Chapter 5

Walking Bear came running up to Joe once the fight was definitely over. "Please accept my apologies for that unbelievable breach of honor! Sly Fox was told the rules of the contest, and he agreed to follow them. Please don't blame all of us for that failure of good manners and courtesy."

"I understand, Walking Bear, that you had no way to foresee what would happen. I don't blame anybody but Sly Fox, and he has paid for his transgressions. Do you want to stop the contest now, or do you want to continue?"

"White Ghost, you would be willing to continue after what just happened? You are truly an amazing man! Let us see what Turtle wants to do, since he was the last one scheduled to fight you. Turtle, please come here ... Turtle, White Ghost is leaving the decision up to you about continuing the contest. What do you want to do?"

"I don't have any interest in continuing. The events of today have made it certain that I could not win a contest with White Ghost except by treachery, and that I am not willing to do. White Ghost, I concede the fight to you, but I beg of you to teach me your wondrous way of fighting. I know some ways of fighting, but I do not know the many ways you demonstrated today. Will you teach me?"

"Turtle, I will teach you on one condition: you must promise me that you would never use these things that I teach you in this war with the White men."

"That is easy for me to promise. I do not believe in the war and would like for it to stop. I agree to your condition, you have my promise on that!"

"Very well, Turtle, we will start the training tomorrow. But we also must complete the task my friend and I have set for ourselves. We must find his sister and return her to her family. How do you feel about that?"

"I will be happy to help you on your quest. I feel that this was done as part of the war which I oppose, so I have no reservations about helping you."

"Good, we will explain the new situation to my friend Edward. I am sure that he will welcome your aid. He, too, is learning to fight like I do."

Walking Bear broke up the crowd while Turtle and Joe went to explain to Edward what had happened. He was happy for all of the help that he could get, so Ed welcomed Turtle to their little band.

The next morning, the three friends set out for the next village to check on as suggested by Turtle. Turtle was not married, so he had no problem with leaving the village and joining the search. As they started their journey, they also set out to teach English to Turtle and Indian trade language to Joe and Ed. Joe was sure that he needed to become more fluent in the trade language if he was stuck in this era. The smattering of Arabic that he had learned while he was in Iraq was a big help to him in staying alive while he was there, and he was sure that a similar advantage would hold in this situation.

Joe also used this language learning opportunity to teach some of the fundamentals of the martial arts he was going to impart to his friends. Thus, they had an interesting and profitable day as they walked toward their next village. That evening, they ate the last of the food from John's Crossroads. From now on, they would subsist on game and Indian food.

There was enough light left for Joe to spend some time in actual training with the stick. He started Turtle out with that for two reasons: Turtle needed to get a grounding in the martial arts as Joe envisioned them, and it was easier to teach both of the men the same thing at the same time. It also gave each one someone to practice against.

By already being a fighting man, Turtle was starting ahead of Ed in some ways, but Turtle had some bad habits he needed to lose. The result was that Ed was more nearly a match for him than Turtle expected. Ed was such a quick learner that Turtle was having to struggle to keep up with him when it came to stick fighting. This was embarrassing to Turtle until Joe explained that Ed learned most things more quickly because he was younger, and everyone knew that the younger a person was, the faster he learned something entirely new.

They arrived at the village in the middle of the morning of the next day. Turtle convinced his new friends that he should be the one to enter the village to ask about the baby girl. By being a Nipmuck, Turtle could go in without raising immediate animosity because of his race.

Turtle returned after about 30-40 minutes in the village. He reported that Elizabeth was not there, and the people did not know where she might be. Turtle recommended that his two White friends not enter the village because the people were still upset about losing five warriors to Whites on a raid a week or so ago. Joe wondered if this was the village where the men of his first encounter had come from, but he was not curious enough to risk a fight over an academic question.

The three men moved on without further contact with the village. It was safer all around to do that. There was another village two days away that Turtle thought might be a good prospect, so they set out for that one. They were running close on their food supply, so they agreed to pause on their trek long enough to do a little hunting.

Ed had his sling that he used for rabbits and squirrels, so he planned to look for that kind of game. Joe and Turtle were going after the deer that roamed the forest. They went their separate ways, agreeing to meet back at their starting point two hours before dark.

Ed got very lucky, in a short time he had four rabbits. He was sure that four rabbits should satisfy their needs for a while, so he returned to the camp to skin the rabbits and start smoking the flesh. He would begin the tanning process on the skins as soon as he got the jerking started. This was a job that Ed had done many times, so he knew exactly what he needed to do. He had everything done in about three hours, so he decided to catch up on his sleep. Such is the naivete of youth!

Ed had barely fallen asleep when he was found by three Nipmuck braves. They rushed in and overpowered him before he could fully wake up. The Nipmucks decided to put off the torture and killing of the young White man until they could take him back to their village. A little fun with him before he died should help to assuage the feelings of the people who had recently lost the five loved ones to the Whites.

However, the Indians were in no hurry to get back home, so they took the time to dine on the rabbits that Ed had killed. The Indians were still eating when Turtle showed up with his deer. The three was laughing and joking about the torments that Ed could expect when they got him home; fortunately, Ed could not understand what they were saying, so the conversation did not have the effect the Indians had hoped.

On the other hand, Turtle understood every word, and he was incensed by what they had in mind for the boy. Turtle carefully stashed his kill in the crotch of a tree out of reach of most scavengers before he went looking for Joe. Turtle was no more than 50 yards from the camp when he met Joe, also returning with a kill.

Turtle told Joe what had happened, and they planned how they were going to rescue Ed. Joe stashed his kill alongside Turtle's—food was too important to waste! Turtle was all for rushing the three Indians immediately, but Joe asked him to hold off until Joe had a chance to look at the situation. It took only a few moments to see that Turtle had been correct in his assessment of the situation.

When asked which he preferred, Turtle responded that he was much more skilled with the knife than with the tomahawk, so Turtle was assigned the knife and Joe took the tomahawk, but Joe "cheated" by carrying a knife in his left hand. The attack was quite simple. Joe and Turtle sneaked in so close that their enemy had no chance to react. Turtle grabbed his man by the chin and pulled up, then he drove his knife up through the man's throat and into his brain. Death was so quick that the man had no time to react.

Joe hit his man in the temple with the spike of the tomahawk, and that was the end of any activity from that man. There was now one man left, and Joe still was holding his unused knife in his left hand. The third man jumped up and tried to pull out his own knife, but Joe sliced him from side to side across the belly before the man could get his knife out. This was followed by a stab in the throat which was angled up into the brain. That ended the three rabbit thieves.