Chapter 7

I had so much Navajo jewelry with me that I'd nearly filled a saddle bag on one side. It was so near to supper time that Mr. Jackson had just decided to remain here for the night. Alice was already getting supper started by the time I rode into camp.

The whole camp knew that I had broken the siege, and they could hardly wait to hear how I had done it. Well, I wasn't going to say anything until after supper. I was too hot and tired to do anything but kiss my wife and put up my horse. I did walk to the nearby stream, strip off my clothes, and lie down in the cool water. The Indians had done me a favor by attacking here, because this was one of the few flowing streams for miles. I had a bar of soap with me, so I took the time for a quick wash. When I got out, I didn't have to dry off with a towel. The air was so dry that my skin was dry by evaporation in only minutes. I hated to put my dirty clothes back on, but I really had no choice—I had nothing else to wear. At least, I would not be wearing them when I was in bed with my wife tonight!

Alice had made a stew from the remnants of the elk she had, and everybody agreed that it was excellent. The only problem, such as it was, was that I would have to go hunting for more meat tomorrow, but that was no real chore. Only hostile Indians would interfere with that.

Once supper was over, I told my story of the fight with the Navajo. In this day and age, with no radio or TV or iPods, story telling was the main form of entertainment. I did my best to make the story interesting, amusing, and exciting. Apparently, I was successful, because I had to tell the story again with even more detail. That was enough, and I begged off repeating it again. Instead, I went to my saddlebag and went over to where Alice was sitting. I asked her to spread her skirt and I dumped the looted Navajo jewelry into her lap.

She was stunned, and so was everybody else. She looked at me like she could not believe me when I said it was all a present for her. Everybody crowded around Alice to see all of the things I had given her. As I expected, that was the high point of the evening's entertainment. It took over an hour for everybody to examine all of the stuff, and I could tell that Alice was already figuring out how she was going to wear some of it. Needless to say, I was thrilled with the way she was so enthralled by my gift.

She had to send me for a cloth bag to put it all in before she could stand up. I took it to the wagon for her. She had saved out one of the amulets to wear immediately, but the rest went to the wagon. She insisted that I go with her to the stream so that she, too, could bathe. I admired her beauty when she came out of the water and stood to get dry. By now, the temperature had dropped to what felt to us as quite cool, so she had to stand around longer than I did to get dry, but I enjoyed looking at her in the moonlight. She reminded me of some of those Greek statues that I had seen in museums as she stood there in her naked glory. Her nipples had extended and hardened in the cooler air, and I could hardly wait to get back to our wagon to see if they stayed that way.

The next morning, Alice woke me for another quickie before she left to fix breakfast. I had to laugh to myself about how difficult it had been to wake me in my former life, but my wife could wake me with a simple whisper of my name, because I knew what was bound to happen next. She had dressed in a couple of the new pieces of jewelry, and they looked great on her.

Some of the jewelry was quite intricate in its craftsmanship, and I wondered what it signified. I knew that all of that jewelry had a religious significance to the Navajos, and I wandered what it was. I'll probably never know, but it was beautiful to look at.

A couple of days later, I found an Indian lying by the road. He was really in sad shape, but he did get better after I gave him a drink of water. We talked in Spanish, and I found out that he was a Mescalero Apache who had been captured as a young boy by the Navaho and kept mostly as a slave, though they had not castrated him. He had escaped and was headed back to his homeland, though he knew that he had long been written off as dead. It was not so much that he wanted to get back to the Mescalero land, he just wanted to escape from Navajo slavery.

I helped him onto my horse and he rode behind me back to the wagons. I told Mr. Jackson the story as I had heard it, and Mr. Jackson agreed to let Running Fox join us at least until he had recovered from his ordeal in the desert. Alice took an instant liking to Running Fox, and agreed to take care of him, though she insisted that he could not sleep in her wagon. However, she did not mind if he slept under it. I laughed at that, though not where Alice could see me. As a side note, Running Fox was able to interpret some of the significance of the Navajo jewelry for her. He was truly impressed that I had taken all of that in one fight, since some of it was very strong magic. His respect for me shot off the charts when Alice showed him her entire collection.

The next few days were pretty routine with nothing special that we had to worry about. Within less than a week, Running Fox was back to good health. He must have had an iron constitution. Anyway, he was bored sitting around camp or walking along with the train. Alice's Spanish was very poor, so they were not able to have much in the way of conversations if he rode in the wagon's seat with her. On the other hand, my Spanish was fairly good, and I could talk to Running Fox with no trouble. We became good friends, and he asked to accompany me on my scouting and hunting trips. Hell, never in my life have I turned down an offer of help, so I gladly accepted Running Fox's company.

I did insist that he ride in a saddle like me and used reins, etc. because we did not have time to train a horse to act like an Indian horse. Besides, the Navajo didn't have much use for horses, so he would have almost been starting from scratch with either style of riding. I also insisted that he wear White clothes so that he would not be shot by mistake by some stranger. Running Fox held me in such high esteem that he didn't argue with anything I asked him to do, and he even agreed with most of it.

I borrowed a Winchester .44-40 from Mr. Jackson and set out to teach Running Fox how to use it. Over a four week period, Running Fox became sufficiently proficient with the rifle that I trusted him with it completely. I found a Colt .44-40 from him to practice with, and planed to buy him a S&W version as soon as we came to a town. My leather working friend made a holster rig for him similar to mine, so he was fully equipped in only a few days.

The first day we went out on a scouting trip, I was amazed at how quickly he picked up on what I was trying to do. By the time we finished the week, I would have trusted to go out without me to pick the route. The first hunting trip was equally surprising. Running Fox was an excellent hunter and knew tricks that he could teach to me. With Running Fox along on the hunts, we never failed to bring to Alice exactly what she ordered.

During the second week of scouting, we ran across some more Indian tracks which Running Fox identified as Navajo and he said that there were about 30 men in the party. Shit, that was dangerous! At this point, we could not tell exactly where they were headed, but I was afraid that they would attack the wagon train if they found it. Running Fox agreed, so we had a choice to make.

Either we could keep scouting the trail for the wagon train or we could follow the Navajos to see what they were up to. Damn, I must be getting senile! We now had two scouts, so we could split up. I went ahead to look over the road, and Running Fox followed the Indians. I warned him not to pick a fight with them, but to report to me what he learned. Of course, if he did get into a fight, I would be along as soon as I could.

Running Fox agreed to my conditions and rode off at a quick lope while I continued to scout the road. I found nothing to worry the train, so I hurried back to report that and to report the Navajos that Running Fox was trailing. Mr. Jackson said that they would be on guard and wished me good luck as I hurriedly rode out to join Running Fox.