Chapter 8

August 30, 1848

We began our journey back to Oregon today. Our party has increased by ten men and older boys who have been persuaded to return to Oregon. I have noticed that many of the men feel uneasy that the women are carrying weapons and two husbands have made attempts to have their wives give them the guns. One man succeeded and they are riding somewhat separated from the main group. Two other men came over to me and demanded that I take the guns away from their wives. I told them that if they wanted their wives to be unarmed it was up to them to disarm them.

Several of the women and men have been talking about remaining here in California over the winter and continuing the restaurant with locally purchased food. I warned them that there was not going to be many supplies available for them to buy this winter to use for making meals. In spite of this, three women and their husbands/sons and two single women and the men who had been sparking them decided that they would do it. We gave them their share of the money and gold and waved at them sadly as they headed back to Grass Valley. I hoped that they would be alright when we returned next year.

This reduced our party to six men and nine women for our trip back. This was difficult on the ones remaining as we had to handle the herd of horses and mules. Several men tried to buy the animals as we traveled and I found it necessary to discourage two of them with my gun when they began to threaten us if we didn't sell.

By the time we decided to camp for the night everyone was a bundle of nerves. Willy and I got together and decided that we should treat this trip the same as if we were moving through hostile Indian Territory. We needed three guards for each shift and decided to split the watch between the men and the remaining women. Willy took two women for his watch and I chose Louise and Corrie, and the other three men chose their wives and another woman. This left two women and one man who were not standing watch to prepare the morning meal. It was decided that the shifts would rotate through the watch schedule with every shift getting a chance to sleep through the night at least once. I offered to help cook and was quickly turned down by all of the women. Too bad, I had just bought a lot of good peppers from a Mexican merchant while I was at Grass Valley. For some reason though, people didn't like my hot chili. Must be a Yankee thing not to like spicy food!

We unsaddled the horses and took the packs off the mules and rubbed them down before we ate. Willy had scouted the area while we were taking care of the livestock and picked out three positions for the guards. After eating we tossed coins to decide the rotation schedule for the night. Two of the other men got the first two, I got the midnight shift, the other man was after me then Willy got the morning shift. Each day we would move one shift later until we began on the first shift again.

With the wealth the mules and horses represented as well as the gold we were known to be carrying, I was expecting an attack from someone during our trip. If everyone had been male I don't think anyone would have attacked us. Since most of the people were female, I knew there would be someone who would make the attempt to rob us, believing that women could not be a threat. Finally just before dawn I heard the sound I'd been waiting for all night; shots from the sentry positions.

Yelling at everyone to get up and under cover, Willy and I crawled to the various posts and looked at what we were up against. It looked like about six to seven men were attacking from one direction. When I looked, something didn't seem right. The men were not making any big effort to get closer and in fact seemed to be as much under cover as we were. Motioning to Willy to join me, I told him what I had seen. "I think they're trying to flank us," Willy said.

I wasn't sure what he meant and must have shown it. "They are making a fake attack from one direction while making the real one from another direction," he explained.

"Where are they going to be attacking from then?"

Willy looked around and then pointed to the east, "My guess is they will be coming from the direction of the rising sun to put it behind them and make them more difficult for us to see. Put two people to the west just in case they try something else."

I crawled back and told the others about what Willy said and sent most of the people to the east side and two to the west and waited for daybreak. As the light grew brighter the shots fired by our attackers began getting closer. Suddenly there was a large bang from one of the sentry points and an attacker flew back from his position behind a small tree! Willy had brought out the .54 Plains rifle!

Out-ranged by the .54, many of the men attacking from the south began to run. This exposed them to the fire from the sentry points and the women shot at least one man each before they got out of range. Willy continued to fire, dropping men with each shot until they disappeared. I made sure the people with me on the east side kept their attention to the area in front of them. Suddenly one of the women on the end fired and we saw several men moving through the trees. Then everyone started firing and men dropped like puppets whose strings had been cut. Facing a lot more firepower than they had expected, those not hit, hesitated, then turned and ran. As they ran the women continued to fire, killing men as they fled. Finally I got them to stop firing and went out to see what the results of this morning's battle were.

I threw up after seeing the bodies lying there. Several had been hit repeatedly, especially those wearing bright shirts. One man I found alive when I got there. When he tried to speak, blood came out of his mouth as he died without making a sound. All the others were dead when I got there. Altogether I found 6 dead men on the ground and spots of blood where others may have been hit.

Louise and Corrie came out to look at the scene. Both seemed calm and undisturbed by the carnage. Louise I could somewhat understand because she had seen death up close and personal when she had been held captive by the slavers. I didn't know what experiences Corrie had been through to leave her so calm and really didn't want to know. Louise looked concerned when she saw me but I tried not to show how disturbed I was by the scene and slowly began to adjust to it.

Willy came over, "Do we bury them?"

"Let their friends take care of them," I decided. I wanted the word to get out what happened when you fucked with us. Anyone trying better be ready to pay a price. I picked up the muskets and pistols from the bodies and gave them a quick search for papers or gold. I found several letters written to some and all had pouches with some gold inside. Willy had done the same and we found ourselves with 12 muskets, 8 pistols and about 10 ounces of gold.

We got off to a late start after this and I saw several of the women and one other man, besides myself, that had trouble eating after the battle. I forced myself to eat something and act as if it didn't bother me to see so many dead men at once. Corrie came over later on, sat down by me and talked without looking at me, "My family was involved in a feud when I was young. I saw the results of men going crazy with rage and grief. That's why I became involved with the 'group' to help prevent other women from going through the same thing. I married out of the feud and have never let my children know about it. Am I sorry the men died? No! Neither should you be. Remember what you told your wives, think about what happens afterwards. If these men had succeeded every woman here would have died after being raped repeatedly until they wished for death."

I felt better about the death I had seen after Corrie finished. Was I seeking justification for the killing? Hell, yes! Still she was right; the robbers couldn't have left anyone alive. If other people had known about the attack they would have been dead themselves. I don't know why these deaths bothered me more than the other two, but for some reason they did. Perhaps it was because the others had been in hot blood, while these seemed almost cold blooded. We had set a trap for the robbers and had executed them in it.

The further I got away from the scene in distance and time, the less the fact of the killing bothered me. By nooning, I had begun to joke with the women about their vicious shooting, telling them that they could have aimed someplace else besides between their legs. This led to blushes and whispering among the women when I rode away. When I got around Louise she fixed her eyes on me and told me to be prepared for a long night.

When we decided to stop for the night, the women seemed in a hurry to fix dinner and soon everyone was in bed except for the first watch. I went to bed first and soon was followed by Louise after she finished washing the dishes. By this time it was full dark and the only light was from the fire shining through the tent fabric. No sooner than we were in bed than Louise attacked me. Grabbing my hands, she pulled me over to her and put a condom on my cock after wiping it through her soaking twat. She unrolled it quickly, positioned herself over me and with one thrust went to the bottom of my shaft. She seemed driven by some need and began to raise and lower herself quickly pushing herself back with each descent to hit her clit directly. With a shuddering gasp she came, becoming for a moment a silent statue posed over me. Rising off my erection she moved forward and placed her cunt over my mouth. I enjoyed the fragrance of her arousal and began to lick her as she obviously desired. Suddenly I felt another body joining us and lowering herself on my erection. I started to rise up when Louise put her hands on my shoulders and whispered, "Stay still. We need this even more than you do."

"We?" I thought.

I felt four hands rubbing my legs as the one on top was rocking back and forth until with a muffled groan I came into the condom. I felt the woman stiffen and then she rose and someone took off the condom. I didn't like this and was trying to get up when a mouth closed over my deflated cock and began to play it like a flute. In spite of my desires to the contrary it seemed in no time at all I was erect again. Another tunnel closed over my cock and began to move. I tried pushing Louise off and almost succeeded when two hands joined hers and pushed me back down again.