Chapter 12

Cameron watched while Dandy rearranged his bedroll to a position at the rear of the wagon where anybody trying to leave, or enter, would have to step on him to do it. Ratso took one more pull on the jug and sacked out with his saddle as a pillow and shield from the dying fire. Hamfist, who apparently had the first watch wandered slowly around the camp area. He stood for awhile on the creek bank and then Cameron saw him discharge a stream of piss into the creek. He then stalked the jug, captured it, and settled down with his back up against one of the front wagon wheels. Cameron set his own mental alarm clock for 2 in the morning and went to sleep.

He woke up with a snap. A mental review replayed a sharp clink and a muffled curse. Cameron carefully turned over to check the camp. Hamfist had apparently kicked the empty jug when he got up to wake Ratso for his turn on watch. From the position of the moon it appeared to be about midnight. Ratso came awake with a shake and whispered harsh words when he discovered that Hamfist had killed the jug. He did a desultory circuit of the camp, including a piss stop, while Hamfist settled back down into his bedroll by the wagon. A light breeze had come up which produced some rattle from the branches of the trees overhead. Ratso settled down against his saddle, his back to the woods, and pulled his blanket around his shoulders. Within minutes the clearing was still again and Cameron could hear Hamfist starting to snore.

Cameron now slipped into a mode where he catnapped for a few minutes, woke, visually checked the camp, and then napped again. Presently Ratso was doing the same with more nap than check. Then, he too began to snore. "That's my sign!" thought Cameron. He spent the next ten minutes inspecting his route to and through the fence before starting to sneak up on Ratso.

At last he was directly behind the sleeping Ratso. His left knee advanced to brace, Cameron reached out, grabbed Ratso's head, and sharply rotated it to the right. A soft pop signaled the snapping of his spinal column as Ratso spasmed and relaxed into death. Frozen in place for a moment, Cameron watched for any sign of alarm from the others. Seeing none, he eased the body to the ground.

Ratso had been armed with a wicked stiletto like knife which Cameron now slipped out of its sheath. Again he carefully looked over the ground between he and the still snoring Hamfist before he started his approach. It was necessary to detour around the fire pit and he was careful to avoid the abandoned jug and a small heap of firewood and kindling. At last he was in position. Just as he started his attack, Hamfist's eyes snapped open but it was far too late. Cameron drove the dagger up from under his chin deep into his skull where he cranked it around as if he were beating an egg. This operation made more noise as Hamfist's legs and arms jerked about some.

The snap of a stepped on stick to his right alerted Cameron to the rushing approach of Dandy who was charging with an upraised cutlass. The captain started a vicious down stroke aimed at Cameron's head but this was a fatal error. Cameron wasn't there anymore having rolled toward Dandy, snapping both booted feet into the side of his advanced right leg. The thud of the contact was enough to hide the popping of several ligaments but not the thwack of the cutlass burying itself in the already dead Hamfist's shoulder. Dandy went down howling as Cameron bounced to his feet. The captain was scrambling for something in his waist band so, taking no chances, Cameron unleashed a kick which came in under his chin and snapped his head back. This certainly rendered Dandy unconscious, probably dead, but Cameron made certain with the dagger.

Hearing furtive noises from inside the wagon he figured it was time to announce himself, "My name is Cameron. I've come from Crossroads to help you." This was greeted by thumping and distorted muffled speech. He went to the rear of the wagon and was nearly laid out by the stench. The interior was almost totally dark and while he could see two people trussed up he could not see enough to start to free them. "I'll be right back as soon as I can get some light," he reassured them.

It only took minutes to build up the smoldering remains of the fire. He jammed a branch into the empty jug and turned it into a torch which allowed him to see that the two women were hogtied and gagged on the floor of the wagon. The dagger made short work of the bonds. Cameron recognized the brunette as Rachel Tutor which must make the smaller blonde Sally Jacobsdatter. Neither was in particularly good shape as they had spent most of the last four days bound and bouncing around in the back of the wagon. Sally was a leggy 15 year old, just coming into her woman hood. She had a flawless complexion, blonde hair about shoulder length with bangs across her forehead, and very large, wide set, incredibly blue eyes. Rachel was a bit taller at about 5'5", again with blue eyes, and brown hair reaching to the middle of her back. Both had classic hour glass figures though Rachel's breasts were more developed.

The next hour was spent getting their circulation back, cleaning up, and getting some food into them. At first neither wanted to do the walking around that their circulation issues demanded, Sally was crying with relief and Rachel didn't want to get separated from Cameron. He convinced Sally that the crying was reasonable but that she could do that while walking. He convinced Rachel that she really didn't need to watch every detail of the work he needed to do to clean up the area nor did he need to watch everything they did to clean up themselves.

Cleaning up involved stripping the corpses as the women's clothes had been reduced to complete rags by their ordeal. In the process Cameron found the throwing knife that Dandy had evidently been reaching for at the end. Hamfist's main weapon appeared to have been a belaying pin, rather like a police truncheon, Ratso's gear turned up a rapier and Dandy had a tomahawk. Each had also been equipped with a belt knife with a blade about 4 inches long. They also had variable quantities of the Chaos coinage for a total of 4 quads, and 29 pinches. The miscellaneous gear included a wooden spade and an ax as well as all the horse tack.

Cameron was able to cobble up a sort of breakfast from the last of the supplies carried by their late captors. He was amazed by the relative equanimity shown by the ladies when they first got out of the wagon and saw the bodies of their former captors. He understood why as their story came out over this repast.

"We were heading toward our farm about 15 miles upriver from Beanburg when these thugs surrounded our wagon," explained Sally. "Ted, our driver, had set us up and helped those three bind us," she continued with a snarl and a jerk of her thumb at the three naked bodies now piled behind the wagon.

Rachel took up the story, "It didn't take long for him to discover his mistake as Hamfist hit him on the head with that club of his. He was tied up and chucked in the wagon with us. They turned north at the next crossroad and drove to a spot where they could get off the road in a patch of trees. They abandoned our wagon there and loaded us and the unconscious Ted into this wagon."

"I could tell when they got back on the inland road and again when they turned south onto this road," as Sally took up the story. "They had us gagged but they talked a lot about how much money they expected to make from selling us into slavery at Carlstown. We must have been 3 or 4 miles south of the turnoff when they stopped for the night."