Puma Son of Mountain Lion

by Dicksion, William Wayne

  Two Moons asked, “Why do you want to map the land that belongs to the Arapaho?”

  “White men moving into the area, and they want to build homes and raise families on the land. They don’t understand that the land already belong to the Arapaho,” Puma explained.

  Little Fox asked, “Are these bad men?”

  “No, most of them are good men, but they have some bad men among them,” Puma answered. “We want you to watch for the bad men and let us know if you see them. The Apaches are also hunting and raiding on this land. If the Arapaho will help us find the Apaches, the army will force them to return to their own hunting grounds. They are here for more than game; they have been killing Indians, Mexicans, and white people. They must be stopped and driven back to where they came from. Two Moons, would you and Little Fox scout for us?”

  “The Apaches are our enemy, also,” Two Moons said. “They have been killing our people for many lifetimes, but how will we know the bad white men?”

  Puma replied, “There are seven of them, and they ride as a group. They carry many guns, and we are told they have killed many men. If you find them, tell us where they are. The army has many men with guns. We will take the bad men prisoners, and the white man’s law will punish them. We do not want you to fight the bad men. They are skilled with their guns, and many of your warriors would die.”

  “You make marks on paper to protect our land,” Two Moons said. “You help us fight the Apaches who are our enemies, and you say you will fight other white men who come to harm us. Yes, we will scout for you.”

  “What do you want for pay?” Puma asked.

  “The Arapaho needs iron pots and skinning knives,” Two Moons answered. “And we also need salt and blankets,” Little Fox added.

  “If you scout for the army, you will be given ten iron cooking pots, ten skinning knives, twenty blankets, and two big bags of salt,” Puma said.

  “Our people will be happy,” Two Moons replied.

  “Then come with us to the survey camp,” Puma said. “I will introduce you to my men and give you the things you need. You can take them back to your village. If you help us, I will scout with you.”

  “Then lead us to your camp, Two Moons said.”

  The Arapaho were pleased that they would be paid for scouting.

  After reaching the top of a small hill, they could see down the long slope through dusty-green trees and vegetation, the survey camp, located in the valley of the Rio Grande. The sun had just gone down, and a blue haze shrouded the umber-colored mountains in the distance. The mountains were silhouetted against the blue-gray evening sky. Columns of smoke rose from the surveyors campfires. Everything looked peaceful, but Puma knew that the feeling of peacefulness was an illusion that had trapped more than one unwary traveler.

  Two Moons said, “White man make many fires, much smoke. Apaches know where white man camps. Apache will kill your sentries and steal your horses.”

  “Yes, Two Moons, those men are new to the West, and they will have to learn.”

  “Better learn quick. No live long,” he replied.

  To illustrate a point, Puma and his group rode silently into the camp. They were almost in the camp before they were detected. One trooper grabbed his rifle and would have shot Little Fox, if Kile had not stopped him.

  Sergeant Hurly stepped forward and saluted briskly. Lieutenant Allen was in his tent.

  Puma commanded, “Sergeant, call the men to order! I’ll get the lieutenant!”

  The lieutenant jumped to his feet as Puma entered his tent, and stammered, “Captain, I had no idea when you would return.”

  “Yes, Lieutenant, that’s obvious. Come with me while I address the men.”

  The troop had lined up quickly, some with their uniforms still in disarray. They had serious expressions on their faces. They knew they had been found lacking.

  Puma said, “Men, I know you are new to the West, and it is my job to prepare you to defend this camp. You are not prepared. The fault is mine. We will change that right now. Is there any among you who can identify what tribe these two warriors who have entered your camp undetected are from?”

  Sergeant Hurly said, “They are Arapaho. We encountered about two hundred of them on the trail while we were escorting the wagon train to Bent’s Fort. The people in the wagon train would have been slaughtered if the captain had not negotiated a settlement with their chief.”

  “Then how could two warriors who might be hostile enter this camp undetected?” Puma asked.

  Sergeant Hurly replied, “No one saw or heard you.”

  Puma exclaimed, “That’s the point I’m trying to make! Indians do not send notifications of their intentions to attack. These two warriors are scouts for the army. Look at them closely and don’t shoot them the next time you see them. They’re on our side. They’ll be scouting for us and help us to find and deal with the seven gunmen and the Apaches who are raiding and killing people. These two warriors will be wearing yellow headbands to identify them. They will help me and Mr. Kile Martin teach you to survive in the West. This is a very dangerous game we’re playing here, men. Our job is to protect the survey team. How can we protect them if we cannot even protect ourselves?”

  Puma continued, “When you are on sentry duty, if you make noise, move, or smoke a cigarette, you’ll notify the Apaches of your presence, and you’ll never see the Indian who kills you. Your job is to be aware of the enemy before he’s aware of you. The Apaches has the advantage; he knows where your camp is. You have notified him with your campfires. The Apaches can see the smoke of your fires for twenty miles, and he can smell your fire from five miles. I will show you how to build a fire that is difficult to see, and I will show you how to remain concealed while on sentry duty. You will be trained in how to use all of your five senses to remain alert and detect the presence of an enemy.

  “An Apache doesn’t have to see you to know where you are. He can smell you just like a dog could smell you. If anything moves that should not move, or if there is a shadow where there should be no shadow, an Apache will see that shadow and know where you are. The trick is, do not move or cast a shadow. Do not smoke a cigarette or make a sound while on sentry duty. By placing yourself in a shadow, you cannot cast a shadow. I’ll walk among you tonight. You will not see me until after I’ve found you. I’ll tell you how I found you, and how to prevent being found next time. Sergeant, release the men. Lieutenant, come with me.”

  At the lieutenant’s tent, Puma said, “This camp may be hit by Apaches at any time. I want two men assigned to stand watch together when they are on sentry duty. They will each give the other cover as well as provide early warning for the camp. This camp is located too close to those trees. An enemy can use the trees for cover while they fire either guns or arrows into the camp. Trees are nice for shade, but in the future I want the horses grazing inside the protected area and sentries guarding them at all times. I’ll be helping the sentries keep watch, and I will report to you at the changing of the guard.”

  “When will you sleep, Captain?” Lieutenant Allen asked.

  As Captain McBain walked into the night, he answered over his shoulder, “There’ll be plenty of time to sleep when this job is done.”

  Sergeant Hurly and the new sergeant had been observing the exchange of their officers from a short distance. Sergeant Hurly said to Sergeant Grimes, the new sergeant, “Now do you see what I mean?”

  “Yeah, I think I do. Where did he learn that?”

  “He’s half-Indian and half-mountain lion. That’s why they call him Puma.”

  Shadows closed around him as Puma moved silently into the trees. He wanted to check the positions of the four men on sentry duty. He must impress upon them the necessity of remaining unseen by the enemy. He saw the branch of a shrub move. There was no wind to move the branch, so he knew it had to have been moved by a physical thing. There were only two things that could have moved that branch: an animal, or a man. No animal would be prowling this close to the
camp, so it had to be a man. What kind of a man? An Apache would never have moved that branch. One of the sentries believed he was hidden by the shrub. Puma, using the training he had received from his father, moved into position near the sentry. Taking care not to be shot by the frightened sentry, Puma grasped the gun from the sentry, while he placed his other hand over the sentry’s mouth to prevent him from crying out.

  The sentry was startled to near hysteria. Puma held him immobile and quieted him with a gesture. When the sentry had regained his composure, Puma told him what he had done to expose his hiding place, and then Puma moved on, disappearing like a shadow into the night. That sentry will never make that mistake again.

  Puma moved among the sentries, and one by one repeated what he had done with the first. Each sentry had made an error which allowed their commanding officer to locate them. The troopers learned lessons they would never forget, and they would be better soldiers as a result of the training. Puma never mentioned the incidents to anyone, but the men told the stories to each other, and they were all better prepared to deal with the Apache, who were deadly enemies.

  Each day Puma found ways to impart knowledge of survival to his men. He moved among them each night. They knew he was there, and it became a game to see who would spot the captain first. None ever did. All they ever heard was the wind in the trees. Among themselves, the troopers called their commanding officer “The Whispering Wind.”

  Chapter 28

  The Battle

  One morning, just before daybreak, the Apaches attacked. The Apache wanted to kill as many soldiers as they could and steal the horses. The cavalry had no way of knowing how many Indians they faced, and the fighting was furious hand-to-hand combat. The troopers drove the enemies into the boulders and the brush.

  Puma called out, “How many men did we lose?”

  “One man killed and two wounded, sir,” Sergeant Hurly replied. “The doctor is treating the wounded men now.”

  “It could have been worse,” Lieutenant Allen stated. “We haven’t heard from the troopers who were on sentry duty, so we don’t know how they made out. Shall I send out a scouting party to see?”

  “No,” Puma replied. “The Apaches will attack again with the coming sun. They are a large band, or they would never have attempted to take the horses by force. We must prepare for a long stand. The Apaches have the advantage. They can get to extra food and water—we can’t, and they know it. The Apaches will take their time, and pick us off one by one. I’ll move among them to find out how many we face and determine what happened to our sentries.”

  Puma turned to Kile, “The survey crew will be wondering what happened. Arm the civilians and ration the water. Stay with them and tell them to keep their heads down. They still have a job to do after we get these renegade Apaches under control.”

  “You mean if we get these renegades under control, don’t you? Do you think our dads know what’s going on?” Kile said with concern.

  “No, they’re after that band of gunmen,” Puma answered. “I’m afraid we’re on our own this time.”

  Lieutenant Allen said, “All right, men, you heard the captain. Prepare to defend this camp. That sun will be up soon. Be careful what you shoot at. The sentries might still be alive and trying to get back into camp.”

  “Sergeant Grimes,” Captain McBain said, “those sentries are your men. Do you want to go with me? We might save some of them. They’ll be tortured for sure if we don’t get to them before the Apaches find them.”

  “I sure do want to go with you, Captain. Just show me what you want me to do.”

  “All right, sergeant, get out of that uniform and into some buckskin. Take off those boots and put on these moccasins. Leave your rifle here. All you’re going to need for this job is your handgun and a heavy knife. Have nothing on you that will reflect light. An Apache would see light reflecting off the buttons of that uniform long before you knew he was there. We’re going to be killing Apaches up close. If you’re squeamish about using a knife, you’d better stay here. What we have to do is not going to be pretty.”

  “You just give me a minute to change, and I’ll be ready,” Sergeant Grimes said.

  Kile whispered to Puma, “Be careful out there. I don’t want to have to tell my sister that you won’t be coming home.”

  With a twinkle in his eyes, Puma said, “You just take care of those surveyors. I’ll be back with enough hair to comb.”

  Sergeant Grimes returned in a two minutes.

  Puma said, “Now, you look like a man ready to fight an Apache on his own ground. Let’s go. Think of yourself as a shadow. Move nothing a shadow wouldn’t move, and make no sound a shadow wouldn’t make.”

  The first gleam of light was just showing on the horizon as the two men entered the trees surrounding their campsite. Puma rubbed ocher-colored dirt on his face and hands and nodded for Grimes to do the same. They saw Apache warriors hidden in the brush, but they moved past them quietly. They had to find the sentries before the Apaches found them.

  In the bottom of a low depression under a bush, Puma saw a dead leaf move and pointed it out to Sergeant Grimes. The trooper had learned well. He had covered himself with leaves, remained silent, and survived.

  “Stay hidden,” Sergeant Grimes whispered into the pile of leaves.

  “We’ll get the other two sentries and pick you up on the way back.”

  Puma and Grimes moved on to the next sentry post. They found that trooper sitting still, waiting for his relief to arrive. The trooper was unaware of the enemy, but he had remained undetected because he hadn’t moved or made a sound. Grimes advised him to stay still until they returned.

  Reaching the next post, they saw what remained of that sentry. It was obvious his death had been sudden and savage. They returned to the camp retracing their steps and picked up the two sentries.

  Grimes heard a thud behind him and turned to see an Indian with a tomahawk in his right hand lying at his feet. The butt of a knife was protruding from his chest. The knife had penetrated the Indian’s heart just as he was prepared to strike. The sergeant recognized the knife as the one belonging to his commanding officer. The knife had been thrown so quickly that he hadn’t seen the movement.

  Two more Indians broke through the brush. The sergeant drew his own knife and drove it to the hilt into one of the attackers. He then grabbed the other attacker by his long, stringy hair and, in one swift movement, drew his knife across the Apache’s throat. The enemy dropped.

  “Let’s go,” he told the troopers. “There are plenty of Apache to go around.”

  Puma recovered his knife and said, “There’s no need for secrecy now. Let’s fight our way back into camp and hope we don’t get shot by our own men in the process.”

  Sergeant Grimes turned to the two troopers. “Shoulder your rifles and use your side arms. Those rifles are too clumsy for this hand-to-hand combat.”

  In the camp, Kile heard Puma and the men coming and called to Sergeant Hurly and Lieutenant Allen, “Let’s give them cover until they can get out of range of the Apache arrows.”

  Puma saw what Kile and the men were doing. “Let’s make a run for it,” he said.

  Arrows flew past them, sounding like angry bees. Each time Kile fired a shot, Puma saw an Indian fall. He sure learned well from his father, Puma thought. Once out of range of the Apache arrows, Puma and his group turned and helped to repel the attackers. The Apaches paid dearly for their assault.

  Kile said, “I think that’ll hold them for a while.”

  Sergeant Hurly pulled Sergeant Grimes aside and asked, “What do you think of our green-horn commander now?”

  “He’s the damnedest man I’ve ever seen. There are three men alive today who would not be alive if it weren’t for him. One of those men is me, and you want to know what I think of him? I’d follow that man into hell and be confident we would return.”

  “What happened to the other sentry?” Hurly asked.

  “You don’t want to know
, and I don’t want to tell you.”

  Turning to the men, Sergeant Hurly said, “All right, men, there should be a lull in the attacking. Take turns getting something to eat, and then get this camp ready to defend itself. This is going to be a long day. I don’t even want to think about what might happen tonight.”

  “Build a bulwark of rocks and logs,” Sergeant Grimes ordered. “Get behind them and don’t get picked off. Don’t miss a chance to plug an Apache. Maybe we can beat them at their own game.”

  Kile asked, “Puma, what do you think our chances are?”

  "We’re outnumbered at least two to one,” Puma answered. “The Apaches are in their element. Our troopers are getting better, but they’re still green. Because of a lack of supplies, we’ll get weaker every day. It’s a matter of time until the Apaches overwhelm us, unless we can get reinforcements. I wonder where our fathers are.”

  “They’re chasing those damn gunmen,” Kile said. “No telling where they may be. I’m afraid our only hope is that Two Moons and Little Fox will bring help. We haven’t seen them since they took the load of pay goods to their village. Do you think we can depend on them for help?”

  “They hate the Apaches more than we do,” Puma said. “They’ll do what they can, but they haven’t much chance against this many of their old enemies. How’s the survey crew holding up?”

  “They didn’t get hit in that first attack.” Kile said. “They’re well-armed and holed up behind a barrier of rocks and logs. They’re a resourceful bunch, and I think they’ll make a good accounting of themselves if the Apaches hit them.”

  “Good,” Puma said. “Stay with them and keep them under cover as much as you can. They’ve got to finish this job before we can solve the problem of settlers wanting to settle on private land. You’d better get over there. It looks like we’re going to get hit again.”

  Laughing as he hurried away, Kile said, “Okay, but don’t forget about combing your hair. Cathleen told me before we left that if you lose one lock of that pretty hair, she’ll skin me alive. I’d rather face an Apache anytime than face Cathleen when she gets mad.”