Chapter 10

Opal Anne was much happier after I reported on my talk with her two best friends, and soon she was riding next to the wagon again and even riding inside a bit. We made our next stop for sleep, food and water and had settled in when all hell broke loose.

First the mules began to bray loudly and then the horses joined them. Mick immediately dumped a piece of very dry wood on the fire. We all prayed it would fire up soon so we could see if we were dealing with animals or men. The three of us stood to the sides of the fire facing the source of the commotion so if it was men, we would not offer an easy silhouette against the light of the fire.

It took a few moments, but the dead wood began to blaze brightly, and we went to look at the animals in its light. Two of the mules were up and kicking at a good-sized bear. One of the mules was down and the fourth was standing ready to defend itself if the bear approached it.

I lifted my rifle but before I could shoot, Rory put a shot gun slug in the bears skull. It dropped in its tracks, unmoving. Our sorrel mule, Opal Anne’s favorite, raised up and began to stomp the head of the dead predator even though his forelegs had been hobbled. Mick ran to the horses and calmed them. When the mule finished his retribution, I moved him away from the bear and rewarded him with a handful of oats.

Rory went to the mule on the ground and found it to have been scratched, not badly, but had fallen and being hobbled it couldn’t rise. He undid the hobble and gave the mule room to get up. It did, calmly and Rory led it to the other three and reattached the hobble before tying them to a long rope around another tree.

“Rory, you better get some of that salve on those scratches. It doesn’t look like it will slow it down, but let’s not risk an infection.”

“OK, Paul.”

Rory got into the wagon and pulled out the satchel containing the medical supplies we carried for man and beast alike. He applied the salve to the mule’s wounds and once done, returned everything to the wagon.

Taking a long steel rod that we used as a fire poker the flaming piece of wood was pulled out of the fire and was doused with dirt. It would finish burning in the morning under coffee and bacon. We all returned to our beds and soon fell back to sleep for a few more hours until the sun came up. Opal Anne and I had drawn the duty to sleep exposed to the rising sun, while the others were able to sleep in places shaded by the wagon or trees.

The early light in our eyes brought us around enough that we could share a kiss before we threw off the cover and rose into the cold morning air. It was early September, and just in the time we had left my brothers’ camp until now, the leaves had begun to change. That explained the bear’s decision to attack the animals as it fattened up for the winter.

Opal Anne and I put the wood back on the fire and got everything hot and ready. When the others woke from the smell of coffee and bacon, we all gathered around the bear.

“If no one wants it, I’d like to keep the hide,” I said.

“Yeah go ahead,” Mick said. “We’ve still got those buffalo hides we took during the trip from the farm. You left yours in the cabin when you left.”

“I thought someone could use them. Call it a housewarming gift. I’ll get to work on it after we clean up from breakfast.”

“I’ll help, Paul. It’ll go faster with two skinners,” Rory offered.

“Is it OK if I tie it across the top of the wagon? The birds will pick off the meat and leave the skin clean by the time we get to the cabins.”

“Yeah, just be sure to skin it as clean as possible. I don’t know that we want the smell of rotten bear meat to join us all the way home or to draw a mountain lion.”

About two hours later, the bear pelt was cleaned of most flesh and salted to draw out the body oils in the skin. I then tied it fur side down on the top of the canvas cover to the wagon. There wasn’t much for the crows or starlings to pick at, but what there was was cleaned up before we got to the camp. I took the hide down and washed it in the river.

I would finish tanning it and stretching it when we got back to the plain. I rolled it tight and tied it to one of our mules. It turned out that the injured mule was Rory’s, which was good because it needed some care and he knew just what to do to keep it healthy.

It was about four o’clock when Opal Anne and I were ready to leave the camp. We bid our farewells and headed off. Of course, my brothers followed us. At least they followed us until the debris field. Even though packed full, the mules almost danced over the rock and dead trees making up the field. Opal Anne and I led our horses across, and since they had done it several times before, they were just fine.

Mick tried to lead his horse and, as I thought would happen, the horse balked. It pulled back and fought any attempt to lead it through the field. Mick looked at me, exasperated.

“I thought we could tag along. You didn’t say no.”

“I kinda suspected that your horses wouldn’t want to deal with this mess. Our horses have been through it enough that they know where to go. Good try though. I love you Mick. I love you Rory. We’ll see you in the Spring if not before. Go home and make me an uncle.”

My brothers laughed and gave up their attempt to follow us. It was only a few hundred yards before the river took a hard curve and we were out of sight of my brothers. A mile or so after the debris field was the turn to our trail up to the plain. As we climbed, we noticed a noticeable drop in temperature. At this altitude the temperature was going to be something to deal with.

We reached the top while there was still light. I began to pull the contents of the packs off of the mules. Without one of my brothers to lift the entire rig with me I had to remove things piecemeal. After Opal Anne had gone into the hogan and started a fire, she returned to help me. When all of the supplies were offloaded, I led the horses and mules to their hogan and lit a small fire in the stove.

I removed the saddles from the horses as well as the bits. I’d gathered several bunches of tall grass from the areas around the trees and stored it outside. Bringing some in, I fed the animals and then filled the trough with water from the river. I was going to have to find an easier way to do that.

My last duty to the animals was to give them a good brushing. After all the walking and chasing and bear fighting and climbing, they needed the brush. Tomorrow I would lead them to the river and let them roll around in the water. I closed and latched the door to the stable and returned to our hogan.

Opal Anne had started dinner and begun to put up the supplies. She was a neat and orderly woman. It was almost as if she had served in the military. We had gleaned the best tables and chairs and shelves and cabinets from the other hogans and cabins on the plain, so our home was pretty comfortable. The most important item was the very large bed we’d found.

Well it was a very large frame, the mattress for it had rotted away long ago and was infested with all manner of bug and creature. We laid out some canvas and tied it tight in the fashion of the single cots I’d slept on in the cavalry. I tied a tight rope up the center, otherwise Opal Anne and I would have spent every night rolling into each other, whether we wished to or not. It wasn’t a mattress, but it wasn’t hard ground either. We found it to suit our needs very nicely.

We ate dinner, cleaned up, walked outside, and froze, walked back inside and sat down to plan the next day. With the weather turning cold so fast, we needed to look at the most important things.

First, shelter. We had taken care of that with the hogans for us and the animals. I would be needing to cut down some trees after foraging for all of the deadwood I could find. The hogans held in almost all of the heat the small stoves created, so a small amount of wood went a very long way.

Second, food and water. We had packed in enough basic cooking supplies, but I would need to find a few deer, squirrels, coons and so on. We would need to set up fish traps in the river. We had plenty of salt and I had a plan to turn one the of the nearby small hogans into a smokehouse. We also had plenty of water in the river.

Third, personal protection. We had our pistols and rifles and plenty of ammo. I would also be building some wind breaks to stop snow drifts from blocking our access to the stable and the river. I would also be tying ropes from the hogan to the stable and to a stout tree near the river. This would allow us a safe travel path in snow or heavy rain or low clouds. At this altitude, low clouds could be as blinding as a blizzard. I also left a rifle in the stable with additional ammo.

Those were the big things we would need to survive up here. Once all of this was taken care of, Opal Anne and I could begin to figure out how we would accumulate gold. Our first night in our stocked and furnished home was wonderful. We made love for the first time since we’d left Fountain City and those wonderful mattresses. I made a note to get one of those next Spring.

The morning came, and we both enjoyed the glory of sleeping until we woke up and not being rushed from our slumbers by the sun, or the sounds of others rummaging about. We got out of bed, as naked as the day we were born, and went to the door.

“You know that the air is going to be very cold, right?” I asked my wife. “I mean the things it’s going to do to your nipples could be painful.”

“Husband, how often have you been naked and cold? How are you going to deal with your manly jewels being sucked up into your body?”

“I’ll deal with it like any good married man. I’ll beg for my wife to warm them up. Maybe she could blow some warm air on the area.”

Opal Anne looked at me and crossed her arms across her bare breasts. Her stance told me that I was perhaps counting on something that might not happen unless the begging was very, very good.

I opened the door and found that the area around the hogan was covered in frost. There was no wind, but the air was crisp and clean. We held hands and walked outside. Several yards behind the hogan several deer were grazing the ice crystals on the ground cover. I’ve never felt so ... clean. The cold air touching me everywhere had the effect Opal Anne had warned me of, but it was not painful. If anything it was comforting.