Chapter 5

At dinner one night Shaylee said, "I have to thank you for bringing the Major's books along. At the time I thought that they would be just a bunch of dead weight but I was wrong! I'm sorry."

"Thanks. I noticed that you've been reading them and I must say I'm surprised. What does a woman need to read books about warfare for anyway?"

"Well they're making me think on a lot of things. First we're not safe yet, not by a long shot! As long as that last nightrider is out there we are in danger. What if he comes after us, or worse yet sends a whole bunch of bounty hunters after us? Or ... Or ... what if some of the ranchers notified the U.S. Marshals about what we did, and they are after us? Or both? Or ... or all three? We need to start making some big decisions pretty quickly, here."

Maeve looked pensive for a while then said, "I hadn't thought of that, but you're right, of course. Though I don't see how those books on war can help us."

"A lot, if you just think about it. We are on the run so we could be called a retreating force, while those chasing us are divided into different armies, a) the nightrider, b) the bounty hunters, and finally c) the Marshals. Each group has slightly different goals and therefore must be treated differently."

"Shaylee please get to the point. What do we have to do right now?" asked Maeve.

"I've been studying this book on military strategy and I must say I'm sure glad we worked for Madame Rene."

"How did you get from war to Madame Rene in the same breath?"

"She insisted that we learn French, remember?"

"Of course, how could I ever forget those lessons? She was certainly a hard woman!"

"That's true, but it was for our own good! Knowing French saved us several times when Da was after us, remember? We were able to convince the man from the authorities that we were not the women he was looking for by speaking French, and the bigots were convinced because they thought we Irish are too stupid to learn such a language."

"Yes. Yes. But that still begs the question, 'What does the French language have to do with our situation, now?'"

"Well, there is this book that the Major was studying, it was written in the 6^th century BC, in China. It is, according to the Major's notes, the most definitive work ever written on the subject of war," said Shaylee getting more excited with each word.

"The Major knew how to read Chinese?" Maeve asked, confused now.

""No, no! It's a French translation," said Shaylee, exasperated now at Maeve's confusion.

"Please, Maeve, just let me finish and I'll answer all of your questions. Ok?"

"All right, I'll shut up for now," said a more than disgruntled Maeve.

Shaylee looked at her sister's dark face and knew that the woman was near to an explosive burst of anger. Taking a deep breath Shaylee started over.

"All right, we both know that the Major was famous for winning some serious battles during the war, right?"

Maeve nodded curtly.

"Well then, it stands to reason that the knowledge he had come by, at least in part, came from the books he studied. Right?"

Again Maeve nodded.

"So I thought that if I looked at his books and found the ones with the most notes in it, that it would help us defend ourselves. Understand?"

Maeve nodded again, but more slowly as she began to look more thoughtful than angry.

"So, as I was sayin', I looked through all of the books, and found this little book that was stuffed with pieces of paper. It turned out to be the Chinese book on war, and all of those slips of paper were notes on what was in the book. They were about different battle plans and such, under different conditions and so forth. Maeve I learned a lot. Now I know that we are at a much greater risk than we ever imagined. We need to stop and figure out a lot of things, or we will end up in a bad way. Does that make any kind of sense to you, now?"

Maeve stood open mouthed for a full minute before slowly nodded and asked softly, "What do we need to do, then?"

"The first thing is that we need to misdirect our enemy, so you have to dress like a man. Those people are looking for two women ... well, at least that nightrider and the people that he sends out are. The Marshals will have no idea of the gender of the those that burned the town, though."

"But..."

"No buts, here, Maeve. We are at war and must do everything we can to not only survive, but to win! You know as well as I do, that two women traveling alone catches the eye. You and me, well we catch the eye 'cause I look too young as your husband but as brothers, not so much."

"Oh, well, if I must," Maeve said dejectedly. She didn't like the idea one little bit. Then she asked, "What else? There must be more?"

"You bet there's more, a whole lot more! We need to get rid of one of the wagons, and..."

"But where will we sleep?"

"In the supply wagon."

"But ... but there's no room for two to sleep in there! One perhaps on top of the crates but certainly not two!"

"Exactly!"

"What?" Maeve asked incredulous.

"Exactly. Only one person sleeps at a time. We need to start standing watches, again. We just move a few crates around and put some boards over the top to give us a flat surface and then set the sleeping pallet on those boards," said Shaylee with an excited smile.

"But get rid of the second wagon? How? Just leave it here? And what about the mules? And..." asked Maeve as she began to realize that things were going to get a lot more uncomfortable.

"Look, I've been thinking on this for a long time and here is what I think we should do. When we get near the next town we hide the supply wagon, and then go into town. We sell off the wagon, mules and all and buy saddle horses and tack. If there is a good general store, or a gunsmith, we'll get some better weapons."

Maeve nodded and said, "Ok, I see that but why two horses?"

"Because we need to switch off out-riding, like Himself did with the skirmishers during the war. We will be moving slower, but safer, since the out-rider goes ahead first then does a circuit all the way around the wagon as it moves along. After the circuit is made we switch and the other person goes out on a fresh mount. That way the horses are always fresh, and can move fast if the need arises. What do you think?"

"Shaylee, I think it is a brilliant plan!" said an amazed Maeve. "Anything else?"

"Yes, we make a firm decision as to just were we're headed and then hook up with others, so that we can 'hide in plain sight.' I know it's late in the season, but there must be some people that aren't taking the train west, or ... we just bite the bullet and load all of the stuff on a boxcar and ride in style to Canada."

"Canada?" Maeve said. She had been with her, until then. "Why Canada?"

"Maeve, we will never be safe in this country, and it's just too hot in Mexico for me."

"I see your point; but if we go to Canada, we'll end up under the heel of the English crown, all over again. I don't relish that one bit. Not one bit at all!"

"Ah, I didn't think of that! You're right of course, and I feel the same way. Hmmm ... Where then?"

"I still like northern California but..."

"Ah, you have an idea growing in that fertile mind of yours, don't you, Maeve?"

"Tell me what you think of this, Shaylee. Where do you think those people chasing us will think we are headed? All of the places we have been talking about, that's where! So ... What if we find some people that are tired of traveling, and get them to settle on this side of the mountains, with us? We'll settle in some nice valley, someplace with good water. There will be grass for ranchers, good earth for farmers, and it'll be near to the forests? We have enough goods in the wagon to start our store with. Then we'll hire men to do supply runs for us. What do you think?"

"I think I like your idea as long as it's way off of the beaten path. I think it will work. There is one thing, though ... we have to find the place, first."

"There is that, yes. So we should keep heading northwest, alone, until we run into a good place. With your plan for out-riding, we can cover a lot more territory. Hopefully, we'll find a good place, soon. The thing is that we could just stop somewhere ourselves and live off of the supplies for a time until our garden comes in. We're still young and strong and we could even build our own cabin, too."

"Yes we could! Anyway we stop at the next town and get rid of the wagon right?"