John sips noisily from it and offers the cup once more. The man’s eyes alight with comprehension. He takes the cup with a grunt of pain, but drinks from it greedily. John point to his chest. “John.” Then motions to the injured man questioningly.
“Ling Quan,” the man croaks pointing to himself. “Ling We.” He points to his wife, looking at her with concern. He tries to move over towards her supine body, but his own injuries prevent him from doing so. John walks over to Ling We, gently picks her up, and sets her down within reach of her husband.
With a loving look on his face, Ling Quan gently strokes his wife’s face, then feels her pulse. Assured that she is still alive, he relaxes a bit, but his expression is still wary. John brings some more water for him, and hands the cup over. He makes the sign for fire and shrugs, hoping the man would understand.
After a moment, Ling Quan starts motioning like horns and says, “Emo.” John shakes his head, not understanding. The injured man grunts in frustration, then says, “How you say? Demon?” He then motions like horns once more.
Demon? Horns? Claim being burned? UH OH. John gets another cup of water, then checks his rifle and revolver for ammunition. Both are fully loaded. He walks back over to Ling Quan. “How much English do you know?”
“Heah beddah dan say.”
“Tell me if I say something you don’t understand.” Ling Quan nods. “I think you may have been attacked by a group called the bald-knobbers. Ever hear of them?”
A thoughtful look, then a shake of the head in response.
“Ever hear of the Ku Klux Klan?” A nod. “This group is smaller, but a lot more vicious. I’m surprised they let you live. Did you have anything of value? Gold, jewels, gems?”
Ling Quan looks at John warily, obviously not trusting.
John snorts. “Frankly, I don’t care. I just want to know if they were satisfied by what was taken, or if they will be back.”
Ling Quan thinks a moment, then sighs in resignation. “Got a rot, but not ar, buried de rest.”
“Do you think they were convinced they got everything?”
Ling Quan nods. “Dey no rook furder. I dink I foohed dem.”
“Just to be on the safe side, did you have any guns?” Ling Quan shakes his head. “Did you bring enough money to buy one? Even a shotgun?” A nod. “Well then, you two can stay with me long enough to heal up enough to travel. Did you already stake your claim?” Another nod. “Did you bury your claim paperwork with your valuables?” A shake of the head. “Did they get it?” A nod. “Then you may need to go turn the incident over to the marshal’s office when you go buy the gun. Go ahead and try to get some sleep. I’ll stand guard, make sure nothing happens.”
“Why? Why you hehp us?”
“Two reasons. One, your wife is too pretty to turn into a widow. Two, I have been where you are. Unfamiliar area, injured, just enough money to do something, but no one to depend on while healing. Plus, I have had a few run-ins with the bald-knobbers, and would love to tweak their collective noses somethin’ hard.”
Ling Quan gingerly lays back down, and tries to reach for his wife. John scoots her closer to her husband, allowing him to embrace her. Not long after, John hears a soft snoring coming from the man. Quietly, he walks over to the woman, and checks her over again. No change. He wasn’t too sure if she would ever wake up. With the injury to the back of her head, a concussion was likely. He just hopes her injuries aren’t too severe. He was no doctor, but had helped enough men and horses in the field to know a thing or two. He has also killed and seen his fair share of dead people. He has no desire to do that again.
He goes to the creek, sits on a stone, watches the water flow by and allows himself to become lost in thought. He doubts anyone saw him save the couple, but it won’t hurt to keep an open eye. The thieves, using the registered paperwork, are now in legal possession of the land. He just hopes that either the marshal’s office or the Army can stop all those claim jumpers. They need to do something. He resolves he is going to help these people as far as he can.
He hopes Red-Feather is going to be back sooner rather than later. He’s only been gone two days and I expect it’s going to take at least a good two or three months, but the time won’t go quickly enough for me. He is already starting to feel the itch to move on. The soddie is just a couple days away from being completed. Then he will be able to keep the injured couple out of the weather while they heal. He just hopes the raiders assume they are dead, burned up. Otherwise, this is going to become difficult. John, with his thoughts taking a disturbing trend, moves back over to the camp.
After one last check making sure all is as it should be and unable to fight it any longer, John stretches out and falls asleep quickly, but uneasily.
Chapter 5
It is literally his first kiss. As far as he remembers, neither his mother nor his father has ever even kissed his brow. The kiss shocks him, as much as his body’s response to it. What are these stirrings? How does one react? When she kisses him, he stiffens in surprise. She pushes into the kiss more, pushing him into the wall. The fluttering in his stomach grows so strong he just knows she is going to feel it through his shirt. He knows she has felt the trembling of suppressed emotion through the rest of his clothing. The energy racing through his body is making him tremble furiously, his heart race, his mind shut down.
She steps back from the kiss and says, “Next time, don’t act so surprised, or I might think you weren’t taking me seriously.”
He just stands there dumbfounded, not knowing what to say or do. He stammers out an okay, but the withering look Liz gives him is notice enough that he needs to say or do more. “Why me?” Johnny asks, perplexed.
“I’ve always wanted this. I want more, but that needs to be when we’re completely alone.” She wraps her arms around his neck, and kisses him deeply, lingeringly again. When apparently, she has satisfied her need, she walks back over to their camp, leaving him just as stunned as possible.
He stands watch for several hours, until well after midnight, he goes over to wake up Josh for his stint at watch, then over to the fire close to Liz, and falls asleep. When Josh wakes Johnny just before dawn, Johnny is surprised to find Liz curled up against him, with his arms around her.
The feeling of comfort is unlike anything he has ever felt in his sixteen years on this earth. He dares not move, else he would wake up from this dream and discover he is indeed dreaming. He turns his head and sees Josh smirking at him. “Comfy?”
“Oh! Shut up.” Johnny gently removes his arms from around her and gets up from where he lay, then rubs the sleep from his eyes. “How long I been asleep, and why did you wake me?”
“A few hours, and trouble.” He points toward the woods, just in time for a rather large, lumbering shape to emerge. “I’ve been hearing that thing snuffle and crash around for the last 30 minutes now. Whatcha think we should do?”
“Hide in the cellar 'til it gives up and goes away.”
“Then go wake your girlfriend, and get in there. I think now would be a good time to go climb a tree, now GIT!” Knowing that breaking into a run would just make the black bear chase him all the harder, Johnny moves quickly back to the campfire. He holds his hand over Liz’s mouth to wake her and keep her from screaming. They hurry to the root cellar at a rapid walk.
More than halfway to the cellar, the bear turns toward them and starts running. Josh yells at the black bear and throws his shovel at it, hitting it on the rump. It turns, and starts running after him instead. Just as they enter the cellar, Johnny sees Josh running for a tree, head turned toward them, ensuring their safe escape.
Once inside the root cellar, they move the lighter of the chests in the pitch dark to put in front of the front of the door. They fearfully huddle back together in the darkness. Liz snuggles in closer to Johnny, and says, “I’m scared. Why did it have to come after us? After all that’s gone on these last couple days?” She starts crying softly into Johnny’s shoulder.
Jo
hnny lifts her chin a bit and kisses her forehead tenderly. The emotions of the last few hours overcome them both. Liz reaches up in the frenzied need for comfort, and gives herself to him in the fearful darkness of that morning.
JOHN SNORTS AWAKE. He glances at the fire and figures he’s been asleep for only a couple of hours as the fire is still burning. He feels grit in his eyes and a wetness on the side of his face. He wonders why he is dreaming so much of the past long gone, friends . . . loved ones dead these twenty and thirty years? The only thing he can think of is that the landrun was a new beginning, and reliving the past is the only way to truly begin anew.
John gets up, adds more wood to the fire, and checks the injured couple once more. Ling Quan’s breathing is regular, easy. He checks Ling We’s pulse, her eyelids flutter and she starts screaming. Her screaming jolts her husband awake.
Startled by her reaction John involuntarily takes a step back. He turns toward the fire and allows Ling Quan to speak with his wife, gathers everything up, and starts on breakfast with the couple speaking softly to each other in Mandarin. By the time he gets the food prepared, it is coming up to dawn. John is glad he had enough foresight to bring some few extra dishes with him. He helps Ling Quan and his wife into sitting positions, dishes up their food for them, then seats himself with his own plate far enough away so as not to intrude, but close enough to help if needed.
Even though it appears to cause severe pain doing so, Ling Quan bolts down his food. Ling We picks at her food daintily. She looks up and says, “Quan say to say sank you. We owe you for saving our rives. Quan engrish nod doo good, mine, beddar. Quan say you know who addack us?”
“What did Quan tell you I said?”
“Quan say you say you know demons dad burned our home.”
“Know them personally? No. Know of them? Yes. They sound like a group known for burning farms and houses of tax collectors. They are common east of here, in Arkansas and Missoura. They are called the bald-knobbers. Did they wear hoods with horns of some kind attached?”
She nods, pantomiming the horns.
John sighs, and strokes his stubbled jaw. “I had a run-in with several of them a few years back. Almost didn’t walk away from it.”
Ling We was quietly interpreting John’s words to her husband. When done, Ling Quan says something in response, and she says, “Quan say since you saved our rives, we owe you rife-dess. IF you ever need anysing you need onry ask. We have money hidden on our rand. Addackers sink sey god our craim papers, bud sey were fakes. We hid papers wiss money, sink it wir be safe?”
“I doubt they will check the papers anytime soon, but you will need those papers, and will need to tell the U.S. Marshal’s office as quickly as you can. The closest office as far as I know is out by the Oklahoma Station, about 30 or so mile that way.” He points to the northwest. “You two still need to heal before you make the trip though. I will be making a soddie while you are. I will be right over there.” He points to where he has the sod bricks stacked. “I will be leaving my rifle here. I would kindly appreciate you not shooting me, but I think you will heal faster if you two have a way to protect yourselves. Know how to use a repeating rifle?” When she shakes her head, he unloads the rifle and explains how to rack a round and fire. While he demonstrates, Ling We translates to her husband, who nods at each statement.
Feeling confident he will be able to work uninterrupted, John strides over to the building area, and starts widening the area for his building. It will take more room to house the couple, now. He works until just before noon, when he hears the sound of the rifle going off.
He rushes over to the campfire in time to see Ling We skinning a couple of copperheads. “Um, is everyone okay?” he asks uncertainly.
“Snakes dry do has us for runch. We ead dem for runch insdead,” Ling We replies with a smile.
“Okay. I see you seem to be able to move around some. Are you feeling any better?”
“Beddah. Quan say snake good food, wan some?”
“Snake is good, rabbit is better. We have some dried over there. That would be better in a stew or fried. How is Quan feeling?”
“Quan say sun hurhs. Udderwise he say he wir rive. He napping.” She points to the supine body of her husband.
“Well, let me know when the food is ready. I will get back to work ‘til then.” John goes back over and surveys the work he has completed thus far. Unfortunately, he needs more wood for the framework at this point. He has enough large bricks to make a fifteen by twenty foot building plus roof. Though they chose the most wooded area they could find, there still aren't a lot of trees from which to make a stable framework for such a large building. He decides that rather than trying to harvest the lumber locally, he is going to have to go to Oklahoma Station to see what came in on the train. Also, to see if he can buy a wagon to bring it all back. He has quite a few vouchers for pay from the Army, which won’t do any good unless he can find someone to accept them as gold. Even though he has close to a thousand dollars in vouchers, he also has very limited amounts of actual gold.
Ling We calls him back over to the campfire a little bit later, and while sitting down and eating lunch, he explains to the Lings his plans about getting some supplies. He explains how he only expects to be gone a couple of days, but he is going to leave his rifle with a box of ammo in case they need it. Ling Quan, after his wife finishes translating, replies quickly in Mandarin.
“Quan say take some our money wid you. He say, you know whad kind gun do buy.”
“Did you bring any money with you?”
Ling We smiles, and reaches into her trousers pulling out a money belt. It has, as closely as John could tell, several hundred dollars in twenty dollar gold pieces. She pulls out two of them and asks, “Is dis enough?”
John stands and takes one. “This should be more than enough. How did you manage to hide that much money from the bald-knobbers?”
She smiles wide. “Dey no search me. Jus addack us.”
John chuckles and says, “I will be back in a few days. You should have enough food to last you.” He finishes saddling his horse and rides out at a sedate canter towards Oklahoma Station.
Chapter 6
This is the way life is supposed to be, riding on the open prairie, enjoying the fine spring day, watching the birds and clouds go by. John is glad he has all that money in vouchers. Otherwise buying things would be more than a little difficult.
He rides through the rest of the day, the night, and until noon of the next. When he was last here, some three months ago, the Oklahoma Station was a collection of four buildings. A post office, train station, Marshal’s office, and Pinkerton’s office. Now, not only is there a tent city around the area, but there are about a dozen wooden buildings as well.
John rides around the outskirts of the tent city and locates the cavalry encampment. At the command tent, he speaks with the duty officer about trading out the vouchers. At first the duty officer, a certain Captain Johnston, tries to say that the vouchers are fake, but finally acquiesces and sends John over to the Quartermaster to draw two horses, tack, a wagon and a small amount of foodstuffs while he has the paymaster cash out the remaining vouchers in gold.
The Quartermaster—a burly, sour man that looks to have not bathed since the end of the plains wars—acts as if he is being forced to personally pay for every item, he is responsible for. When approached by John, the sergeant major takes umbrage at having to provide a pensioner with materials from his stores. He gives John trouble whenever he can, even sending a runner to the command tent for verification of the request. Finally, after Captain Johnston comes down to the tent, he gives in and allows John to fill the order.
John chooses a matching pair of sorrels and as simple a wagon as possible. Even still, he uses almost three hundred dollars worth of his vouchers. He also draws some stores from the commissary: grains, dried meats, flour, coffee, and some sugar.
By the time he is done, he uses up three hundred fifty dollars out of the o
ver nine hundred dollars worth of vouchers. When he returns to the command tent, the duty officer is no longer there, but John is met by the commander himself: Lieutenant Colonel Wilson.
“Sergeant Major, we need to discuss your cashing in of these vouchers for gold.”
“Sir?”
“We can’t do it. We will not have enough for our soldiers to receive their pay. In fact, we are unable to cash out any of the gold at all. We are able to continue to trade in your vouchers for goods, but we just do NOT have gold to trade them in for.”
“Does that include guns?”
“Within reason. You can get a sidearm, a rifle, and a shotgun. You can also get several boxes of ammo for each one, but that is it.”
“I would like a 44-40 revolver, a 44-40 repeater, a 12 gauge, and three boxes of ammo for each. I’ll also want to draw more from the commissary.” Thankfully, I still have the gold on hand, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get any bloody lumber.
“We will allow it. This will take up the rest of your vouchers, though. Are you sure you want to do that?”
“Do I really have a choice?”
“You can go to Fort Reno to get the gold and supplies. They will have enough on hand to be able to fill the request.”
“Not really. I need to get back to my claim. I've been gone too long as it is.”
The Lieutenant Colonel writes on a piece of paper, hands it to John, then goes inside the tent, taking the payment vouchers with him, leaving John to stand by the camp table.
Once again, John goes to the Quartermaster’s tent, and when presented with the request for the weapons, is again required to provide verification from the commander. By the time John is done at the quartermaster’s tent, it is almost dark. He runs the wagon over to the lumber yard and simply tells the yardmaster to give him $20 worth of lumber. When all the lumber is brought out, John is glad he had gotten some rope since he has to lash the lumber down on top of all the food in the wagon.
The Marshal of Denver Page 3