Chapter 2

It took Billy and Ann over 15 minutes to navigate their way through the trees to get around to the rear of the Sioux column. The trail that the Sioux were using was only wide enough for one horse as it passed through these dense woods. Therefore, the column was over 300 yards long from its extreme front to its extreme end. Indians were always cognizant of the possibility of ambush, so they tried never to bunch up.

Add to that the difficulty that Maria was having walking barefooted on the rough trail, and that easily explained why she was slowing down even further the Indian who was holding her lead rope. That warrior certainly had no regard for Maria's health, except that he wanted her to live long enough to be the featured character in the rape festival the Sioux had planned for after supper.

The upshot of all of this was that the man leading Maria had not heard the sound of the shots that had occurred at the front of the column. Thus, he was nothing more than slightly irritated that he was forced to be "tail-end-Charley." He had no reason to treat Maria any worse than he had been treating her during the course of the morning, and he was not going to let her die for some trivial reason and spoil everybody's fun, especially his. Therefore, Billy and Ann discovered that they had nothing new to worry about regarding Maria's health, at least not for now.

They considered the possibility of just shooting the man leading Maria, but gave that up when they realized that killing him would draw attention to Maria. Undue attention drawn to Maria could result in one of the Sioux killing her just to prevent her escape, and they could not yet get close enough to ensure her rescue. More Indians would have to be killed before they could hope to get to Maria soon enough.

The Indians had to know that Whites had staged the ambush, simply because very few Indians had guns at this time. That would not come for another three or four years, so the mere noise of gunshots would be enough to signal the presence of Whites. On the other hand, the Indians were well aware of the lack of repeating rifles among the Whites, so there had to be at least four men involved in the attack. It would be insanity for only four men to attack 33 Sioux warriors, QED, there had to be a party of at least 10 White men who were stalking the Indians. This was a fine example of how simple logic could lead one to a wrong conclusion, but that is for another story.

The band's war chief had been one of the casualties in that first volley, so now the Indians who knew of the shooting were wondering what to do. Certainly, no major decisions could be made until another war chief was elected, and that would have to wait until after supper that evening. It also meant that the rape of the White prisoner would have to wait until tomorrow. Any war party knew the necessity of business before pleasure. The choice of a new war chief would take hours, and might not even be resolved until tomorrow night. Maria was safe as long as the band had not yet chosen a war chief. Billy and Ann knew that and were counting on it to protect Maria for a little while longer. Hopefully, they could effect her rescue before that happened.

OK, so far, so good. The next step for Billy and Ann was to knock off some more of the war party, and these woods seemed the ideal place. Though Billy and Ann didn't know it yet, the front of the column had halted where the four men had been killed, and several braves were out looking for the murderers. Killing from ambush like this was generally considered very cowardly, but what could one expect from Whites? If the perpetrators could be found, they would take hours, maybe even days, to die for such cowardice and effrontery!

Billy and Ann expected that there would be Indians out and about in the woods looking for them, so the two made a point of being very careful as they moved back toward the front of the column. Billy was a little bit superstitious, though he would never admit it, and he had a good-luck charm that he always had with him. This charm was a Cherokee war club he had taken in personal combat before he ever left Alabama, and he knew well how to use it.

As the couple were making their way through the woods, Billy happened to get very lucky and spot one of the Sioux who was hunting for them. The "modern" Sioux were plains people who had lost the knack for operating in dense vegetation, though they would never admit it. On the other hand, Billy's training as a hunter in the thick woods of Alabama had never deserted him, so he saw the Indian and was not seen, even though Billy was mounted on a horse. It was a case of undergrowth interfering with the sight-line of someone standing on the ground, and a person on a horse being able to see over the bushes and saplings.

Billy held up his hand to signal Ann to halt, and he used other hand signals to inform her that he had seen an enemy. She drew her pistol to back him up, but sat where she was so as not to interfere with Billy's stalk. Billy holstered his rifle in his saddle scabbard and silently dismounted. He took up the Cherokee war club and began his stalk of the unsuspecting Sioux enemy.

Billy wanted to maintain silence during his attack if he could, so that he would not attract unwelcome attention from the rest of the Sioux. Thus, the war club was perfect for this job. Billy did have his bowie knife in his left hand, but he did not expect to have to use it.

The Indian was not carrying his bow in his hand, but had it stashed in the quiver of arrows he carried. Instead, he, too, was carrying in his right hand a bowie knife he had recently bought at a trading post. That just proved that even the despised Whites were good for something. He never understood why the White man was so anxious to have the worthless yellow metal he so coveted—the White man had traded the worthless stuff for this excellent knife. That just proved how crazy the Whites were!

Anyway, Billy was extremely careful in his approach until he was within range of the unsuspecting Sioux warrior. One quick swing with the war club cracked open the head of the Sioux, who never knew what hit him. Billy took the new bowie knife and dragged the dead Indian deeper into the brush before returning to his horse. He explained to Ann what had happened before he mounted. They rode even more carefully now that they had physical evidence that they were being stalked by the Indians.

They were surprised when they found a discussion group heatedly at work surrounding the four dead Indians. The discussion was how to dispose of the bodies properly. Some of the men wanted to tie the bodies to their horses and take them back to deliver to their relatives, while others wanted to have a rump funeral immediately and hang the bodies in the trees for the scavengers. Their argument was that scavengers were going to get the bodies eventually, no matter which kind of funeral was held, and their way was a hell of a lot easier while they were in immediate danger.

The traditionalists won out, and the bodies were tied to their horses. Billy and Ann had found vantage points and began shooting as soon as the last body was tied to his horse. Close to a dozen Indians were standing around the dead men waiting for the rest of the column to catch up. The blast of rifle fire caught the Sioux completely by surprise. Both shooters hurried their shots, but they did manage to kill seven men and wound three others. The three wounded men were hurt too badly to be effective fighters with their bows, and they would die of gangrene very soon, so there were 10 more Sioux now out of action, which meant that there were only 18 left from the original band of 33. Things were definitely looking up for Maria.

Billy and Ann rode away from the latest massacre as fast as they could. They had gone about half a mile when they stopped to exchange cylinders in their rifles. Well, there was no doubt that they had just proved again how valuable Billy's idea of the repeating rifles had been.