Chases Rabbits drew rein in alarm. There was a grizzly in the center of the meadow. It had been so long since he saw one of the silver-tip bears that he had forgotten how enormous they were: as huge as a buffalo. Even worse, each of their giant paws was rimmed with long claws that could flay flesh like sharp knives, and their maws were rimmed with sharp pointed teeth powerful enough to crunch through bone.
The bear was rooting at what appeared to be a badger burrow, and had not seen him yet.
Chases Rabbits debated what to do. He could rein around and ride like the wind, but the grizzly might hear him and give chase. Or he could sit quietly and hope the beast went on its way without noticing him.
Grunting and snorting, the grizzly dislodged large clumps of dirt. Evidently it was intent on digging the badger out.
Chases Rabbits sat quietly. The sorrel raised its head and pricked its ears, quivering. To keep it from bolting, Chases Rabbits bent and patted its neck, whispering, “Be brave, horse. I am here.” He looked up.
The grizzly was staring right at him.
Chases Rabbits’s mouth went dry. He had his new rifle, but it only had one shot. Grizzly Killer had once told him that it could take seven or eight to bring a silver-tip down. Their skulls were so thick, they were impervious to bullets. As for a heart or a lung shot, their massive bodies were so padded with muscle and fat that the lead couldn’t penetrate.
Chases Rabbits also remembered Grizzly Killer saying that sometimes a loud voice would scare a bear off. So he shouted, “I am Chases Rabbits of the Apsaalooke! I am a mighty warrior and a fierce fighter! Go away, bear, and do not arouse my wrath or you will be sorry!”
The grizzly roared and charged.
Chases Rabbits didn’t have to rein the sorrel around. It wheeled on its own and raced into the trees with a recklessness he found as frightening as the bear. Branches whipped at his face and tore at his buckskins, threatening to dump him to the ground.
A glance back showed the bear in swift pursuit.
“Faster, horse!” Chases Rabbits cried, and slapped his legs.
A thicket loomed and instead of going around, the panicked sorrel plunged in. Chases Rabbits was aghast. It slowed them and they needed all the speed the horse possessed.
The grizzly hurtled in after them.
Chases Rabbits twisted, intending to shoot it. He raised his rifle and tried to aim, but he couldn’t hold the gun steady no matter how hard he tried.
The bear was gaining.
Facing front, Chases Rabbits stiffened. They had burst out of the thicket and a low tree branch flashed at his face. He ducked just in time and felt it brush his hair.
A loud wheezing filled his ears. The bear was breathing so hard, it sounded like a stampeding bull buffalo.
Chases Rabbits reined right and then left. Thankfully, the sorrel responded. But the bear was still gaining. Its ears were back and its teeth gleamed, and as Chases Rabbits swept around a pine the bear swung a front paw and nearly caught the sorrel’s leg.
Chases Rabbits had never been so scared. He recalled the time another warrior was killed and eaten, and how the man’s stomach had been torn open and the intestines left hanging out like so much pale rope, and the terrible stench.
The sorrel squealed. The bear’s claws had torn its flank.
Chases Rabbits sensed his doom. It wasn’t right for him to die now, of all times. A lovely woman was interested in him. His people looked up to him as their important link to the whites. And best of all, he got to sit in council with Long Hair and the other leaders.
Suddenly he realized that he didn’t hear the wheezing anymore. He glanced over his shoulder and whooped in joy. The bear had stopped. Grizzlies could run fast, but only for short distances. They tired much sooner than a horse.
When he was an arrow’s flight away, Chases Rabbits brought the sorrel to a stop, and turned.
The bear was lumbering off in search of easier prey.
“I told you I am a mighty warrior!” Chases Rabbits yelled, and shook his rifle and yipped. He would have a great story to tell when he got back to the village, and the claw marks on the sorrel to prove it was true.
He waited a good long while to be sure the bear was gone, then smacked his heels and resumed his journey. He rode warily in case the grizzly circled to come at him again. It was not unheard of.
The sun was high in the sky when Chases Rabbits reached Mud Hollow. A silly name, but then the whites gave many names to things that made no sense.
The mercantile was busy, as usual. Chases Rabbits squared his shoulders. He smiled at Crows he knew and nodded at several Nez Perce he had met as he drew rein at the hitch rail. He tied the sorrel off as the whites liked to do, cradled his rifle, and strode in.
Geist, over at a table with Petrie and Dryfus, spotted him right away and waved.
Chases Rabbits went over. “It be good to see you again, my friend.”
Petrie looked him up and down. “Ain’t you the dandy? Where’d you get white buckskins?”
“Mother make,” Chases Rabbits said. “From white buck father kill.”
“An albino? You don’t say.” Petrie fingered Chases Rabbits’s sleeve. “I’d like to get me a set just like yours one day.”
“Me handsome, yes?”
“Oh, very,” Geist said. He bobbed his chin at the other two. “Leave us alone, boys. Our partner and me have something to talk about.”
Chases Rabbits sank carefully into a vacated chair. He had never understood why whites insisted on sitting in these uncomfortable things when there was always the perfectly flat ground or a floor to sit on. “I be partner?” He was trying to remember what the word meant.
“You bet,” Geist said. “We couldn’t do any of this without you.”
Chases Rabbits was flattered. He was important to his people and to the whites.
“What would you like to drink?”
“Water.”
“Oh. That’s right. You don’t drink liquor. Too bad. You don’t know what you’re missing.” Geist chuckled. “What’s that saying you’re so fond of?”
“Not just me. My people.” Chases Rabbits recited, “The Crow who drinks white whiskey is no longer Crow.”
“Haven’t your people ever heard of moderation?”
“What that?”
“You only drink enough to wet your whistle, not enough to drown.” Geist raised an arm and extended two fingers.
Toad promptly came around the counter with a bottle and two glasses and set them down without comment. Toad stared at Chases Rabbits, then went back.
“Him strange man.”
“All his people are.”
“His people? Him white like you.”
“All whites aren’t the same,” Geist said. “I come from good European stock. He’s a dreg.”
“What that?” Chases Rabbits asked.
“Forget him.” Geist opened the bottle and filled both glasses halfway. “We need to talk, you and me, about how we can help each other even more.” He pushed one of the glasses across the table.
“No, thank you,” Chases Rabbits said politely.
“Come on. Just a sip. It’s considered rude to refuse a drink from a friend.” Geist raised his glass. “Let’s toast our friendship.”
Chases Rabbits reluctantly picked up the glass. He didn’t want to insult anyone. Geist touched glasses and drained his in a gulp. Chases Rabbits took a sip and grimaced at how terrible it tasted.
“That’s a start,” Geist said. “Now then, let’s talk about your women.”
Not that many winters ago, Chases Rabbits had thought that Evelyn King was the most beautiful girl alive. Now he knew better. Raven On The Ground was all the beauty in the world in one body. When he looked at her, his mind stopped working and his whole body went numb.
Now, standing in the shade of an oak, Chases Rabbit watched the woman of his dreams wash clothes in the stream. She was on her knees at the water’s edge, dipping a doeskin dress in a pool. Her lustrous
hair, her curves, her face, her lively eyes—she was perfection.
Chases Rabbits stepped out from under the tree and coughed to get her attention. She looked up and smiled, and his brain refused to work.
“Chases Rabbits! You are back from the new trading post.”
“Yes,” Chases Rabbits forced his mouth to say. None of his people called it a mercantile as the whites did. He walked over, his new rifle in the crook of his elbow.
“What is that around your waist?”
Chases Rabbits looked down at himself as if he didn’t know what she meant. “This?” He touched his new leather belt, which he wore over his buckskins as Grizzly Killer did. “The whites gave it to me.”
Raven On The Ground stood and ran her hand from the buckle to his hip. “It is very smooth.”
A sudden constriction in Chases Rabbits’s throat prevented him from replying.
“I am proud of you. Everyone is talking about how you have helped our people.”
“It is nothing,” Chases Rabbits said, his voice strangely strained.
“You are too modest.” Raven On The Ground touched his cheek. “And so handsome.”
A hot feeling spread from Chases Rabbits’s neck to his hair.
“Will you come visit me tonight?”
Chases Rabbits grew hotter. “Does this mean I can court you?”
“Silly man. What else have you been doing all this time?”
Her laughter was the music of a flute and the beauty of a rainbow all in one.
At that moment Chases Rabbits would have done anything for her—scaled the highest cliff, caught a wild horse, slain the grizzly he had encountered. Well, maybe not the grizzly, he reflected.
“So tell me what happened with the whites,” Raven On The Ground urged. She drew him to a log and perched with his hand in hers.
“They want me to make a request before the council,” Chases Rabbits related. “I will do so tonight.”
“What do they want of us?”
Chases Rabbits explained how the whites were interested in hiring women to do work at the mercantile. “They will give blankets and beads and whatever else the women might like.”
Raven On The Ground’s lovely eyes lit up. “That is something I would be interested in.”
“I know. That is why I came straight to you before I told anyone else.”
“Maybe I could get a hand mirror like Yellow Butterfly has. I have always wanted one.” She bubbled with excitement. “Oh, this is grand. What kind of work would I have to do?”
“The whites want women to cook and clean and do other things.”
“What other things?”
“The man called Geist didn’t say.”
Raven On The Ground stood. “Come. I will ask my mother and father right away. And when you bring it before the council tonight, I will be the first to step forward and say I am interested.” She tenderly placed her palm on his face. “You have done me a great favor. I am grateful.”
“I would do anything for you,” Chases Rabbits said.
Chapter Ten
Well after night had settled in, and long after the last of the Indians had left, Geist and Petrie walked from the mercantile to the new building that from the outside resembled a stable. It didn’t have double doors, as a barn or stable would, but only a single door that Geist opened and strode through.
Dryfus, Gratt, and Berber were already there. Dryfus pushed his floppy hat back on his head and said, “What do you think?”
Instead of stalls for horses, there were four rooms just big enough for a bed and a stand for a lamp. They had made the beds from planks and used blankets for a mattress.
Geist went from room to room and nodded in satisfaction. “It’s not much, but it will serve our needs.”
“Are four beds enough?” Berber asked.
“We could put two beds to a room,” Gratt suggested. “Do twice the business.”
“All you think of is filling your poke,” Geist said. His face hardened. “Or is it you’d rather run things?”
Gratt thrust out both hands and vigorously shook his head. “Hold on. I never said any such thing. I just remember how it was in Missouri when you crammed them in like apples in a barrel.”
“We start slow and build,” Geist said. “A year from now we could have three beds to a room. It all depends.”
The door opened and Toad filled the doorway. He came in and looked at each of the rooms, then came back again to stand in front of Geist. “I am against this.”
“I don’t give a damn what you are against,” Geist said, and the others laughed and sneered.
“This wasn’t what I thought you meant when you approached me in St. Louis.”
“If I’d told you I was coming west to set up the first Indian whorehouse, would you have taken us on?” Geist scornfully asked.
“Of course not.”
“There you go.” Geist indicated the door. “Go back to your precious mercantile and don’t butt in again.”
“This is wrong,” Toad said.
“Oh, hell,” Geist said.
“You’ll ruin everything! I’m trying my best to earn their trust, and you’ll bring it all crashing down.”
Petrie leveled his rifle. “Want me to take him back and see that he stays there?”
“No need.” Geist glared at Toad and poked him in the chest. “You listen to me, you dumb bastard. All you are to me is a means to an end. I’ll make more money in one month from my whores than you’ll make in six months from your store.”
“The Crows won’t like it. They’ll massacre us.”
Geist was growing angry. He put a hand on his pistol. “Shows how much you know, Levi. When a stranger visits a Crow village, guess what he’s allowed to have for the night if he wants one?”
“You’re not implying…” Toad began.
“I sure as hell am. They let the stranger have a female for the night. Now think about that. If they let a man have a woman for free, why in hell would they raise a ruckus over their women parting their legs for money?”
“Maybe because the women would be doing it for you and you’re white.”
“So? The Crows are almost as friendly to whites as the Shoshones. And besides, we’ll be greasing the wheel with gifts to that idiot Chases Rabbits and to their chiefs.” Geist tapped his temple. “I have it all figured out.”
“I still don’t like it, Ranton.”
“The name is Geist now. And if you ever talk to me like this again, I’ll have Petrie blow out your wick.”
“With pleasure,” Petrie said.
Louisa King came out of their cabin and saw her husband by the lake with a storm cloud on his brow. She went past the chicken coop and their cow. “What are you doing out here, as if I can’t guess?”
“I should go back,” Zach said.
Lou fluffed her sandy hair and put her hand on his arm. “You brood better than anyone I know.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t get prickly on me. You’ve been there once with Touch The Clouds and Drags The Rope and you all agreed those traders are treating the Indians properly. But you’re still not happy.”
“I can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right.”
“What’s not right,” Lou said, “is you getting worked up when there’s nothing to get worked up about. And you have something more important to focus on.” She took one of his hands and placed it on the swell of her belly.
Zach smiled and squatted and put his ear to her. “Can you feel it move?”
“It?” Louisa said. “You’re calling our son or daughter an it?”
“We haven’t picked names yet.”
“It’s still not an it.”
Lou then realized what she had said, and laughed. Zach chuckled and caressed her stomach.
“Our first child. I can’t wait.”
“Well, it’ll be months yet, so don’t hold your breath.” Lou embraced him as he straightened and hugged him with all her strength. “
I’m so happy and I’m so scared.”
“Scared?”
“What if something goes wrong? We’re in the middle of the mountains. There’s no sawbones for a thousand miles.”
“Now who’s brooding?” Zach teased. “You have my mother and Blue Water Woman to help. Everything will be fine.” He kissed her.
“A woman can’t help worrying. To have a new life come out of me…” Lou looked down at herself. “It’s a miracle.”
“Pa says they were some of the greatest moments of his life, when my sister and I popped out.”
“You did not just say popped.”
“Slid, then? Or is it squeezed out? Or maybe pushed? Whatever it is you women do.”
“You’ll see for yourself.”
“What?”
Louisa raised his hand and pecked his palm. “I want you there with me.”
“You want me in the room with you when the baby is born?”
“You’re the father, aren’t you? What a ridiculous question.” Lou grinned. “You’ll be there holding me and comforting me.”
“But you’ll be…” Zach stopped.
“I’ll be what?”
“You know. On your back with your legs, well…”
Lou giggled. “You’ve seen me that way plenty of times. It’s how I got this way to begin with.”
“That’s not what I meant. The baby will be coming out, and all that other stuff.”
“Stuff?”
“I’ve seen horses give birth and other animals. All that wet and the smell.”
Lou put her hands on her hips. “Zachary King, how dare you? You are my husband and you will be there for me, smell or no smell.”
“Now who’s being prickly?”
“What I am is eating for two and we are out of fresh meat. So why don’t you take your rifle and go off hunting and think about how it makes me feel when you talk about me as if I’m a horse.”
“I never said that.”
Lou wheeled around and stalked toward the cabin, muttering, “Men are the most aggravating creatures on God’s green earth.”
Louder, Zach repeated, “I never said that!” But she paid him no mind. “Women!” He kicked a rock and it clattered a few feet.
The dun was in the corral attached to their cabin. Zach threw on a saddle blanket and saddle, fitted the bridle, and mounted up. He rode north into the dense woods. At this time of day, the deer were lying up in the brush. He knew just where to find some.
Seed of Evil Page 4