Chapter 12

The light of dawn woke Jake the following morning, that and the need to get up and relieve himself. He blinked in the grey early light, becoming aware of the stillness around him and pressure on both sides.

On his right, Grey Cloud was snuggled into his armpit, her head just resting on his shoulder. Her right arm was draped over his chest while her right leg was folded over his.

On his left, Sue had obviously been careful of his injured left arm. She was lying a little way from him, but at an angle. Her legs were entwined with his as well and her left hand was on his forearm.

There was no easy way to extricate himself from the tangle of bodies so, after just enjoying the sensation for a while, he tried to sit up. The girls felt him stirring and moved away slightly, allowing him to shuffle upwards and away from the bedding so he could get to his feet. Feeling his body warmth depart, the young women moved inwards again, finding each other and cuddling together.

Jake watched for a moment, then made off to deal with his early-morning needs.

A short while later, he returned and found that the two Indian girls were now also waking, still clasping each other but blinking and seemingly wondering where he had gone. As he came to stand over them, still naked, they looked up, separated, and also made to rise.

"Good morning, girls," he said to them. "It looks like you slept well."

They all had. The exertions of yesterday and the need to keep watch for part of the night before that had made them all tired. It was a good job there were no more bad men around, but the ones they knew about had been taken care of and the camp was well hidden in the rocks.

As there was no hurry this morning, Jake went to the stream where he sat on the bank, watching the running water and thinking. He was joined shortly afterwards by Sue who came and sat down quietly beside him. Jake put his right arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him.

Grey Cloud joined them having taken the time to get the fire going and to put the coffee pot on. She stood hesitantly behind them for a moment and then sat on Jake's left. He absent-mindedly went to put his arm around her too, but a sudden jolt of pain made him wince.

The two girls noticed. Grey Cloud took his arm in both hands as she turned to look at his wound while Sue leaned across him so she could get a better look too.

Before long, the protective scarf was off and Jake was sitting in the stream as a concerned Sue looked at the injury. It had bled a little during the night so she carefully washed that away.

Grey Cloud went to fetch the scarves they had weighed down in the river the previous night. Giving them a rub together to make sure they were properly clean, she laid them out on rocks to dry. Then she splashed back up the stream to where Jake and Sue were sitting.

"It's all right, lass," Jake was telling her. "It hurts a bit and it is a bit stiff but it's not too bad."

Grey Cloud didn't understand, of course, but she could see the concern in Sue's face and hear the reassurance in what Djaik was saying. She stood behind them, with a hand on each of their shoulders, just letting them know she was there and that she cared too.

By mid-morning, Sue and Jake were ready to leave for town. They had breakfasted on some meat left from the night before and coffee, which Grey Cloud was now getting quite good at making. They were leaving the young Shoshone to look after the camp while they went to see Charles Tylor as promised.

Grey Cloud watched them leave. She followed them out of the rocks and stood until they disappeared from sight, then she went back to the camp. She had a lot to do while the other two were away.

Jake and Sue rode mostly in silence but they did talk about the events of the previous day and what this morning might reveal. Jake told Sue that, after it was all concluded, they would go back to Grey Cloud's village before leaving to pick up their reward for solving the case and then going home.

They also discussed Grey Cloud. Jake was pleased with the way she was fitting in with them and told Sue so.

"Do you think we should leave her at her village when we go?" he asked the young Comanche.

"No," was the immediate reply. "She is with us now. When I killed Bent Stick she became mine, then yours. She has no place there now even though I am sure that her father cares for her deeply. But if she stays he will lose face, she will have no honour, and it would turn out badly for all of us. So she has to come with us."

Jake accepted the argument. Her knowledge of English, and theirs of Shoshone, would improve on the journey and she would learn more of their ways. If that was the way it had to be, Jake wasn't complaining.

Charles Taylor sat at a table in the Ennistown saloon, also thinking of the day before. His wife had been surprised when he had arrived home so early, and even more surprised when he told her what the 'investigators' had uncovered.

However, after a bit of blustering, she hadn't denied it. She told him that she hated the country, his job, and everything about this place. The heat, the dust and the lack of amenities made her hate it more. And she missed her friends and a social life. So had she tried to ruin his business and force him to pack up and move back east.

She had met some of his men at a midsummer picnic that he had put on for all of his employees. They had too much to drink causing them to speak freely and she found that they would do almost anything for money. So she had given them instructions, and paid them well, to destroy the shipments and hence starve the smelter of ore.

At the same picnic she had seen the Indian foreman from the quarry, and that had led to her coming up with the idea to have Indians take the blame so nothing would lead back to her. She hadn't wanted Charles to find out as she wanted to stay with him when they went back east - he was rich and a good husband and she'd need him to pay for the parties they'd have when she was 'home' again.

Charles had been appalled. Why hadn't she just talked to him? Not surprisingly, they had a blazing row. He told her that he would, indeed, send her back east, but back to her parents. He wouldn't come with her and she wouldn't get a cent more of his money.

He'd stormed out of the house and come into town. He'd stayed the night in a rough room over this very saloon and had a totally inadequate breakfast.

Now he had to see those Indian investigators then go home, get his wife packed up and arrange for her transport back east. It wasn't going to be a good day.

He carried on brooding. What about the dead men? The bandits that thought they were working for him? And the wagon drivers and guards who had been working for him? She had caused all of that, but he couldn't tell the authorities or they would try her and hang her - and however he now felt about her he couldn't have that.

So the blame would have to fall on the dead gang, and he'd have to make sure that no word of anything else came out. He'd have to pay off his two guards, who had heard Jake's accusation, and the crew of the last wagon. And he's have to pay the man who was injured, and replace the dead horse.

He could, of course, replace it with one of the bandit's horses. But that Jake had them and he couldn't see him giving them up.

It was going to be a really bad day.

As he stared moodily at the half-drunk glass of beer in front of him, which tasted better than the coffee and that wasn't saying much, the door to the saloon room opened and two figures walked through.

One was the investigator, Jake. He stopped just inside the door, having taken a pace to one side, while he checked out who was in the room and let his eyes get used to the relative gloom. The left sleeve of his shirt was missing and there was a scarf neatly tied around his upper arm. That must have happened yesterday.

The Indian 'squaw' was off to the other side of the door. Her black hat was pulled down so he couldn't see her eyes, but her head was moving as she also took in the room. Her hand was near her revolver as well and they both looked ready for trouble.

Finally satisfied, Jake moved towards where Charles was sitting, the girl following on behind. He sat down directly opposite the smelter owner. Sue - wasn't that her name? - stood to one side then pulled a chair from the next table and eased herself into it, angling it so she could keep an eye on the whole room.

Jake looked directly at him, his face hard.

Charles swallowed.

A couple of hours later, Jake and Sue left town to head back towards their camp. Sue was content - everything had worked out well, Djaik rode beside her and, though injured, he wasn't badly hurt. The wound should heal up and leave just a scar behind. Scars were what warriors had, in fact the more scars the more deadly - or unlucky - that warrior was, so she had no worries about that.

Djaik had spoken to Mistur Tailur for quite some time. She had been listening, but they spoke quietly and only in English, so she had concentrated more on what was happening in the rest of the room. Only a few men were there at that time of the morning and, although they stared suspiciously at the huddled pair and at the Indian woman, there was no trouble.

Towards the end of the talk, Mistur Tailur had given Djaik a bag. It looked heavy and it jingled, so Sue presumed it was munee. Djaik had explained about munee when they were looking at the quarry - was it only a few days ago? - it seemed like ages. Sue now understood how white men carried this munee around with them to use for trade. It was just the same as her people traded for goods using horses, but munee was a lot easier to carry over long distances than a herd of horses.

Still, one could always buy horses with munee, and one could change horses into munee, so it was really a sort of token, and Sue could comprehend that.

After that, the conversation came to an end. Djaik stood up, as did Mistur Tailur, and they shook hands in the way that white men do to seal a bargain. The other man even turned to her and said something like "NisetermeetcherSoo" but she hadn't really been listening and the comment had been mumbled and grudging. After all, such discussions were handled by men - she was just there as Djaik had no-one else to watch over him while he was concentrating on the negotiations.

So they left the saloon and went to the store, once again being served by Mistur Peebodee. They made some purchases. Djaik bought a pan, which was so shallow she couldn't see that it would be much good for cooking stew in, and a piece of meat wrapped in a cloth, and two different sorts of beans in small sacks. One type of bean was a pale colour while the other was dark brown.

Sue had bought more soap - it would be a long time until they were back in Johnson City and, with three of them now, she wanted to make sure she had plenty. She also bought some of those cloths that Djaik used for drying after washing - tauells he called them.

As she was picking them, Djaik had asked Mistur Peebodee to put some other things in a bag, but she hadn't seen what they were. No doubt she would find out in time.

Jake and Sue arrived back at the camp site a while later. As before, Grey Cloud bobbed up from behind a rock, although it was a different one from last time, and greeted them with her cheery grin. Jake and Sue rode up past her to the camp itself and wearily dismounted.