Chapter 11

I waited for over an hour with no sign of Indians. I had decided that they had given up on me until I felt a sudden sharp pain in my right hip. I had been ambushed! I was paying so much time looking at where the Comanches had been that I had not considered that they would come up behind me. Dammit, my lack of attention was about to get me killed!

Three Comanches were standing on the lip of the arroyo behind me. Thank God that only one of them had a bow. It was his arrow that was sticking in my hip, and he was preparing to launch a second arrow. Fortunately, I was still able to function through the pain. I drew my revolver with my left hand while I hung on to a rock projecting from the wall with my right hand.

I fired three quick shots and hit all three of the Comanches standing opposite me. One fell forward into the arroyo with me, and I did not take a chance: I put a bullet into his head. The other two Comanches had fallen back so that I could not see them. All I could do at the moment was to hope that I had hit them both with bullets in places that kept them from attacking me any further.

Shit! That damned arrow in my hip was grating against the bone, but it had not broken any bones, so I still had a chance to get away. I was able to use my Bowie knife to cut away most of the arrow shaft so that it would not keep banging against things and making my wound worse. I did not see how it could cause me more pain!

I used my rifle as a kind of crutch or walking cane to help me get to my horse, but I still had the problem of climbing into the saddle. In desperation, I led him back to my shooting platform. Out of stubbornness, I refused to leave any of my weapons behind, so I loaded them onto the horse and faced the ungodly chore of climbing into the saddle.

I managed to climb to the shooting platform and kind of sat on that while I worked myself over into the saddle. Talk about pain! I nearly passed out a couple of times as I struggled into the saddle. Dammit, on top of everything else, I had to sit crooked in the saddle to take as much pressure as possible off my hip. I could not even put my foot in the stirrup on the right side. Those of you who have ridden a horse should have no trouble understanding the pain I was enduring as the saddle pushed the arrow farther into my hip!

I did manage to stay conscious as I rode my horse out of the arroyo and pointed him toward town. I was racked with pain at every step, and it was not long before I passed out again. I have no idea how long it took for my horse to get me into town, but somebody spotted me and led the horse to my home and my wives. At last! I was lifted down from the saddle and carried to the bed. Thank God, I was still unconscious while my clothes were removed, and that old woman was summoned to treat my wound.

It was late in the next day before I really came to myself, and the first thing I wanted was a dose of laudanum. My wives were careful to make sure that I did not take too much of the stuff, but I consumed as much laudanum as they would let me have.

The old woman had removed the arrow head with something she called an arrow spoon. She had cleaned the wound as much as she could, but she had refrained from cutting any more flesh this time. She said that if the wound showed any sign of infection that she would have to dig in with a knife and cut away flesh until she had the infected flesh removed. She hoped that would not be necessary almost as much as I did.