Chapter 46

It was just after supper when I saw Sally go over and whisper something to Andy. He whispered back to her and she came back over by Sam and me and said quietly, "I was telling Andy I was going out into the bushes soon. He is going over to find Harter."

"Okay, I said. "You might need to do this several times before we catch him following you."

"Yeah, I know, but it seems like I feel him there every time I go out. Maybe we'll get lucky and catch him the first time."

She waited a few minutes, then she gave us a grin and took off. Sam and I spent some time playing with Becky.

It couldn't have been ten minutes later when we heard loud voices, then a yell. It was only a short while after that when Andy came back into camp dragging Harter by his collar. They were followed by Sally who seemed to be trying to hide a smirk.

"What have we here?" I asked, pretending not to know what was going on.

"I caught this slimy skunk trying to peek at Sally while she was taking care of her necessaries. I thought about killing him right then, but I decided I should bring him back to you."

Andy was still holding on to Harter's collar as I looked him up and down. "What do you have to say for yourself, Harter?" I asked.

"Ah didn't do whut he uz sayin', Mr. Hill. Ah as jist goin' ta take keer uv my own necessaries and he jist grabbed me and started hittin' on me."

"Ed, I followed this weasel from his wagon and I could tell he was following Sally. He would hide behind things or crouch down so she couldn't see him following her."

"What are we going to do with you, Mr. Harter?" I asked as Tina came up beside me. "What would the Indians do, Tina?"

"Well, they'd probably poke his eyes out with sharpened sticks, after they had tortured him," Tina said, seriously. "Then they'd leave him by the side of the trail to take care of himself."

"Ya can't do suthin lack thet, Mr. Hill. Thet's against the law."

"Mr. Harter, out here I am the law. I'm the Wagon Train Captain. We're not in the United States any more. If I wanted to take you over there and hang you from that cottonwood tree, I have a perfect right to do it."

Harter's voice was a disgusting whine as he said, "Mr. Hill, Ah promise thet nothin lack thet 'ill ever happen again. Jist let me go back ta my wife and kids and I'll never bother Sally again."

I thought for a minute then said, "Go back to your wagon and stay there. I'll talk to Mark Lester and see what he has to say about this."

Harter was gone before the words were hardly out of my mouth.

Friday, May 12, 1848

Ed: Day 10 - On the Oregon Trail

When there are five of you in a family, sleeping in a wagon isn't all it's cracked up to be. The wagon bed is five feet wide at the level where we have our mattress. Three people can comfortably sleep side by side if they're friendly. Four can sleep side by side, but it is very crowded.

We ended up sleeping three on one end of the wagon and two on the other end. Unfortunately, the wagon is short enough that our feet overlap. I awoke this morning between Sam and Cassie. As I was trying to get my brain to function, Delia crawled from the other end of the wagon and laid on top of me.

"Good morning, love," I said.

"Good morning. You know I was just thinking, if we marry Sally and Tina, maybe I should just sleep like this."

"Delia, my love," I said, "you know I think you are as light as a feather, but even a feather would start to get heavy if it was laying on top of me all night."

Delia giggled and after some kissing and cuddling, we got out of bed. Sally was waiting outside.

"What's up, girl?" I asked her.

"Ed, I heard a rumor this morning that has me worried. I was talking with Martha Tipton. The Tipton wagon is right beside the Harter's. She said it sounded like Mose Harter was beating up on his wife last night. She said she could hear Mrs. Harter sobbing and begging him to stop."

"Awh, shit. I never thought he might take his anger out on his wife. Have you seen Andy?"

"He went off hunting this morning very early."

Cassie had just came out of our wagon, so I said, "Cassie, would you go with me to the Harter wagon. Mose may have beaten up on his wife."

Cassie nodded and checked the loads in her revolver. "I'm going with you," Tina said. I couldn't argue with her. I figured Tina and Cassie would be the two people I'd most like to have with me in case of trouble.

As we approached the Harter wagon, we could see Mose squatted by a campfire, drinking a tin cup of coffee. There was no sign of his wife and kids. "Mose, where are your wife and kids?" I asked.

"Thet's none a yer bidness," he said as he glared at me.

I didn't see Cassie pull her revolver, but I heard the shot. Her bullet went through his tin cup and struck the ground between his feet. "He asked where your wife and kids are," Cassie said. "If I have to shoot again, I might miss on the high side."

People from all of the wagons heard the shot and they started gathering around. "They're in the wagon," Harter said. "They're all feeling kind a poorly this morning."

"Tina, would you check their wagon please?" I asked.

Tina moved toward the wagon and Harter yelled, "Ya ain't got no right..."

"Shut up," Cassie said quietly. Her gun never wavered.

"Oh. My God, Ed," Tina said. "Come here."

"Watch him, Cassie," I said as I headed toward the wagon.

What I saw when I got to the wagon made me sick to my stomach. At first I thought they were all dead, then I saw Mrs. Harter take a shuddering breath. "Tina, run and get Maddie, then get Mark Lester. Tell them to get here as soon as they can. If Rawhide is in camp, send him too."

Tina took off like her shoes were on fire. I walked back over to Cassie and Harter. "If he moves, Cassie, shoot him in the gut," I said with all the hatred I felt.

"What's wrong, Ed?" she asked.

"It looks like he beat his wife and his kids nearly to death. Some of them may be dead."

"We should just hang him," one of the men who had gathered around said.

"We may end up doing that," I said. "Mark Lester is on his way here. Let's find out if anyone is dead, then we'll talk it over with Lester."

Maddie and Rawhide showed up together. They were followed by the rest of my family. "Maddie, would you check on the people in the wagon, please?"

As Maddie moved off toward the wagon, I asked, "Rawhide, would you see if he's wearing a gun or a knife?"

Rawhide nodded then walked over behind Harter. "Stand up real slow," Cassie told Harter. "If you move too fast, I'll put a bullet through your belly button."

Harter still had his ruined cup in his hand as he got slowly to his feet. "Ya ain't got no right ta go messing in a man's family bidness," he said as Rawhide started to check him over for weapons.

I just ignored him. Mina went over to the wagon too, so I asked the crowd around us, "Does anyone here know anything about medicine?"

No one admitted to knowing anything and Mark Lester came up before I could say anything else. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Well, it seems that Mose decided to beat up on his family," I said. "They're in the wagon over there."

Lester took off for the wagon and we all just stood there waiting. He came back in a few minutes and said, "Maddie and Mina think that the mother and four of the kids are going to be alright. The oldest boy is dead."

"I din't mean ta kill 'em," Harter whined. "My wife and me got in a argyment and I slapped her. He hit me and tried ta hit me again. I uz jist pertectin myself."

"He couldn't have been over fifteen or sixteen," Lester said. "Harter really beat him bad."

"What do we do with Harter?" I asked.

"You're the Captain," Mark said. "If you say hang him, we'll hang him. If you want to get all legal about it, we could have a trial."

"Well, for the time being, let's just make sure he doesn't get away. Could you get someone to tie him up and then watch him until things calm down?"

Mark agreed that he'd get Jim Crockett to do it since we weren't going to need any scouting that day.

Maddie got a couple of the men to lift the boy out of the Harter wagon, and then they carefully looked over his body. Maddy and a couple of the other women wrapped his body in a blanket. She came over to where we were and said, "These people can't travel today. They're awful beat up. Mrs. Harter has a broken leg and one of the girls has a broken arm. We'll need to get them out of the wagon to work on them."

I saw Stu standing in the crowd, so I asked him to go and get the largest tarp he could find to erect a shelter over the injured people. He told one of our men to cut some poles to hold the tarp up. Maddie got some men to help her get the people out of the wagon.

I think by now, everyone on the wagon train had heard what had happened and most of them were gathered around the Harter wagon. Sam had come by briefly with Becky, but I sent her back to our wagon after she had satisfied her curiosity.

I went over to where the four beaten members of the Harter family were lying. They looked even worse out in the open than they had in the wagon. Mrs. Harter's face was swollen and bruised. She had large bruises on her arms and legs and her right leg was definitely broken below the knee.

Andy came up as I was looking them over. "Andy, have you ever set a broken bone?" I asked.

"No. I've seen it done on a man's arm. Do you want me to help?"

"Yeah, I think so. Mrs. Harter needs to be taken care of first. Mrs. Harter, can you hear me?" I asked.

"Yes." Her voice was low and strained.

"Ma'am, your leg is broken. We're going to have to set it. It's going to hurt, but then you'll start getting better."

"Okay."

Mina, Maddie and I took hold of Mrs. Harter's shoulders and upper body, while Andy sat at her feet, facing her. He put his left leg between her legs with his foot right against her crotch. Then, he took hold of her right ankle with both hands and began to pull. Mrs. Harter went limp almost immediately.

"She's passed out, Andy. Let's get this done."

I could see the muscles in Andy's neck start to pop out. I dropped my gaze to Mrs. Harter's leg and I could actually see it when the bone went back into place. Maddie had sent some men off to get some splints earlier, so we started tying them around the woman's leg.

Next, we moved to the girl with the broken arm. She looked to be in a little better shape than her mother. "What's your name, honey?" I asked.

"I'm Grace. Is mom alright?"

"I think your mom is going to be fine," I said. "She had a broken leg and we had to set it. She just passed out. I'm sure she'll come out of it in a few minutes."

"Is everyone else okay?"

"Your younger brother and sisters are sleeping. They don't appear to be hurt as bad."

"What about Bobby?"

"Honey, if Bobby is your older brother, then he's dead. I'm sorry."

Grace sobbed for a few minutes. We let her cry, not wanting to rush her. Finally, she said, "Bobby was a good boy. When pa started hitting ma last night, Bobby tried to stop him. Then pa started beating on Bobby. I was afraid he was dead."

"Honey, we're going to do everything we can to help you. We need to get you better so you can help take care of your mom. You have a broken arm that we're going to have to set though."

"Okay. Am I going to pass out too?"

"Maybe so, honey. It's going to hurt awfully bad. This big gorilla of a guy is going to have to pull your arm until it's straight."

Grace looked at Andy and gave him a little smile. "I'll be as gentle as I can, darling," Andy said.

Grace nodded, so Andy got down and placed his feet against the side of the girl. "I'm sorry this has to hurt, Grace," he said.

Grace nodded again and said, "I know."

As Andy started putting pressure on her left arm, you could see the pain in Grace's face. Beads of sweat started popping out on her forehead and arms. When the bones in her arm seemed to be aligned, she was still awake.

"That... That sure did hurt," she managed to get out.

Andy leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "Gracie, you have to be the bravest young woman I have ever met. I'm proud to have met you," he said.

Andy and I stood back and watched as Maddie and Mina put on the splints for Grace's arm. As we were watching, Tina came up with two cups of what I guess you would call tea.

"This is something mama taught me about," Tina said. "It'll help with the pain and it'll put them to sleep."

Andy helped Grace drink her tea, while Mina helped Mrs. Harter, who had awakened while we were setting her daughter's arm. Within just a few minutes, I could see both women drifting off.

I put my arm around Tina and gave her a hug. "You did good, honey," I said.

It was about the middle of the afternoon before Grace and Mrs. Harter were alert enough to talk. I had Delia stay with Becky so that Sam could go with me to see the Harters. Sally went along. I think she was feeling guilty, thinking she had caused Harter to go off the deep end.

"Are you ladies feeling any better?" I asked as I squatted on the ground near them.

"Some," Mrs. Harter said.

"I know you have to be in a lot of pain," Sam said. "We can get you some more of that tea if you'd like."

"Maybe in a while," Mrs. Harter said. "What's going to happen to my husband?"