Jubal Sackett (1985) (24 page)

With a tremendous effort I got to my knees. There were men all about me, and the wolves were gone.

Somebody had a hold on my arm and was helping me to my feet. With the weight of meat it was a struggle, but I made it. Somebody lifted the burden from my back, unfastening the rawhide with which I'd bound it to me.

Another hand shoved my bow at me, and I took it. Limping, I followed them into our cave. The Indians crowded around.

Keokotah lowered my pack of meat to the floor. "We hear wolves fighting. We come."

Exhausted and cold, I sank down by the fire. Itchakomi was there, her eyes wide and dark, looking at me.

"We needed meat," I said.

Nobody said anything. They had opened my pack and given meat to the people from Itchakomi's cave.

"We fear for you," Itchakomi said. "You gone long time."

"It was cold," I said, "cold."

There was meat enough for several days, but we could not expect a kill such as this very often. It was going to be a long and a hard winter. Of course, had the Indians been there they would have taken much more of the elk than the chunks of meat that I had saved.

"Your woman of the black moccasins," I said, "told me her people hunt west to the mountains and then down the mountains to a great peak near here. Each year they do this.

"Then they hunt back across the plains to their home, which is near the Great River. When they return you could go with them to the river and then down the river to your home."

She looked at me for a long minute and then she got up and left the cave.

I would never understand women.

And why shouldn't she go? After all, the Poncas were reported to be friendly, and she could cross the plains under their protection. She would be safer by far with a whole tribe than with her few braves.

It seemed reasonable to me. Of course--

I went to my robes and lay down, exhausted. The cold bothered my leg, but it always pained me when I did too much.

Tired though I was, sleep came slowly, and I found my thoughts wandering back to Shooting Creek Valley and my family. Pa was gone ... I could find no words to express the emptiness that left with me.

Ma was in England, if she lived, and Brian and Noelle with her. How different their lives would be! And how far from me! Did they think of me sometimes? Did they remember the good times we'd had together?

What was England like?

Easing my leg, I tried to find a more comfortable spot in the robes. Keokotah was sleeping, and the fire burned low. Why had Itchakomi left me so abruptly? Was it that I reminded her of what awaited back there? Or because she knew she must wait until spring brought grass to the hills and water to the streams?

Dozing, I opened my eyes, raised up, and added sticks to the dying coals. Out there tonight I'd nearly tossed in my hand. I might have fought my way out of it, just might have, but the odds were all against it.

And who would have known or cared? My family would not have known. Under the robes I shifted and turned, restlessly. Why could I not sleep?

Yet after a while I did sleep, but only to dream of the great red-eyed monster with the curving tusks that had come charging upon me from the brush. I awoke in a cold sweat once more and it was long before I slept again.

In my dreams it had been shockingly clear. The monster had seen me, known me for an enemy, and charged, blasting sound as from a great trumpet. I had not fled. I had stood my ground as if frozen in place. What was wrong? Why did I not flee?

Never had I been troubled with nightmares, but this dream came again and again.

Lying awake again in the cold of breaking day I stared wide-eyed at the roof of the cave. It seemed I was gifted with second sight ... Was this dream a premonition of some reality to come? Was that to be my end? Was I to die impaled on one of those curving tusks, or trampled into the mud and snow under those huge feet?

Above all, why did I not even try to escape?

I sat up, put sticks upon the fire, and dressed for the cold outside.

Chapter
Twenty-Two.

A few days later Keokotah killed a deer and our snares netted a few rabbits, but with the winter only half gone we faced a starving time. To survive in wild country was never easy. Hunting had driven the wild game from the area. We had to go farther and farther afield, and the intense cold showed no sign of breaking. Even in the best of times, the gathering of nuts, roots, and herbs was a slow and painstaking business, requiring many acres to feed even one man, unless there were pecans or hazelnuts, neither of which would be available here. All such sources were now buried under deep snows.

All of us now wore snowshoes we had made ourselves. Sitting beside the fire at night, I had woven myself a pair of trail snowshoes, longer and more efficient for distance work than the bear paws I had made.

Keokotah snared some ptarmigan and I killed another deer. Itchakomi came to my fire. I was preparing moccasins and leggings for a longer trip. "What you do now?"

"I go far," I said. "Soon there is no meat, and we starve."

"My people are learning, but all this is new to them."

"It is all right." I gestured toward the west. "There is a valley over there. There might be buffalo."

"You will need help. If there is meat it must be carried. I will go."

"You?"

"Of course. I am strong."

"It will be hard, very hard. It is a long way, and I do not know the trail."

"We will find it."

"But you will need snowshoes!" I protested.

"I have made them. I have made snowshoes like yours. I will come."

I did not want her. What lay ahead, I could guess. To find a pass without snow would not be easy and with snow upon the ground, covering the trees and rocks, it might be impossible. It would be brutally hard, and I knew only too well that one misstep might mean the end of me. It would be difficult enough alone without having another to watch out for. Alone I could attempt things I might not dare with someone else following me.

"It is no place for a woman," I said. "It is better you are here. What if the Conejeros come?"

"You wish me to be here if they come?"

"You are a Sun. Your people will need a chief."

"Keokotah is here. My people know what to do."

I was a loner and worked best alone. With Keokotah it was different. We traveled together but we did not consult. Each went his own way, each of us knowing what to do and when to do it. I did not lead him nor him me. With a woman--

She got to her feet. "It is settled then. At daybreak tomorrow?"

I started to protest, but she was already leaving the cave.

I shut my mouth and swore. Behind me there was a dry chuckle, but Keokotah was not looking at me when I glanced around.

That night I did not dream. Once asleep I slept well and at daybreak was at the cave mouth. If she was late I would leave without her. I would take off so fast--

She was not late.

She had a small pack on her back when she came out. Then she stepped into her snows hoes, and without waiting for me to break trail, she started west.

There was no protest I could have made to which she might have listened. There was nothing to do but follow. Due west of us was a range of towering peaks, but we had no intention of attempting that range at this time of year. Following the small river, we bore off to the south. There was a great valley further west, but beyond our reach at this time of year.

After traveling for a short distance I moved up to break trail, and Itchakomi yielded her place. It was heavy snow, very deep in places, and fortunately, it covered many obstructions we might have had to climb over or go around. We traveled no more than eight miles that first day and found shelter under a huge old spruce tree whose branches swept the top of the snow and were themselves loaded with snow. Close to the trunk the ground was almost bare of snow, as the branches around made a natural shelter and kept out the wind. We built a small fire, and we made our beds of other spruce boughs, she on one side of the fire, I on the other.

She watched me check my guns. "What are they?" she asked.

"Weapons of fire," I explained. "Weapons of thunder. I shall use them rarely."

"They are beautiful!" she exclaimed, as they were. The Italian gunsmiths were superb artisans. It was not enough merely to make a weapon, but it must have beauty also. These were hand carved and inlaid. Yet it was my bow upon which I relied for hunting.

Our fire scarcely disturbed the cold about us, its heat lost before it reached the lowermost branches of the tree. We huddled close, enjoying the comfort of its looks more than the little heat. We chewed elk jerky and talked but little.

"Tomorrow?" she asked.

"Tomorrow we will be there, and tomorrow we will hunt. We need much meat."

She knew that as well as I. "You do not hunt for meat in England?"

"They hunt for sport."

"But they eat what they kill?"

"Oh, yes! And sometimes meat is distributed among the poor. Those who do not have enough to eat."

It was very still. Somewhere, far off, a lonely wolf complained to the night. Tomorrow we would descend into a valley no white man had seen, and probably few Indians. One thing had been obvious since leaving the Mississippi--this country was sparsely settled. The various tribes were for the most part small in numbers and widely scattered.

Long after Itchakomi lay asleep, I was awake and thinking. The last thing I wanted was to get involved with a woman. There was time for that later. For the time being I wished only to make our hunt, get what meat we could, and get back to our caves. When spring came Itchakomi would go her way and I mine.

She was a beautiful woman. That was beside the case. I had been thinking too long of wandering this country, being the first white man to see much of it, just to see it all myself for the first time. Fortunately, I told myself, Itchakomi felt the same way. We each had our private concerns. She was easy to talk to for that reason, and she had the same feeling of responsibility toward her people that I did.

At daybreak I was awake quickly. I stirred up the fire and without waiting for her to do so, prepared some food. We talked little. The fire warmed up our small space, but not enough to melt the snow around us.

The long valley that stretched away toward the southeast was scattered with meadows and cut by intervening patches of forest. The meadows were white with snow, the trees drooping under a heavy burden of it.

We went down the mountain in the cold of morning, making no sound in the soft white snow. We did not talk. Our eyes and ears were alert for game.

Almost at once we came upon deer tracks, a lot of them. Four or five deer had moved down the mountain ahead of us. The tracks were fresh, made that morning.

West of us several peaks towered against the sky, and the valley lay open before us. Pausing beside some trees we looked down. Far away, moving in single file, we saw a line of buffalo. As we watched they scattered out, pawing into the snow to get at the grass. Nearer there were several deer.

"Wait," I spoke softly, as our voices would carry in that still, cold air. "The buffalo!"

We went on down the valley. This morning, in this valley at least, it was not so cold. We moved down, always keeping a clump of trees between us and the buffalo. When within a few hundred yards we stopped to rest. There was a shallow draw that led along behind the buffalo, and feeding close were a couple of cows.

Scanning the hills around and searching along the clumps of trees I saw no movement. There was no smoke. We seemed to be alone.

After a bit we moved out, and when I was within forty yards of the nearest buffalo I decided to chance it.

The cow was young but of good size. I waited an instant and then loosed my arrow. The cow took a step forward and then stopped, evidently puzzled. My second arrow was ready and I let go. The arrow struck home and the buffalo started forward again and then crumpled. One of the other buffalo lifted a hind hoof to scratch its jaw, looking backward as it did so. A moment later the buffalo was feeding quietly. We moved in, the buffalo moving off a little, and then we went to work, skinning out the animal we had killed.

The other buffalo moved away down the valley. Only the wolves hung about, staying off some distance but drawn by the smell of blood. They sat in the snow watching us, occasionally trotting around and coming nearer, then retreating. They were black, ominous figures against the snow and under a cold gray sky.

It was cold, very cold. We worked steadily, standing up at intervals to look all about us. We had seen no sign of Indians here, but in spring and summer this valley must be a beautiful place.

A little further south a stream emerged from a canyon, flowing down from the high mountains to the west. The stream seemed to flow eastward across the mouth of the canyon, but we were some distance off, although higher.

Itchakomi might be a Sun, but she was also an Indian woman. She worked swiftly and skillfully, wasting no time, no movements. I glanced at the meat. "It is almost too much," I said, "and we have a long way to go."