Chapter 16

We didn't linger in Las Cruces any longer than we had to. All of our business there was transacted in two days. We were now on our last leg of the trek. We should be in El Paso in no more than four days. That was great news for virtually everybody. Most of the crew had wives, girlfriends, or favorite whores that they were anxious to find and get reacquainted with.

It was a little different for my family. None of us knew anybody in El Paso, so we were at loose ends. Sunshine thought that Mary could move around on her own now, but she didn't want her to do anything too energetic. Of course, Running Fox and Sunshine had no connections in El Paso, so they didn't know what to do, either. Our problem was resolved when Abe Jackson invited us to stay at his small ranch while we tried to decide what to do for the next few weeks and for the rest of our lives.

The ranch house was large enough for my family to find rooms to sleep, but Running Fox and Sunshine were relegated to an outlying house, though it was plenty nice enough. It was just the principle of the thing as far as I was concerned. I didn't say anything, though, because Running Fox and Sunshine did not seem disturbed by the situation. In fact, they seemed to be relieved to be able to escape to their own house.

On the second day with them, Abe asked me, "What are yer plans fer the next few months? I was hoping that ya, Alice, and Running Fox would make my next trip with me. I also hope that ya will do the rate negotiating fer me—ya are so damned good at it!"

"Alice and I have not discussed what we wanted to do, yet. I appreciate your offer, and I am inclined to take you up on it. But I will have to see what Alice has to say. You know, we will have to make some provision for Mary and Esther, since they certainly can't make that trip out to Yuma and back at Esther's current age. We also should make some provision for Adam. He is really too young to have to undergo the rigors of the trip, though he has shown that he can handle it if he has to."

"What do you think of leaving Mary, Esther, and Adam here with Sunshine to look after them? I'd have to clear it with my wife, of course, but they get along well, and I'm sure Amy (Abe's wife) would like the company while I'm gone."

"OK, I'll talk to Alice about it tonight and Running Fox tomorrow morning. A lot of people would have to agree, but it sounds like a good deal to me."

That evening, I told Alice what Abe had suggested and asked her opinion. "I had a great time on the wagon train, and I would be interested in doing that again. If Sunshine will agree to look after Mary, Esther, and Adam, I would love to make another trip before I deliver my baby."

That was the answer I wanted, so I asked Running Fox if he would go along. He said that he would, but he thought it would be most productive for Alice to ask Sunshine about being the substitute mother for the kids. I told Alice what Running Fox had said, and she dashed out immediately to ask the favor. Sunshine was agreeable, so we were set. I told Abe the results and he was delighted. Amy had already agreed, so we were all in agreement.

I took the opportunity to go to every gunsmith in El Paso until I found two telescopic sights. They were salvaged from Whitworth Civil War sniping rifles and were only 3x power. Even with that small improvement from magnification, I was happy to get an overall better sight for the Remingtons. I had the telescopes mated to the Remingtons, and Joe and I tried them out. The improvement in our shooting at 1,000 yards was notable, and I was now willing to chance shots up to 1,500 yards.

We took a week of vacation from the wagon train, but that was long enough for Alice, Running Fox, and me to get antsy. Of course, the kids knew about the plan by now and were all for it. Elizabeth announced that she was going to be assistant cook—she was 7 years old by now and ready to assume the responsibility. It took an effort not to laugh, but we all kept a straight face and welcomed her aboard.

Joe had always assumed that he would be a scout if and when we went out again, so he was happy, but not surprised. Running Fox was able to ride a horse, now, so Joe was anxiously waiting for his chance to learn from a man he admired as much as he did me.

John was excited to be able to assume adult responsibilities by driving his mother's draft team of oxen. We had decided to hitch a second wagon to the rear of our red wagon and use that as a tandem set for our living quarters. A regular wagon would be hitched in tandem with the chuck wagon to haul more vegetables and such other stuff as we might need. Driving oxen was not that big a deal. The only problem usually was that the oxen would stop if somebody did not keep urging them to move, but they were so docile that they rarely gave the driver any sort of problems. With his mother to keep an eye on him, we were sure that John could handle the job.

It took three weeks for us to find enough freight to fill our wagons, but Abe did say that he expected this to be his most profitable run. I had been a bit sharp in my bargaining with some of the customers whom I had thought were taking advantage of Abe's good nature, so their rates had gone up. Abe had a reputation for reliability that could not be matched, so they were willing to pay the extra money to be sure their goods were delivered as promised.

All of the old crew had signed up and were especially happy that Alice was to be the cook for this run. We got started early one morning and were across the river before noon. As usual, Las Cruces was to be our first stop. It took us four days to get there, and we spent a day taking care of business.

Scouting was now done by the trio of Running Fox, Joe, and me. I doubt that this improved our scouting, but it was a lot of fun to watch Running Fox teach Joe how to spot things that normally only an Indian would notice. Yes, I learned a lot, too, when it came to reading signs left by footprints and that sort of thing. That was done in the morning, and the afternoons were spent in Marine sniper training for Joe. I don't know how much he learned, but Running Fox came along on those ventures.

I had changed my clothes so that they had more of a camouflage pattern to them, and even Running Fox was impressed by how I could disappear into the surrounding sand, only to reappear someplace else. Once he saw how it worked, Joe wanted a suit to match mine. Alice worked on it and came up with something that was a very good copy. When Joe demonstrated his progress a couple of weeks later, Running Fox decided that he, too, wanted a camouflage suit.

We had only been out of Las Cruces two days when we had our first run in of the trip with Comanches. This was not a very large group, only 12 warriors with a war chief. They attacked us while we were on an afternoon training mission. They came so close to us that we never had the opportunity to use our Remingtons. We were unaware of them until they were only about 250 yards away. Joe and I laid our Remingtons on the ground and switched to the Winchesters.

As soon as the Indians charged to within 200 yards, all three of us started plugging away with our Winchesters. As usual, we shot at horses and not at men. They were coming at us so fast that we were forced to switch to our revolvers, and that was enough to save our necks. We killed all but the war chief, but Joe took a shot at him with his Remington at about 300 yards. One shot, one kill! The chief had turned to run, but he was too slow for his own good.

We went out to make sure that all of the horses were dead. We did not want them to suffer. We were certain that all would die, but there was no need to prolong the time for the horses. We also checked all of the men, but our feeling here was to be sure that we did not get shot by a Comanche who was not yet fully dead.