Chapter 47

Now I had the remains of two groups who thought I was using magic on them. I didn't intend to disabuse them of the notion - unless I could convince them I was using some weapon more powerful than any they had I was agreeable to let them think it was magic. Just then two more of the long tooth cats showed up. It was obvious from their cautious approach that they had been hunting the last bunch of men who showed up.

Now I wasn't the kind of guy who'd set out to hunt big cats with handguns, but then again the cats weren't going to give me a good chance to select a better weapon. They were approaching carefully, but they were approaching, and it was obvious from the way they did it they knew something about their prey. For instance, they didn't seem to be afraid the men could escape by running off.

All the men in both groups picked up the spears they'd just laid down, but I wasn't about to let it come to that. I walked behind them, placing myself between the cats and the men. The cats weren't impressed and they continued toward us and actually broke into a trot. I let them come ahead without bothering them since I wanted no more than a seventy or so foot shot at them. With the three pistols I'd just reloaded I'd have eighteen shots before I had to reload again and surely the armed women would come forward before it came to that.

The cats spread out a little as the approached and when the closest one came within my estimated range I held the pistol at arm's length and fired twice. Both were hits and it stopped right away -- weaving on its feet at first and then falling over. Of course it had no effect on the other one so I turned and fired twice at it also, getting similar results.

This move got me even more respect from the two groups of men, as if they were saying Sure, you can kill us easily, big deal, but man that's really something you can kill those cats.

I took a minute to reload the pistol I'd fired and when I was done Nadla had walked up beside me and she nodded with her head toward the cats. I nodded myself and walked toward them with her. When we reached them she started tugging away at the long teeth and she didn't quit until she had removed all the long ones.

My other women were paying attention by now and the others who had been hanging back came forward now. Hope had a shotgun in her hands and she was carrying my new rifle slung over her shoulder. Charity came with a shotgun of her own and she was carrying an axe - no doubt to help Nadla dismember the cat. They made quick work of detaching the head and feet and then Nadla went back to collecting removing the skins.

Kahlila took stock of the situation and returned to the cave. In a few minutes she came back out leading one of the mules and with a hatchet in her hands. She stopped near two saplings, cut them down, and then attached them to the mule's harness she had put on. Soon enough the mule was dragging the two poles behind it and she led it over to where the skinning was going on. She had also picked up a small bundle of rope and she started winding it between the poles to form a sort travois.

When the cats were skinned out the girls put the skins on the makeshift travois and threw the heads and feet onto the skins and the Kahlila led the mule back into the cave. Most of the women, except for my protection squad and Nadla, followed the mule and its cargo into the care and I figured they intended to deal with the trophies.

Nadla surprised me when she was back by my side. She turned to the two separate groups of me and appeared to be giving them a dressing down. Hell, they weren't squawking about getting a talking to from a woman now and they soon turned, picked up their dead, and trotted off. She looked at me and smiled as they left.

What the hell? The show was over for now and I headed back into the cave with the rest of my women following me. Kahlila had the two cat's heads on the picnic table along with their paws. She was removing all their teeth and extracting the claws from their paws. I guessed it was for more trophies and I figured she had gotten the idea from the other necklaces some of the men had been wearing.

"You know, Tommy, I think you need to go hunting," Jerrilyn said.

"Hunting what?"

"Just anything with edible meat on it. The natives were impressed when you killed the cats, and a little fresh meat wouldn't hurt us," she said. We'll talk to Nadla and see if we can't discover what there is to hunt around here.

"Hell, we've got everything we need to make it practically painless. You've got horses or mules to ride and we've got plenty of stuff to carry the meat back to camp, including the travois I didn't even think of before Kahlila used one," Jerrilyn said.

"It just came to me while I was watching them skin the cats. I just thought it was the right thing to do and it seemed to work out well," Kahlila said.

"I'll say it worked. I think they were more impressed with you leading the mule out than they were by me killing the cats," I said, and then we laughed about it.

"Of course they were impressed. They probably see those cats all the time, but you can bet your ass it was the first Missouri mule they'd ever seen," Jacky said, and we all laughed harder.

"Those are the biggest, strongest looking mules I've ever seen," Nancy said, and the others from her time agreed at once.

"I don't guess it would hurt us to take a short hunting trip. See if you can get any information out of Nadla," I said, to Jerrilyn and she and Jacky went over to try talking to her again.

Nadla had already used the axe to cut down more saplings and had built a stretching frame for the skins. She was attaching one to it and looked for all the world like she was about to start scraping the back of the hide. Well, why not. It wouldn't hurt us to have some fur coats, even if we might get some shit over them if we tried to wear them back in our time.