Chapter 16: Homeward

As they left Kansas City behind Tom told Ben to find a place and stay there until the next morning, unless he needed to follow anybody that might come after them. He nodded and moved away. Tom then called John over and told him to ride at least an hour ahead and to watch for anything that might be a danger. He seemed reluctant, but Tom insisted that it would be much safer for him in the end, and John had to agree. He moved off at a gallop.

It was late in the day when Tom caught up to John. He was squatting beside a fire. Tom pulled the wagon to a stop a short ways from it and began the task of unhitching the team. Once free, the horses happily followed him to an area that John had his own horse grazing at. He tied them to the securing line and let them graze. When he got back to the wagon he told Kelly to spread blankets under the wagon for her and the children. John had five rabbits roasting over a fire and watched as the activity settled into a form of organization.

As Tom sat at the fire he said that the rabbits looked good. John spoke without looking up, "There are more rabbits out tonight." Tom nodded that he understood, as he began pulling pieces of rabbit off of the spit to give to the children. During the day they had kept pretty quiet, mostly talking between themselves. A couple of times Kelly had spoken sharply to them and they instantly settled down from their overactive play. Tom had not even noticed them. Tom and Kelly had not spoken the entire day. She had seen him send the men off and was worried that there might be trouble around and she didn't want to distract him if there was any.

After they had eaten and the night grew darker, Tom sent Kelly and the children to bed. She looked at him funny, but he just said, "Kelly, once you go to bed; stay there. Don't get back up for any reason, unless I tell you to." She had big eyes, but she nodded her head that she understood. After they had visited the bushes Tom watched them crawl under the wagon and cover up. He heard them whispering among themselves and settled down by the fire as John was doing.

It was a couple of hours later that the fire was only a few dying embers and Tom could quietly roll away without being seen. He knew that John had left a short time before and silently made his way to the gully beside the camp. There John watched as he slipped down and he motioned the location of the five men surrounding the camp. Tom slipped his knife from his boot and motioned one direction and left John to go in the other.

It took about five minutes before he found the first man. He had moved from the position that John had indicated. Tom figured that he had wanted to get a better look at the camp. He seemed nervous and jumpy as he kept bobbing around a bush to get a better look. Tom grabbed him by the mouth, and thrust his knife into his side. He knew that he had hit the heart, but moved it in a tight circle, just to be sure. The man sagged against him and slipped quietly to the ground. Tom wiped his knife on the dead man's clothes before the moved further around to find the next man.

He found the next man lying between two bushes with a rifle. He couldn't see a way to get to the man without making some noise, and with his hand on the trigger Tom knew that he would get a shot off before he died. He silently cursed his luck as he thought about a number of different things. Suddenly an idea came to him. He moved silently back in the direction that he had come. He didn't have to go far before he found what he was looking for. The ant hill wasn't big, but big enough to identify what it was. Tom thrust his hand as deeply into the hill as he could and made a fist. He quickly made his way back and sprinkled the angry ants on the man's back and stepped back to wait for the little insects to find some exposed skin. As he waited he silently killed the ones still attached to his own hand and wrist. He knew that tomorrow it would hurt like hell.

Very soon the man felt the little bites on his neck and reached back to kill whatever it was. When he felt the ants he swore and started to crawl back out from the bushes. When Tom saw that he no longer had his hand on the trigger he swiftly stepped forward and stepped on the back of his head; burying his face in the soft ground. Tom kept killing the ants on his arm as he waited for the man to die.

When Tom saw the third man, he saw that he was just starting to crawl toward the camp. He started to move quickly toward him as he saw him suddenly slump to the ground. Tom was instantly alert, before he saw Ben rise up from the ground in front of him, wiping off his knife. Tom smiled as he stepped toward Ben. Ben saw the movement and turned, then relaxed. Tom saw John first and pointed to him and Ben looked. All three smiled to each other. Tom pointed off toward the two dead men and john did the same thing. They stood and moved toward the camp.

The small fire was burning brightly as Ben spoke, "It wasn't two hours after you left that they rode out of town. I followed them and when they spotted the wagon they rode wide around it and rode hard. They got here as John was setting up camp. About a half hour later, you showed up and I settled in to wait for them to make their move." Tom nodded as he turned to look at Kelly and saw her eyes looking back at him. He watched her snuggle back down in her blankets and close her eyes. Tom looked back to John and Ben and said, "You two get some sleep and I will check things out. I will wake you in a few hours to take my place." John and Ben looked at each other, and then nodded to him.

Tom ran swiftly across the night keeping an eye out for any movement, or sound. He circled the camp in a wide arc and then moved farther out. Then he setup a cross pattern that would intersect anything that he might have missed. He might stumble into someone that could be hidden, but he expected that they would be holding back if they had seen the first ambush group. He didn't see anything as he moved silently through the night.

Tom guessed that it was about four hours later that he woke John. John woke instantly, ready for anything. Tom drew a pattern in the dirt showing where he had been and john watched the pattern grow. When he was finished John looked at him and shook his head. "You had better get some rest. I'm surprised that you can still stand." Tom sank wearily to his blanket and said, "I can't, but I had to be sure." John just nodded that he understood.

As John moved off to start his own watch Tom spoke quietly, "Collect the guns and all of the ammunition. If their horses are worth keeping, put them with ours, and turn the others loose." John grunted and moved off into the night, but Tom was already asleep.

As the first rays of the sun struck Tom his eyes opened. He stretched and sat up. He noticed that Kelly was coming back from visiting the bushes and watched as she sat down beside the fire. "I see that there was a little excitement last night." Tom shrugged his shoulders but didn't say anything. She smiled and moved off to start breakfast.

John left first and Ben stayed behind after the wagon left. Tom thought that it would be a good idea to follow the same pattern until they were at least a week from Kansas City. John and Ben just shrugged and left it to Tom to make the decisions.

It was still early in the afternoon when Tom came up on John camped beside a small river. They had camped at that same river on the way into Kansas City and even though it was early Tom felt that it was a good idea. As the wagon moved through the river Tom noticed that it stirred up almost no mud. He was glad to see that the river had a very hard bottom, and figured that it was probably rocks. He pulled the wagon to a stop and after he was out of the wagon he offered to help Kelly. She smiled as he took her in his arms. She wasn't smiling when he walked over and tossed her into the river, clothes and all. She sputtered and screamed at him. He just looked at her and told her to get her clothes off. She looked at him again and when she didn't get started he moved to her and ripped her dress. She realized that if she didn't strip he would destroy her clothes. She screeched and jumped back deeper into the water as she started to unbutton her clothes.

Tom walked back to the wagon and talked to the kids, "You can get in the water, or I will throw you in just like your mother. What will it be?" The boy looked at him in defiance, but the girl was over the side and off toward the water at a run. Tom grabbed the boy and carried him kicking and screaming until he reached the water, then he threw him as far out as he could. Since it never went over the axle of the wagon he knew that it couldn't have been more than two feet deep, but the boy acted like he was going to drown. Tom frowned as he told the boy to stand up. The boy sputtered and coughed as he got to his feet, then he looked down and blushed. Tom shook his head and walked back to the wagon. When he came back he was carrying a bar of soap. He had stood their smell for two days, and knew that he couldn't take it any longer.

As they watched, he took off his own clothes and walked into the water and began to wash himself. When he was finished he walked out and sat on the bank to dry. Kelly watched him, but made no move to get out of the water. He motioned for her to get out, but she just shook her head and stayed sitting in the water. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "If you don't get out before dark you're going to have a cold night." She pursed her lips together and told him to get her a blanket, but he said no. She finally stood up and stormed out of the water. Tom knew that she was going to get a blanket from the wagon, and called to her, "If you get a blanket I will throw you back in the water blanket and all. Then you won't have a dry blanket to sleep on tonight." When she looked at him she knew that he would do it. She moved over beside him and sat down.

He watched the children in the water. He could tell that the boy was just starting to grow into himself. During the next year he would grow quickly. He had dark hair and dark brown eyes, like his mother. He was gangly, but Tom suspected that he would be tall and rather broad of shoulder. He was at the awkward stage where his body was starting to change and he wasn't used to the changes. It made him trip over his feet, and misjudge things a lot. Tom smiled as he remembered himself at that time.

The girl had not started to develop, but she was as different as it was possible to be. She would be short like her mother, but her bright blond hair was natural, not bleached like her mother, and she had blue eyes. She had no girlish curves, but her tiny waist did give the impression of having hips. He also saw that when she turned around that her little pleasure bud was easily larger than any woman that he had ever seen. He wondered if it was just that she was so small, and hoped that it didn't grow when she did. Most men didn't have a clue what that was for, and he believed that if it was too big it might actually scare them. He knew that any real man would know what to do with it, and hoped that she would find one of those.

Kelly noticed him watching the kids. "That's Paul and Sara; just so that you don't have to call them boy and girl anymore." She said it quietly and didn't look up at him. He smiled and said, "Thanks, I have been busy thinking about other things, and I just haven't gotten around to the less important things. We appear to have a little time right now, but that could change fast. So, if I tell you something don't spend time thinking about it, just do it. It could mean your life."

She nodded her head. And spoke quietly, so that only he could hear, "I know that we had trouble last night. I saw when you and the others came back to camp. I noticed the guns and the other three horses this morning. Were there really three men out there in the night last night?" Tom shook his head and told her the truth, "No, there were five men; and they're all dead now." She looked a little stunned when she said, "You mean that you killed them all, you didn't wound any of them?"

There was no compassion in Tom's eyes as he looked at her hard. "No, they didn't come after us to wound us, but to kill us from the bushes in the middle of the night and take everything that they could get. I don't let men like that escape to try again some other time. I don't even think that you could call them men, walking garbage would be more the truth." She could see that he meant what he said, and it caused a shiver to race up her spine, but she also knew that he spoke the truth. It was a hard life outside of a town, and if you didn't protect yourself, then nobody else was going to do it for you. She nodded her understanding, and watched as he turned his attention back to the kids, "Don't forget to wash your hair." They looked at him and nodded their heads.

As they waited for the kids to finish in the river Tom said, "We still have a couple of hours of daylight left. I will run a rope from the wagon over to that tree and you can start washing all of your clothes." Kelly looked at him but before she could say anything he said, "They stink, and I just can't stand the smell. They might be clean, but they smell like the town. Out here in the fresh air you can smell them a half a mile away, just like you can smell Kansas City almost a full day before you get there." She looked at him like he had lost his mind, but she knew that if she didn't do it then he would throw their clothes in the river and then she would have to wash them. It was just easier then arguing, and nodded her head.

Tom called the children out of the water and told them to sit on the bank and get dry. They had seen Tom and Kelly doing it, and sat beside her to wait as Tom got up to run the rope and get a washtub for Kelly. The smell coming off of their bags made his stomach knot up again, but he put them beside the washtub and was happy to move away from them. His own clothes that he had been wearing weren't much better, and he was glad that he had others that were still clean.

Once he was dressed, Tom and John circled the camp area looking for small animals. In a half hour they had six rabbits and headed back toward the camp. John made a comment that he thought that Tom had made a wise decision to wash, as he had started to smell pretty bad. Tom wrinkled his nose at him and said, "You know you don't smell any too good yourself. You could stand to change those clothes, too." John grinned as he nodded his head, "Well since I need to wash, you can skin the rabbits and do the cooking and I will take a bath." Tom realized that he had just been had, and laughed. John joined in and they were still laughing when they entered the camp.

Tom cleaned the rabbits as John washed the smell of Kansas City from his body and clothes. As he hung the rabbits over a small fire he saw John hanging up his clothes to dry. He smelled much better in his extra clothes. John made a small motion as he headed out of the camp to search the surrounding area for any trouble. He knew that John took his job very seriously. Tom hoped that he wouldn't see Ben before noon the following day; any sooner would mean trouble was still following them.

Tom noticed that Kelly and the kids had their blankets wrapped around them and made another fire, a bit larger just so they could sit around it and stay warm. Kelly smiled her thanks. Tom went back to watch over the rabbits, and to work on the skins. There was still something inside him that wouldn't let him waste anything that he didn't have to. He couldn't tan the hides, but he could clean them so they didn't rot or stink. That would have to be good enough until they could get back to the valley.

When he thought that the rabbits were ready he called a shrill sharp whistle into the air and told Kelly and the kids that the food was ready. Kelly and the kids each took a rabbit and were just sitting back down by the fire when John slipped back into camp. Tom handed him a rabbit on a stick and watched as John gave a silent report that he had seen nothing. Tom breathed a sigh of relief, and thought that if just for a little while he hoped that they might be safe.

That night he didn't stop Kelly when she snuggled up against him by the fire. He put his arm around her and they just sat quietly watching the fire and the night grew darker. Tom was surprised when Sara moved over and sat in his lap. He smiled at her and wrapped his other arm around her. He noticed that Paul snuggled down against his mother and they all just sat and let the night grow darker around them. Tom noticed Sara yawn, and was pretty sure that Kelly was asleep in his other arm. He gently woke her and they moved the children off under the wagon. Kelly didn't argue when Tom made her bed with the kids, and moved back over to the fire.

As he sat down John informed him that it was his turn to take the first watch and before Tom could argue he was off and slipping through the night. Tom smiled as he slipped down in his blanket. He would have to have a talk with John tomorrow about how things needed to work.

He came awake instantly, but he didn't know why. He listened for any noise, but he didn't hear anything. He took a quick look at the position of the moon, and the dying embers of the fire and knew that John should have woken him long ago. He silently rolled onto his feet and slipped off into the night. He moved slowly and cautiously, searching for any sound or movement. He searched close to the camp first traveling from the riverbank all the way around to the other riverbank. He didn't see much need to cross the river yet, but he knew that before he was finished he would have to check out the other side.

Once away from the camp he moved silently from tree to tree watching for trouble. He moved about three hundred yards out and started back in, working in a zig-zag pattern. It was on his third trip out that he found the horses; four of them and they still had sweat on them. He moved from the horses in a searching pattern toward the camp. It only took about five minutes before he found the first body. He had his throat cut. Tom checked him and studied the ground for prints. He knew that he hadn't been there too long; not more than a half an hour. He quickly started he search again.