Chapter 36

We kept our fires small and even put them out before going to sleep. We had a good two hour rotation for ten guards per shift. I didn't really think we needed them since George would be watching like a hawk, but I wasn't about to get that kind of habit started. George did wake me before sunrise though, and told me the camp followers were getting up to start a morning meal for the others.

It didn't take long for me to get the wake-up call out, and we'd already made provisions for traveling food. The women made a sort of pemican and we had brought plenty since it was no trouble to haul it with the horses. Of course Jardat and his men were using their camp followers in more or less the same way, but our method was head and shoulders ahead of that.

I had my people hidden along each side of the wide path before Jardat's group of men even got started. I'd given my people very specific instructions. When Jardat's group began moving past us we waited in hiding and silently. The only thing my people were to do was eliminate the roaming scouts, and they weren't to do it unless they were in the trees at the time. I didn't want to be discovered since it would cause an early start.

Cowta was going to get things moving and he did it perfectly. When the main body was nearly past us his men took out all the men guarding the women except one. They let him escape on purpose and we hoped he would take off to catch the main group, yelling his lungs out all the way. He did his job perfectly to our way of thinking.

When the yelling started the main group stopped and turned around to see what was happening. Jardat was leading the colum and at the wrong end after the ersatz about-face. He turned around and headed back and when he did most of the men who'd been near him did the same thing.

When the escapee from the sneak attack reached him and explained, there was more confusion, as Jardat and his main cronies started back to recapture the women while some of the men were still standing in place. I waited for them to come within fifty feet of my hiding place before I set the ball rolling.

My Marlin was the signal to commence firing and I took out Jardat with the first shot. This caused even more confusion and I'm sure the first flight of arrows did for at least fifty of the attackers. The second flight finished them off, with plenty of overkill. When Cowta could tell the battle was over he started the women our way.

The camp followers had already stripped the bodies of their guards and when they reached the massacre site Cowta had them start on those bodies as well.

I left Biltee and Cowta in charge of the whole group for now. In my opinion it would be too much time to let the women back at their camp stay under the control of the remaining guards, so George moved me and my mates near it. He told me during the trip the guards there were still in their sleeping furs, but that most of the women were up and cooking.

We filtered into camp with my mates leading the way. As they came upon the women they used the universal sign for silence, a shushing finger over their lips, and all the women cooperated. They showed us every hut where a man was sleeping. When I gave the signal all the women started yelling and the men were dispatched with no problem as they came out to see what was happening. No one else was hurt and I felt very lucky since only the ones I wanted to kill had even been scratched. It was almost too easy, but I'd take that outcome any day.

Since I intended to do all the moving and cleaning up the old fashioned way there would be a lot of waiting for a while. We had a good handle on who was responsible for the mates of the dead men at this camp. I was responsible for any mates or children they had. Since Jardat had left them in charge and so short handed they must have been men fairly high in his chain of command. They all had at least two mates and some had three.

Taachachi ramroded the sorting and she didn't leave out the fact I'd done for Jardat myself. He'd had five mates. I now had thirty-two new wives and sixteen more young children. It took most of the day for me to get a handle on who was who, but I didn't mind. Mostly I played with the children after giving the whole group a peptalk about our home. I swore to myself my mates and I would not participate in the actual killing if we ever had another raid to go on.

George filled me in on some other happy news then. After giving the camp followers and the women here a short scan he had located six very small groups of survivors from other camps the Gronta had shit on. They were mostly women or children too, but there were three men who'd managed to escape. It was too big a job to go walking off to gather them up so I had him move them all here. I guess he took it upon himself to leave the men's weapons where they were for the moment.