Chapter 8

“Sundy, you put this shirt on and slide over here on my horse with me. We’re going up there and scout this trading post,” Eli said as he unlocked her shackles and pulled a buckskin shirt out of his saddlebag.

“Marshal, you be watchful of Sundy if there’s shootin. We’ve took a liking to her and want to see her do good, now that her kin have been arrested,” Jessie said.

“I’ll be alright, I know Marshal Eli will keep me safe,” she said as she hugged her thin body to his back.

“Duncan, I’m going on up there and look this place over, just keep ridin’ that way and I’ll cut you off.”

“Eli, you be careful up there, you don’t know what you’re ridin’ into.”

Eli bumped his horse’s flanks and they rode at a gallop ahead of the slow moving caravan of prisoners for more than a mile.

“Eli, that stinking trading post is just around the next bend in the river. Y.B. always took us up to the back side of it. He never liked to be around some of the mean ass riders that hung around the front, drinking and hollering vulgar things at the women inside until they came out and sat with them.”

“Were there women there all the time?”

“Yes, they lived with the old man who owned the place. He kept them there to lay with the outlaws that hung out there all the time. Ma always told me she was gonna sell me off to that dirty old buzzard if I didn’t come to be more like her and the others.”

“We’ll stop here and walk the rest of the way. We’ll get a little closer, then I want you to stay with my horse so you’ll be safe. I want to look the place over. All we want is some blankets or clothes to keep all of you from getting sun-cooked.”

“I’ll stay here, but I don’t really care to,” she said as Eli slipped to the ground and was gone through the tall brush and willows along the riverbank.

When he came to the clearing where the trading post was, he saw it was twice as big as the one in Omega.

There were two horses tied in back and he slipped through the brush to look at the front.

There were four horses tied at the hitching rail and three more in a small corral off to the side.

Three men in dirty buckskins sat on the porch, drinking whiskey from a jug they passed back and forth.

Eli heard screaming – a girl’s scream. He was about to walk out of the brush, when a tall fat woman walked out naked. She was dragging a tall thin Indian girl by her hair. The girl was naked and she was fighting all the way.

“Stop your damned screaming and fighting, you been bought and paid for and now you’re gonna start earning old Lester’s money back,” the older woman said as she backhanded the girl across her face.

“Coon Doolin, here’s the girl you bought. You wanted a young’un that’d never been stuck before, well here she is,” the woman laughed as she shoved the naked girl down on the man sitting in the middle.

“Hot damn, look at her skinny ass. I’m gonna tear that little Injun ass up for her. Here, you fellers hold her for me while I get these damn skins down off my legs,” he said as he pushed the girl off his legs.

“We get her too when you get through, that was our deal.” Another man said as he and the third man grabbed the girl’s arms and held her.

The naked fat woman walked back through the door, laughing as she went. Eli walked out of the brush and over to the porch where the men were already pulling the girl down on top of Coon Doolin’s naked legs.

“Hold her still, I can’t get my fuckin’ cock in her ass with her jerking and jumping like that,” he said, all excited.

Coon Doolin froze as if he were suddenly cast of stone, when the big knife slipped across his throat, cutting just enough to make him bleed.

“Who in the fuck are you? We bought this stinking Injun and we aim to fuck her,” the man on Coon’s right said as he jumped back, his hand reaching for his pistol.

“You pull that gun, you’ll die mister,” Eli said, his eyes drawn tight as he looked at the man.

Eli saw movement to his left, as the third man drew his gun.

Swinging his left hand, Eli knocked the gun from his hand. He grabbed the man’s hair, smashing his head down face first onto the back of Coon Doolin’s chair.

The second man drew his gun and died with it pointed at the floor as Eli shot him between his eyes from three feet away.

There was movement at the doorway and Eli whirled to look, his knife cutting into Coon Doolin’s throat deeper, yet still not killing him.

“Drop that gun, Injun,” the fat woman yelled as she slowly thumbed the hammers back on the double barreled shotgun. She died with a hole under her chin where the .45 slug tore through her throat and out the back of her skull.

Both barrels of buckshot tore the porch up at her feet, the barrels sticking through the gaping hole as she fell forward on the upright butt of the scattergun, somersaulting over the gun onto the porch with a loud splat.

“Turn the girl loose or I’ll cut your head off, then take the scalp from it,” Eli said as he once more tightened the knife to Coon Doolin’s throat.

He released the young Indian girl and she fell from his knees, then rolled off the porch into the dirt.

“Get on your belly and if you move, I’ll kill you,” Eli told the man as he pulled his bloody knife from his throat.

“Eli, look out,” he heard Sundy Salter yell from somewhere in the brush. He whirled just as the bullet tore through his buckskin shirt above his right elbow. A man had stepped around the corner of the building and Eli shot him in his mouth as he pointed his gun for another shot.

Eli knew there had to be at least one more, since the old man Sundy said owned the place hadn’t showed his face

He waved his hand across the door opening and there were two blasts from another shotgun. Eli stepped into the doorway as the old man stood with the gun breeched, loading it again. He jerked the barrel up with just one shell in it. He died as he shot the top out of a wooden table.

Another man ran out the back door. As Eli hurried to the door, he saw Duncan whack the barrel of his .45 across the man’s head.

“Eli, I figured there was gonna be some trouble, so I just come on up.”

“You did good, Duncan. I never planned to kill them, but they were about to rape that little Indian girl out front, then all hell busted loose when I stepped in to stop that.”

“How many did you kill, Eli? Are there any left alive?”

“There’s one on the front porch alive, maybe two. I reckon I killed two, maybe three in self defense.”

“You girls bring them horses on up, I reckon we got a little cleaning up to do,” Duncan called back to the bushes.

Jessie Mealer and her sister Sissy walked out of the brush with Lettie Hill, leading the four horses the three Salter women and Y.B. Yoes were shackled to.

Eli walked around to the front to find Coon Doolin still on his belly, his buckskin breeches down around his knees, just like he’d been when he was about to rape the young Indian girl. Sundy was on the ground, holding the naked girl as the young girl sobbed and held onto her.

Jessie and Sissy ran to them and helped them to their feet.

“Did they rape you?” Jessie asked.

“No.”

“Come to the river with us. We’ll clean you up and find you some clothes to put on. We came here looking for clothes ourselves,” Jessie said as she and Sundy took her arm and led her to the river’s edge.

“Lettie, you go in there and find some shirts or some blankets to cover all y’alls naked asses with,” Duncan told her as she stood looking at the dead fat woman lying naked on the porch.

Lettie came out in a few minutes with four men’s cloth shirts and four buckskin shirts. She had a bundle of army blankets on her other arm.

“All you girls get them shirts on, you don’t need to be running around naked like that,” Duncan said as Lettie handed them out. Sundy pulled Eli’s buckskin shirt off and laid it across his saddle as she took a cloth shirt and put it on.

Duncan took three shirts to the Salter women and threw a blanket at Y.B. Yoes. He caught it with his one free hand and tried to cover himself against the hot sun.

“Duncan, they called this man here Coon Doolin, you know the name?” Eli asked.

“Yeah, he’s been wanted for murder, robbery, and rape for over three years now. I reckon we get a bonus on him. Who else you got?”

“I’ll find out,” Eli said as he pulled Coon Doolin’s head up.

“What’s the man’s name with the busted face?”

“Go to hell, Injun.”

“Mister, I aim to take you to Fort Smith. I can take you without your hair or with it, you just tell me which way you want.”

“Sage McElliston is what he goes by. I heard a man in Kansas call him Frank.”

“You know that name, Duncan?”

“I heard he was dead. He was ridin with the Youngers for a while, last I heard.”

“You ever seen that fat ass woman before, Duncan?”

“No Eli and I’m kinda glad I didn’t neither. Good God in heaven, look at all that damn lard on her fat ass.”

“Who was she, Coon?” Eli asked.

“Betsy Morton. They called her Sweet Meat.”

“What about that name, Duncan?”

“Never heard of her.”

“Who was the owner here, Coon? I heard that woman call him Lester.”

“Lester Beeman.”

“Damn Eli, now I’ve heard about him. He was wanted in Kansas for raiding, raping, and taking young women and girls for his whores down here in The Territory.”

“What about the one you waylaid out back, you know him?”

“No, never seen him before today. You must have scared the hell plumb out of him. He was running right by me like he didn’t even see me when I laid him out with the barrel of my Colt.”

“See if he’s alive, you sure put a lick on him.”

“You girls get them horses and bring them over to the porch, we’ll get the live ones loaded first, then the dead,” Eli told the girls, who were still consoling the young Indian girl.

“Eli, that one out back is about to come to. I reckon he’ll be able to sit a horse,” Duncan said.

“Let’s get him on one then, along with the others that are living.”

“Eli, what are we gonna do with that big old fat woman laying there? Ain’t no way in hell all of us put together can load her lard ass up on a horse, or a find a horse big enough to haul all that lard!” Duncan told him.

“Marshal Eli, there’s a wagon over yonder next to them trees, behind that corral,” Sundy said as she came back leading some horses.

“Coon, you come with me. If that wagon will roll, we’re gonna hitch a team to it and haul all your asses to Fort Smith to stand in front of Judge Parker,” Eli said as he nudged Coon Doolin with his toe.

“I’m bleeding out my neck, I can’t hitch a team to a wagon,” he whined.

“Then you can ride in back when I take your hair and cut your throat the rest of the way through,” Eli said, walking toward the corral.

“Wait a minute, Marshal,” Coon Doolin yelled as he struggled to roll over, pulling his filthy buckskins up over his dirty ass.

They got the horses hitched to the wagon after Coon told Eli where the harnesses were. Eli told him to climb up on the wagon and back it up to the porch so they could load the fat woman.

Eli went through the stinking trading post, gathering up guns and ammunition, then checking the boxes and sacks behind the bar and in the stinking back room. He had six Winchesters with six boxes of .44-40 and twelve boxes of .45 caliber cartridges. He found the old man’s small stash of money and gold and put it in his pouches.

When he came out, they laid some double boards down side by side about three feet wide and with all of them that could help, they finally rolled the big fat dead woman in the wagon, tying a rope over her to keep her from rolling back out.

“Sundy, what’s that girl’s name, did she say?” Eli asked as they stood on the porch.

“Suh Youngbird, she’s fourteen like me, Marshal. I hope we can take her with us. She talked some and told me her own daddy sold her to that old man that owned this place, for a jug of whiskey.”

“Here, you know what this is?” Eli asked as he handed her a jug of coal oil.

“I sure do, you gonna let me be the one to burn this stinking shit hole of a place down?”

“I sure am, get that Suh girl to help you, just don’t get your own asses burned.”

“We won’t, Marshal. Look, she heard you and she’s grinning.

“Marshal Eli, if the judge lets us all stay with you, will you let Suh stay too? You’re some Indian, so I know you’re not like the rest.”

“She can stay as long as she wants to, Sundy; now set this place afire so no more sorry ass outlaws can come here and get whiskey and women.”

“Yes Sir, Marshal.

“C’mon Suh, we’re gonna make this place look like hell’s done heaved up under it.”

After they had moved away from the front of the trading post, Sundy and Suh came out, pouring two more jugs of coal oil on the porch and lean-to room on the side. Sundy handed Suh a match and she struck it against a porch post and flipped it into the doorway. The flames started slowly, then the hotter the fire became, the faster the place burned.

Coon Doolin was driving the wagon team. The girls each had horses now and the wounded and the dead rode in the wagon bed. They were all covered from the hot sun, even the dead fat woman had a blanket on her, as she rolled and shook in the rough wagon.

They followed the Arkansas River as it wound and wandered its way to the south and east. They stopped twice before dark to water the horses and get a drink for all of them. Eli and Duncan stood in the wagon with rifles as they all went to the river to drink and then mounted up. All except Y. B. Yoes, he was brought water by Annie Salter in a tin cup.

Just before dark, the trail wandered away from the riverbed and up on the high side of the bank. They rode on into the night, not stopping until dawn to drink once more from the river below. That morning, they came to Tulsey Town and drew a big crowd as they passed right through the little river-town without stopping.

Eli gave Sundy and Jessie a few bills and told them to go over to Perryman’s Store and buy some biscuits and cooked meat, enough to last all the way to Fort Smith, over three days away by wagon. The girls were surprised he let them have the money, but felt good that he trusted them to help him and Marshal Duncan. They were five miles downriver, having crossed the K-T Railroad a few miles back, when the girls rode up behind them.

“We got it, Marshal, just like you said for us to,” Sundy grinned as she and Jessie showed him three grub sacks of food.

“Take out a biscuit and a piece of meat and hand it to all of them, then give Coon and his two friends one,” Eli said as he and Duncan helped themselves to a biscuit and salt meat.

They rode slow, stopping to let the horses drink and eat from the patches of grass when they could find it. They kept at it for most of four days, after leaving the trading post in flames.

They arrived in Fort Smith late in the afternoon. Upon arrival, the jailers came out to take custody of the prisoners, while Eli and Duncan kept the five young girls with them. The two marshals led the girls inside the courthouse and had them sit outside Judge Parker’s chambers until court recessed for the day. They sat there for an hour before Eli and Duncan jumped to their feet when the back door to the courtroom opened and a man walked out into the hallway in a long robe.

“Eli, Duncan – what do we have here?” He asked as he looked down the line at the young girls.

“Your Honor, we brought in Y.B. Yoes and the Salter women like you wanted. We also brought back another couple of men too. One by the name of Coon Doolin that Duncan told me was wanted all over Kansas and Missouri. We wanted to meet with you about these young girls that got hooked up in some of the Yoes and Salter’s messes,” Eli tried to explain.

“Bring them in my chambers and tell me their stories, Eli. I’m sure you and Duncan have a reason for them being here.”

They shooed the five girls into the judge’s chambers and as they all stood around in front of his desk, Eli and Duncan told their stories and how they came to be here.

“Judge Parker, I’d take it as a great favor to me if you’d release these girls in my custody until after the trial of the Salters and Y.B. Yoes. I’ll take them over to our boarding house and put them up rent free. I’d even ask my wife and sister to come see you about starting adoption of all these girls,” Eli said, as he stood with his hat in his hand, pleading his case on behalf of the girls.

“Eli, I see no reason why these young girls need to be incarcerated, take them home with you. You and Duncan bring them to see me tomorrow.

“We’ll hear each of their stories spoken from their own mouths, then I’ll decide whether they need to be put in the care of the state or not.

“I have another set of arrest warrants I need served and I want the two of you to bring all the members of this gang in to sit in my court.”

“We’ll be here, Your Honor, and thank you,” Eli said and turned to look at the girls.

He nodded and each of them stepped forward, one at a time to personally thank Judge Parker for letting Eli and Duncan help them.

“You girls go with Marshal Duncan and Marshal Eli. You do as they tell you and I’ll send for you soon. Just be reminded, that sometimes justice according to the law is best not served, for the good of those concerned.”

“Yes Sir,” they all answered, though none of them knew what he meant.

Once outside the courthouse, the girls all scrambled to mount their horses. They were all smiling and looking forward to meeting Marshal Eli’s and Duncan’s family.

Catt, Eva and Juni were taking clothes from the line in the backyard, when they heard the horses coming up their dirt street. They looked to see Eli’s big black horse along with Duncan and five young girls riding across the grass to the barn.

“Eli is here, tell Rose and Mary. Eli and Duncan are here!” Catt yelled as she ran toward the barn.

Eva ran toward the back door and Juni ran to the barn with Catt. They were all screaming and Rose stepped out on the back porch to see what the commotion was about. She screamed too, then Mary ran out to see what all the fuss was about. Mary, Clarissa, and Tin Yu were all running across the backyard toward the barn with the rest of them. When they had all gathered around, Eli and Duncan had the five young girls standing next to them.

“Rose, Mary, we’ve brought these young girls here with the okay from Judge Parker. We’ll keep them here until he calls for them to come talk to him. I have asked that he release them into our custody so we can start adopting them. I want all of you to meet Sundy Salter, Suh Youngbird, Lettie Hill, and Jessie and Sissy Mealer.

“Girls, meet our family. You will learn to love them the way Duncan and I have.”

Rose and Mary grabbed the two youngest and held them tight as the girls cried, they were so happy to have someone care about them. Rose never let Suh get more than an arm’s reach from her as she made her way around to hug and kiss each of them and tell them she loved them already. Mary, Clarissa, Juni, Eva, and Catt were hugging the girls too and then, Tin Yu was in the midst of the hugging and kissing as soon as she ran to them.

When they had all the horses unsaddled, put away and fed, Eli and Duncan followed the others to the house.

They had been finishing up cooking supper when they had seen Eli and Duncan coming. The whole household was laughing and talking and preparing for an even bigger supper, now that they had new family members to care for.

When Jefferson came home from his long day at the courthouse, he informed Eli and Duncan that Judge Parker wanted to see both of them in his chambers early and he also wanted to see the five girls before the morning court session. He told them Judge Parker was in a good mood, when he spoke of the girls.

The whole family was up early the next morning, getting the girls dressed in some of Tin Yu and Juni’s old clothes that had been put away since they’d began to finally put on weight. With the two-seater wagon hitched to the team and all the women and girls of the household loaded, Eli, Duncan and Jefferson escorted them to the court house. Jefferson went to Judge Parker’s chambers first, then immediately waved Eli and Duncan into the chambers with him.

“Good morning, Your Honor,” Eli and Duncan spoke.

“Good morning, Marshals. I have four warrants here. You may be gone a few weeks on these. I received a dispatch from Lieutenant Colonel Travis at Fort Supply, up near the Panhandle. Seems there are hordes of rustlers and outlaws using the strip to attack the Texas cattle drives, then they sell the cattle off to the cavalry or the Indians.

“He sent me these four names, gathered by his scouts, as the men most responsible for heading up the rustling and killing out there. I want these men brought to stand before me as a show of jurisdiction over all Indian Territory and to send a warning to others that may seek to join these outlaws.

“We WILL bring justice to No Man’s Land.

“The Comanche known as Bear Sixkiller is the one considered the liaison between the Indians and the rustlers. They raid the small towns in Texas, kill the whites, steal their gold and money, then pay to have the cattle herds driven to the Indian camps down near the Texas border, where they’re fighting the cavalry hand and fist.

“Lieutenant Colonel Travis has all his men down south, fighting The Red River War with the Comanche, Arapahoe, and Kiowa. He’s requested U.S. Marshals be sent to stop these men. No Man’s Land is under my jurisdiction, and these men are using it as their safe haven; we must bring this lawlessness to an end.”

Judge Parker gave them the warrants for the arrest of the Comanche, Bear Sixkiller, along with Moss Stoner, J.D. ‘Jed’ Yount and Elsworth Dawkins. There were no pictures, but there were wanted posters of the three white men, with descriptions of all four.

“Judge, they may not take to being arrested when we get there, if they’re all this bad,” Duncan said, already worried that Eli may take it upon himself to skin some heads.

“I’m sure you and Marshal Crow will carry out your duties to the best of your abilities, in any event. You two have the respect of all the law in Fort Smith, as well as my own utmost respect. Whatever it takes, I want both of you back here with me. Stop in at Fort Supply on the way and see Lieutenant Colonel Travis, he may know more by the time you get there.”

“Yes Sir, Your Honor.” They both spoke.

Eli and Duncan walked out to visit with the family, before leaving out.

“Mary, you, Clarissa, and Rose keep helping each other. Catt, Eva, you both have come to be very capable members of our family. I ask that all of you keep sharing the work and making our family proud. Juni, you and Tin Yu have come to be of great help in our family and we love you both,” Eli spoke to them, as he hugged each of them, even the five new girls that cried because he was leaving so soon.

“Eli, we’ll keep the family together, we’ll all work together and each of us will teach the others what we can, to make us stronger. You and Duncan take care of your duties, knowing that we’ll all be here waiting on your return,” Rose spoke for them all.

“Tin Yu, you’re now a woman – my woman, and I love you like I love all my women. I’m proud of you, we’ve come a long way in a few months,” he told her as she cried on his shoulder, while he lifted her up to him.

“Tin Yu glad Eli love her. I help with all the new girls. Tin Yu know how they feel.”

“Jefferson ... Duncan and I are depending on you to help sway Judge Parker. We want full custody of these girls,” Eli said as he and Jefferson Whitehead shook hands. He looked down at his short friend, who was much of a man in his eyes. He and Rose Elizabeth were as happy as any two people in Fort Smith. They were in love.

For this alone, Eli loved the little man like a brother.

Duncan went down the line, hugging and saying his goodbye to each of them.

Juni Moon cried with big, sobbing heaves of her body as he hugged her.

Mary and Clarissa both pulled her to their huge bosoms and held her as the men left the courthouse.

Having already packed fresh clothes and grub sacks the night before, once again the two friends headed across the Arkansas River into Indian Territory. Judge Parker had even expressed some concern on this mission. He’d always told them to bring them back alive. He’d never given them the authority to do what it took.

“Duncan, how far you reckon it is, out to No Man’s Land?”

“I figure we were just about that far when we were over in Omega, but just south of there a mite.”

“Then we’re a week away from getting there?”

“Yep, I figure we are anyway. We can cut away from the Arkansas to the south some and maybe cut off most of a day with a straight line.”

“Have you been this way before?”

“Yep, that time I went out there, I cut across. I know some landmarks to look for.”

“Then let’s cut south and ride long each day. I feel like this one is wearing on the Judge a bit and we need to put him at ease.”

“I agree, Eli, he’s sure set on bringing law and order to this wild-ass land.”

“Yep, he sure is and we’re gonna do our part too. Duncan, you reckon you got the legs loosened up on that horse?”

“Yeah, let ‘em run, Eli. We’ll make good time today, then about this time tomorrow, we’ll be in heavy brush country for a day or so.”

They let their horses have their heads as they found a fast lope they wanted. They rode like that for most of an hour, before the horses settled into a slow lope.

They came to a creek and let the horses drink, but not letting them fill their bellies. They walked their horses for a few miles as they talked, letting them cool down.

“Eli, you reckon we’ll have to kill some of the bad men out there?”

“Duncan, I never really think about that. I just do what needs to be done at the time. I’d kinda like to bring them all back peaceably, if they’d just throw out their hands and let us hook ‘em up. I don’t reckon they’re the sort to do that though, do you?”

“I reckon you’re right, Eli. Sometimes I wonder what gets in a man’s head that makes him want to be so bad and want to rob and rape and kill others, don’t you?”

“Never thought much about it, Duncan. I don’t let things like that bother me. If a man wants to try and be bad, then I reckon there’ll always be men like us that’ll come after them.”

“Yeah, I reckon you’re right. I sure am glad I’m not a bad man and you’re after my ass. I’d be the first one to throw down my gun and let you hook me up to a shackle.”

“I don’t really set out to be that mean to ‘em, Duncan, but seems like they always do things that brings out my pa’s fightin’ blood in me.”

“Yeah, I done seen it come out more’n a few times, Eli. Looks like sooner or later, these bad men would hear about you and want to do better.”

“Some folks just don’t care, Duncan. They’d walk past what they have, just to take something from others.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

They rode in silence for miles, on into the late afternoon as the sun turned red on the horizon. The trail was open and there was light to see by, even after sundown. They rode on into the night until they came to another shallow creek that ran beside the K-T Railroad.

“We better settle for the night, Duncan. We’ll have our horses stove up by tomorrow if we don’t.”

“I’m about ready myself, Eli. I could use one of Mary’s big cat-head biscuits about now.”

“Me too, let’s ride off the trail a ways and find us an open place to rest up a few hours.”

They took the saddles off their horses and rubbed them down with dry grass after they’d let them drink again. They hobbled them next to their bedrolls, and let them have a small bag of oats, before opening their grub sacks. After each of them ate a couple of the big biscuits loaded with fried salt meat, they stretched out with their heads on their saddles and slept for a few hours.

The sky was barely a light gray in the east the next morning, and they had already ridden miles from the camp by the creek.

Three more days they rode long into the night, after rising early to ride all day, stopping only long enough to relieve themselves, get a drink, and water their horses.

On the morning of the fifth day, after rising before dawn once more, they came in sight of Camp Supply, which lay in the shallow valley between Beaver River and Wolf Creek.

“Who goes there? Stand down and be recognized,” came the shout from the sentry at the main gate, as they rode to the entrance.

“U.S. Marshals Duncan and Crow, out of Fort Smith, Arkansas. We’re here to see Lieutenant Colonel Travis,” Eli shouted back, after they had dismounted.

“Lead your horses through the gate, Marshals. Colonel Travis is in his quarters.”

“Corporal, who can we see about having our horses fed and watered? We’ve pushed them hard for five days,” Duncan asked the man who was leading them across the open grounds of the stockade.