Chapter 7

We watched the wagon train and cavalry for over a week. We thought it best that we had them at the greatest disadvantage. They would be at that place tomorrow around noon and we would be there waiting.

The wagon train and cavalry entered the narrow canyon, their scouts having cleared it two hours earlier. We knew because we watched them and then moved in right behind them. Once they were all the way in two squads of our cavalry closed off their escape. Red Hawk, Two Horses, and I rode out of the rocks carrying a white flag as the Captain called his troops to a halt.

I noticed several of the Captains men reaching for the flaps of their holsters, "Captain tell your people to keep their hands away from their guns."

"Why should I?" The captain asked.

Two Horses whistled and the ridges on both sides of the narrow canyon bristled with guns. "Is that a good enough reason?" I asked the captain. The captain turned in his saddle and ordered his men to keep their hands away from their guns. When he turned back to us I spoke, "I'm Tom Dunlap, this is Red Hawk and Two Horses and you are?"

"Captain Robert Mills, can I ask why you have stopped us like this?" the captain seemed surprisingly calm.

I was about to answer him when a series of whistles came from the top of the canyon. The three of us pulled our pistols, "Captain Mills, some of your people are doing something very stupid and you are about to die."

The captain spun his horse around and started screaming at one of his sergeants. The sergeant rode up to him and whispered something to him. The captain turned to us, "The people your men saw are civilians that I have had nothing but hell with. You have my permission to kill them."

Two Horses let loose with a series of whistles and two shots rang out followed by a series of whistles. "They're both dead which brings me to the reason we stopped you. We would like to search the wagons those men are driving." Two Horses issued another series of whistles and two squads of our cavalry rode into the canyon to follow us to the wagons.

The Captain, Red Hawk, Two Horses, and I rode to the first wagon and dismounted. I pulled out my sword cut the dried flower stalk of a yucca and measured the outside depth of the wagon. Then I stuck it inside to see how deep it was, "Do you think this wagon has a twelve inch thick bottom Captain?"

The Captain turned to look at the driver who started to draw a pistol from his waist, the man suddenly jerked as a half inch hole appeared in his forehead. "Arrest every one of these drivers right now," the Captain barked at his men. Two more shots were fired leaving two more bodies before all the drivers surrendered. "What's this all about Mr. Dunlap?"

"What do you know about the governor of Santa Fe?" I asked.

"I'm going there to arrest him and see him hung. Is this more of his treason?" The Captain asked.

"Do you know Milt Thorp, Captain?"

"Yes I talked to him on the trail, he told me about the governor's brother and son." The Captain smiled broadly, "He also told me about you. Can I assume that the governor has been denied his supplies?"

"The only wagon trains that have got through have done so with only enough supplies to get to Santa Fe. You might say we've had them under a siege of sorts, but we've got all of his guns and ammunition. We also stopped the train carrying the girls they were going to force into prostitution, they are with us now."

"I see," the Captain was deep in thought for a minute, "Mr. Dunlap there are ten young girls on this train that were pulled out of an orphanage and promised husbands. Does that sound like the bunch in Santa Fe?"

"Yes, it does, how young are these? Some of that last bunch was as young as twelve." I was really getting pissed about this man. "Look Captain I can't let these guns go through. I don't know how many men the governor has but if he gets these repeating rifles and revolvers even a few becomes formidable. I am really getting sick and tired of this guy, will you and your men stay here with us and train? We have just taken in three more bands of Comanches." I saw the Captain's eyes go wide, "Before you go to getting your panties in a wad Captain, these Comanche are good people and as soon as this mess is cleared up all of us are going to the northwest. We have a mixed race community of Indians, whites, and ex-slaves and we plan to live out our lives as free men and women."

The Captain nodded his head, "Milt said you had a good head on you. Do you think with our combined force we can take the governor's men?"

"Can we count on support from the military commander at Las Vegas?" While the Captain mulled that over I turned to Two Horses, "Let's recall everyone and get these wagons to the creek and camp set up."

The Captain watched in awe as Two Horses started whistling out the commands. Within thirty minutes squads had formed on both ends of the canyon. Two Horses turned to Capt. Mills and in perfect English said, "Capt. Mills, if you would give the orders to your men to mount up we can get to the camp site before dark."

The Captain smiled broadly, "Yes Sir," The Captain turned to his sergeant, "Get 'em mounted up and moving."

"Sir, should I have some of our men drive the wagons?" the sergeant asked.

Capt. Mills turned to Two Horses, "Do you have drivers for the wagons where we have arrested the drivers?"

Two Horses issued a short series of whistles, squad leader Maggie Smith slid her horse to a stop, her right forearm with her hand made into a fist came across in front of her chest in a salute, "Sir"

"Your squad is to drive the wagons to the camp site," Two Horses was watching the Captain watch the young lady.

Maggie spun her horse and issued her own whistle commands and nine riders came thundering up to her, "We need to get these wagons to the camp site." The riders saluted with their forearms across their chest and started dismounting and tying their horses to the wagons and climbing into the seats. Maggie had taken the lead wagon that Two Horses had been next to. She listened as one by one each of the riders in her squad whistled indicating they were ready to roll. Maggie turned to Two Horses, "Ready to move on your command sir."

The Captain was standing there open mouthed, "What's the matter Captain?" I asked.

"Are all of your people like this young lady?" the Captain asked.

I was very proud of our people, we had worked hard at our training and everyone involved knew that they were being watched and that just made them try that much harder, "All our people give everything they have every day." I winked at the Captain, "Trooper Smith, what's your squad's motto?"

"Sir! Good enough, ain't, Sir!" Maggie shouted.

"Each squad has a motto?" the Captain asked.

"Maggie, you want to answer that?"

"Yes, Sir," Maggie turned to the Captain, "Sir, each squad has its own motto, and name, the squad also picks out the symbol for the squad flag."

The Captain was nodding his head, "Trooper, how do you feel about the people in your squad?"

You could literally see Maggie swell with pride, "Sir they are my family and the other squads are my family, I would die to protect my family, Sir!"

The Captain shook his head and then came to attention and saluted Maggie. She in turn came to attention and returned his salute with the one she and the other riders had picked for themselves. "Carry on Trooper."

I was as proud as I could be and looking at Two Horses and Red Hawk it was plain to see that they were just as proud. "Captain, would you fight beside my people?"

"I would be proud to," the Captain said and then mounted his horse and then turned to Maggie, "Trooper Smith would you give the orders."

"Sir! Yes Sir! Troops prepare to mount ... Mount! Forward at a walk." Maggie was beaming.

It took an hour to reach the camp site. Along the way Maggie had called me over to the wagon she was driving. Maggie begged, pleaded, and cajoled me into putting on a demonstration for the boys in blue. It really didn't take as much talking as she thought I just enjoyed hearing all the reasons she was coming up with.

Once the wagons had been circled I called the Captain to me, "Captain, I have been asked to let the troops put on a demonstration for you, would you mind inspecting the troops and allow us to put on a bit of a show?"

"I'd be honoured," the Captain replied then turned to his sergeant, "Get the troops mounted and let's see what they can do." The Captain's men mounted up as Two Horses started whistling out commands.

It started off with the entire unit passing in revue. A column of threes by squads which meshed into columns of ten, then the ten horses abreast did a wheel turn of 180 degrees as the ten horses that were behind them joined them. Now twenty horses stood side by side ten facing forward and ten backward they begin to rotate maintaining perfectly straight lines. After each revolution ten horses are added to each end, while this was going on Red Hawk, Two Horses, and I set up three targets. Suddenly the perfectly straight lines begin to curve until they had formed two circles as the riders sped up to a gallop. A whistle was heard over the thunder of the hoofs and the two circles rotating in opposite directions.

At that whistle the circles became a column of twos riding right at the centre target. The riders fired five shots at the target and then veered off either left or right depending on which column the rider was in. As the riders peeled off they began to reform back into squads as they slowed the mounts to a walk. Finally, at a final whistle, they came to a stop and rotated to face the Captain and his men.

The Captain and his men could not believe their eyes. As soon as the squads stopped they started clapping. As the Captain and his men were cheering the performance they had just seen, they saw one member of each squad dismount and run to the centre of the area they had used as a parade ground. The twenty people on foot spread out as the squads trotted to the end of the area. Two riders would take off at a gallop headed straight at the man on the ground. When they met, the person on the ground would swing up behind the saddle of the rider. This was repeated for each of the twenty squads. The riders formed back into squads and as they passed the targets they fired with pistols this time and from under the neck of the horses at a dead run. At the end of this the riders formed back into their squads and the smiles on their faces were gleaming in the afternoon sun.

I rode over to the Captain, "Would you like the honour of dismissing the troops."

Captain Mills sat a little straighter in the saddle, "Yes, I'd like that very much." The Captain rode out a little ways towards the troops, "Squad leaders post!" The squad leaders left the tightly dressed lines and approached the Captain. "Never in my life have I seen a better demonstration of horsemanship ... and horsewomanship. You are without any doubt the very best cavalry in the world. Today I have seen you demonstrate courage, skill, and esprit de corp on a scale that I never thought possible. Thank you for allowing me this honour." The Captain came to attention and saluted the Squad leaders. They in turn came to attention and saluted him, "Squad leaders, you may dismiss your troops."

Twenty squad leaders as one whistled a command and every rider came to attention, another whistle and they all saluted as one, a third and last whistle and they dismounted and led their mounts as squad leader's barked orders causing part of the troops to break off and head for the wagons.

Captain Mills turned to me, "What are those troops going to do?"

"Those are the troops whose turn it is to help with supper so someone else will take care of their mounts while they go and start the meal. It's how we do things in the field. What'd you think of my women, children, slaves, and Indians?"

"I think they could out ride, and out shoot any mounted cavalry in the world. That's what I think. I noticed that the four men that were shot today were all head shots."

I nodded my head, "Every squad has a sharpshooter I'm not sure who the shooters were today. Will you have supper with us tonight? I'd like for you to meet my wives."

The Captain's head turned quickly towards me before breaking into a grin, "I'd be glad to. Sergeant, dismiss the men and have them set pickets."

"Captain, if you don't mind would you have your men guard the prisoners and our people will man the pickets. Be sure and tell the prisoners that," I laughed as I told the Captain. We rode our horses over to where the chuck wagon was and handed our mounts off to one of the troopers so they could be cared for.

"Captain Mills these are my ladies, Sam, Fran, Jana, Prissy and Beth." Beth's belly was already starting to show the baby growing there. "The show had delayed supper a bit I'm afraid."

Beth handed the Captain a cup of tea and he took a sip before speaking, "I'd give up supper every night for a week to see a demonstration like that."

I couldn't help but feel proud of our folks after hearing something like that. The Captain took a sip of his tea, and then asked, "How many people are in your band now? Milt thought you had around a hundred riders, he missed that by a long shot."

"Well," I started, "when Milt was through here that's probably about what we had. But since then we've had five or six bands join us and we turned away one bunch because Two Horses didn't like their attitude. Right now, well when we left we had between three and four hundred people. The problem has been training. We should be able to mount another hundred and fifty to two hundred troops by time the next full moon comes around."

Jana and Fran brought the Captain and me a plate of beans and buffalo meat. The Captain swallowed his first mouthful, "Why the full moon? You're not going to attack it at night are you?"

I nodded my head as I had a mouthful of food at the time but after I swallowed, "Yes siree, we sure are. Santa Fe will go to sleep one night under the governor's rule and wake up with you in charge."

"Me! I don't have any orders like that," the Captain exclaimed.

"Who was supposed to take over after you arrested the governor?" I asked knowing that everyone that was there right now was dirty. The Captain was mulling it over when I interrupted him, "Look, anyone that is in that government right now is dirty. We don't have to execute all of them but there ain't no way in hell I'm leaving anyone that was in a position of authority in a position where they can start this crap all over again after we leave."