a fire. Eli said he’d have meat for supper soon. I’m going to have a look up there,” he pointed to the indent.

Duncan climbed up the narrow, steep trail. It looked as if it had been used in the past by many unknown travelers. When he came to the top, he saw some rocks piled in a circle for a small fire. The place looked to have been whittled out during a big flood at some time or another. It was about the size of a small horse stall and head high to him. Eli will just have to bend over, he thought as he looked down below to where the girls were gathering drift wood along the dry bank of the river.

It was good to see them running with arm loads of sticks and limbs and laughing. No telling what either of them had been through in their lifetime.

It must be hell being a girl, he thought as he remembered them both being nearly raped.

He wondered how they come to be friends and how they had gotten out here in this God forsaken country anyway. Maybe after they had eaten, they’d tell more about it.

Duncan was looking down as the girls stripped naked and ran to the water after getting a fire going with the matches he’d given them. They ran and played in the river water like kids. Duncan wished they weren’t so skinny. They’d both look a lot better with more meat on them.

He jumped when he heard the crack of a rifle shot in the distance. He knew Eli had just killed supper, and would be here soon.

He made his way back down the steep, narrow incline and the girls ran to him, laughing, naked, and wet.

“Duncan, come swim with us,” Juni said as they stood beside him, water dripping off their hair, face, and small tits.

“I better wait for Eli and help him skin whatever it was he just killed. You girls go swim, just be careful of the fast water out in the middle,” he told them.

“We will, call us when Eli gets here and we’ll help clean the animal. I used to help Pa all the time when he killed game,” Juni said, then turned to catch Tin Yu as they ran to the river’s edge.

Duncan looked at the girls playing in the water. He wanted to go play with them, but they needed food first. He jumped and grabbed for his gun when he heard a sound at his back. He whirled and there was Eli, sitting on that big black horse, with a small deer draped across his saddle in front of him, one bullet hole in its head.

“Eli, I sure wish you and that damned horse would make more racket when you come up behind me like that. I’ve got the jitters enough with all that’s happened the past week or so,” Duncan said, and had to smile when Eli smiled at him before stepping to the ground with the deer.

“Help me get this deer hung up so we can skin it. This’ll make some good eating for the girls. We need to get some meat on their bones or they’ll blow away,” Eli said as he took his knife and cut the skin back from the hind legs of the deer, to expose the tendons. Duncan knew what he was doing and grabbed a stick to put into the slice on the bony hind legs of the deer. They hung it in a tree from the stick, just about head high to Duncan.

“Eli, you shot a deer. That will be some good tender eatin. Pa always said the younger ones were the best to eat,” Juni said as she and Tin Yu ran back naked and wet.

“Pile some more wood on that fire. We’ll have it skinned and gutted in no time,” Eli told them.

Eli took his big knife and slit the skin around the neck, down each leg, down the belly and around its tail. He and Duncan then pulled the skin from the young deer and tossed it to the side. Eli cut through the belly and pulled the guts out on the dirt. After he cut the head off, they lifted the carcass and carried it to the river’s edge and washed the blood from the meat.

Eli took his knife and chopped three willow saplings at the ground, then chopped them off about six feet up. Sticking the big end into the ground by the fire, he pulled the three ends together at the top and laced them with strips of rawhide from the deerskin.

Duncan helped him tie the small carcass over the fire as the girls danced naked, laughing and skipping around the fire as the deer began to cook.

“Eli, I found a place up high where the water has hollowed out a hole in the past. It’s big enough for a small fire and all of us. We’ll have to find a place for the horses tonight,” Duncan told him.