Chapter 5

Cassius' wound was bad enough that he had to be left at home when they started their next round. Of course, this made Cissiee happy, but Cassius felt like he was letting the team down. John assured him that his presence would be missed, but they would get by.

They had hardly gotten into Mexico when they saw a plume of smoke off in the distance. This might be some of their business, or it might just be somebody who needed help. Whatever the reason, they felt compelled to investigate. They rode toward the smoke as fast as their horses could safely carry them and arrived to see the aftermath of a major Indian raid. The signs all said "Yaqui," so this was definitely their business.

Careful examination of the battle ground indicated that 7 Indians had jumped a party of 4 people riding in a wagon. The fire they saw was the remnants of the wagon burning. It appeared that the Indians had tortured the husband to death, raped the wife to death, and stolen the children for slaves, either to keep for themselves or to sell. The reason that there was so much smoke was that the wagon had been filled with bibles, and the stacked books had burned only slowly. It was obvious that the Whites had been missionaries, but there wasn't much else that they could tell about the victims.

The trail was not easy to follow, but Abigail did spot it, and she and Abe were able to work it out. The Troop set out to see what they could do to avenge the deaths of the missionaries and to rescue the children. The Indians were in no hurry, so the Troop was able to catch up to them before the Indians settled down for the night. John had them hold back to see what the Indians had in mind before the Troop launched an attack. They didn't want the children hurt if it could be avoided.

The children appeared to be a 3-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy. The girl was too young to rape because she really wouldn't be any fun, and the boy might be useful as a new recruit for the tribe, so neither one was harmed. The children were each tied with a 3-foot rope from an ankle to a stake driven in the ground. The other apparent loot was two mules which the Indians were probably taking back to the village to be the starring feature in a homecoming banquet.

The Indians and captives ate some jerky for supper and lay down for the night. One man stayed awake as a watchman while the others slept. John had decided that the best way to handle this group was to let them go to sleep and then shoot them where they lay. The Troop could get close enough to shoot with their rifles without worrying about the watchman. He assigned each of his people an Indian to shoot, except that Abigail was so proficient with the rifle that she was given two targets.

When everybody was ready, John ordered, "FIRE!" Six rifles spoke as one, followed quickly by a second shot from Abigail. Every one of the Indians had been hit, though only one fatally. However, the rest were so badly wounded that they would never leave their present location. The majority had gut or chest wounds, though one had a shattered hip. He would never walk again, so he was as good as dead.

The Troop checked each one of the Indians, and Abigail announced in a loud voice, "I AM COCK CUTTER! YOU ALL KNOW WHAT I AM ABOUT TO DO TO YOU! YOU WILL BE LAUGHED AT IN THE AFTER LIFE AND NO WOMAN WILL HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOU!" She the proceeded to do her usual cutting and stuffing, and the Indians were left to bleed to death.

The rescued children were still suffering the shock of the original attack, and this new experience was no help. The children couldn't grasp what Abigail had done to the Indians, so, when she cleaned off the blood, they saw that she was a woman and rushed to her for comfort. Abigail moved the children out of sight of the dying Indians and finally managed to sooth them enough for them to get to sleep. However, she did spend the whole night holding them in her arms.

The next morning, the Troop headed back to San Diego with the children and the mules. It took two days of hard travel to get there, but they finally arrived at John's house. Mary and Cissiee took the children in and adopted them on the spot! The next morning, the children, Jesse and Ruth, cried when Abigail rode off with the rest of the Troop. Abigail found that she was sorry to leave the children, herself.

The rest of the patrol was uneventful, and they returned to San Diego, tired, but unharmed. Jesse and Ruth were playing in the yard and were the first to see the returning troop. They screamed in joy and rushed to greet Abigail. Their noise was enough to bring the rest of the extended family out to greet the returning warriors, and there was a great welcoming party beginning right then. The party had been instigated by the children, but everybody joined in. They even had a grand picnic in the front yard in the shade of the two monstrous trees that grew there.

A letter arrived from Mexico for John from their employers saying that the services of Shiply's Troop was no longer needed. The Mexican Army had agreed to do something about the Yaqui menace, and the government was unhappy that Anglos had been imported to deal with what was a Mexican domestic problem. Therefore, though the service performed by Shiply's Troop was deeply appreciated by their employers, it was necessary to terminate the relationship. A severance bonus was included with the letter.

Now what? It looked like they had worked themselves out of a job. The Indian trouble around San Diego had disappeared, so what were they to do for a living? About the only "regular" jobs available were things like being a swamper in a saloon, and none of the Troop was going to settle for that. There was talk of a war brewing back East, but none of them wanted to get involved in that, either. The only attractive alternative was starting a cattle ranch.

They talked about it for several days before deciding to form one "of them newfangled things called a corporation" to jointly own a ranch. John would be the president and chief operating officer of the corporation, and the others could all be stockholders and employees. They immediately started looking around for a place to start their ranch and, after 3 weeks of scouring the countryside, found what they were looking for. The place had a hill with tall trees where they could put their house, and a year-around stream ran nearby, so they were assured of enough water for household use. The site had plenty of open grazing land, so they could carry enough cattle to make the ranch a paying proposition, even if all they sold were hides. They were close enough to Los Angeles, which was growing like crazy, to have a ready market for beef, once they had a decent herd established, so things were looking good.