Chapter 7

Abigail found some new clothes, albeit men's clothes, to wear at the next town. She was looking for clothes she could conveniently wear while straddling a horse. Sam's boots turned out to be a good fit once she had some socks to wear. John bought her a Navy Colt and holster to wear, and, after some thought, bought the same combination for himself. They both spent a day practicing with the guns and got pretty good, though neither one was ever going to be a quick-draw artist.

The men were pleased to have Abigail along. She turned out to be a good trail cook and they were going to hate to lose her when they got back to headquarters. She didn't mind cooking for the party, particularly since the men did the grunt work like collecting firewood and stuff like that. She enjoyed having men tell her that they liked her cooking; she had only cooked for Indians, before, and none of them was going to say anything nice to a slave.

Somehow, Abigail became a member of the team without really meaning to. She learned to shoot Sam's weapons and soon got to be as accurate with them as any of the men. Abigail seemed to have a knack with guns, so the only problem she had was that the recoil of the rifle began to bother her if she had to shoot too much. The men accepted her within a week, and she proved herself on their first engagement with Comanches.

They encountered a band of 29 Comanches sort of out of the blue. They met as they rounded a bend in the road going around a clump of trees. They were going one way on the road and the Comanches were going the other. The two groups were only about 75 feet apart when they first saw each other. The Comanches reacted first and charged at the militia, brandishing their lances.

John yelled for them to head for the trees beside the road. They barely reached the trees ahead of the Comanches. Still on their horses and their backs to the trees, they all, including Abigail, fired their Dragoon pistols at the Comanches at nearly point-blank range. Enough of the Comanches were killed that they pulled back to regroup. This was when the Whites dismounted and led their horses into the trees. They hobbled their horses and formed a skirmish line with Abigail stationed beside John, since she was the least experienced.

There was more delay than usual before the next attack, and they could hear a loud argument going on among several of the Indians. John commented, "Damn, I sure wish I knew what they were arguing 'bout."

Abigail said, "I know. The leader wants some of the warriors ta git off their hosses and sneak up on us through the woods while the rest do their usual thing from horseback. The ones selected ta fight in the woods object that doin' it that way ain't manly. The leader says that they kin do it his way, or they kin go home. That convinced 'em. Two will be comin' in from the left an' two from the right. They'll attack pretty soon."

"Men, did ya hear that?" They all answered that they had, so John said, "OK, Jack an' Jeb, ya're responsible fer the flanks. Be on the lookout. The rest of us will fight ta the front. LOOK OUT! HERE THEY COME!"

The Comanches taking part it the frontal attack followed the usual practice of whooping and hollering as they rode to the attack. They tried to charge into the woods with their horses. All this did was to give the defenders a bigger target. Horses and riders were shot with equal ease, and Abigail did her part. Nobody knew after the battle how many each defender had shot, but the pile of dead horses and men in front of Abigail testified to the effectiveness of her shooting.

Jack and Jeb had no trouble in taking care of their two attackers, each. They reported that the Indians were pretty sloppy with their attack and the brush and trees interfered with the effective use of the lances. They would have been better served to have discarded the lances and used their knives, but the Comanches were apparently too stubborn to do that. On the other hand, Jack and Jeb both felt that they would have been dead meat if they had not had the warning from Abigail. She was the toast of the party!

As usual, the Comanches refused to break off the fight when it became obvious that they couldn't win. Therefore, all 29 were killed, and none of the militia even had a scratch! Abigail asked and was given permission to be the one who mutilated the corpses. She particularly enjoyed cutting off the cocks. They dragged the dead horses and men to the side of the road and left with the few Indian horses they could capture.

They sold the horses in the next town and adjourned to the nearest saloon, Abigail with them. The bartender refused, at first, to serve a woman, but changed his mind when 6 pistols and bowie knives appeared on the bar. Abigail had her first beer, ever, and, naturally, she didn't like the taste. However, she wouldn't admit that and drank the whole damned mug. By the time she got to the end of the drink, she couldn't taste it, anyway—she was already drunk!

John helped her to a chair, and the men guarded her until she recovered enough to get to a hotel room. She went to sleep in her bed while the men celebrated. John quit early, too, and he and Abigail were the only two without hangovers the next morning.

Before that last fight, there had been talk about recruiting another man to take Sam's place, but, now, there was no thought of replacing Abigail. She was firmly a part of the unit. The men did make a few concessions to the fact that she was a woman, but they were minor. Abigail had been with the Comanches so long that she had no modesty left and was used to others watching while she pissed and defecated. In fact, the men were more embarrassed than she was.

She proved her worth again than day. They were riding along, not paying much attention to their surroundings, when Abigail shouted, "LOOK OUT! COMANCHES IN THE TREES ON THE LEFT!"

She was the only one who had seen the ambush before it was sprung. They were charged by 13 Comanches who were a lot farther away than they had hoped when they were forced to spring their trap. The Indians were close enough for the pistols to be effective, but far enough away for the Whites to have time to get ready. John ordered, "PISTOLS AT THE READY... FIRE! FIRE AT WILL!"

The first volley brought down 4 horses and riders plus one rider whose horse escaped injury. The Dragoon pistol was so heavy that Abigail was forced to hold it with two hands, but that was a steadier hold than most men using one hand. Therefore, Abigail was easily able to bring down two horses and riders, while the rest of the troop accounted for one, each. Abigail's example was enough to convince the men that they should switch to a 2-handed grip for their pistols whenever they had the time for it.

Abigail was again delegated to do the surgery on the corpses, but she was dissuaded from making a necklace from the severed cocks. The men pointed out that they would stink when they started decomposing. This was enough to convince her, since she didn't want to inconvenience her new friends.

They worked their way around the county and their patrol finally came to an end. The rode into headquarters and the men left immediately for their favorite saloon. John took Abigail with him to report to the sheriff. The sheriff was delighted to meet Abigail and congratulated her on her escape from the Comanches. The sheriff was a bit dubious when John announced that he wanted Abigail added to the payroll as the sixth militia trooper, but there was some precedent for women in the militia back in the days of the revolution against Mexico. So, with some misgivings, Abigail was deputized and officially added to the roster.

John took Abigail with him to the hotel, and they registered for rooms. John asked if Abigail wanted to visit the saloon with him after supper. By now, Abigail had developed a taste for beer in small quantities, so she said that she did want to go with him. They had supper in the hotel restaurant, and Abigail drew some stares as she was still dressed in her men's clothes, though her large breasts made it obvious that she was a woman.

After supper, they walked to the saloon where the men were celebrating living through another patrol. As soon as she came in, all of her men friends met her at the bar to give her moral support when she ordered her beer. The bartender was a little hesitant, but the harsh stares from 6 determined men caused him to serve up the beer with no further delay. Abigail thanked the bartender and paid for her beer. The party moved to a couple of adjacent empty tables were everybody settled back to enjoy their beer.

Things were going fine until a drunk cowboy staggered up to Abigail and propositioned her. A riot might have started at that point, but, surprisingly, he left when Abigail politely turned him down. She smiled at the men hovering protectively around her and said, "Relax, boys. It gave me great pleasure to be able to turn a man down. I've never been able to do it afore meeting you wonderful people." This defused the tense atmosphere and they returned to enjoying their drinks.

Abigail nursed her beer for a good two hours before finishing it. She asked John to walk back to the hotel with her just to avoid any difficulties. She went to her room and to bed, and John returned to the saloon to rejoin the men.