Chapter 21

Now that they had a cow, things got complicated for a different reason. The women had hoped to spend the nights on the return trip in hotel rooms, instead of camped along the trail. But what were they going to do with their cow at night if they stayed in a hotel? Most livery stables did not want to mess with the mess that cow manure caused, so they were at a loss as to where they could keep their cow at night. The women finally conceded that they were stuck, so they spent the nights camping out instead of in hotels. Oh, well, a mother had to make some compromises.

Josh's fears about carrying all that money seemed to be based on fact. Almost every day, they encountered somebody who thought that they should share the wealth. As a result, the dogs proved their worth on many occasions. It was impossible to sneak up on the camp without the dogs giving warning. Typically, four or five men would try to sneak in after dark to murder them in their sleep, but the dogs always detected the trespassers in plenty of time for the humans to be ready for them.

In one instance, a single man tried to sneak in during the pre-sleep sexcapades. The dogs caught him and finished him off before the humans even knew that he was around. It appeared that the dogs thought that the humans were having too much fun to be bothered by something that they could easily handle on their own.

Possibly even more useful was the way the dogs could detect an ambush. Four times, the dogs detected bandits before they could spring elaborate traps, so that the bandits were easily killed or driven off before they could realize their intentions.

The farther south they got, the more likely it was that Comanches would attack. The Indian wars were petering out, but there were random attacks by bored young braves who were out to prove their mettle. One of these attacks came while they were fording a large stream, the classic Texas "mile wide and inch deep" affair. The band of Comanches was unusually large, so Josh immediately realized that his people would have to fort-up in a stand of trees along the stream.

The trees were growing too close together to get the wagons fully pulled into them, but the wagons did help to cut off the most convenient paths for the Comanches to use to charge the Hoppers. The Comanches were surprised to find themselves warded off by 11 guns, instead of the 4 that they expected. By this time, the women had sufficient practice to be quite respectable shots, either with the rifle or the pistol, and the Comanches were limited to lances and bows as their weapons.

To their surprise, the 23 Comanches were suddenly at a disadvantage, both for range and accuracy. What the hell!?! This wasn't supposed to happen. All of the old tales of attacks on Whites had them running in confusion, only to be easily ridden down by the braves on their horses. Instead, this was going to be a siege, which was no fun for anybody and offered very little chance for counting coup. Oh, well, maybe there would still be some chance to show off individual bravery.

The Indians began the battle by sending in a volley of arrows. None of them struck either human nor animal, and it did cut into the total load of ammunition the Comanches had with them. Each man usually carried no more than 6-8 arrows, expecting to do most of his fighting with his lance, and now they had shot off about 15% of their ammunition in a fit of pique. The war chief didn't have much to brag about with this exhibition of leadership, so he was looking desperately for a way to recover some face.

There was no way the Comanche was going to fight dismounted unless his horse was incapacitated, so they had no choice but to charge the defenders. Here was where the war chief showed some good sense. He had 12 of his men shoot arrows at the defenders in an effort to make them keep their heads down, while the rest of his men charged with their lances. Surely, this would be enough to win the battle, and they could recover their arrows and return to more traditional fighting methods.

This sort of attack would have worked against inexperienced defenders, but all of the defending men had experience in war of one kind or another, and the women were willing to listen to good advice. Therefore, the defenders hid under the wagons where the arcing arrows could not get to them, except by the rarest sort of accident. This also served to concentrate their fire, which would be deadly to the charging horsemen. Josh told them to ignore the archers and shoot only at the charging Indians—they were by far the more dangerous of the enemy at this stage of the battle. He also told them not to be afraid to shoot the horses, since that would be just as effective in disabling a warrior.