Chapter 136

Grotondo and four of his men were waiting and ready to go. He told us the shortest and easiest way would have been over the plateau, but there wasn't a suitable access for the wagons nearby so we retraced our path and when we got back to the river we turned toward Raalto's original camp. When we passed it and continued downriver it was strange to see in person all the huts were gone.

We traveled along for two more hours after passing Raalto's old camp and then turned up into the valley of a fairly large tributary. It was as big as the main river in fact. After another hour of travel Grotondo called for a halt and told me that we were less than a mile from Nutaro's camp. We unassed the wagons and did a little planning then.

Grotondo and I were going to go to the camp alone, carrying the two bundles of salt he had left from the trade with Kartoto. They were about ten pounds each. Grotondo told us there would be a small wooded area where a few men could hide and watch not far from the camp and though he still didn't know how we could kill without spears, he was able to give us enough of an idea of the area for us to determine by hiding in the woods my men would be within a rifle's shot's distance of where the trading would probably take place.

Grotondo and I walked along the river and entered the camp while Danlo, Sahto, Caato, and Colonto hid in the trees to observe. I didn't take an M1 with me, instead I carried a spear of Raalto's he had loaned me for the purpose of letting me seem fairly normal. I was dressed in my lion cub clothes again, but I didn't wear my necklace since I didn't want to draw attention to myself. I did have my Glock in its web belt holster though.

It was just coming on to noon when we arrived and when we were noticed Nutaro was alerted and he came to greet us. Grotondo made the introductions and told Nutaro he had come with me and I wanted to trade for widows or orphans if there were any in his camp. Nutaro gave me a quizzical look, but didn't comment and he told us he did have one orphan in his camp and there were two widows, both of them had young children.

He took us to a place similar to the one both Grotondo's and Kartoto's camp had. It was obvious that meals were often eaten there and there were some large rocks scattered around for sitting. He called some of his men too, I supposed they would eat with us and would then be dismissed.

Apparently his mate and the other women knew he would feed us and soon they came out with hipbone plates and cups of a type of tea. The food was good and there was plenty of it. It was mostly bison and there were a few vegetable type items which were tasty, but foreign to me.

As I expected, after the meal Nutaro dismissed the rest of his men and it made me wonder how this part of the custom had come about. I didn't know why the men were summoned to eat before the trading and then sent away, but it didn't matter to me.

Things went a little differently this time though since the men all seemed to go into the huts and none of them were visible when the trading song and dance started. I let Grotondo do the talking and didn't pay very much attention to what he was saying. I tried to keep my eyes on anything else which might be going on in camp, but there was nothing to see. I also tried to appear to be paying attention to the palaver.

It was a slight strain since I wanted to just constantly watch the camp, but couldn't. After a few minutes Nutaro asked me what I wanted with widows and orphans.

"There are many of us at my camp, but there have been no children born lately and we have few young ones. There was a sickness and some of my men's mates died of it and we have no unmated women," I told him, lying through my teeth.

It seemed to satisfy him and I was sure he didn't give a rat's ass what I said anyway. I sensed he had something up his sleeve and didn't intend to give up the widows or orphans and he wasn't planning on letting us leave with our salt either.

He asked to see the salt then, but Grotondo wanted to see the women first and Nutaro agreed. He called to his mate, Tulaarra, and had her send the widows and the orphan to us. It took her a few minutes to gather them, but soon they came and did an approximation of the same line up I'd seen before.

The orphan was a young girl, probably only about six years old and it was obvious at once she was neither being cared for nor fed properly. She probably wouldn't live through the winter unless it was a very mild one.

The women and their babies looked healthy enough. The babies looked to be about three years old and after the mothers were in place they put them down and they could stand on their own. I looked them over carefully even though I would trade for them no matter what shape they were in. It was clear the young girl didn't understand what was going on, but she did stand patiently during the inspection.

While this was happening I noticed the men who had eaten with us had come back out of the huts one at a time. I could tell they were trying not to attract attention, but they were all carrying their spears and none of them seemed to be heading off to go hunting or anything of the sort. They were working their way around us and into a rough circle. The whole scene was so transparent it would have been laughable if it hadn't been deadly serious.

Nutaro dismissed the young one and the widows then and he even put on a sham of trying to make a deal with Grotondo. Grotondo asked me if the women and the child would be acceptable and I told him they would.

When it finally came to it and Grotondo offered half of one of the bags of salt for the three and the two babies, Nutaro acted indignant and claimed that Grotondo was trying to cheat him. He ranted for a minute or two and then made the fatal mistake of saying he should kill us both and take all the salt to make up for the insult.

Of course I didn't know then who was paying attention behind us, but someone knew I didn't like to have my life threatened. An M1 spoke up and Nutaro went over backwards with a big bloody rose spreading out of his chest. His men were shocked at first, but then they approached us with their spears raised. I stood up to get a word in.

"I do not allow men who threaten to kill me to live and tell about it. Do any of the rest of you want to die now?"

Almost always there are one or two idiots in any group that will discount what they see and try to continue with a plan even though they know there isn't a chance of pulling it off any longer. I always thought they were the ones called brave soldiers since they tried to carry on in the face of hopeless odds. There was only one in this group, but it was only a few men.

He found out what Nutaro had felt as he took three strides toward me and raised his spear. He wasn't within thirty feet of me, but intent was good enough for my men. Another M1 shot sounded and another asshole was knocked to the ground. He was able to gasp for breath a time or two before blood came streaming out of his mouth.

"The rest of you will die the same way if you don't throw down your spears at once," I told them.

Apparently two dead men within only a few seconds were enough to convince the others something was dreadfully wrong with their plan, and they let their spears hit the ground.

I signaled for my men to come out of the trees then and come to us. After they showed themselves I told Nutaro's men to stand together in a bunch and be quiet and then asked Grotondo to call Nutaro's widow to us.

He did and by the time my men were with me Tulaarra had joined us also. I turned to face my men.

"Which one of you shot Nutaro?" I asked.

"I did," Danlo said, admitting it.

"Tulaarra this is your new mate, his name is Danlo. Danlo this is Tulaarra," I said making the introductions and then thought of a question I wanted to ask her.

"Tulaarra do you have any children?"

"Yes, I have had a son for four summers," she said, but she didn't sound very enthusiastic about any of the proceedings.

"What about that one, did he have a mate?" I asked, pointing to the other dead one.

"Yes, Weeahta was Cardollo's mate, but she does not have a child," she told me.

"Who is the big winner this time?" I asked my men and Sahto came forward to take his medicine like a man.

"Tulaarra would you go and tell Weeahta that she has a new mate she should come to meet?" I asked her, and she seemed to notice for the first time I was making a request instead of giving orders.

"I will go and bring her here," she said.

After she left I turned to the men and asked who would take over as the leader here now. They seemed to have grown some new backbone while I had been occupied elsewhere and none of them would speak. I didn't press the issue and waited for Tulaarra to return with Weeahta. When they came to us I introduced Weeahta to Sahto and vice versa.

"Tulaarra, would you tell me if any of these men are mated?"

"They all have mates," she said.

"Do any of their mates have children?"

"Only Condondo's mate has a child," she said, and pointed to the biggest of them.

I turned to my men again and asked them if one of them wanted to kill Condondo and gain a mate with a child. This caused a little commotion among the men and Condondo broke his silence.

"Will you just kill us for our mates after you have caused us to throw down our spears?" he asked.

"You have thrown down your spears, but you have not realized we are in control yet. I asked you a question and no one answered me. If any of you want to live, your best chance for it is to cooperate now. You intended to rob Grotondo and I and probably kill us instead of honestly trading as we came to do. Why should we treat you any better?"

"Dunto will be our leader now," he said.

"Which of you is Dunto?"

"Dunto is not here, Nutaro sent him and the rest of the men hunting."

"Very well, we will wait for Dunto then. You may gather your spears and go," I said, dismissing them.