by Yes Jack
A sudden and horrifying thought struck Talbot and he said, ‘It was Fort Williams that your pa was heading for, wasn’t it?’
Melanie puckered up her forehead with deep thought and eventually said, ‘I don’t know that it was, you know. We were surely heading for the fort, but now you mention it, I’ve a notion that these kin of his lived beyond here.’
Talbot Rogers cursed himself for a fool. Now that he thought back, he realized with a sinking heart that the name Fort Williams had never actually been mentioned by the girl as her final destination. He’d merely jumped to a hasty conclusion. He said, ‘Let’s try and get you something to drink, while we figure out what’s what. First, I must make provisions for this beast.’
There were so many people milling about in the fort that Hilton and the two men at his side didn’t stand out at all. It wasn’t hard to tell which building was the arsenal. Most of the fort was constructed of hewn logs, liberally coated with creosote, but bang in the centre of the compound stood a stone-built blockhouse, with barred windows and a guard standing sentry-go at the door.
‘That’s the arsenal, for a bet!’ said Tom Hilton. ‘Can’t see anybody breaking in there in a hurry.’ As they strolled about the fort, trying to look as though they were on their way to conduct some important business, perhaps with some of the officers at the base, Hilton began to think it increasingly likely that he’d led the men on a snipe hunt. It all looked as calm and peaceful as could be and if the Kiowa started anything, it looked to him as though there would be plenty of soldiers to stop them. Things began looking up, though, when they retrieved their weapons from the sentries and went back outside to rejoin the others.
It was obvious that the ’breed had good news, for he could scarcely keep from smiling.
‘Well,’ said Hilton, ‘You look like the cat as got the cream and no mistake. Out with it, what you heard?’
‘I dropped by that village over yonder. Met a fellow I knew a while back. There’s trouble in the wind all right, but we might need to get more involved.’
‘How’s that?’
‘This is the way of it. Tonight, Kiowa were to enter the fort in ones and twos and then kill enough of the soldiers to allow a whole bunch of their men to enter and seize the arsenal. There’s a heap of ’em waiting up in the hills this minute. Howsoever, word got out and now the soldiers won’t allow any Indians at all in, like we saw. Searching all the white folk going in as well.’
‘You seem full of all the news,’ grunted Hilton, concealing his delight. ‘What’s more?’
‘This. If we can somehow open up that fort tonight, then the Kiowa’ll let us help ourselves to all the bills in the place. It’ll come to a tidy sum and we’re sure to pick up other cash if the thing spreads across Texas. I’m tellin’ you, this could be the making of us.’
Tom Hilton suddenly grinned; a rare occurrence for him. He said, ‘I do declare, you’re like as not right about that. You sure you can trust these people?’
The ’breed shrugged. ‘Much as you can trust anybody, I guess.’
‘Then I guess we’re in business,’ said Hilton. ‘Let’s go aways from anybody and talk over our plans. You can arrange for word to reach the Kiowa up in the hills?’
‘Surely,’ said Ben, ‘long as we don’t leave it too late.’
Asking in the stores failed to unearth anybody who would own any connection or kinship with Melanie’s deceased father, which, thought Talbot Rogers privately, was a damned nuisance. Still, there it was. He was keenly aware that he should not have delayed handing over the letter that the dying man had entrusted to him to the senior officer at the fort. There was nothing for it, but to keep the child alongside him, until it was convenient to enquire more deeply into the matter. Talbot felt that he could hardly, with a clear conscience, abandon the girl in a rough place such as this and leave her to fend for her own self.
‘Looks like you and me, young Melanie,’ he told her, ‘are to remain in each other’s company for a little while longer. It can’t be helped.’
‘Oh, I don’t mind a bit. Am I to stay in a real bed tonight? I’m already wore out.’
Despite his irritation at finding that he was to continue looking after her, Talbot Rogers could not help smiling. He had had so little to do with young people in recent years, that the child’s animal vitality and good spirits were a novelty of which he had not yet tired. He said, ‘God willing, the two of us will be able to rest here tonight. I saw some establishment akin to a commercial hotel, although the Lord only knows what the beds will be like in a backward little place like this. But yes, I reckon at the least I may engage to find you a bed. First, we have to visit that fort. I have business there which won’t wait.’
The fact that he was relieved of his pistol before being permitted to enter the fort, reassured Talbot that some precautions at least were being observed. He overheard two men talking and gathered that Indians were completely forbidden from coming in and that this was by way of being a recent development. This too indicated that perhaps the news he bore would not come altogether as a surprise to those in charge of Fort Williams. He had asked the trooper who had taken his gun, where he might find the commanding officer and been directed to the adjutant’s office. That gentleman was by no means inclined to cooperate, asking Talbot bluntly what business he had with the colonel.
‘It’s a confidential matter . . .’ began Talbot, only to have the other man cut in with the greatest irascibility.
‘Yes, I’ll be bound it is. Just tell me what you are selling and I’ll pass the news on to Colonel Russell. ’Less’n it’s snake oil for his rheumatics, in which case I can tell you now, it won’t answer.’
‘I have an urgent communication for the Colonel. It was entrusted to me by a dying man and relates to an Indian rising. There, does that alter the case?’
Melanie Barker, irrepressible as always, interrupted at this point to ask Talbot, ‘Say, was that the fellow with the peg-leg, as was shot? I wondered what you were about with him.’
The adjutant, a young captain, said, ‘Without knowing more of the matter, there’s little I can do. Who was this man? Him that died, I mean.’
‘His name was Carson.’
‘Not Tobias Carson?’
‘That’s more than I can tell you. I never learned his given name, on account of he died not five minutes after first I spoke to him. All I know is that he worked for the Indian Bureau.’
The young officer rubbed his chin thoughtfully, saying, ‘This casts another light, I do confess. This communication, was it verbal or written?’
‘It’s a letter.’
‘You have it here, with you now? I ask, because Colonel Russell left here an hour since.’
Talbot hesitated for a moment, weighing the business up. He had sworn to the man from the Indian Bureau that he would only deliver the letter to the officer commanding Fort Williams in person. It would be a fearful thing to break an oath made under such circumstances. It looked, though, as if affairs were moving towards some kind of climax; if he was any judge of such things.
Something of what was going through Talbot Rogers’s mind must have shown on his face, for the adjutant said, ‘If this has any bearing upon the intentions of the Kiowa nation, then I beg that you will share your information this minute, sir. We know here about Mr Carson and when he left, the Colonel was hoping to receive some word from him. I cannot tell you how desperately urgent this is.’
‘I reckon,’ said Talbot slowly, ‘that in a fix like this, a man has to trust his instincts. If you give me your word that your commanding officer is not present, nor like to be this day, then I guess I’ll leave this here letter in your hands and consider that I have done my best.’ He reached into his jacket and withdrew the long, white envelope; reaching across the desk to hand it to the captain.
Chapter 9
Tom Hilton was not in general overly fond of half-breeds, but he had ridden with Ben long enough to know that whatever else he might be, the ’b
reed was a trustworthy and loyal comrade. If he said that the Kiowa would allow Hilton and his men to loot whatever the Indians themselves had no use for, then that was the way of it. Of course, it was still a damned risky undertaking and there was always the possibility of catching a stray bullet or arrow when the fighting began, to say nothing of the Kiowa suddenly changing their minds and killing them as well as the soldiers in the fort, but then that was no more than the usual hazard constantly present for all those men who lived, as the Hilton gang did, on the wrong side of the law. The rewards, when they came, could be enormous but so too were the risks.
The arsenal inside the fort was the key to everything. The government in Washington had for some months been stockpiling weaponry at bases such as this in the southern states. In later years, the reason for such movements of arms would appear quite obvious. It would be another eighteen months before the Confederates shelled the Yankees out of Fort Sumter, signalling the beginning of the War Between the States, but already large quantities of rifles, powder and shot were being sent south and stored at places like Fort Williams. The government was already preparing for possible attempts at succession by states such as Texas and Georgia, and wished to be able to arm those who supported the federal government at a moment’s notice.
If the Kiowa were to have any chance at all in their rising, then it was imperative that they were well armed, which was not at all the current situation. True, some of them had rifles and pistols, but not all of them by any means. If the contents of the arsenal could somehow be distributed though, there would be enough to provide muskets and ammunition for over 3,000 warriors. By the time military forces could be transferred from the north to deal with such an insurrection, a large swathe of the southern United States might have fallen into Indian hands. This at least was how some viewed the case.
Ben had been back to the little village of tepees and when he rejoined the others, he told them that the forces mustering in the hills were all but out of provisions and that it was vital that they swept down upon Fort Williams without any further delay. Under present circumstances, with the army on the alert, then such an attack would be hopeless. Their only chance lay in riding straight into the fort and taking the forces there by complete surprise. As he explained to the others, ‘They close up the gate to that place and start firing down from the ramparts, our boys won’t have a chance. It’ll be a massacre.’
‘Our boys?’ asked Tom Hilton, an ironic smile on his lips, ‘I’m hopeful that you’re not forgetting which side you’re on here, Ben my boy.’
For a moment, the ’breed looked discomforted, but he went on to say, ‘Anywise, once those gates is shut and the troopers on alert, there ain’t a cat in hell’s chance o’ the Kiowa taking the arsenal. Not to mention where what they call the element of surprise is gone. Every base in Texas’ll be on a war footing in next to no time.’
‘Seems to me you thought that thing through right well,’ said Hilton approvingly. ‘I read it the same way. I surely hate to give up on this though and so here’s what I come up with. We can lend a hand to those fellows up in the hills and kind of even up the odds a little.’
Seeing the puzzled looks on the faces of the eight men listening to him, Tom Hilton chuckled and exclaimed jovially, ‘Ain’t you men learned to trust me by now? Here’s what I say.’
The adjutant read through the letter slowly and carefully. Having done so, he looked up and said, ‘I don’t see that this tells us much more than is already known. There’s trouble among the Kiowa and we’re already tackling it. There’s no more to it than that.’
‘Fellow I spoke to thought it was life and death.’
‘How did he die? Was it Indians?’
‘No, road agents. It was a stupid business. When is your Colonel expected back?’
‘That’s a military question. It needn’t concern any civilian. I will pass this letter on to my commanding officer when he returns, but now I must bid you good day. I have many duties and responsibilities to tend to in his absence, as I am sure you will apprehend.’
After the two of them had been practically turfed out of the adjutant’s office, Talbot muttered to his young companion, ‘Pompous young fool. I know his sort. So puffed up with his own importance that he’s lost sight of what he should be doing.’
Melanie was slightly shocked to hear Mr Rogers speaking with such vehemence and she said, ‘Are you really mad at him?’
He collected himself and said, ‘Well, he’s a fool and I should just leave him to it. I can’t, though, for if that fort falls, then I see no prospect of returning you safely to your family. The whole state’ll be in an uproar. No, I guess I’ll have to do something about it.’
‘What will you do?’
‘I haven’t precisely decided yet. I wish there were somewhere I could leave you where you’d be safe.’
Although she didn’t wish to leave his side, Melanie Barker thought that she should try and be helpful, so she said, ‘Don’t worry about me, Mr Rogers. I can just linger around the town here. I’ll be fine.’
‘Nothing of the sort. First off, it’s as rough as all get out and push here, and secondly, it’s outside the walls of the fort. Any fighting and all those in this settlement will be the first to die.’
For all that she liked to give the impression of being a harum scarum, daredevil sort of girl, until a week ago Melanie had never encountered any worse danger in her life than an angry mother and a strict schoolteacher. Having witnessed in the last few days a number of bloody deaths, including that of her own father, and hearing now of the idea of everybody in a town being massacred was all suddenly too much for her and with no warning at all, she burst into tears.
Talbot had no idea at all how to deal with a young girl who was giving vent to fear in this way, sobbing convulsively and with tears streaming down her face. He did the only thing he could think of and put his arms around her, murmuring, ‘There, there,’ over and over. It seemed to do the trick, for after a space her crying subsided and she said, ‘Oh, I could die of shame! You must think me a real cry baby.’
He answered truthfully, ‘I thought it the most natural thing in the world, given how things stand for you right now.’
According to Ben the ’breed, there were perhaps 500 Kiowa warriors up in the hills, waiting to descend upon Fort Williams and seize the arsenal. If and when that end was accomplished, then Kiowa from across that part of Texas would converge on the fort and be issued with weapons. There were in the fort, as far as Hilton and his boys had been able to gauge, maybe 150 troopers. Another hundred or so had left earlier that day, which was handy.
‘I calculate though, as we can give those Indians an edge,’ said Tom Hilton, when he reasoned the matter out to his men. ‘If those cavalry boys are organized in battle formation and a straight fight’s made of it, why then, it may be all over in a minute or two.’
‘So we might as well just leave it and go across the border with those bearer bonds,’ said one man incautiously, ‘You’re saying it’s no go.’
‘You shut up and listen for a bit,’ said Hilton sharply, ‘and I’ll tell you what’s what. If there’s chaos and everybody jumbled up together, with no clear line of fire, then it’ll be hand to hand fighting. Then numbers will count and those friends of Ben here, will stand to come out on top. Specially if we can reduce the tally of soldiers by a little and get them running round like headless chickens into the bargain.’
The nine of them were seated on the ground, far enough away from both the fort and the little town that nobody was apt to be able to eavesdrop on them. Hilton knew that he had their attention and that if he showed them a plan that wasn’t likely to result in their deaths, then they would follow him. He said, ‘There’s a mess hall in that fort, seats fifty men or so at a time. If all the men setting down there were to be killed, that would reduce the strength holding the fort to just a hundred. Those Kiowa would outnumber ’em five to one in hand to hand battle.’
There were uneasy
stirrings at what sounded to the others awfully like starting a war with the United States Cavalry; a prospect relished by nobody. Hilton laughed a little contemptuously. ‘Ain’t I always led you boys to rich pickings? You scared to follow me now, is that it?’
‘There’s no call to speak o’ being scared,’ growled one man. ‘I don’t reckon anybody ever dared hint of such a thing to me in the whole course o’ my life. Sounds like you want to take on 150 soldiers. That’s just plumb crazy. Tell us plainly what you purpose.’
There was an uneasy silence and the others watched Tom Hilton to see how he would take this. He said, ‘It’s a fair question, I will allow. Here’s the way of it. We get together a few pounds of fine-grain powder and a gallon or two of lamp oil. Then I’ll engage to take out a third of the men at that fort and let the Kiowa ride in and deal with the rest.’
Two powerful impulses contended for mastery within Talbot Rogers’s breast. One was to just dig up and leave, letting the US Cavalry deal with things as seemed best to them, without any help or assistance from him. This was a tempting notion, but Talbot knew that it wouldn’t answer. As a former member of the armed forces, with many years service behind him, he could no more abandon this dangerous situation than fly to the moon. A complicating factor was that having decided that he was not currently able to surrender the care of the girl he was looking after to anybody else, he would be encumbered with her while trying to prevent what could amount to the onset of a war. Little wonder then that he muttered under his breath, ‘This is the hell of a thing!’
Melanie Barker did not quite hear what had been said and so asked, ‘Were you speaking to me, Mr Rogers?’
‘No, child, don’t you fret. It seems that our paths are likely to continue side by side for a spell and so I must extract a solemn assurance from you that you will do just exactly as I tell you for the next few hours. Will you promise me that?’