Chapter 31

While the light was still good I eased Ben into a slow lope. We knew this route pretty well already and I didn't think we would find any ugly surprises. I found a nice surprise though. The last time I'd let him run there had been too much on my mind for me to pay attention to how Ben was doing. I saw now this pace was no strain on him at all. He ate up the distance and wasn't even breathing very hard. I eased him back into a trot a couple of times just in case, but we were at the old camp with thirty minutes of daylight left.

Hearing Ben trotting up the two men came out of the dwelling. They were slightly surprised to see a man on horse back even though I'm sure that Bigglieo had told them about it and I knew they had seen the horses with the wagon. I guess it was still new to them. I dismounted and walked toward them.

"I am John. I am the leader of the people who did live in this camp," I said.

"My name is Maldo and he is Bordo."

"Bigglieo said you were thinking of moving to this camp."

"Yes we are. In truth we had come to ask Gigo if we could join this camp. Did Bigglieo tell you of our troubles?" Maldo asked.

"He did. I came here to catch you before you left. We would like for you to join us at our new camp. The hunting will be better and there is plenty of room for all of you in the caves. They are large caves," I said.

"Bigglieo told us. We do not really have a new leader yet so neither of us can say we will come. I think all will want to though. Caves are very good for the winters and if the hunting is better it will be good. We were just starting to get meat to dry when our three men were killed. We do not have much meat yet," Bordo said.

"You do not need to worry about meat. We will have plenty and with the frozen cave we do not even have to dry it. We will be glad to have help with the skinning and cleaning."

"We will go back tomorrow and tell the others. I am sure we will be coming to your new camp. If we do not we will be hungry before the winter is over," Maldo said.

"You saw how much the wagon could carry didn't you?"

"Yes and it was a surprise," Bordo said.

"How many wagon trips do you think it will take to bring all your things?"

"It will take at least two trips but we can leave some things which are not so important," Maldo said.

"You do not need to leave things you want to bring. That is what the wagon is for, carrying things. I can also send horses with the travois to carry things. If you want to join us you need only send one man to tell us. He can ride back to your camp with the wagon. We will bring everything you want no matter how many trips it takes."

"That is good of you. We did not expect such good treatment," Bordo said.

"I am a fair man and like to help others. My main fault is I gather too many mates and I am jealous of them all. I like to have many mates though."

"If you need more mates you might find some in our group. Three of the mated women have lost their men and there is one more unmated woman. There are also three girls who are very near womanhood. None of the boys are very old either," Maldo said.

"I like mates but have ten already. If any of your men want another mate they should take one."

"We will have enough trouble feeding the mates we have," Bordo said.

"You do not have to worry. No one will go hungry at my camp. The women will be fed anyway and so why shouldn't you take one for a mate if you want one. I am going to encourage all the men in my camp to have at least two mates. You do not have to if you don't want to and I think you should talk to your current mate before you take another, but feeding them should not concern you if you join my camp."

"How can you feed so many?" Maldo asked.

"You will not learn it unless you join my camp. If you do you will see the hardest job will be skinning and cleaning. The last time I hunted bison I stopped at fifteen kills because more would have been too much work at once. We have the frozen cave now though and won't be bothered drying the meat."

"We don't want to doubt you, but we have never heard of such things. No matter what the others do I am coming to join you. I have to do it so I can know how you kill so many bison," Bordo said.

"I will be coming too. I do not know how you do it either but Bigglieo told me of the fifteen bison in only a few minutes of hunting and I have known him most of my life. I will be bringing my mate and I might take one of the unmated ones too if my mate agrees and the woman will have me. I don't want to be hungry this winter or any winter," Maldo added.

"Good. If there are some who don't want to come it's their business, but bring any who will come. We will feed them all if they will do some work."

"We will bring all who will come," Maldo said.

"Then I will send Bigglieo and some others with the wagon and extra horses tomorrow. There is no need to send a man back to tell us. If you two are coming anyway we will just get started moving your things."

They agreed it was a plan. Ben didn't seem tired so I decided to head back home. It was dark already but there was a full moon and I had brought the night goggles anyway. When Ben figured out we were going home he wanted to run again. I wasn't going to try that at night, but I did let him trot.

My return tonight would be a surprise and I was counting on it. I would be able to see if all my chicks were roosting where they belonged and make sure no one was sniffing around them. I doubted any man would be foolish enough to sneak into my cave. There was no way he would be able to talk all the women into keeping such a secret. One might try to slip off with one woman though. Woe be unto him if he succeeded or if I even found out someone tried.

Ben wasn't nearly as tired as I was by the time we got home. I approached slowly and used the night vision goggles to check ahead carefully. Was I paranoid? Maybe I was, but I already knew Geera and Dieta hadn't been above sneaking a little side action when they were with their former mates. Of course it seemed Gigo and Dergo had been fully aware of it, more or less, since they facilitated it by getting drunk in alternation.

I didn't see anyone outside at all. I put Ben in the horse's cave quietly. Prince, King, and Rover knew who I was long before I got there and didn't make any noise about my arrival.

"Honeys, I'm home," I said loudly, as I walked into my cave.

They gasped at first and when I turned up the light I could see something was going on. Jaada was upset and had been crying. I went to the bed before they could all get out and asked what the matter was.

"I am scared John. Something happened and I'm afraid you will be angry with me," Jaada said, right away.

"You will have to tell me so I will know whether to be angry or not."

"Nadlo wanted me to slip off into the night with him. I told him no, but he kept pestering me to do it. I had to run away from him at last," Jaada said, and looked like she was about to cry again.

"You did nothing wrong Jaada, you did just right. I know some men let their mates slip off sometimes, but I am not one of them. If you had gone off with Nadlo and I found out about it I would have been very cross with you and I would have killed him. I do not share my mates with anyone and I want you all to understand it. If you want to leave me you can, but I do not want you sneaking around with other men," I said, to all of them.

"We all knew already. Geera told us you let her know it," Dieta said.

"Where could we find another man like you anyway? You are the only man I have ever been with, but if there was another who could do what you can we would all have heard about it long ago," Gema said.

I had to bite my tongue to keep from smiling. As it was I know both my head and chest swelled. I had something to do though and it wasn't going to be pleasant.

Nadlo was one of the unmated young men and like Jonoco he had become a man since I showed myself to this camp. I wasn't especially mad about his stunt since no real damage had been done and since such things were probably normal before I came. I didn't even see how a little swapping could be destructive as long as it didn't involve someone sniffing around my mates. I told the women I would be back later and went to find him.

The unmated men had set up residence among themselves in one of the smaller caves. I walked into it unannounced and asked loudly for Nadlo. He got up from his bed quickly and I knew he probably hadn't been asleep. When he came up to me I told him to dress since we needed to go outside for a talk. He went back to his bedding and did.