Chapter 11

Both Running Bear and Brown Horse were a bit disappointed and disgusted with the Comanches. They had been on the road a week and had not yet been attacked. It was getting so that you couldn't depend on anybody! By this time, at nearly 9 years old, Running Bear had been given his own rifle, a nearly worn-out Spencer dating from the earliest days of it manufacture. Otto vowed that it would be replaced by a Winchester at the first opportunity, and he also planned to get the boy a pistol. Running Bear was familiar with the .44-40 caliber break-top Smith & Wessen that Otto favored, so that was what he wanted, and Otto was agreeable. The problem was going to be in finding one. Winchesters were easy to come by, since every general store carried them, but the Colt revolver was much more popular than the S&W, so the latter might be a problem.

They were settling in for the night when both King and Queen dashed off into the brush. This was enough to rouse the humans to action, so they all became alert and had their weapons handy. Suddenly, there was a great disturbance off in the brush, and a yip of pain from one of the dogs. This could be serious, so Otto beckoned to Running Bear to follow, and the two headed for the source of the yip. When they got there, they found 3 dead Comanches. Queen was busy licking a cut on King's ear; the tip had been cut off, but he was not seriously injured. The same could not be said for the Comanches.

It looked like two of the Comanches had been dispatched with the usual canine efficiency, but the third had been able to bring his knife into play; he was still holding it in his lifeless hand. All three had died by being bitten in the back of the neck, so Otto assumed that the two dogs had easily killed two of the men, but the third had been battling King when Queen took him down.

Otto and Running Bear congratulated the dogs and sympathized with King on having his beauty marred. They stripped the dead Comanches, and Running Bear picked up a Winchester in good condition. He and Brown Horse were happy over the three horses they also acquired in the deal. Now things were returning to normal! Brown Horse actually looked relieved when the three horses were brought back to camp.

Otto checked out the Winchester that Running Bear had picked up and pronounced it to be in good condition, so Running Bear decided to keep his trophy instead of buying a new rifle, though he still needed a pistol. Finally, they came to a town with a gunsmith, so Otto went into the shop to see about buying a pistol. He decided that there was no point in looking for trouble, so he did not take Running Bear with him. He came back a few minutes later with a S&W pistol for Running Bear. The boy strapped it on, but had such slim hips that he had trouble wearing it. Martha took pity on him and made him a strap to go over his shoulder to hold up the heavy gun and holster. Running Bear fairly beamed with pride when he was finally able to wear his new pistol without nearly losing it around his ankles.

Martha outfitted Running Bear in White man's clothes to keep him from attracting adverse attention from some of the galoots they met. Brown Horse was big enough to take care of himself and could wear anything the wanted to, but Running Bear was still short enough to attract attention from bullies. The switch in clothes was enough to forestall most of that nonsense. Neither Running Bear nor Brown Horse had any interest in saloons, so they rarely ran into trouble, anyway.

The only time that they ran into any real trouble was once when Martha and Otto had gone grocery shopping. Brown Horse and Running Bear were waiting outside with the dogs to keep an eye on the wagon and their remuda. Some toughs wandered out of a nearby saloon and spotted the dogs. For some reason known only to drunks and bullies, they started annoying the dogs.

The dogs put up with this unwanted attention for a while, but King took exception when one of the toughs pulled Queen's tail. He rumbled out a low growl, which made all of the men jump back and one pulled his gun. That was all Queen could stand, she clamped down on the fool's wrist with her massive jaws and proceeded to squeeze, attempting to force the man to drop his gun. Instead of dropping his gun, the man cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger. The gun went off, of course, and this was enough incentive for King to attack. He killed the man in his usual fashion of ripping out the man's throat. The White men and the Indians all pulled their guns and started shooting at each other, with the dogs contributing their bit.

By the time Otto could drop his load of groceries and get outside, the shooting was over with and there were 5 dead men lying in the street. Martha rushed out of the store and into the wagon to check on the children. Both were perfectly OK, but Susan had started to cry after being wakened so unceremoniously from her afternoon nap. Martha began to rail at the crowd that had gathered and was looking threateningly at the Indians. "Is this how y'all treat visitors ta your town? Shame on ya! Some of yer 'upstanding' citizens put my children in danger an' my friends an' my dogs had ta defend 'em. Y'all should be ashamed of yerselves!" She went on in this vein for a good 10 minutes, but people began to slink away long before she finished. At the end of her oration, the few people remaining applauded her and dragged the bodies into the gutter to get them out of the street and off the sidewalk. Otto gathered up the dropped groceries and they left town, with Martha still seething! Otto and Brown Horse exchanged looks that said, "God! I'd hate to have her get mad at me!"

Martha was still pissed that night, and all of the males walked very carefully around her until bed time. On the next morning, Martha was back to her normal cool and collected sweet self, so they continued their trip in a much happier atmosphere. The next few weeks were fine, and the weather was even relatively comfortable. They hoped that they would get home with no more trouble, everybody was getting tired of the road.

Otto was really surprised at how much faster they were traveling toward home than they had been traveling the other way. He was really in a hurry to get home because Queen was showing signs of being ready to drop another litter of puppies. If the puppies were born before they got home, they could ride in the wagon, but that would be uncomfortable for everybody. Well, whatever will be, will be.

It took them another month to get home, and the puppies had to ride in the wagon for the last two weeks. Neither Queen nor the humans were happy with the situation, but there was nothing they could do about it. There were 5 male puppies: David, Ezra, Frank, George, and Henry. The female was Dolly. And it wasn't long before Dolly was in charge! She was more aggressive and larger than any of the males, and they danced to her tune. King seemed to look on with mild amusement and say, "Get used to it boys, that's what you have to look forward to when you grow up."

Otto was startled when they eventually got to the kennel to find it full of dogs. He had not taken into account that he had left two males and two females at home and they'd had time to do what any healthy dog was going to do when the time came. Betsy'd had 5 puppies and Claudia'd had 6. So now, the dog population of the Bar S Bar was up to 23! Pretty soon, they'd have more dogs than cattle.

One of Otto's ambitions was to use the dogs to protect and herd the cattle. He knew that they had been used for that in Germany for many years, and he wanted to try the same scheme here in America. His eventual plan was to have one cowboy to oversee half a dozen or so dogs that actually did the work with the cattle. In Europe, the dogs had done a good job of protecting the cattle from wolves, so they should be equally successful in doing the same kind of thing here. What he wasn't so sure of was protecting against rustlers. In any case, he was not going to be laying off any cowboys anytime soon.

If he could prove that the dogs could do the job, he planned to sell them to his neighbors to work on their ranches. In that case, he would need a lot of dogs, so he was content to let them breed and produce as many dogs as they could. If all of his plans worked out, Otto was going to need several hundred dogs to satisfy the demand. He planned to start the training as soon as possible.