“We need to speak to Lieutenant Allingham right away,” Lightner interrupted.
Cahill looked past the surgeon at Nathan and Red Buffalo and grew even more confused. “Where’s the colonel?”
“Chasing phantoms,” Lightner snapped. “Step aside, Corporal.”
Cahill backed away. “I’ll fetch the lieutenant.” He placed the lamp on the desk in the outer office and went along a hall that led to guest quarters, in this case used for the officer left in command while Colonel Ledbetter was gone.
Two more minutes went by while Cahill was gone, minutes that gnawed at Nathan. He didn’t know Allingham at all, had seen the junior officer a few times, that was all. He hoped the lieutenant was the sort who would listen to reason. Hanging Dog and the rest of the Sioux could be closing in on the fort while time was wasted.
Lieutenant Allingham stumbled into the office wearing a dressing gown. His hair was askew and he looked totally flustered. “What’s going on here?” he demanded. “Doctor—”
“Captain,” Lightner broke in, correcting him.
Nathan hadn’t thought about that earlier, but it was true—Lightner outranked the lieutenant. “There’s no time for a formal report, but the fort is in great danger. We have information that Hanging Dog and a large war party numbering close to three hundred men armed with repeating rifles will soon attack the fort—”
“That business again?” Allingham blurted out.
Nathan edged forward tensely. “You know about it? Then why in hell is the whole fort asleep?”
Allingham sighed with an air of exaggerated patience. “One of the Sioux boys from the stables told some wild story to Mrs. Blaine about an attack, but it was clearly a fabrication and I put no stock in it. Why, he even claimed that two of our sergeants, as well as that German, Bucher, are involved in selling guns to the Indians. To make matters worse, the young buck killed Sergeant McCall.”
“McCall,” Nathan breathed. “He was one of the men mixed up in the scheme?”
“So the Indian claimed, but it was an obvious lie.”
Nathan didn’t think so. He had no trouble believing that McCall would do such a thing. And he was already suspicious of Bucher, so that tied in with what he knew.
“Where’s this Indian kid now? You didn’t execute him, did you?”
“He’s locked up safely in the guardhouse where he can’t get into any more mischief,” Allingham said. “When Colonel Ledbetter gets back, I’m sure there’ll be a trial. Where is the colonel?”
Lightner ignored that question. “Everything that Sioux lad told you is true, Lieutenant. You need to alert the post right now and order the men to prepare for an imminent attack.”
“But Doctor—”
“Captain,” Lightner said again with steel in his voice. “That’s an order, Lieutenant. I’m relieving you of command. Now get out there and get busy, son, before Hanging Dog and all his bloodthirsty friends get here!”
CHAPTER 37
Allingham had said something about Delia being involved with the Sioux youngster who had tried to warn folks about the attack. Nathan didn’t wait to find out what that was all about. He just wanted to see Delia with his own eyes and make sure she was all right. How Sergeant Seamus McCall had wound up dead could be hashed out later.
Nathan left Lightner and Allingham to make what plans they could for the fort’s defense and ran along the parade ground until he came to Delia’s house. Weariness forgotten, he bounded onto her porch and banged a fist against the door. “Delia!” he called. “Delia!”
She opened the door, surprising him by being fully dressed—and having a gun in her hand. “Nathan!” she cried and threw her arms around his neck.
He recognized Stephen’s old Schofield revolver. “Careful there with that hogleg,” he murmured as he embraced her. She felt fine in his arms, damned fine. Their mouths found each other and clung together.
When Delia finally broke the kiss and pulled back a little, she asked, “Is the rest of the column with you?”
Nathan shook his head. “No, just me and Moses and Doc Lightner. The colonel’s an even bigger damned fool than I thought he was. I hope he’s on his way back by now, but I can’t guarantee it.”
Delia moaned and rested her head against his chest. “The Sioux are coming . . .”
“I know. I reckon we’ve both got stories to tell each other, but that can wait. You got to get ready.”
“I’ve been up all night, just waiting. I have Stephen’s gun. It’s loaded—”
“Not near enough. I’ll take you to the chapel. It’s the sturdiest building on the post, and it’s got that bell tower. We’ll put some riflemen up there and they’ll have a field of fire over the whole post. Not even Winchester rounds will make it through those thick stone walls. It’d take a cannon to knock them down ... and Hanging Dog doesn’t have a cannon.”
At least, Nathan hoped that was true.
Since Delia was already dressed, he put his arm around her shoulders and walked with her toward the chapel. The enlisted men had built it out of thick blocks of sandstone and heavy wooden beams. It was a large, L-shaped building with the two-story bell tower rising where the two legs came together. Nathan thought there would be room inside for all the women and children on the post, as well as the remainder of Company K. With riflemen at every window and in the tower, they ought to able to hold off the Sioux and keep the savages from overrunning them. That would be true for a while, anyway.
Of course, it would also mean leaving the rest of the fort undefended. Lieutenant Allingham probably wouldn’t want to do that, but since Doc Lightner had taken command, Nathan hoped the surgeon would think the sacrifice was worthwhile.
It appeared that was what was going on. Soldiers carrying lanterns rushed here and there. Men carried supplies from the commissary and the quartermaster’s storehouse into the chapel. Women herded sleepy, complaining children behind the protection of the thick walls.
Nathan and Delia were almost there when she stopped and looked around sharply. “Billy. I mean Matoskah. He may still be locked up in the guardhouse. They can’t leave him there.”
“He’s the one who found out McCall was part of the gunrunning ring?”
“Yes, along with Sergeant Dockery and Dietrich Bucher.”
“And Jake Farrow.”
Delia shook her head. “I don’t know about that. But it certainly seems likely.”
Nathan glanced around and didn’t see Farrow anywhere. Maybe the sutler had cut and run because he knew the attack was coming. His clerk, Noah Crimmens, was unaccounted for, too.
Nathan liked the mild little man. “You go on inside,” he told Delia. “I want to find a friend of mine, and I’ll check on the Indian boy while I’m at it.”
“If Hanging Dog finds Matoskah in the guardhouse, he’ll kill him. He’ll kill all those boys.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Nathan promised. “Now, you go in there and find you a nice safe place. They’ll probably pile up some of the pews in the sanctuary. You get behind them. And keep that Schofield handy, just in case.”
“I will. Be careful, Nathan.”
He grinned even though he didn’t feel like it. “Why, it’s my middle name, darlin’.” With that, he was off at a run toward the far side of the post where the sutler’s store was located.
The commotion had roused everyone, including, to his surprise, Jake Farrow.
The man was ushering the handful of soiled doves out of the building. “Stark! You brought the word that the redskins are on their way?”
“That’s right. What are you doing still here, Farrow?”
The man frowned at him. “What do you mean? Where the hell else would I be?” Farrow waved a hand. “Never mind. Is there room over there in the chapel for my girls?”
“Should be. Some of the officers’ wives might object to their kids being exposed to such immorality as your gals represent, but I reckon they’ll just have to get over it for a while.”
; “Damn right. Move, ladies!”
Nathan caught hold of Farrow’s sleeve. “Where’s Noah?”
“I already sent him over there with my ledgers. Got to keep them safe, you know. And my strongbox.”
Nathan nodded. Farrow didn’t lose sight of business, even in the face of an Indian attack. He sure didn’t act like a man who should have been expecting trouble. The news seemed to have taken him completely by surprise.
No time to ponder that. Nathan left Farrow ushering his “ladies” toward safety and hurried to the guardhouse. The soldiers who had been on duty there were gone, already pressed into jobs elsewhere.
“Billy!” Nathan called as he stepped into the outer room. A lamp still burned on the desk usually manned by the sergeant of the guard. “Hey, kid!”
“Back here!” came the response from a hallway leading to the cells. Nathan picked up the lamp and walked along it. The light splashed into the only occupied cell.
The Sioux youngster stood at the door, clutching the bars. He looked surprised to see Nathan. “It’s you.”
“Yeah, it is,” Nathan drawled. “You and your friend been riding any bad horses lately, Billy?”
“You’re going to leave me in here, aren’t you?”
“I promised Mrs. Blaine I’d get you out. Where are the keys to unlock that door?”
Billy shook his head. “I don’t know. In the sergeant of the guard’s desk, maybe?”
“Hang on. I’ll have a look.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” the youngster said bitterly.
Nathan went back to the outer room. He didn’t see any keys lying on the desk or hanging on hooks, so he started jerking open the desk drawers. He found a ring of keys in the second one he opened. A moment later he was trying them in the lock on the cell door. The fourth key made it click.
Nathan swung the door open.
Billy hesitated for a second, as if he feared that somehow this was a trick, but then he stepped out.
“Let’s go,” Nathan said.
They stepped into the outer office. He was about to set the lamp back on the desk when it suddenly exploded in his hand. His brain registered several things almost instantaneously. He’d heard a shot, the whine of a bullet, and then the lamp’s chimney had shattered. Somebody had just tried to kill him again and hit the lamp instead.
Flames erupted when the shattered lamp hit the desk. Nathan knew the oil had spilled from the reservoir and ignited. The fire would reveal them to whoever was outside. He grabbed Billy’s arm and went to the floor, taking the youngster with him. At the same time, his other hand palmed the Colt from its holster.
Another slug whipped through the open door as a rifle cracked. Prone on the floor, Nathan saw the muzzle flash and triggered two shots in its general direction. A quick glance over his shoulder showed the desk burning. The flames would spread to the rest of the guardhouse in a matter of moments. It was time for him and Billy to get out of there.
“Stay behind me!” he told the young man as he surged to his feet and headed for the door, firing the Colt as he ran. He didn’t figure he would hit anything, but he wanted to keep the would-be killer occupied. He heard Billy right behind him.
They burst through the door. Nathan ducked left and dived off the porch. No shots came. On the other side of the post and halfway along the parade ground, men were shouting around the chapel, no doubt alarmed by the gunfire and thinking the Sioux attack had begun.
Nathan didn’t figure that was the case. If the Sioux were there, a lot more guns would be going off. War whoops would fill the air, too.
The shots were another ambush intended to kill him, he realized. Or Billy. He couldn’t rule out that possibility, either. Had the bushwhacker fled again, like in the past?
The sky was gray. Dawn wasn’t far off. They were running out of time . . . unless Red Buffalo had been wrong about Hanging Dog’s plans, in which case the whole thing was nothing but a false alarm.
Wouldn’t they all feel foolish then?
Nathan looked around, saw Billy climbing shakily to his feet. “You all right, kid?” he asked as he got up, too.
“Y-yeah. Thanks, Mr. Stark. We’d better—Look out!”
Billy leaped toward Nathan, rammed a shoulder into him, and knocked him off his feet. Another shot blared, followed by a high-pitched cry somewhere on the prairie not far from the fort. More shots rang out.
Nathan and Billy rolled to their feet and ran toward the chapel as bullets continued to whine around them.
Hanging Dog and his men were there. Nathan didn’t have to worry about looking foolish ... just dying.
CHAPTER 38
Some of the soldiers provided covering fire while others carried the last of the supplies into the chapel. One of the blue-clad troopers staggered and fell with blood gushing from his bullet-torn throat as Nathan and Billy approached the building’s front door. Shots came from every direction. The burning guardhouse threw a hellish glare across the parade ground. Chaos reigned.
As soon as he was inside, Nathan darted to the right and put his back against the stone wall. The sprint under fire across the parade ground had left him winded. He stood there trying to catch his breath as Billy did likewise beside him.
When Nathan could talk again, he said, “Why’d you knock me down like that?”
“I caught a glimpse of movement just outside the fort and knew it had to be one of Hanging Dog’s warriors. I just guessed he was about to shoot at you.”
“It was a good guess. That slug came close enough I felt the wind of it. Reckon you saved my life, kid.”
“You saved mine by taking me out of the guardhouse.”
“We’ll call it even.” Nathan had said just about the same thing to Red Buffalo the day before. Getting mighty friendly with the damned heathens, he thought.
Facts were facts, no matter how galling, and Nathan was hardheaded enough to realize that.
“Get those doors closed!” Doc Lightner bellowed.
Shots were still coming in through the chapel’s open doors and ricocheting around the room. A couple soldiers sprang to obey the order. They shoved the heavy wooden doors shut, but a last bullet came through the narrowing gap and struck a man in the shoulder. He went down howling in pain. Another man stepped up and dropped the bar across the doors to keep them from being opened from outside.
Lightner knelt to check on the wounded man. Lieutenant Allingham dispersed riflemen to all the windows and ordered others up into the bell tower. The stained glass was already shattered in most of the windows in the sanctuary, and it wouldn’t last long in the others. The soldiers began firing back at the Sioux attackers.
Nathan looked around for Delia but didn’t see her. Alarm jumped up his throat. If she hadn’t managed to get inside ...
He spotted Red Buffalo and hurried over to the Crow. He noticed Billy trailing him but didn’t say anything to the youngster except, “Keep your head down, kid.”
“Are you all right, Nathan?” Red Buffalo asked.
“Yeah. Came close a few times, but not hit yet. How about you?”
Red Buffalo still had the Springfield he had brought with him when they escaped from the column. He smiled grimly. “Fine. Just waiting for the right moment to fire my one shot.”
“Have you seen Delia?”
“Mrs. Blaine is with the women and children inside her classroom. The soldiers upended some of the benches and placed them in front of the windows to block them, so it should be relatively safe in there.”
Nathan felt relief course through him. It was such a strong sensation that for a second it made him weak in the knees. Then he stiffened and said, “We’ve got a fight on our hands.”
“Yes ... but thanks to our long ride yesterday and last night, perhaps not a massacre.”
Nathan jerked a thumb at his companion. “This is Billy ... or rather, Matoskah. Right?”
“For now, I am just Billy,” the youngster said.
“This is Moses. You stay with h
im. Look after the kid, all right?”
“This is no kid,” Red Buffalo said. “I can tell by looking at him, he is a warrior.”
Billy stood a little taller at that.
Nathan said, “You two ought to get along, even if one of you is a Sioux and the other’s a Crow. Try not to scalp each other.”
“If I have not taken your hair by now, I think this young man’s scalp is safe,” Red Buffalo said as he arched an eyebrow.
Nathan just grinned to himself and hurried toward the classroom. He wanted to make sure Delia was all right.
She had been watching for him, and ran to him and threw her arms around him as soon as he stepped into the room. “There was so much shooting outside,” she said quietly as she hugged him. “I was so worried about you, Nathan.”
“It was a real hornet’s nest, all right, but I managed not to get stung. And neither did Billy.”
She pulled back a little and gazed up at him with a look of gratitude on her lovely face. “You were able to get him out of the guardhouse in time?”
“That’s right. He’s out there with Red Buffalo ... but don’t worry, I told ’em not to go on the warpath against each other just because they’re from different tribes.”
She laughed. “You never change, do you, Nathan?”
“I got to be who I am,” he said, even though he knew her comment wasn’t completely true. He had changed over the past couple weeks. Maybe not much, and the change had been mostly involuntarily . . . but he was beginning to see a few things a little differently ... and there didn’t seem to be anything he could do about it.
The room was crowded with women and children and a handful of soldiers who had been ordered to watch over them. Some of the children were crying, and a few of the women wept in fear, too. Most seemed to have stern resolve on their faces, though. A woman didn’t marry a soldier without knowing that she and her family might face trouble someday.
“You’ll be all right in here,” Nathan went on to Delia. “I don’t think you’ll need that Schofield, but better keep it handy just in case.”
“I intend to. Do you think we’ll be able to survive this attack, Nathan?”
Nathan Stark, Army Scout Page 26