Chapter 14

Fire Bringer and Shadow spent much of their time putting a stop to the stupid actions of both races in making trouble. They weren't always successful in keeping people from getting killed, but they did the best they could. One problem they had was with the Indians and the impenetrable wall of frozen air. On several occasions, they protected Indians from White bullets with such a wall, and the Indians got the idea that it was the clothes they wore which stopped the bullets. Much later on, this prompted the Ghost Shirts that the Sioux tried to use as armor against the US Army.

Sometimes, the advocates of the bullet proof clothes were honestly mistaken mystics, and sometimes, the advocates were pure con-men who were out for personal power. Unfortunately, once the idea got around, it was impossible to eliminate it completely. One such encounter went like this:

Fire Bringer, in his fiery costume, and Shadow, in her costume of gray and white that looked like shifting clouds, rescued a single Paiute shaman who was beset by 20 Whites who were just out for some bullying, but got carried away. The shaman, Demon Talker, was sure that it was his power that had called Fire Bringer and Shadow to his aid, and the white buffalo shirt that he wore was proof against bullets, as evidenced by the fact that none of the dozens of bullets fired by the Whites had been able to reach him.

Fire Bringer said, "Demon Talker, your shirt had nothing to do with stopping the bullets. Let me show you. Take off your shirt and hold it away from your body. I will shoot a bullet through it and prove that it is not bullet proof."

"Demon, you are as much a trickster as the coyote. I know that this shirt will not stop bullets unless I am wearing it. If I take it off, of course it will not stop a bullet. It is bullet proof only while I am wearing it. I thank you for your assistance against the accursed Whites, but I know when I am being tricked by one of your kind. Now, begone, and I will continue upon my way."

Both Fire Bringer and Shadow tried to argue with Demon Talker for nearly an hour, but finally gave up in disgust. This was truly a case of "I have already made up my mind, don't try to confuse me with facts!" They left the Paiute shaman fully convinced of his holy purity and the magical properties of his white leather shirt. There was nothing that they could do to convince him otherwise, and this incident was going to cause trouble for 30 more years, reaching its climax at Wounded Knee. They both regretted this unfortunate turn of events, but they were powerless to change anything. Had they known before they got involved, how much trouble this would cause, they might well have let the Whites kill the shaman.

At other times, they were able to rescue some good from a sea of bad. They once got a call from their danger sense which dragged them to the site of a farm wagon which had turned over. The adults in the wagon were killed by the accident, but two children had been thrown clear and were only slightly injured with a few bruises and scrapes. Fortunately for them, the overturning wagon had not fallen on them as it had on the adults. It appeared from the contents of the wagon that this was a family on the move from one place to another. They found a number of keepsakes, such as the family Bible, but not much else of real value. Both Fire Bringer and Shadow were deeply moved by the situation and wondered what they could do to help the children.

"The family Bible suggests that there are no living relatives for these children, so it looks like it is up to us to provide for them, but how will we do that?"

"Well, we certainly can't leave them here! I know. My mother keeps talking about grandchildren; let's take them to her to look after. We can informally adopt them, and she can be their grandmother."

Fire Bringer agreed with Shadow's suggestion, so they TPed the children and everything else to the Flying M Ranch. One child, Hannah, was less than two years old and the other, Jake, was an infant, so Juanita would be quite busy looking after them. This was a fine example of "be careful what you wish for, because you may get it." Juanita, was delighted with the children and set about making them a part of her family, forthwith. The last name of the children had been Erglish, but now it was Murphy, to all intents and purposes.

The adults were buried in the small cemetery next to Juanita's husband and son. That way, the children would have a way to connect with their past if they wanted to. The Erglish family Bible was stowed away for safe keeping in Shadow's "poke," as she called her storage place, for the same reason. The two mules were added to the Flying M stock and life continued in its normal pace.

Things had calmed down a little bit, even the Comanches were making less trouble than usual. The big problem, now, was that the South had turned into a carnival for swindlers and get-rich-quick types taking advantage of Reconstruction. Both the Carpetbaggers and the Scalawags had moved in, in force, and the honest officials were simply swamped by the rise in scams. When you threw in the dishonest officials and Army officers, the situation had become impossible to police.

The ex-slaves now had the vote, and they had no idea of how to use the right properly. Their votes were easy to buy, and not necessarily for cash; a bottle of bad whiskey would buy a lot of votes. So would nebulous promises of "pie in the sky." Several secret Southern organizations rose to fight this (no, not the KKK, it was too early for them) and they went on killing sprees against the Negroes. It made no difference whether an ex-slave had sold his vote or not, those people assumed that he did, and they were out to see that it didn't happen again. The easiest way to do that was to murder the potential voter. Fire Bringer and Shadow were kept jumping as they tried to prevent shootings and lynchings; sometimes they were successful, and sometimes they were not.

Fire Bringer plaintively asked, "Storm Who Walks, what can we do? There are a dozen murders every night, and we can't get to more than three or four, even if we split up. We need help in some form or other. Where can we turn?"

"I don't think that there is a solution to the problem of the murders. Even 20 Fire Bringers could not keep up with the reign of terror going on, now. As I see it, you are trying to put out fires, when you should be attacking those who are starting the fires. I think that the situation would be helped most by stopping the terrorists, and then by stopping the scam artists.

Shadow said, "You are undoubtedly correct, but how do we stop the terrorists? It would never work for us to approach somebody and ask, 'Are you a member of the Blackshirts?' We would simply be laughed at. So what can we do?

Fire Bringer offered, "We could concentrate on identifying some members of the Blackshirts, for example, and use them to spot the ringleaders. Most of these organizations would fade away if we could just eliminate the leadership."

"Shadow, Fire Bringer is correct. If you follow that plan, you should be able to stop the worst of the terrorist organizations. Furthermore, if you can find out something bad about the ringleaders, you should be able to kill their popular support."