Chapter 3

Two hours later it was apparent she'd wanted to go home. What was even more startling was when she said "We are nearly there."

It hadn't been what she'd actually said, but I'd had no trouble understanding it anyway. I had no more idea about this miracle than I had about how I'd come to be here, where ever here was.

When we rode up into their camp it was apparent something awful had happened not long ago.

"What has happened. Where is everyone?" she asked, and I could understand her again, but I had no answers.

Two other women about her age came out of their TPs or Wigwams, or whater you called their shelters and greeted her.

"How have you come back, Shira?" they asked, and I realized I finally had her name.

"A bear killed Shakta and he killed the bear so I guess I am his mate now. He is very nice and also helps me a lot. We were traveling and so I pointed him in this direction," Shira said.

"It is good you didn't get back before today. Others came and stole all the children. Our chief refuses to believe it and we think he has lost his mind.

"We are nearly the only young ones left here, and mostly the only ones at all except for the oldest women and two of the oldest men. All of the young braves have been killed and all of the older ones were killed too. The young men and boys and all the girls and young women were captured and taken away. We ran and hid in the forest when it happened and were spared, but all the others were stolen away." one of the two said.

Finally we were invited to dismount and introductions were made. Of course since Shira and I had never exchanged names I had to introduce myself to Kata and Twila.

After much discussion we learned they were the only two left alive except for their very old chief, some of the oldest women and a couple of very old men. Even the chief's young wife had been taken. There were two older men left besides the chief and neither of them had a woman either.

What a fuckup, I thought to myself. Here was a fine how do you do as a tribe of Indians. Two young women, a few old women, a couple of old men, and one crazy old chief. Apparently all the able bodied warriors had been killed yesterday while all the children, both male and female, had been taken away.

To top it all off here came the chief with a damned spear and he was heading for Mose, no doubt intending to make a kill. I pulled one of my Super Blackhawks and with its roar I sent the chief to the happy hunting ground. Kata and Twila didn't seem distressed over it and neither did Shira. Apparently we were now the extent of Shira's tribe.

"What will we do now?" Shira asked, and the other two didn't answer so I took it upon myself.

"We will go and retake the captives," I said.

"But sixteen warriors came to steal them. You are only one," Twila said.

"It sounds about right to me," I said, walking over to Mose and moving everything from his packsaddle onto the travois, packsaddle and all.

"Gather your things and put them on the travois too," I said to Twila and Kata, while I found another blanket and spread it over Mose's back for them to ride on.

Shira went with them and soon enough they had everything they wanted to bring loaded. I helped them onto Mose's back, mounted Joe Bob, and helped Shira up behind me. I asked which way and Twila pointed off to the North and I eased off that way.

I told Shira to make sure and tell me if the direction changed during the trip.

We rode on for nearly three more hours until Shira told me there was someone watching the trail ahead. She gave directions until I saw one waiting up a tree and looking more closely I could see three on the ground near its base. I stopped Red, pulled my Marlin out of its saddle scabbard and quickly dispatched the three on the ground. I waited to see if more would show up, but when they didn't I shot the one out of the tree too. He'd been very still since I started shooting and I guess he thought I hadn't seen him. He was dead wrong.

I got down and retrieved my brass and then mounted again and we resumed our following. Late in the afternoon we had to slow down and then stop since we nearly caught up to the kidnappers. We made a cold camp and I slipped off ahead with my binoculars to take a look.

After a lot of looking I could see the count seemed right. There had been sixteen attackers and I'd lately killed four of them leaving twelve and I counted twelve armed men in the camp they were setting up.

I went back for Shira, Kata, and Twila and took them back to my earlier observation spot. When we were there I taught them to use the binoculars and had them give the camp a look.

Kata and Twila agreed there were twelve of the attackers left and they finally made me understand which one was the leader. I reloaded the vacancies in the Marlin's magazine and settled in for a good rest.

I got the leader in the chest with the first shot and then picked off two more who were standing and looking in our direction. I have no doubt they noticed the muzzle flash when I shot them but I could also tell they didn't have time to point it out to others. Still, most of the others picked up bows and headed in our general direction. I picked them off one by one, barely having time to reload as they advanced.

When the last few of them made it to within seventy feet it was all over but the singing and the slow walking because I pulled the Super Blackhawk from my right holster and did away with the others. I shot the last two in the back since they had thought better of things by now and tried to run away.

I asked the girls if they could use a bow and arrows and they all told me they could so I asked them to pick one up from those with the dead men to help me in case others showed up. There were no others though and by the time we made it to the camp there were sixteen women and nearly thirty children standing or sitting around.

I let Shira and the other two do the sorting and came up with sixteen women who'd been the mates of the men I'd killed and all the children were those who had been kidnapped.

I built another travois for Joe Bob to pull and then used my new influence to get a meal started. We had plenty of meat for a rich stew since we were still carrying the bear meat. I showed Shira and a couple of the others how to make biscuits then and stew and biscuits made a good supper for us all.

Sleeping arrangements were confused. We managed to finish putting up three more large TPs, or at least it's what I called them. There was enough room inside for everyone though things were a bit crowded. I didn't mind one damned bit, since Shira, Kata, and Twila slept closest to me, naked at that. Of course there were several other women nearby since it seemed I had acquired the mates of the men I'd just killed and now had a burgeoning harem which now included nineteen mates. Strangely there wasn't a barker in the bunch unless I counted, and I'm sure I didn't.

The next morning my first thought was the women must truly run the Indian camps since all the women piled out and began running things. After a little instruction from Shira my campfire oven was pressed into biscuit cooking duty. They weren't exactly McDonalds bacon, egg, and cheese models but I can recommend bear meat biscuits to anyone. I only hoped the self-rising flour held out for a while.